Seems about $200 too expensive to match the most obvious competitor. Nice that you can "upgrade it" later I guess. So that's something.

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Garmin should think of rebranding their name to "Meh"

Is it right side or left side :) more popcorn.

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Founder: BestBikeSplit
Amazonian

One-sided pedal is where it's at. Glad to see somebody doing this. Who else is?

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
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According to bikerumour.com the Vector S will cost US$899 whilst the optional right-side upgrade pedal will be US$699. This seems to beat the full package retail price of US$1,699... Of course, the standard Vector is available from many places at discounted prices, so the prices may be less favourable than on paper.

You can get the standard vector on the cheap because it is a total POS. LBS recomended stages, they sent their vectors back because they didn't want to sell total shit products.

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I have never seriously considered Vector due to the price but I still see some advantage of it over Stages for cross-compatibility between bikes. I ride track as well and a pedal based or cleat based system is pretty much the only option I'd have for 1 power meter to swap between tri, road and track.

That of course would be assuming that it's reasonably consistent in it's measurements and reliable enough. I haven't kept up on Vector gripes but I've never owned a Garmin sports product that I didn't have to RMA before and I've owned quite a few.

There is a reason the Garmin Sharp team didn't use them.

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>You can get the standard vector on the cheap because it is a total POS. LBS recomended stages, they sent their vectors back because they didn't want to sell total shit products.

What's the problem with the Vector? I know 3 people with them who have no complaints....

I have to say, I'm always a bit surprised by comments like this, as the Vector pedals I was given have performed almost flawlessly. I even crash-tested them back in May, and they survived unscathed (my back, not so much). In fact, they've been so 'plug-and-play' that they've quickly become my 2nd-favorite powermeter (still can't beat a wired SRM for some applications).

From what I have heard is that if you over/under torque your pedal slightly, it wont work.

LBS said they sold a few pairs, all of them were returned because they didn't work, the replacements didn't work. Most likely an install issue, they thought it was bad practice to sell people $800 pedals that didn't offer anything better than equally priced products that were more reliable.

Go look at your pedals, they get banged on the ground, on the doors in and out of the house. Miss the pedal by even a little clipping in and you snap that pod thingy off, I would cry at the cost of getting flummoxed at a stop light. Tired an tip over clipped in, pedal smacks the ground, not a cheap mistake. Bike tips over when leaned against the car, pedal hits the ground.

Clearance issues on some cranks.

Can you replace the spindle? Cross thread that even a little and good by pedal.

Basically I think putting something in a pedal is a bad idea.

The concept to interchange is awesome tho.

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Sounds like Mrs Rinard used them to good effect (national track championship!) as well.

They may require a certain level of meticulousness that most are not ready for. I recall explaining here that swapping them from bike to bike wasn't going to be quite so simple since you have to take care to torque them properly and 'bed' them in.

But nobody though that was really necessary.

Which is consistent with people thinking half a power meter is good enough I guess. Because if you don't care if the data is consistent or accurate, who cares?

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I am totally going to get flamed for all of this.

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I am sure, but can you give some valid reasons?

The full price of vector has dropped to 1,499 and there is a $200 rebate available until September, so there is a penalty for only buying the left side and upgrading later.

Anything I can offer would be purely speculative, but I would say the carnage of the peloton would be reason enough. A hub and BB are rather protected, a pedal can get smacked even without a crash, a stray bottle would pose a hazard, let alone a crash.

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> Because if you don't care if the data is consistent or accurate, who cares?

The benefit of both-legged power over one-legged power seems marginal. For the great majority of time, for most people, one leg is accurate enough for the majority of purposes.

I'd want both legs if I was a track sprinter, etc. But for tracking FTP, TSS, MMP >10s etc, I haven't seen any reason to think it's not perfectly good data. My left/right balance from test-riding Vectors and the pseudo l/r of my Quarq is one of the most intensely boring metrics ever to come off a PM. I'm sure there are situations where it swings wildly, etc, for some people. I sure haven't seen those situations, except exceeding 1000W. And I don't really care that much about my >1000W data because it represents a minuscule time relative to my total riding time.

And good enough for Sky, who seem to be among the bigger data-whores in the pro ranks.

As I mentioned, I crashed while using mine back in May. They survived just fine (an n=1 test only, of course).

What was the nature of the crash? I have crashed a bunch and never damaged my helmet, they must be crash proof, or I don't need one.

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i think you might have been misinformed. Also, dealer that sell certain brand of bike like specialized etc have a big quantity of non compatible crank. Those shop have tendency to talk down the product.

The reality is, the vector have performe extremely well and she they are solid when you follow the instruction. Torquing them is extremely easy and quick step. I dont have them anymore as i was doing testing on them only for a few months but if i was to purchase a powermeter, it would be the Vector.

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I'd replace "properly" with "sufficiently", since once they're tight enough (which is pretty tight, at least for pedals, which tend to self-tighten), you're good to go.

You also have to make sure you don't let the pods hit the crank arms while tightening the spindles, but that's easy enough to do.

As for bedding things in, well, you need to do that w/ other powermeters as well after disturbing the system.

Like I said, n=1 only, but since you asked...

I flipped a stick into my front wheel, heard it hit the spokes and/or fork, had time to think "oh s***!", then woke up on the pavement shortly thereafter with a bunch of people standing around me (including a priest, who seemed to be administering my last rites*). Primary damage to the bike was a broken fork, but one of the pedals must have hit the pavement pretty hard as well.

*I should post this to Jim Martin's "what did you see on your ride today?" thread.

I have a newfound interest in track so I'm going to keep diverting this thread back to that topic despite it being completely irrelevant to the vast majority of readers on this forum. Is there still concern over damaging the pods due to pedal strike or has that been thoroughly disproved by now?

I'd think it would be more likely on the track than the road for obvious reasons unless the raised BB height and crank length of most proper track bikes still makes it a non issue on the banks.

 
*I should post this to Jim Martin's "what did you see on your ride today?" thread.[/quote]
"today I saw a priest revive me."

Thank you for sharing, my speculation is far less valuable than your actual experience.

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