petermk

Hi everyone,

I am contemplating buying Garmin Vector S pedals, as they are now on sale for $675. Does anyone have any experience with them? I've tried looking for reviews online but most of those are either for the original Vector or just a description of these pedals without any actual usage experience.

Thanks

thatcycleguy

Where are they $675? It's a solid platform from what I've read.

Looigi

Yes. It's a pedal based PM but unlike the normal Garmin Vector in which both pedals sense force, the S version uses only the left pedal to calculate power, similar in that respect to the Stages PM. The two-sided Vector is legit and from what I've read the Vector S is as legit as any singled sided PM.

Here's some info, though it's not review: Garmin announces Vector S: $899 power meter, also announces Cycling Dynamics | DC Rainmaker

petermk

I don't know why. It's a one-day sale, which is happening today. https://www.westernbikeworks.com/pro...ystem-standard (the sale price is for their leader's club members)

jtwilson

I've got about 8mo of use on my Vector pedals and they are indeed legit. I wouldn't be concerned about the Vector S at all. Way better choice than a Stages, IMO.

evrythngsgngrn

The one nice thing is that if you later decide you want both sides, you can add the right, which you can't do with the other single sided power meters.

RJM

You may see prices drop in the future when 4iii starts shipping their 400 buck power meter....although that price in the Op really is pretty good.

I think Garmin recently had a $200 rebate going on their Vector system with the two sided power.

Psimet2001 

Tempered slightly as I am a Garmin Dealer....

I have never missed an opportunity to tell every Garmin inside person I meet that they totally and completely missed the boat on pricing with the vector. The S version (single pedal) is their way of trying to address how amazingly poor their sales of Vector have been.

Not long before the announcement of the S I got a 3 or 4 page technical bulletin on how to address all of the common problems that users experience with the Vector system.

FWIW - I have been selling other power units for the better part of a decade and have never received a tech bulletin like that from any of them...

I am meeting with a rep about yet another new power device slated for release soon. The number of options on the market are going to be staggering here within 2-3 years. Hopefully they all don't have to go through all of the product development woes that all of the other power meter systems had to before them.

furiousferret

If you look at DC Rainmaker's site they show the power meter numbers for Kona and Vectors made the biggest jump. They are selling well, for power meters. I have no doubt the sales numbers aren't what they wanted, but the power market is small. Releasing it at $1700 was higher I expected as it seemed up until the last minute it was going to be around $999, like the original company (Metrigear?) stated.

I've had my Vectors for a year now and overall its a decent product. The only two issues are torque'ing and the pods. If you switch bikes a lot eventually you will get the torque wrong or snap a pod. After mine snapped, I got a new set which is supposedly a new version so let's hope its sturdier than the last. Additionally, about every 10 swaps the torque is off and so is the power (which is easily fixed).

Overall, I'm happy with the unit. Would I recommend the S? Sure, its a good product and eventually you can get the second pedal.

Looigi

I'm interpreting that in two ways and wonder which if either (or perhaps both) is what you meant. 1. Garmin Vector peddles have a lot of problems. 2. Garmin really has its support and dealer training act together as evidenced by them proactively providing this material.

JakiChan

As a Speedplay user I do wish the original version had come to market as well.

RChung

Every power meter that has ever made it to the market has had issues with their first release, and I'm not excluding SRM, the Look MaxOne, the original E-Tune PowerTap, the Polar S710, Ergomo, iBike, Quarq, P2M, Stages, the Vector, or the Look Keo Power Pedals. Sometimes the companies were able to fix their initial problems and survive to maturity. Sometimes they didn't. The past isn't always a good predictor of the future but Rule #1 for buying a power meter is: avoid low serial numbers. Rule #2 is a special case of Rule #1 : don't predicate a buying decision on a product that hasn't yet been released. They don't even have serial numbers yet.

Darth Steele

As a dealer what kind of price discount can you offer? PM me if you like. I am looking to get a power meter, Stages seems to be around my price range. But I could be talked into the Vector S, for the right price.

shoota 

Ditto.

RChung

Hmmm. Dealer gives (tempered) criticism of a product and, undeterred, two posters take the opportunity to ask for discounts.

TrojanHorse

Yeah, and throw some free wheels in or else.

Psimet2001 

Yeah, no....not losing my dealership by selling to people on a forum under MAP.

The troubleshooting document was a long list of how to troubleshoot the laundry list of problems average users are running into that are causing incorrect power readings.

The people I met with are selling product already and have been for a while. They started after they had been hired to measure the drift of all the other devices on the market. As a result they are actually one of the most stable out there but too expensive for my taste.