Short answer is there are still too many anecdotal stories of various issues with Garmin pedals and far too many fixes. I have tried them all on Vector 3S pedals and, at best, most fixes don’t resolve issues in the long term. Issues appear to be coming up with Rally pedals as well. I am fully committed to other Garmin products but will stick to other PM options from here out.
Ok, so to follow-up on doing a comparison between my Wahoo Kickr, Favero Assioma Duo and Garmin Rally XC200 I did a static weight test on the Assioma Duo (which came in as on spec). Then calibrated the Kickr using the standard spin-down and calibrated the Rally XC200 using the in-app zero offset.
I rode an identical workout in Zwift using identical equipment except for switching the pedals. The first data set compares the Kickr with the Assioma Duo.
The data align closely, with the Assioma Duos reading ~1.5-2% lower than the Kickr. Given that the static weight test was within spec for the Assioma Duos, it seems likely that the Kickr is reading a little high as the Kickr should read ~3-4% lower than the Duos owing to drivetrain losses. In any case, they are close enough to one another to be useful from the standpoint of being able to use either the Kickr or the Assioma Duos and compare between workouts, although I tend to just use the Assioma Duos as the power source when I’m Zwifting.
Comparing the Kickr with the Rally XC200s looked as follows:
The XC200 read ~9-10% higher than the Kickr (~11-12% higher than the Assioma Duos). Unfortunately, I can’t perform a static weight test with the XC200 as I don’t have a Garmin Edge head unit (I’m using a Karoo 2 - see my interaction with Garmin Support above).
Seems to me that the XC200 are way out of spec. Be interested to hear thoughts on this.
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Agreed. Did you torque the Garmin pedals to spec (very tight) and reset install angles (should be able to do this with Garmin Connect) before calibrating?
You can calibrate through garmin connect, I did a static weight test with my pedals and the difference was less than 1% so i didn’t scale anything. Overall I’ve been happy with my experience, it took a week or so to figure out how to best install and set up. Garmin support helped me with most of it and was quick to respond with my questions.
I did Belgian waffle yesterday with some very chunky gravel sections and hit my pedals pretty hard a few times. No problems for me, it’s all anecdotal tho.
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@jwellford I torqued the pedals (very tight) but don’t have a torque wrench that I can use with pedals. There is no “reset install angles” in Garmin Connect that I can see, either in the App or through the desktop version.
I’ve decided to try using the scale factor (I’ve set both left and right to 0.9) to see if it brings the values in-line with the Wahoo Kickr and Favero Assioma Duos. If that works then that’s good enough for me providing the data remain consistent.
TBH the biggest alarm bell at the moment is the drift in the data. For the first 10 mins of the ride the XC200s read ~10% higher than the Kickr, for the last 10 mins of the ride it’s >15% difference. That’s not good.
I think if I was in your shoes I’d try to get Garmin to send me a new set. 10-15% is way too far off, something is up.
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I can’t even begin to put into words what a nightmarish experience it is dealing with Garmin Support. I’ll put the details in another thread if/once the matter reaches some sort of conclusion.
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Having had the Rally XC100 pedals for a few months here are some thoughts:
- Some concerns about whether or not they were calibrating correctly but after reading some of this thread and acquiring a torque wrench to properly tighten them they seem to be consistent with my other power sources (Kickr & Vector 3)
- I have used them for gravel and MTB and mostly have avoided pedal strikes but have definitely had a few. So far they are holding up well with that.
- So far no dropout issues that frequently arose with my Vector 3 pedals (until the 2nd battery cover replacement which seems to have permanently fixed that)
- Be careful adjusting the tension. If you loosen them too much a key part will fall out and if you don’t lose it getting it back in is a huge headache.
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This sounds like a design issue a MechEng student would have if designing a clip-on pedal for the first time, not a supposedly experienced pedal manufacturer. Mechanical stops anyone? Captive screw? And so on? Just take a peek at any other pedal on the market, the wheel exists, it does not need to be invented…
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I would tend to agree, especially for the cost of these pedals being 6 or 7x the price of my shimano spd pedals.
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Super bummer, I’m sorry to hear. I’ve had a couple Garmin devices fail and received good service in obtaining replacements, but I guess a power meter reading wrong doesn’t warrant that level of service in their eyes. Let this be a warning to potential Rally buyers.
I’m still wondering about install angles. If you’ve moved the pedals since the first time you installed them (when initial angles were determined automatically) you should reset the install angles. I do this on my head unit. DC Rainmaker says you can do it in the app but your experience suggests otherwise.
TBH I think the main issue with the set of Rally XC200 that I have is the non-linearity in the readings (e.g., 10% high at the beginning of a workout, 15% high at the end). This means that any attempt to fix the problem by making an adjustment such as install angles, crank arm length, static weight calibration etc is destined to fail as all of these adjustments would address a systematic error (e.g., reading 10% high continuously).
It’s now been over a week since I last heard from Garmin Support. I have sent a request for an update but have received no reply. It’s starting to look like I will have to write off £1000 which is quite upsetting.
Is this occurring after sprint efforts? The issue I had/have is that after unleashing a few watts with them, the offset would drift and they’d read high. Stopping and performing a manual zero would bring them back into line. Hasn’t been resolved beyond the “it’s a bedding in thing” reply.
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You’ve been having the polar opposite experience that I’ve had with the pedals and dealing with feedback from support.
If you’re having problems they told me to take the batteries out for at least a minute, reinstall the batteries, reset all angles and calibrate. Doing that and making sure the pedals are torqued to the crank arm. I haven’t had any dropouts or issues.
@GPLama always has good advice also.
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My pedals differ non-linearly from the trainer too, but it’s not about beginning to end of workout in my case, rather low vs high power.
Part of the issue in both of our cases is that we don’t know that the trainer is accurate… but I tend to trust a high end trainer to be at least more consistent than PM pedals.
I’ll have to put the Rallys on my trainer bike and do some similar comparisons.
@GPLama you can see from the data analysis above that there are a few short efforts of 350-400W but no all-out sprints. I appreciate your suggestion but I don’t think that having to repeatedly perform a manual zero or the explanation that “it’s a bedding in thing” is acceptable for a product that is this expensive and for which Garmin claim has “Accuracy: +/- 1.0%”.
@jwellford In terms of trainer accuracy, that’s why I did the exact same test with a set of Assioma Duos that had been calibrated with a static weight test, a Kickr and the XC200 as illustrated above.
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Neither do I.
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@GPLama are there any actual differences between three Vector 3 and Rally RK?
iirc, the threads on the pedal body are metal in the Rally RK… and the name.
I think Garmin have mentioned something about the hardware and firmware features that the Vector doesn’t have yet (or won’t have) but I saw nothing concrete. With the Vector 3 being compatible with the Rally conversion kits and (again iirc) no new/updated FCC documents… deep down they’re likely the same thing. If they’re not, it’s up to Garmin to do a much better job proving otherwise.
Thanks for the reply, no need to “upgrade” then.