Road Cycling

#Chri5# said:
The single sided Vector 3s are ~£385 with double sided Assioma and Vectors £699. As I have an antique Edge 800, I know I won't get some features like Cycling Dynamics but the essential bits should be there.

Has anyone had single sided power pedals before? They are obviously a fair wedge of cash cheaper but is it inevitable you end up upgrading to a dual sided setup later?

I know Garmin have had quality issues with the Vector 3s, so I'm not buying them from eBay or Europe in case they need to go back!
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I've just migrated from Powertap P1 single sided - they were fantastic and worth every penny. I just sold them and then took a massive flyer on some open box but never used powertap p2 dual sided off ebay - my risk paid off big time - they arrived clearly brand spanking new, £466 I paid! They're absolutely fricking awesome. :)
 
@#Chri5# as a Vector user who has had the 1, 2 and now 3's.... do not buy the 3's at all is my advice. Single or double, just save yourself the hassle and don't buy them.

1's and 2's were perfect for me. I thought the 3's would be superb and yet more improvement but it has been the opposite. Dropouts/spikes are just the norm. There is no fix for it. The battery door fix they done does not solve the issue and the Garmin support is now just replacing sketchy units with more sketchy units as the problem exists in ALL of the pedals.... or they are telling people to use different battery sizes with some baby oil rubbed onto them (honestly!). A £700 product should work flawlessly, not need baby oil applied very few weeks as a bodge.

I have the issues. 3 local guys I know with them have the same issue. Every person in my team who has them, or had and got shot of, all have the same issue. I actually don't know a single Vector 3 sufferer who can say they don't have problems with them.... No matter where you buy these Vector 3's from they have this fundamental problem and it's beyond a joke. So much that I'll be away from Garmin for everything in the not so distant future due to the way they are handling this nonsense.

In response to the other points you ask about. I'm a data nerd and can safely say I never ever bother looking at the cycling dynamics stuff. Power, cadence, balance is all I have ended up using over years of training with a PM. My advice would be to go dual sided if you can for the balance aspect and because you can have a big discrepancy potentially from leg to leg.... Although argument for that will be that you are only using the numbers from that one unique leg anyway so it does not matter a jot. Look for a set of good condition second hand vector 2's as they are excellent.... or look at dual PowerTap's or those Assiamamonoanona thingymajigs.
 
I use the vector 3 dual pedals as well and if you're not on top of cleaning inside the battery chamber you will experience spikes and drops.

The battery cap and internal spring are also prone to damage, I've swapped the internal board out due to the H shaped spring breaking.

But I find if you do clean them regularly they will work without issue. I clean them internally with a cotton bud to remove fretting damage every battery change and at least once during the battery life. This might be too much hassle for some though and I agree for £700+ product it should work without all the hassle the battery chamber and cap needs reworked.
 
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My mate has had the dual sided 2 for 3 years now I think it is.

He has had to change one or two pods due to crashes, replaced the pedal body twice due to wear and I think the actual bearings inside the pedal bodies once.

They seem to be pretty consistent going by the numbers he talks about.

He isn't one for maintenance so they get left until they break.

I think I'd buy them if I was in the market for power as they will literally fit any bike ever, so if I hire a bike abroad etc.

LH Crank being the next best thing but some bike hire places can be fussy about swapping cranks vs pedals.
 
my Vector 1s are still going with the upgrade kit with no new bearings for 4.5 years now. Got another set of Vector 2s running strong for 3.5 years too. Had a few failed pods in that time.
 
#Chri5# said:
Has anyone had single sided power pedals before? They are obviously a fair wedge of cash cheaper but is it inevitable you end up upgrading to a dual sided setup later?
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I've actually changed from a 'dual' setup (Powertap C1 - power measured together at the chainring) to a single sided crankarm (4iiii). I was initally concerned about being unbalanced and I am, the majority of my riding at 48%/52%. But even really really tired the lowest I saw was 46%/54%. That 'calculated' by the PWM rather than a pure measurement I confirmed with 2 rides on a wattbike that the data was at least in the right ballpark. So I've had no concerns going single sided (+/- 2% well within the 'variation' of usual power measurement) and also one of the reasons I changed my crankset was so I could have Shimano cranks.

I don't know how you fare with pedals, for me they last 3-4 years max before they're so worn they'd need new catches and springs. Unsure if you can get them for Vectors as well as the bearings? Know you don't tend to see them for Keo's so just end up replacing them...

