It’s been about three months since Favero announced their next generation power meter pedals, the Assioma. These pedals would build upon the BePro units of two years ago, doing away with the complicated installation process while also adding in Bluetooth Smart support and a companion app. Like the previous generation, they’d have a dual sensor solution (Duo), and a single-pedal solution (Uno). And like the previous units as well, they’d be priced far better than most competitors.
Of course, my question is whether or not they’d be as accurate as the BePro units, as well as how well they’d handle day in and day out. So I sit here about 45 days from my first ride with them, with plenty of data on these final production units. Note that I did not receive these from Favero, but rather went out and got them myself from normal retail channels. I’m impatient like that.
With that – let’s dive into things!
Unboxing:
Wait, you wanted an unboxing video complete with weights? No problem – here’s my Favero Assioma Unboxing video (and first ride data):
If you still want the photograph version of this, then I’ve still got ya covered! Let’s start with the box:
Now the first thing is that not all boxes are created equal. The boxes have a very important red dot on them in different spots, which indicates whether you’ve got the Duo or the Uno. The Duo is the dual (left/right) sensing pedals, whereas the Uno is the single sided variant with only one power sending pedal.
It’s a smart way of differentiating without having to make two totally separate boxes.
Inside the box, here’s the goodness you’ve got if you crack open the lid:
Not gonna lie, it just looks super pretty above. Really cleanly executed. Down below deck I’ll take out all the parts sitting in little compartments. Sorta like a Bento box.
And here’s everything all placed out on a table:
To itemize those parts, there’s the charging cables, for which you’ve got two of (one for each pedal), and then they plug into the dual USB power adapter:
And of course, there’s a pile of outlet connectors for most of the world’s outlet types:
Then we’ve got the cleats. These are Xpedo-based cleats, which are identical to those of the PowerTap P1. They’re very slightly different than a Look Keo cleat. For some people you’ll find a Look Keo cleat will work just fine for you, and for others (like myself), I find I clip-out a bit too much when not using the included (or similar) cleats.
Then we’ve got the pedals. Since this is the Duo, both are power sensing inside. Note, normally the pedals will be spotless perfect, but I can’t find the SD card with my perfect pedal pictures on it. So, slightly used pedals you get at this juncture.
Alongside that we’ve got a small stash of washers. These are used as spacers attached to the pedal, to keep your pedals from pushing up against carbon cranks. I usually install one spacer per pedal, but for your situation you may need two.
And finally, the manual. Because everyone needs a manual.
Just for a quick look at sizes, here’s how these all line up compared to the PowerTap P1 and Garmin Vector 3 pedals (left to right: Favero Assioma, Garmin Vector 3, PowerTap P1):
(Above left: Assioma, Vector 3, P1…above right: P1, Assioma, Vector 3)
Got all that? Good, let’s get it installed. It’s gonna take a while, you know, at least 1-2 minutes.
Installation/Setup:
If you rewind two years ago to when Favero came out with their BePro pedals, you’ll remember the installation process was less than awesome. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t awesome. It required special tools, stickers, tidal and moon patterns be just right, and then a bit of luck. Plus, it required a ride or three of settling.
This time though with Assioma? Dead simple.
Seriously.
But before we install the pedals you will need to download the iOS or Android app and activate the pedals. If you don’t do this, they won’t transmit any power. Personally I think this is stupid as it’s just going to increase their support costs for people that missed this step, but the logic is that it enforces the warranty period.
Once that’s done you take the included Allen wrench and then two pedals. Also, stash a spacer or two on each of said pedals:
Then, simply twist the pedals into your crank arms. It’ll probably take you 20 seconds or so per pedal:
And then you’re done. Really, it’s that simple.
When it comes to how hard you need to twist/torque them on, just go with ‘feels strongly snug’. I haven’t seen any evidence that they have troubles if you don’t torque to a certain spec. I’ve swapped them about every other ride just to test things, and it’s been solid on all rides.
