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Garmin Vector 3 (or just power meters in general)

I have had the Garmin vector 2s and the Stages (also version 2) crank based system. My thoughts:

I never had any problems with the gamins whatsoever. They use a Keo 3 point cleat - easy. The downside is the ugly pod that hangs from the pedal. It looks silly and is in a place where I can be knocked easily.

The Stages has been a bit more troublesome. It regularly drops out while I am riding recording 0watts if even for a few seconds, this is very annoying. Otherwise it is trouble free but I think I prefer a pedal based system for flexibility between bikes/crank styles/crank lengths.

If I was to buy another one, it would be pedal based.

As for the effect on training, I think it is positive. What I appreciate is having an objective measure of your performance that isn't effected by external conditions like wind, heat, rain, drafting or anything else, it is purely a measure of your output. so for example on my local Cat 2 test hill, somedays I am flying but am hampered by strong winds at the top. Having a powermeter allows me to compare the effort with all my other efforts in a way other than purely by time. Generally if I am making more power in the climb than previously I am satisfied, regardless of whether or not I was faster. Of course I still like to go for time based PBs but the powermeter lets me gauge my efforts in a different way. In this way I don't feel the need to go to the hill in full race spec, I can do it with slower, heavy and more reliable tyres, carrying a litre of water and spares and still get a fair measurement of my effort.

edited for unwanted autocorrects
 
I have had the Garmin vector 2s and the Stages (also version 2) crank based system. My thoughts:

I never had any problems with the gamins whatsoever. They use a Keo 3 point cleat - easy. The downside is the ugly pod that hangs from the pedal. It looks silly and is in a place where I can be knocked easily.

The Stages has been a bit more troublesome. It regularly drops out while I am riding recording 0watts if even for a few seconds, this is very annoying. Otherwise it is trouble free but I think I prefer a pedal based system for flexibility between bikes/crank styles/crank lengths.

If I was to buy another one, it would be pedal based.

As for the effect on training, I think it is positive. What I appreciate is having an objective measure of your performance that isn't effected by external conditions like wind, heat, rain, drafting or anything else, it is purely a measure of your output. so for example on my local Cat 2 test hill, somedays I am flying but am hampered by strong winds at the top. Having a powermeter allows me to compare the effort with all my other efforts in a way other than purely by time. Generally if I am making more power in the climb than previously I am satisfied, regardless of whether or not I was faster. Of course I still like to go for time based PBs but the powermeter lets me gauge my efforts in a different way. In this way I don't feel the need to go to the hill in full race spec, I can do it with slower, heavy and more reliable tyres, carrying a litre of water and spares and still get a fair measurement of my effort.

edited for unwanted autocorrects

Glad to hear you've had no problems with the pedal based PM, but as far as the STAGES, well saying it drops out to zero from time to time but that's about it is like saying "my boat occasionally totally fills up with water but other than that it's OK, lmao) like, it's totally not doing its job sometimes and to me that's not ok!

You actually look at power data post ride? Wow I always kinda wonder who actually does that - I totally don't, that's for sure, beyond the odd .5 second sweep across a segment on strava maybe if that and even that's gone now that I've let STRAVA premium run out..
 
If I have made conscious efforts during the ride, the first thing I do when I get home is plug my Garmin into the computer, even before I take my gear off! Guess Im a power nerd! But actually I am looking at all my markers not just power.

If my riding consisted of just tootling around the place, I wouldn't be so interested but usually I train with a goal in mind. To that end I can't wait to find out how I did
 
I have had the Garmin vector 2s and the Stages (also version 2) crank based system. My thoughts:

I never had any problems with the gamins whatsoever. They use a Keo 3 point cleat - easy. The downside is the ugly pod that hangs from the pedal. It looks silly and is in a place where I can be knocked easily.

The Stages has been a bit more troublesome. It regularly drops out while I am riding recording 0watts if even for a few seconds, this is very annoying. Otherwise it is trouble free but I think I prefer a pedal based system for flexibility between bikes/crank styles/crank lengths.

If I was to buy another one, it would be pedal based.

As for the effect on training, I think it is positive. What I appreciate is having an objective measure of your performance that isn't effected by external conditions like wind, heat, rain, drafting or anything else, it is purely a measure of your output. so for example on my local Cat 2 test hill, somedays I am flying but am hampered by strong winds at the top. Having a powermeter allows me to compare the effort with all my other efforts in a way other than purely by time. Generally if I am making more power in the climb than previously I am satisfied, regardless of whether or not I was faster. Of course I still like to go for time based PBs but the powermeter lets me gauge my efforts in a different way. In this way I don't feel the need to go to the hill in full race spec, I can do it with slower, heavy and more reliable tyres, carrying a litre of water and spares and still get a fair measurement of my effort.

edited for unwanted autocorrects
Thank you for the detailed differences and your experience with both pedal and crank based.

