Agree completely. Deal breaker.

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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

How do you travel with your bike?

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

I dont understand how one can be OK with this. Power2max on your main bike and stages on your other one comes out pretty close to the cost of Vectors. If you buy P2M Classic its pretty much the same price. Then you get one great powermeter with 0 hassle (p2m) and one good enough to train by (since you'll see your balance on the P2M). All good to go, all the time. No super tedious installation rituals. Reliable data. Ready to go with power on your second bike. No wheel issues, like if you would use a powertap. No risk of breaking pods.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

I have Vectors and like em. The description of the ritual of install is on-target. A bit time consuming but not hard by any means. Like many who responded to this post, I'm wondering why the sponsor isn't insisting they're being used. They aren't 'that' bad. It's kinda like Vettel asking for a Mercedes engine for his red car, isn't it?

I think you're severely overestimating the resources of the support staff of a Pro Tour team. I don't doubt for a second that this is a major factor in the guys not using the Vectors. An individual has a better chance of getting these working correctly than 1 or possibly 2 guys being responsible for 30+ bikes, many of which are crashed on a daily basis.

+1

I'm curious why they ever made it to production then? Garmin and Slipstream have been tied at the waist for years, surely they would have asked for input along the way?

I agree. If it's so much of an issue installing for a pro team what does Garmin expect from Joe Average mechanic?

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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

Here nor there with respect to the original question but if the install no longer required the 'set angles' which would eliminate the battery removal step as well, switching from bike to bike would be measurably quicker. It's not hard but it's a bit tedious.
Also given the Vector 2 will ship next month eliminating the drama of positioning the pods while you're concentrating on leaning on the torque wrench as exact as you can, geez Garmin, get the software guys to skip the set angles thing and there will be more thumbs up on the topic.

And the /education/smarts. Heck, the same trade team in question is advised on power by someone who apparently believes that the calculation of normalized power excludes zeros.

Wait, what?

Did you forget the pink font?

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

Couple things to consider:

1. The riders on the team travel all the time - often for races but also often for training. When they go on a training weekend or camp here and there and are traveling with their bikes the riders will have to be their own mechanic. Many riders to training camps on their own, with fellow racers (often from different teams). Example: Sep Vanmarcke who travels on his own to Richmond to check out the course for Worlds later this year. Then from there flies to California for the ToC. From the ToC he flies back to Belgium with the team before flying to Spain for an individual camp the next day. Lots of travel, often with more than one bike involved, and often traveling alone and taking care of the bike. This is a typical situation that will happen 15 more times in a season in a somewhat similar fashion as a pro rider. I think Garmin perfectly understands they have a working product that's great for almost anyone except for those traveling by air very frequently.

2. I think the interaction between the riders on the Slipstream team and the Garmin company is hugely overestimated. When Sep used to race for Garmin (2011-2012) he said he had little to no interaction with anyone from the Garmin company at all. They gave him a salary and some Edge computers and that was about it.

3. While Garmin did some testing with the Garmin (Slipstream) team during the development of the Vectors it was all very sporadic and limited to certain riders at certain times. I think they understood there are better ways of evaluating a product which don't require 'disrupting' the tools used by a professional cycling team. It doesn't take very long for professional athletes to become unhappy when they are testing prototypes of equipment which will always have some bugs in it as a normal part of their development. They're professional and can't afford nonworking or inaccurate or inconsistent equipment to guide them.

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Don't forget to attack!

You are right, and from the sports science part of the world. We were not happy with 80% of the files we received from those athletes on Vectors. Professionals need data that works, and definitely were becoming un-happy with the meters. So SRM was a viable alternative with the team (They already had units left over).

And as you say, Garmin really didn't have A LOT to do with the team. And now that they are Cannondale by over 50%, the SRM's or Rotor devices trump their usage of the Vectors.

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Carson Christen
Sport Scientist / Coach
Torden Multisport

you mean it doesn't? ;)

The next question is - why doesn't Cannondale-Garmin even try to give the appearance of using their title sponsor's product? Is it possible to have non-functional pods attached to the Vector pedals? If they break then oh well - they weren't using them anyways. The team isn't even sponsored by SRM; I'm sure Garmin is not happy about the team adding insult to injury and giving free advertising for their competitors. Why not put some electrical tape and/or use a sharpie over the SRM logos? If I recall correctly that's what Garmin-Sharp did last year.

Lots of teams use non-sponsor equipment for stuff like tires and wheels, but it's very unusual to see brazen displays of non-sponsor logos (aside from shoes and saddles, which are often a personal choice by the riders).