As I do however, on all power meters, I usually will do a few quick sprints around the block to settle things before doing a zero offset. So I’ll just sprint for 4-8 seconds and do it perhaps 2-3 times. That’s it. That helps ensure the pedals are nice and snug.
Then I’ll do a zero offset (I’ll show you how to do that in a minute).
Note that you will need to change/set the crank length. You could do this with the phone app, or you can do it with your head unit. This only takes a second though and is located under sensor settings:
Your crank length is usually printed on the inside of the crank arm, near where the pedal attached. It’s often something like 172.5mm, 175.0mm or similar.
General Use Overview:
When it comes to using the pedals, things are pretty straightforward. We’ve already attached the pedals to the bike and then set the crank arm length. Ideally we also installed the cleats on your shoes. If you haven’t, I’d suggest doing so.
The next step is ensuring that you zero offset the unit. This is more commonly called ‘calibration’, despite some nuances there in the actual term among power meters users. No matter, I recommend doing a calibration after install (+ a few sprints), and then usually once before each ride. Doing a zero offset/calibration is helpful because it allows you to spot a problem before it becomes a big issue. If you never zero offset you may not realize something is amiss. Think of it as a health-check, more than a calibration.
On your head unit, once in the calibration menu, ensure that you’ve got no weight on the pedals, and then let it do its thing:
It’ll come back with a value of zero and a success prompt.
If you dive into the settings on some head units, you can also see the battery state of the pedals, as well as the manufacturer and sometimes firmware version:
This same data can be found on the Favero Assioma app as well. It’s within that app that you can check firmware and update it. At present there haven’t been any firmware updates yet.
The app doesn’t really do much else besides that. It’s mostly just the initial registration/warranty piece and a quick status check.
You can however set power correction as well as convert an Uno set into a Duo set or vice versa. Note that typically power correction isn’t for changing left/right balance, but rather for dealing with crank lengths of differing sizes.
When it comes to transmission, the unit broadcasts constantly on both ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart, also known as dual ANT+/BLE. In doing so, it broadcasts the following metrics:
ANT+ Power (total)
ANT+ Power Balance (left/right)
ANT+ Cadence
ANT+ Pedal Smoothness
ANT+ Torque Effectiveness
Bluetooth Smart Power
Bluetooth Smart Power Balance
Bluetooth Smart Cadence
The ANT+ side of things is generally used on Garmin head units, as well as Wahoo, Stages, SRM, Lezyne and others. Whereas the Bluetooth Smart side of things is generally used on Polar, Suunto, and various phone apps. But these days Garmin’s 2017 products can connect to Bluetooth Smart as well, and of course so can Wahoo, Stages, Lezyne and others.
As a general rule of thumb though for power meters, when given the opportunity to connect over ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart, you should choose ANT+. Why? Well in most cases, especially for dual left/right units, head units handle that better in ANT+. For example, Suunto’s devices can’t actually connect to both the left and right side of the Assioma (or even the PowerTap P1 pedals). So instead you effectively just get left or right power doubled. And other products sometimes have problems correctly ‘merging’ the two left/right sides on Bluetooth Smart. Someday these problems will be fixed, but today is not that day.
On the flip-side, sometimes folks with wearables (like Garmin’s watches) will have problems in aero position and ANT+ transmission from some power meters. In that case, giving Bluetooth Smart a whirl may fix the issue for some.
In any case, here’s a glance at what all those metrics look like on a typical ride with the Assioma pedals. This was recorded on an Edge 1030, but would be the same across pretty much any ANT+ head unit. You can look at the full activity file here:
When it comes to charging, the Favero Assioma pedals use rechargeable batteries that are built into the pods themselves. You’ll see the small contact points on the outer edge of the pod:
The USB-based charging connector then magnetically snaps onto these. It fits quite nicely, and illuminates once charging:
Favero advertises 50 hours of battery life per charge. Here’s where I am on battery status: I had one battery die just yesterday, and I suspect I’m in the 20-25 hour riding range since the last full charge (which I’m pretty sure I did overnight). At the same time, I had a TON of travel in the DCR RV over the past 2 weeks, which the bike was in. My guess is about 20-25 hours of driving time easily, plus two transatlantic flights. Which points me in the 50-65 total hour range, in the unlikely event that the pedals actually turned on the entire time I was driving. It’s something we’ll have to keep an eye on. Note that Favero says their testing on units shows closer to 65 hours. Also note that you can put the pedals into a sleep mode while travelling, which would likely address what I saw.
