So, I’ve got a pair of Garmin Vector 3 (dual) attached to my road bike that I’ve not used in years. Having had a couple of injuries, my fitness is atrocious and I’m keen to start recovery with power with my mountain bike. I’m contemplating either buying a pair of Favero ASSIOMA PRO MX-1 if I can source them, or buying and fitting Rally XC conversion kit to my Vector 3 spindles.
Edit: Rally XC Conversion would be about half the price of new pedals.
Any advice on which option to go with? I think I’ve fitted or have a battery replacement door for my Vectors but perhaps the conversion kit comes with replacements anyhow?
I don’t want to spend a fortune hence thinking MX-1 rather than MX-2. At the moment, my fitness is so poor that I just want general improvement through the next 12 months rather than contemplating leg balance etc…
Kind of related. Once I’m somewhat fit, I hope to restart more gravity style riding for which I’d reinstall my normal XT Trail pedals. However, certainly the next 6 months will be focusing on base fitness and red trails so think the MX-1s will be fine for that - will the converted Rallys?
I have both and there’s only a few differences between them.
Garmin xc200s weigh a little more and have a higher stack height. I’ve beaten them up pretty bad and have had zero problems.
The faveros are cheaper and weigh less, supposedly they’re more accurate.
It’s tough, there’s a lot of hardcore anti garmin power meter people and say they’ve had problems with them. I haven’t had any problems with either but honestly haven’t put the Favero a through the wringer like my garmins. They’re both accurate enough to train with, imo.
Choose whatever one works within your budget and what you’d like to have long term.
Cheers @ChefAcB for the advice. I stepped back, had a good think, some quotes off my LBS and ended up ordering the Favero ASSIOMA PRO MX-2 thinking about what you said - what you’d like to have long term. Ideally, I’d like to be able to reinstall my roadbike on the turbo-trainer for TR sessions so keeping the Vector 3s’ as is would allow that, and have power offroad too.
As I’ve not used TR in a couple of years, I’ve now got to get my head around adaptive training…
I think the anti-garmin feeling was founded. I went for Favero over vector 3 back in the day and dont regret it. The battery door problem was a real issue.
That being said, roll onto today, and i really dont think that there is an issue with the Garmin offerings since they fixed the door.
My personal prefference is for rechargable batteries over replacable so I’d probably still sway towards Favero - but I’d be happy with either.
May get flamed for this, here goes…. If you’re gonna get a single sided meter, I think you’re better off just going by rpe. My L/R balance is anywhere from 51/49 to 54/46 depending on who knows what… if I’m measuring at the left side on a meter with 1-2% accuracy and then throwing on 8% imbalance, I’m measuring 10% high. That’s a random number generator as far as I’m concerned
If I’m trying to compare indoor power on an accurate kickr and then doing the same workout outside on a single sided reading 10% high, I’m an entire training zone higher outside. Mx2 and stages double sided are right within the margin of error to my kickr, single sided was anywhere from 10-40w high at any given time, due to doubling my high left side.
My balance is usually 56/44 or so when I’m doing endurance, once I get above tempo it’s evens out, sometimes it’s 48/52 during those efforts.
I don’t know why, but I’ve heard people having similar experiences.
I’m a Garmin fan-boy (I must have spent thousands of dollars in the last few years.) I converted my Vector 3 dual side to Rally SPD as I was focussing on mountain biking. They work fine, but the squeaking of the cleat-pedal interface drives me nuts (google it). When I want a power meter on my mountain bike in the future, I’ll leaving the Vector 3 on the road bike and purchasing the Assioma Pro MX-2.
my only gripe with the garmins is the price. The mx-2 was 750, compared to 11-1200 for the garmins. Pedal body replacement for the garmins are 200 vs 50 for the favero’s. Im only about 2 weeks into ownership with the favero’s but they seem rock freakin solid. The extra $500 for the garmins doesnt really seem to buy you anything
So, I’ve fitted and done my first FTP test with the MX-2s and they were easy to fit to my (indoor only) road bike, easy to configure with TR, my Edge 830, and the Favero iOS app. I didn’t alter the clip tension, they just felt right with my 3 ride old Shimano cleats.
Although the FTP result was humbling (50w less than previous test 3 years ago), subsequently fitting them to my mountain bike was quite motivating. I’m looking forward to do mixing some structure into my outdoor rides will hopefully allow me to get back to where I was a few years ago.