Originally Posted by
LongVehicle
As for the Vectors, they were an option, but being blind I couldn't get my head unit through the calibration process every time I sneeze on the units. Plus, while Garmin swears up and down that you can't strike when your pilot enters a corner inside pedal down, they won't warranty the repairs when your pilot starts pedaling on the upside of a curb while you are still on the down side (shoud have opted for the set of wheels I wanted).
Not to argue with your choice of power meters, but just to put out some more data points for anyone else considering Vectors.
As for calibration to the head unit, there are acouple of related concepts here. Just getting the Vector initially calibrated isn't a big deal. It took me awhile, mostly because the documentation is for a Garmin 810, and I was using an 800 and had to do a firmware update.
It's only a one time process to get it set up with the head unit. Once the intial setup is done, all you have to do to calibrate it for future rides is set the zero offset, which happens automatically when you pedal backwards 4 revolutions. That can't be anymore difficult than setting the zero offset for a stages power meter at the beginning of a ride.
The more complicated issue of calibration is determing the slope of the power meter is correct. Here Vector has an advantage over Stages. You can test to see the slope is correct and the unit is reading accurately by doing a static torque test with a known weight. My understanding is Stages does not currently allow for a static torque test.
Admittedly most users will never calibrate slope, so it doesn't much matter, but all said ease of calibration is a Vector advantage, not a weakness.
As for banging the pod unit, 3 months in it hasn't been an issue. We ride pretty aggressively (we've raced crits on the tandem) and I can tell you from experience, you can bang a pedal on the pavement without touching the pod to the ground.
I don't get the curb issue, unless your riding the bike over curbs which doesn't seem to be a good idea anyway. You can bang the pod on curbs moving the bike with you off it, such as leaning the bike on a sidewalk curb to hold it up. We've done it, without any damage. Also, the pod is replaceable, so if you broke one pod, its not like you're out the price of the whole system.