In any event, the two charging cords connect to the dual-USB port power outlet:
The cables are nice and long, so it’s easy to charge them while still on the bike.
Also – I’ve seen some concern about what happens when the batteries ‘die’, apparently in reference to how you might swap them out. Some of this is due to misunderstandings about how rechargeable batteries die. First off is that batteries are generally rated to a certain number of recharge cycles, in the case of the Assioma battery, that’s estimated to be about 500 cycles (per an e-mail from Assioma). Once it reaches that number, they don’t stop working. Instead they might slowly degrade, perhaps to 80% of battery capacity. With a battery life of 50 hours, and the 500 recharge cycles, that puts you at 25,000 hours of battery life before it starts to degrade. That’s 24 years of riding 20 hours per week. Or almost 50 years if you rode 10 hours per week. Seriously, you’ll have long moved onto something else by then. Battery cycle time is not your concern here.
Finally, a brief note about the pod durability. The pods are internally sealed with a resin, which protects everything inside of them. In my Favero BePro review two years ago I noted that in the couple months I used my set then, that the outer shell got damaged and I was concerned about long-life durability. Thankfully, that turned out not to be an issue, and I don’t believe I’ve received a single complaint about that being an issue for the BePro units. With Assioma, the company hardened the material even more, and thus I don’t think that’s an issue.
Still, I will note that at some point along the way my pods got a bit wonky. To be 100% fair to these pedals, I have no idea if this was caused during a ride, or during transport or some other situation which is 100% my fault. I generally treat gear like crap to see how well it holds up. The pedal still works just fine, it’s simply that the rear of my Assioma is a bit squiggly.
Hardly something I’d be super concerned about, but I figured I’d at least mention it. Either way, the company has a pretty solid warranty policy in the event that your pedal gets damaged far more than that.
Power Meter Accuracy Results:
I’ve long said that if your power meter isn’t accurate, then there’s no point in spending money on one. Strava can give you estimated power that’s ‘close enough’ for free, so if you’re gonna spend money on something it shouldn’t be a random number generator. Yet there are certain scenarios/products where a power meter may be less accurate than others, or perhaps it’s got known edge cases that don’t work. Neither product type is bad – but you just need to know what those use/edge cases are and whether it fits your budget or requirements.
As always, I set out to find that out. In power meters today one of the biggest challenges is outdoor conditions. Generally speaking, indoor conditions are pretty easy to handle, but I still start there nonetheless. It allows me to dig into areas like low and high cadence, as well as just how clean numbers are at steady-state power outputs. Whereas outdoors allows me to look into water ingest concerns, temperature and humidity variations, and the all important road surface aspects (I.e. vibrations). For reference, the Favero Assioma has a claimed accuracy rate of +/- 2% [Update: As of May 2018, they’ve changed their claimed accuracy rate to +/- 1%]. It also does not require any magnets for cadence, while also automatically correcting for any temperature drift. Both of these are pretty common though on most power meters these days.
In my testing, I generally use between 2-4 other power meters on the bike at once. I find this is the best way to validate power meters in real-world conditions. In the case of most of these tests with the Favero Assioma I was using the following other units on four different test bikes:
4iiii Precision Dual power meter
Elite Direto Trainer
FSA PowerBox
Power2Max NG and NG ECO
PowerTap G3 hub based power meter
Wahoo KICKR SNAP 2017/V2 Trainer
Wahoo KICKR 2017/V3 Trainer
In general, my use of other products is most often tied to other things I’m testing. Also, when it comes to data collection, I use a blend of the NPE WASP data collection devices, and a fleet of Garmin head units (mostly Edge 520/820/1000/1030units). For the vast majority of tests on the Favero Assioma I just used Edge 520 devices and an Edge 1030 unit.
