Power-based pedals (Vectors and Pioneer)

[Jeffrey Ritter]

Is anyone aware of any research, including by Larry Oz!, on the distribution of power while riding a recumbent across the 360 degrees rotation of the pedal stroke?

Both Garmin Vector's and Pioneers seem to offer pretty thorough heat mapping and readouts--any suggestions or recommendations/feedback on the two would be valued. Please?

Finally, the various threads on oval rings seem very positive for power output. Those seem fairly easy to acquire and install. Any thoughts on how they impact the heat map tracking of your power, other than feels like a smoother rotation?

Thanks much everyone.

 

[ratz]

We've played with it for orienting qrings. Don't know that I've ever written any of that done.
You can definitely view where the power cycle is and try to optimize it using that. I have to look the basement to trigger memories of what I learned.

 

[Osiris]

Is anyone aware of any research, including by Larry Oz!, on the distribution of power while riding a recumbent across the 360 degrees rotation of the pedal stroke?

Both Garmin Vector's and Pioneers seem to offer pretty thorough heat mapping and readouts--any suggestions or recommendations/feedback on the two would be valued. Please?

I've owned at least one set of the Garmin Vector pedals since they were first released. The concept behind it is great, but unfortunately the execution leaves much to be desired. Of the five sets of Vector pedals (versions 1,2 &3) I've owned over the years, three had to be returned. The problems ranged from intermittent failures to read the right pedal, to mysteriously high battery drain (which required replacing the batteries nearly every week!). I've spent countless hours on the phone with Garmin tech support over the years trying to fix these issues, but nothing they suggested ever worked. Strangely enough, they also denied that these were common problems with their product. That is, until recently, when Garmin admitted that version 3 had a serious design defect. New parts were sent to all current owners, but unfortunately the problem persists even after installing the new parts. Even with the newest components and the latest software, my Garmin 3 continues to work only part of the time. Fortunately it's only the right pedal that stops sending signals occasionally, so it's still able to give accurate power readings from the left pedal, but that means that all the data obtained from the dual pedal version is missing. Because of all this nonsense, I can't in good conscience recommend the Vector pedals to anyone.

 

[RojoRacing]

I've owned at least one set of the Garmin Vector pedals since they were first released. The concept behind it is great, but unfortunately the execution leaves much to be desired. Of the five sets of Vector pedals (versions 1,2 &3) I've owned over the years, three had to be returned. The problems ranged from intermittent failures to read the right pedal, to mysteriously high battery drain (which required replacing the batteries nearly every week!). I've spent countless hours on the phone with Garmin tech support over the years trying to fix these issues, but nothing they suggested ever worked. Strangely enough, they also denied that these were common problems with their product. That is, until recently, when Garmin admitted that version 3 had a serious design defect. New parts were sent to all current owners, but unfortunately the problem persists even after installing the new parts. Even with the newest components and the latest software, my Garmin 3 continues to work only part of the time. Fortunately it's only the right pedal that stops sending signals occasionally, so it's still able to give accurate power readings from the left pedal, but that means that all the data obtained from the dual pedal version is missing. Because of all this nonsense, I can't in good conscience recommend the Vector pedals to anyone.

There are people like you and then there are people like me who's vector 2 pedals have been perfect from day one even after snapping off two pedal pods taking them out on crazy rock garden trails. What were the replacement parts sent out for the 3's ? I heard something about power imbalance left vs right but few people seemed to have a for sure idea of what they were complaining about.

 

[Osiris]

There are people like you and then there are people like me who's vector 2 pedals have been perfect from day one even after snapping off two pedal pods taking them out on crazy rock garden trails.

Pods that stick out and break off. Brilliant design, that. One of the pods on my Vector 1's snapped off, not because it had struck anything (it was on a road bike), but because the pods were held in place by thin bits of aluminum. Just the act of tightening the pedals was enough to cause cracks in the mounts. Vector 2's were a major improvement because the pod mounts were no longer clamped in place, but were screw mounted plastic parts. One big problem remained, and that was the fact that Garmin had only designed this system to work with crank arms of a certain thickness. Some cranks had thicker arms, which made mounting the Vectors impossible. Eventually Garmin came out with adapters for different crank arms, but you had to pay an additional $120 for a set. On the third edition, the engineers at Garmin had an epiphany and abandoned the pods altogether, which would have avoided all these issues had they done it originally, and it made swapping the pedals to different bikes much easier. All was not well, however, as I discovered when my Vector 3's failed after only four miles into my first ride.

What were the replacement parts sent out for the 3's ? I heard something about power imbalance left vs right but few people seemed to have a for sure idea of what they were complaining about.

Read all about it:

https://forums.garmin.com/forum/int...-3/1329204-so-many-problems-with-the-vector-3

https://forums.garmin.com/forum/int...49474-vector-3-design-and-production-problems

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/...ery-cover-help-solve-vector-3-problems-377853