I bought the Garmin Vector 3 because all the big sites like road.cc, cyclingweekly, bikeradar etc all gave good comments on this.
So far they are wrong:
I tested these pedals outdoors with my wahoo element bolt.
I also tested them indoors on my tacx vortex and I paired for cadence and power the garmin vector 3.
I crush almost everyone now on zwift (because my power is outdoors and indoors steady but 20% too high).
I called Garmin and they said first to remove the battery, reverse it for 30 seconds to do a battery reset and then reinsert it. I did this but same results.
Then they said they will send me a new battery cover.
I checked but since the product is brand new I have the new battery cover etc.
I was careful during installation.
I did calibration and big sprints already.
Only thing I can think about is changing batteries but they are new and indicate ‘good’ on the garmin connect.
Anyone has had the same problem and has some super magic powers that can help me out?
I have no power spikes or drop. I just have 20% too high number. My real ftp is 233 watt (I ride about average speed of 30 km/u when I am outdoors).
I could leave it like this and substract 50 watts in my head every second but that is not measuring real power and it gets me frustrated. When I chill I now ride 250 watt instead of 200 watt. I could go pro now.
What are you comparing to that gives you 233 FTP? You sure that’s not reading 20% low? Know plenty of people who have had the well documented issues with power drop outs, but when they’re working they generally seem to be pretty accurate.
If you’re sure they’re wrong then I guess you need to get them sent back to garmin under warranty for a recalibration.
your crank length ist correct?
your body weight is correct?
you have the latest Firmware 3.8 for Vector?
How you pair the V3, with ANT+ or BLT (for me BLT is very bad)
if you paired your v3 with your Mobile Phone via BLT, remove them, because then every time your BLT of the mobile phone is in contact with your v3’s when they are active and can disturb other connections
Well I did a zwift test using my tacx vortex. 2 months ago it was 225, now with some training 233. If you check what speed 233 watts is than it gives about 35 km/u that you can sustain. But now I can ride at 300 watts for more than an hour what gives you a speed (without wind etc) of near 40 km/u. I know I can’t do that.
I do amateur triatlon and my average speed for the cycling was 32 km/u. Not near 38 or something, that is a enormous difference.
Hi, Yeah the crank lenght was correct at 172,5.
I did not insert my body weight, but is that of any influence on the watt you push? It is for watt/kg but he gives the watts.
Firmware for the wahoo element bolt and for the garmin pedals have been updated.
I did both calibration already using the garmin connect and using the wahoo element bolt.
It is just weird that the numbers are steady wrong, I mean steady 300. a pro rides 300 watt for 4 hours. I think I can do that too now haha
it could be more a prob of your tacx vortex too, first try to check if outdoor everything works, when outdoor is OK, then try the indoor things, mean try to solve probs step by step and not all together
outdoor and indoor gives me the same numbers. Which are a lot higher than on the vortex.
But I am sure that the vortex is correct because my friends all have ftp of 230 to 285. I am at the weaker end of the friend group. If I can now ride at 300 watt than that would mean I crush them which is not.
Tacx vortex doesn’t have a great reputation for power accuracy. If that’s your only comparison I wouldn’t assume it’s the Vectors that are the problem. Average speed can also be pretty misleading - depends hugely on road surface, equipment, clothing, weather, etc. Not to mention how hard you’re actually riding. If your estimated FTP is 300 then an hour averaging 250 outside can actually be pretty hard work by the time you factor in all the places where you ease up for traffic, corners, descents, lights, etc.
My FTP is comfortably above 300, haven’t tested in a while as I’m going through a period of fairly unstructured riding but would guess it’s around 320-330 at the moment. Around where I live road surfaces are pretty rough, often windy, roads are nearly always rolling if not hilly, and there’s usually some hold ups for lights or traffic. Anything above 30kph is a respectable average. 32kph generally means it was a group ride or going pretty hard. By contrast I lived for a while in a place where the roads were flat and smooth, lots of group rides, very little traffic or lights, rarely windy. Average ride speed there was often high 30s or even low 40s, for the same kind of effort that would get me 30kph on a solo ride now.
I understand but for me going 40 km/u: I can do this maybe for 6 minutes.
When you check the physics laws for watt to speed then 300 watt is 24 miles/ hour ( 38,5 km/h).
It’s more of an estimate than a law of physics, but does sound like you should be going a bit faster if your Vectors are accurate! Would keep pushing with your local Garmin dealer or with Garmin support to get them sent back and properly factory calibrated.
the correct weight in Zwift is very important as i know, there are a lot of cheaters there with wrong weight, so they are faster as normal, it makes a different there if you have FTP 230 Watt with 80kg or 40kg or so
I would trust the Vector numbers over the Vortex, where the trainer isn’t known for having the most accurate data, as well it’s a wheel on trainer which puts even more variability into play.
I just got GV3 pedals last week and I can say they are bang on accurate for me. Match well to the Kickr Core I use indoors and from years with a power2max crank-based meter, I can tell by feel it’s not wildly wrong as well.
Sounds to me like the Vortex power was possibly under reporting and also perhaps some over reporting from the pedals. Note that the location of the power recording can theoretically influence the power number. You’re gathering power from the pedals before any drive-train losses with the Vectors. This can potentially influence the number and skew it higher. If the Vortex was running low and this is running slightly high, that could create the wide gap you are experiencing.
How did you calibrate the pedals? Do you have them set to zero offset?
Find a Strava segment outdoors that’s about a 5 min climb on a steady gradient. Make sure your pedals are calibrated before you hit the segment and ride it at full gas with a HRM. Post a link to the segment here and tag me in it once done…
haha
83 kg