Note all of the data can be found in the links next to each review. Also, at the end is a short table with the data used in this review. I’ll likely add in other data not in this review as well, once I finish consolidating that data. I’m a bit behind on getting data off some of my head units into folders.
With that, let’s get right into it and start with analyzing an indoor trainer ride, in this case a 30×30 workout. This is a trainer workout where the power shifts every 30 seconds from a recovery wattage to an interval wattage. Here’s the overview of the workout:
In looking at the high level view, you’ll notice all three power meters are very similar, however the Power2Max NG does seem slightly higher during some of the work periods. The Direto and Favero units are virtually identical throughout. This slight difference is within range of the +/- 2% of both units, so that’s not something I’m terribly concerned about.
All the units react very quickly to the changes in power, with no obvious lag by any of them.
If we look at the nearly 900w sprints (the above charts are smoothed at 3 seconds), you’ll see the power meters again agree very well here:
Of course, anytime you look at max sprint power you’re going to get very slight recording/transmission differences between units – hence why you see them slightly different at the absolute peak power.
A better way to quantify that is by looking at maximal power graphs, which helps to remove some of those recording quirks. Here’s how that looked:
This is where you see those slightly higher values on the Power2Max NG ECO come to light more clearly. It’s also where/why you see those early ‘drops’ impact the graph for the yellow line. Those are likely just transient recording issues in my environment (I.e. WiFi/etc…), and not reflective of that power meter. Said differently: It could have happened to anyone.
As for the Favero Assioma though, it looked really solid throughout this.
Let’s take a look at another indoor ride, this time with the FSA PowerBox and a Elite Direto trainer. In this case this structured workout was at a bunch of different steady-state levels held for various lengths. It’s interesting because it shows if there’s any drift indoors over the course of a workout. Note you’ll see double Assioma units listed here on the charts as I was recording on two head units at once (FR935 + Edge 820) to validate both recordings were identical. I often do that in power meter testing.
Overall you see the three units are very close, except that the PowerBox seems to be slightly high until the 12 minute marker when I did a zero offset. It’s a slight pattern I’ve noticed that it seems to need that zero offset more than I’ve seen with other units. No big deal as long as you’re aware, but it’s super clear here. Also, keep in mind we’re only talking a few watts beyond the +/- 2% range of both units combined.
In any case, back to the Assioma, which performs well here. Seriously folks, just look at these graphs:
If they were any more alike, they’d be twins (ok, technically two of the four are twins). But in that fourth interval we’re a mere 4w apart on 470w (so less than 1% difference).
I don’t need to belabor the indoor graphs anymore, there’s no concerns there. Oh, but before we go – cadence looks good indoors too. Compared to the PowerBox it’s identical, and very close to the estimated cadence on the Elite Direto (when it doesn’t struggle on cadence).
Now let’s head outside for a mountain ride on a cool/rainy day. I like these sorts of rides as they allow you to see if there’s any issues in temperature drift as I climb.
With a 10-second smoothing the three units look near identical. Starting off on the climb, you’ll notice I don’t stop at all, somewhat on purpose. There’s a very slight dip in power as I go on a brief roller, but with not stopping that doesn’t give any units a chance to zero offset. In my opinion, zero offsetting to compensate for temperature shifts is cheating these days, so I’m looking to see that despite this shift in temperature, all units track properly. And if I zoom in on that 50 minute climb section, there’s virtually no difference between the three units. All of about 3-5w in most cases.
Now what about descending? That’s a different use case, as that starts to rattle the bike a bit more, which could impact accelerometers that are used in cadence (and thus power) measurement. Here we see very slight differences in the units. They all track almost the same plot, but within about a second delay (again, smoothed). This is likely due to very minor differences in the algorithms for each as I stop and start pedaling around sharp mountain corners, and then the surges each time.
