Garmin launches new bike pedals that measure how hard you are cycling

Garmin has launched new bike pedals that can tell how hard you are cycling.

The new “Rally” pedals include a power meter so that cyclists can track how hard they are pushing, whether as part of a training plan or just curiosity.

Garmin says that the new line-up corrects problems with previous pedals – which had attracted significant complaints that they often broke or dropped out – as well as allowing them to be used off-road for the first time.

The pedals are actually a set of three different products. While the actual power meter is the same in each, they come with different bodies, allowing them to be used with a variety of different shoes and on a variety of different surfaces.

The company already made pedals that used the Look KEO pedal system, but the new line-up adds support for Shimano’s road pedals as well as its smaller SPD pedals that are focused on mountain biking and gravel biking.

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As cycling has grown in lockdowns, so has the interest in advanced technology to track rides and improve training. Indoor smart trainers have been sold out throughout the pandemic, and Garmin rival Wahoo announced last week that it would be launching its own new power meter pedals in the summer.

Garmin has made power-sensing pedals in the past. Its most recent, named Vector 3, were released in 2017 to some criticism, when it emerged that there were problems with the battery covers that could lead to swelling batteries as well as the fact they might break entirely when they were screwed in.

While the company did not explicitly recognise those problems in its announcement, it said that it had been testing the new pedals intensively, with the aim of ensuring both accuracy and durability.

The new design is largely based on those same Vector 3 pedals, but with a number of improvements. As well as the support for different kinds of cleats, shoes and riding, the company also says that it now has metal battery covers that will prevent those same issues.

Garmin has been making those new battery doors available to customers with the Vector pedals in recent months, and says that people still experiencing problems with the old ones can request a free upgrade.

The power meter itself is found in the spindle, rather than the pedal, so that it can be easily swapped between both different kinds of Rally pedals as well as the older ones. That power meter is accurate to within a percentage point, the company claimed.

Garmin will be selling conversion kits that can to swap between the Vectors and three different new Rally products, it said, so that they can be used for different kinds of riding. It will also sell the same kits so that the new Rally power meter can be used across a range of different kinds of pedals.

The single-sided versions of the pedals range from £569.99 to £619.99, while having dual-sided versions to measure each foot costs £969.99 to £1,059.99. It costs  £489.99 to £529.99 to buy the upgrade kits to add power sensing to the other pedal, and between £179.99 and £219.99 for the kits that change the pedals themselves.