I am leaning towards the Garmin V3 pedal system. It is a big change from the V2 as they no longer use the pods. And the reviews have been positive. AND I have had no issues whatsoever with Garmin thus far including my Garmin EDGE 810. So the link between the two will be seamless.
 
Another advantage of the pedal based solution is that is allows you to rent a bike on your travels and have access to not only power, but the same power number that you are used to looking at. ie, not all power meters measure the same. That's a win I think.
 
Thank you for the detailed differences and your experience with both pedal and crank based.

.

No worries, its one of the few things that I have direct experience with :warau:

I agree that running Garmin powermeter with a Garmin head unit seems to make sense. I ran mine with a Garmin 1000 (which I don't love) and it was seamless, perfect for my first powermeter.
 
Well after reading all the posts, reviews and watching vids, I've narrowed it down to the Garmin Vector 3. But an expensive price tag.

Thinking of getting the 3S which is the single meter. Any thoughts on a single version power meter other than the obvious price difference?
 
In for a penny, in for a pound. You have two legs. If the balance is 48%/52% between them and you are putting out 100 watts, then you are being shown 4 watts to many or 4 watts too less on your total depending which leg is more dominant. That's 8W at 200W, 16W at 400W. Maybe during a ride, you are mostly even in which case it doesn't matter but then you hit a climb or get tired and one leg goes for glory while the other limps along. Your numbers might be further off. One of the other good things about going for both pedals is that you can see all this and potentially address it. There is probably a lot more info that you might get access to with both pedals. Or not. Maybe it's all in your head. I wouldn't buy the single pedal solution though personally.

Incidentally, PowerTap Japan confirmed that my right pedal is dead. They are going to get back to me with options. Maybe find out what kind of crash replacement plan, guarantee etc Garmin has on these things too.

Japan prices are still high for these. The US prices don't seem to be making it over here for some reason???
 
I use power2max, works great but I'm stuck with just one bike but it is the racing bike, the others are tourers, trainers inside and fixies. If I want an indoor FTP test I switch out the trainer bike with the racing bike for the test. Heart and legs don''t know which bike is which in the trainer.
 
I feel like having a two sided power meter is a "nice to have" but not a necessity. I think knowing of any leg strength discrepancies would be interesting but ultimately not important if you are using the meter for performance measurement only. If you were using it to try and smooth out your pedalling action, particularly if you were doing one legged drills, it could be useful. But what I think would happen is that one leg would be slightly stronger than the other most of the time, which means that getting two readings would be a bit redundant.
I know that my left leg is weaker than my right due to injuries, so I am happy just knowing the power of my weak leg, so I don't overestimate or overstate my power outputs.
I bought a fancy all singing all dancing Garmin for running that measured all sorts of things like stride length, vertical height of stride and all manner of other things. Even though I am obsessed about performance figures, I looked at these things carefully only a few times and eventually not at all. So having the top end device was completely wasted on me. I think a dual sided powermeter would also be a waste for me.
Of course YMMV
 
I feel like having a two sided power meter is a "nice to have" but not a necessity. I think knowing of any leg strength discrepancies would be interesting but ultimately not important if you are using the meter for performance measurement only. If you were using it to try and smooth out your pedalling action, particularly if you were doing one legged drills, it could be useful. But what I think would happen is that one leg would be slightly stronger than the other most of the time, which means that getting two readings would be a bit redundant.
I know that my left leg is weaker than my right due to injuries, so I am happy just knowing the power of my weak leg, so I don't overestimate or overstate my power outputs.
I bought a fancy all singing all dancing Garmin for running that measured all sorts of things like stride length, vertical height of stride and all manner of other things. Even though I am obsessed about performance figures, I looked at these things carefully only a few times and eventually not at all. So having the top end device was completely wasted on me. I think a dual sided powermeter would also be a waste for me.
Of course YMMV

I must be a dickhead. Why the sudden revelation?

It's so incredibly rare to read something someone's written anwherre that basically echos what I'm thinking but this is almost exacly my stance on the matter. lol

Well otherr than the obsessed with performance figures part, kind of opposite there maybe. Anyways how does this reflect on you, @130R ...llol
 
Anyone have any experience with a crank power meter?

For example,

Pioneer 510A 80L Power Sensor, Shimano
 
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@TokyoLiving I've got A Pioneer PM, not sure if it's the specific model there - about 3 years old. Coin battery runs out (with no warning) about once a year, which inconvenienced me twice as both instances were times I would have liked that not to have happened, but such is life) Other than that no issues - does what it says on the box, no weird cut outs or abnormalities with readings, accuracy as far as I can tell, no issues with calibration, connection etc.