Practically speaking you’d never notice this while pedaling outside with just one power meter, as the numbers are the same at the end of the day. It’s only really noticed with a bunch of power meters. In fact, you’ll see this almost perfectly lines up to when the cadence values differ briefly for each power meter as I start/stop pedaling.
Let’s take a quick look at that mean-max graph though:
Pretty darn close. A tiny bit of separation at the upper end, but about as good as you’re likely to get with three power meters in real-world out in the mountains on a wet and temperature shifting day.
Finally, one last outdoor ride to analyze, this time a suburban style ride with tons of stops and starts. In this case I had 7 head units recording sensor data, three of which were recording Assioma (including wrist, tri aero bars, and top-tube placed units). Really trying to validate all were seeing the same.
And sure enough, all the Assioma data sets were the same. That generally tells me there’s strong signal strength on the unit. While sometimes you can blame the head unit for weak reception (I.e. the Fenix 5/5S), other times you’ve just gotta call a spade a spade when boatloads of people across many head units have issues (Stages Power single sided units).
In the above case, if you thumb through the results, you’ll see absolutely nothing of concern. Again, the data looks great between the units. There’s one point where the PowerBox drops out for a second or two (around the 1:13 marker). Which could be ANT+ related on the Powerbox, the Edge 520 that was recording it, or something else entirely. That unit only had a second device recording it.
Instead, let’s just wrap-up with the Mean-Max graph here:
Despite a ton of stop and go, lots of surges, and all sorts of other fun city and suburban riding creativeness (including some rough roads), there’s almost no tangible differences here between the units from 15-seconds onwards. Though interesting the PowerTap G3 hub did spike a bit higher than the rest on this one ride for the sub-15 second power. Not sure why…welcome to the realities of power meters day in and day out when recording 3-5 units every ride.
Ultimately – looking at all the data I have – I see absolutely zero issues with accuracy of either power or cadence in the Favero Assioma pedals. They’re solid.
(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy sections were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, GPS tracks and plenty more. You can use it as well for your own gadget comparisons, more details here.)
Power Meter Recommendations:
With so many power meters on the market, your choices have expanded greatly in the last few years. So great in fact that I’ve written up an entire post dedicated to power meter selection: The Annual Power Meters Guide.
I refresh that annual guide each September, and this September will be no different. I tend to wait until after the Eurobike/Interbike trade shows to do so, though I don’t really expect any further new entrants this year at Interbike (could be surprised though!).
Until that post comes out in the coming weeks, here’s some new power meter reviews and previews that may be of interest that aren’t covered in that post:
A) 4iiii Precision Dual System In-Depth Review
B) WatTeam PowerBeat Gen2 Dual System In-Depth Review
C) Quarq DZero In-Depth Review
D) ROTOR 2INPower In-Depth Review
E) Power2Max NG In-Depth Review
F) Power2Max NG ECO In-Depth Review
Plus these options too:
G) FSA PowerBox
H) Stages LR dual system
I) Garmin Vector 3 pedals
With the Stages system though, you’re looking at later this year for a full in-depth review, as they don’t plan to start shipping till November or so.
But what about comparing the Favero Assioma to the PowerTap P1 pedals or Garmin Vector 3 pedals? Well, having all three makes it somewhat easy to compare. I’ve got a separate post I’m working on that dives into the details a bit more, but here’s the down and dirty version:
Favero Assioma: By far the least expensive dual option at $735-$799USD (the price keeps flipping around), and accuracy wise just as solid as all of them. While availability is slightly constrained right now, I’m sure that’ll settle out in the coming months. The only real downside here is the pods, which some might find visually displeasing. But I suspect many won’t care given the cost savings. You won’t get advanced pedaling metrics like Garmin’s Cycling Dynamics, or PowerTap’s app-driven metrics. And of course the batteries are rechargeable vs coin cell, but that’s just a personal preferences thing. Seriously, Favero has nailed it here at the price point.