I 'future proofed' my PWM by having a Shimano crankarm based one that doesn't wear out. At least for 3-4 years or so anyway. The previous chainring based one I was locked into 'old' style 5-arm spindle cranks. With a PWM which wore the chainrings out every 2-3 years needing a £250 replacement & recalibration. Still 'dual' (combined) power measurement for £600 back in 2016 was a great purchase.

I'd have no problems with owning a Powertap product, even with them now sold off from Saris to SRAM. You can get some fantastic deals on the P1 and P2. They had good support (even though they couldn't help me reduce the high battery consumption) and my unit was fairly reliable/predictable (with known water ingress issues).

#essay :cool:

merlin said:
my risk paid off big time - they arrived clearly brand spanking new, £466 I paid! They're absolutely fricking awesome. :)
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Winner winner! Congrats.

xdcx said:
So much that I'll be away from Garmin for everything in the not so distant future due to the way they are handling this nonsense.
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I got totally sick of Garmin with my Edge 800. It was an expensive paperweight when only 13 months old. So I've always trashed Garmin since then... Although my VIRB v1 is still going strong, it's recorded nearly every ride of mine since January 2014 without a single issue! So reliable I tend to forget that it's a Garmin device! :rolleyes::p:cool::eek:
 
Thanks again all :)

P2s are down to £625 this weekend, which the same as Assioma from UK suppliers. Order in EUR from Favero (the manufacturer) in Italy and they are around £550.

Just watching through one of GPLama's videos on the Assioma.
 
I'm looking at a bike on gumtree for our 4year old.

The description states "some scratches from a towbar" and this is the pic...

TpK2G8s.png

Those look a bit deep to me ("gouges" perhaps, more than "scratches") - what do the experts think? Do you think any strength has been lost there?
 
Depends how deep it is, maybe only a mm deep it just looks worse as the paints all chipped and flaming off.

My MTB chainstay has worse damage from chainslap and rocks

I’d say it’ll be right, but don’t sue me. I’d imagine there’s a lot of these on the market? Is it super cheap?
 
Best small/medium sized tyre levers.... GO!

Couldn’t get my tyre back on the rim without using a metal mtb lever. That’s no good at the roadside.
 
Berger said:
Depends how deep it is, maybe only a mm deep it just looks worse as the paints all chipped and flaming off.

My MTB chainstay has worse damage from chainslap and rocks

I’d say it’ll be right, but don’t sue me. I’d imagine there’s a lot of these on the market? Is it super cheap?
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Super cheap, just down the road, and identical to the one I've got for his brother.

I'm very tempted to buy some touch-up paint and go for it.
 
I wouldn't worry about those scratches, the head tube is pretty substantial.

It looks like they have clamped the brake cable too going by the electrical tape with a kink in it?
 
Jonny ///M said:
I wouldn't worry about those scratches, the head tube is pretty substantial.

It looks like they have clamped the brake cable too going by the electrical tape with a kink in it?
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Thanks - and good spot on the brake cable. I'd missed that.
 
So on the Vector 3 front yet again...
Cleaned and brand new batteries in them last night ready for 2.5 hours this morning.
Half way through the ride, cadence drops, power drops, Complained the battery level was "low" and then completely lost connection to left pedal.... I've honestly had beyond enough of these ******* things. Just switched off the sensor on my head unit. Life is too short for this ****.
 
xdcx said:
So on the Vector 3 front yet again...
Cleaned and brand new batteries in them last night ready for 2.5 hours this morning.
Half way through the ride, cadence drops, power drops, Complained the battery level was "low" and then completely lost connection to left pedal.... I've honestly had beyond enough of these ******* things. Just switched off the sensor on my head unit. Life is too short for this ****.
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Speaking of which... I had this happen to be at the end of a 3 hour ride yesterday...
https://photos.app.goo.gl/iJC3Bqt5KuQNgUPN7
Lucky for me I got Garmin to send out a few caps and internals for spares during my warranty period, 3 hours in Zwift today without issue again.

Annoyingly, I've been through quite a few caps.
iJC3Bqt5KuQNgUPN7
 
Too cold to ride outside today! Didn’t defrost in the shade all day and was super slippy.

Combined with the low winter sun I gave it a miss and just did a zwift session. Still had the arm warmers and leg warmers on in the shed haha
 
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