Installation

We found installing the Vector pedals a very simple process. Garmin claim the pedal and its pod can be used on “most” bikes and with “most” cranks. There must be a 5mm gap between chain and crank arm in the biggest gear, and the crank arm must be no more then 15mm deep and 38mm high. Future developments to accommodate a trend for deeper cranks, typically those made from carbon, are expected. The assembled delegates at the demo day we attended brought with them a typical cross-section of Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo cranks, and none had issues fitting the pedals.

Garmin are quite particular about the use of the supplied washer with cranks that include a small recess above the pedal thread to prevent undue pressure being placed on the connection with the pedal pod. The Shimano 105 turbine that drives RCUK’s trusty Kinesis Racelight TK3 test rig is one with a recess and so we used one of the 10 washers supplied. Failure to do so will result in the load being placed on the wrong area of the pod, resulting in misleading data.

The user is required only to line up the constituent parts in a pedal-pod-washer sequence and screw in the pedal, before tightening with a 15mm spanner. The rear of the spindle, typically used to house an Allen key attachment, is occupied by the pedal pod’s electronic attachment, one that simply pushes in and which pops out automatically when the spindle is unscrewed from the crank arm.

Garmin recommend positioning the pod so it hangs below the crank arm when the arm is in its foremost position (“a quarter to three”) and this was simple enough to achieve. Doing so shields the pod from any accidental damage that might result from clipping or unclipping.

The simplicity continues at the head unit. We tried the Vector pedals with an Edge 510 computer. We navigated to the profile screen, selected the dumbell icon, enabled the power aspect, and selected search. After spinning the crank to ‘wake’ the pod, it quickly detected the Vector’s unique id, one printed for reference on the side of the axle, close to the flattened section where the pedal attaches. The message “power meter found” appeared on the screen in short order. It’s possible to manually enter the id into the Edge, forcing it to search for a specific pedal.

It was also necessary to enter the crank length (172.5mm in our case), another task achieved by navigating the profile screen and selecting the aptly-named crank length option. The Vector calculates power partly on the distance travelled by the crank.

Before clipping in, Garmin advise following a ‘static zero calibration’ procedure, which involved once more navigating to the profile screen, and selecting the dumbbell option, and this time selecting the calibrate option. The Vector can be recalibrated at any point in the ride by pedaling backwards five times. The procedure is recommended if any unusual power or left-right balance readings are displayed, but during our short test we didn’t encounter any. We did, however, test the recalibration procedure by pedaling backwards, and found it worked on each occasion.

Setting the installation angle of the pedal pods is another simple but necessary procedure, one required if swapping the pedals between bikes. Vector needs to know the orientation of the sensors in relation to the crank to accurately calculate power output. This process can only be achieved while the pedals are turning, and then at a cadence of between 80 RPM and 90 RPM. For us, this required no more effort than riding the bike. The absence of any complex alignment procedure is another Vector virtue Garmin is keen to extoll.