Worth the wait?

It will not have escaped the notice of anyone keen to work with a pedal-based power system that the Vector has come to market some two years after its unveiling. “We were never going to deliver this product until it delivered consistent, accurate, reliable data,” said Silver.

Garmin had working product two years ago, he added, but could only guarantee the three pivotal elements from small batch manufacture. “We were never at a point where we could trust that a product that was coming off a mass production line would deliver those three elements, and that’s why we pulled the plug. It was absolutely the right thing to do.”

So what’s changed? Garmin claim a raft of developments, including changes to the number of strain gauges (now eight compared to four), modfications to the power and cadence algorithms, and the introduction of real-time temperature compensation to ensure the strain gauges perform consistently throughout rides begun early in the morning and completed in midday heat. Garmin is confident the Vector’s data is, well, consistent, accurate, and reliable.

How accurate? Garmin claim data accuracy to within plus or minus two per cent, an “industry standard” arrived at after 18 months of comparative testing on bikes equipped not only with Vector pedals, but also with PowerTap hubs and SRM power meters.

The Exustar pedal platform has evolved, moving to the PR3 iteration, one with a different composite material for pedal and cleat to that unveiled in 2011, a stronger binding, and the introduction of a CNC-machined stainless steel wear plate – all claimed to be developments based on direct feedback from the Garmin-Sharp team.

The pod has changed, too, with claimed increases in ease-of-use (it’s hard to see how this iteration could be simpler – it even disengages automatically when the pedal is unscrewed) and durability (a claim we’ll judge and report on throughout our long-term test).