Limits BIA power meter review - Affordable? Yes. Transferable? Yes. Reliable? Probably not.

A power meter that promises much although there's a way to go with accuracy, connectivity and build quality

Limits BIA power meter mounted on a crank arm
(Image credit: Rachel Sokal)
Cycling Weekly Verdict

The Limits BIA is an innovative and affordable power meter. Its bolt-on (in?) design makes it a great choice for those wanting to try out a power meter without the expense and hassle of it being integrated into part of the drivetrain. But it's far from perfect. It will make a substantial difference to your stance width and its accuracy, connectivity and calibration can be problematic.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Price

  • +

    Compatibility across bikes

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Impact on stance width

  • -

    ANT+ and Bluetooth connectivity and calibration can be difficult

  • -

    Accuracy variable

  • -

    Durability of battery covers and other small parts

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

For most riders there are two main limitations in getting started with a power meter: cost and compatibility. Power meters can be ridiculously expensive – comfortably $/£1,000 - a cost which is amplified by being integrated to another expensive part of your bike like a crank or a pedal. And then there’s the lack of compatibility, or transferability, onto other bikes you might own now or in the future. Somewhere in the back of my garage I’ve kept the non-power meter crank that I’ll need to swap back onto my bike in place of the power meter one that I’m currently running, which may or may not be compatible with any future bike I own…. You get the drift.

Step (or should that be spin?) forward the BIA power meter from the crowdfunded company Limits. Unlike other power meters which are integrated into part of your drivetrain, the Limits BIA is a separate component which sits between your pedal and crank. This means it can be fitted to any bike regardless of crank, bottom bracket and pedals. And at $280 / £229 it’s also one of the cheapest power meters on the market today.

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Rachel has been writing about and reviewing bike tech for the last 10 years. Cynical by nature, Rachel never really trusts the marketing hype and prefers to give products a mighty good testing before deciding whether they're worth buying or not. 

Rachel's first riding love is mountain biking where she's been European and UK 24hr Champion on more than one occasion. She's not just confined to the trails though and regularly rides - and occasionally races - on gravel and road too.