You get a choice of left or right if you go with single sided, have to get both if you want both. The right is a big yellow or red bulb that says PIONEER that goes in your big chainring, the left hides inside the left crank (like STAGES?) but it's got a red (or yellow?) sticker on it that says PIONEER too. Personally I went for the left becuase it was less conspicuous (aesthetics, personal preference) but it's not totally - I guess if you really wanted to you could black it out somehow. They may have made the unit smaller in the last 3 years I don't know mine's a long square rectangle/parallelogram looking thing.

Can't install it yourself I think, they sent my crank out to get it installed at the factory I believe
 
I recently purchased a PM and after a ton of research had it narrowed down to the Assioma Favero Uno and the 4iiii Precision.

I considered the Vector 3s, but ultimately the higher price than the 2 mentioned and the battery issues frequently mentioned in the Garmin forums ruled them out for me.

If you're sold on pedal-based, I'd seriously recommend looking at the Assiomas. The reviews are great and they are cheaper than the Garmins.

Ultimately, I chose the 4iiii Precision. I got the single-sided left crank version for a few reasons. One, it was the least expensive PM. Two, it's the smallest and lightest PM (9 grams). Three, I didn't want another device to worry about charging for my bike. I already have too many things to charge... Garmin, lights, Di2, HRM etc. so I like the idea of just swapping out a simple watch battery. And finally, it's the least susceptible to crash damage. I worry that the pedals could easily get damaged in a crash.

It's been great so far with no reading dropouts that seem to plague the Stages PM.

And, if you have more than one bike, swapping a crank will take you about as much time as swapping pedals so no big deal.
 
I recently purchased a PM and after a ton of research had it narrowed down to the Assioma Favero Uno and the 4iiii Precision.

I considered the Vector 3s, but ultimately the higher price than the 2 mentioned and the battery issues frequently mentioned in the Garmin forums ruled them out for me.

If you're sold on pedal-based, I'd seriously recommend looking at the Assiomas. The reviews are great and they are cheaper than the Garmins.

Ultimately, I chose the 4iiii Precision. I got the single-sided left crank version for a few reasons. One, it was the least expensive PM. Two, it's the smallest and lightest PM (9 grams). Three, I didn't want another device to worry about charging for my bike. I already have too many things to charge... Garmin, lights, Di2, HRM etc. so I like the idea of just swapping out a simple watch battery. And finally, it's the least susceptible to crash damage. I worry that the pedals could easily get damaged in a crash.

It's been great so far with no reading dropouts that seem to plague the Stages PM.

And, if you have more than one bike, swapping a crank will take you about as much time as swapping pedals so no big deal.

Where did you buy the 4iiii PM? (And how is that pronounced, 'four eyes'? 4 I I i i i i??)
 
Put some Blutac behind the battery in my first gen Stages a month or so ago and had no issues since.

Job's a gud'un

Rotor 2IN in the other bike has been flawless since installation.

I prefer having dual sided but I can't correct the difference and I've decided there is no point in trying. Would I rather not know? No.

There is an imbalance and now I understand that when I use the Stages the readings are slightly skewed by the fact that it reads only my weaker pin.

I scoff at the numbers in the knowledge that I am more powerful than the display tells me...at least a bit.
 
4i precision gen 1 works pretty well. Though I'm soured on them cos they left the 105 crank purchasers high and dry. Dual sided upgrade path for us cheapskates was abandoned, only ultegra and above.

I was tempted by the faveros during the recent clever training sale but decided to wait till the 4i dies and see whats on the market then. Non replaceable rechargeable doesn't fill me with confidence.
 
I recently purchased a PM and after a ton of research had it narrowed down to the Assioma Favero Uno and the 4iiii Precision.

I considered the Vector 3s, but ultimately the higher price than the 2 mentioned and the battery issues frequently mentioned in the Garmin forums ruled them out for me.

If you're sold on pedal-based, I'd seriously recommend looking at the Assiomas. The reviews are great and they are cheaper than the Garmins.

Ultimately, I chose the 4iiii Precision. I got the single-sided left crank version for a few reasons. One, it was the least expensive PM. Two, it's the smallest and lightest PM (9 grams). Three, I didn't want another device to worry about charging for my bike. I already have too many things to charge... Garmin, lights, Di2, HRM etc. so I like the idea of just swapping out a simple watch battery. And finally, it's the least susceptible to crash damage. I worry that the pedals could easily get damaged in a crash.

It's been great so far with no reading dropouts that seem to plague the Stages PM.

And, if you have more than one bike, swapping a crank will take you about as much time as swapping pedals so no big deal.
Great info. I will check out the 4iiiiiiiii (wait how many i's?)
 
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