PowerTap P1: These have been around a few years now, and as such a fairly ‘well known quantity’. They don’t have any pods, but are a bit chunkier than regular pedals. They run on standard AAA batteries, albeit for warranty reasons require Lithium batteries which are slightly more expensive but still easy enough to find. PowerTap does have advanced pedaling metrics, but they’re only available within their app platform and so it’s primarily used in the bike fit realm more than as a day to day metric. Finally there’s price, which sits at $999 now, a price I believe to be slightly too high given Vector 3 now being offered at the same price. I’d argue $899 would be the right price today given the market. Still, up until this summer for the past two years they’ve been my go-to pedal that I travel with and use constantly.
Garmin Vector 3: It took three tries, but Garmin finally nailed it with Vector 3. In many ways it’s what people always wanted – a pedal that was easily swappable and didn’t require pods or a pedal wrench. It also just looks like a normal pedal. It runs on LR44 coin cell batteries, which you can usually find in most gas stations or drug/grocery stores, and the battery life is solid. It has the most advanced pedaling metrics of any of the noted pedal based power meters, and also makes that data easily available on all Garmin head units (but not 3rd party head units). Accuracy wise, things generally seem good, but it’s still a bit beta for the next couple weeks – so you’ll have to wait for my full in-depth review once they finalize stuff. For $999 though, I think it’s probably the winner at that specific price point.
All of which is a round-about way of saying that I think if you’re looking to spend in the mid-$700’s, then the Favero Assioma is probably the winner. Whereas if you’re willing to spend $1000, then Garmin Vector 3 is probably the winner.
Note, I’m not including the WatTeam dual option in this mini-comparison for the very simple reason it’s not pedals. I’m also not including the Polar or Polar/Look Keo pedals because…well…nobody cares about them anymore. I’m not including the Xpedo power pedals because for 3 years they’re “going to ship in 2-3 months”. Seriously, they’re not going to ship.
Summary:
With the Assioma pedals, Favero came back to the table with modest updates that not only keeps their power meter pedals competitive, but did so while keeping their price market leading. The addition of Bluetooth Smart is welcomed for those head units that support it, and more importantly the ease of installation and swapping from bike to bike makes this a real option for those that want to move them between bikes. And of course, the accuracy continues to be very solid.
While the battery life is about a third that of Vector 3, and the pods are still present on Assioma, these are likely minor items for most people, especially given the price difference. Further, the last two years of Favero being in the market with the BePro pedals I’ve seen almost no issues from readers on units. Given my reviews seem to be the place people post issues, the lack of issues is telling (since I know plenty of units are being sold).
For those looking for a more detailed shoot-out between the three major power meter pedal options (beyond the previous section), look for an upcoming post where I’ll dive into little quirks like q-factor differences (shhh…doesn’t matter), cornering, and more. In the meantime, feel free to hit up the comments section below. With that – thanks for reading!
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Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!
Currently clearing a di2 tt build off my credit card. Barring any major announcements on new products or price reductions before then I think I’ll be buying the single pedal version.
Thanks for the review Ray
I don’t need them.. I already have crank based power on a road bike, CX bike and TT bike after selling my Bepros and switching…..so why do I want these so bad! Favero has nailed it I reckon and don’t see why you would buy any other pedal based system now… cue the counter arguments. 🙂
Helpful as ever when deciding what to purchase.
Thanks!
I ordered after the “first look” post. Glad to see the full review changes nothing. Just need CT UK to get them in stock now!
If only the units I ordered, through a third party not direct from Favero, on the 21st July would turn up. They do seem to be slightly supply limited as you pointed out.
awesome thanks for the review. quick questions. i went from shimano ultegra pedals to power tap p1s i found the platform small. the ultegras felt huge, are the assiomas close to the ultegra pedal in terms of size of platform or the power tap p1s
Can you set the transmit power as it is by bepro? Quite useful feature for the unfortunate Fenix 5 owners…
I don’t see any option within the app to do so.
Thanks for the great review , i ordered a pair but still waiting like everyone else , but now i am worried about the issue with the soil of my BONT Vaypor tuching the pod , what do you think about it?
I’ve used them with Bonts and they are fine – but in part it will depend on cleat placement
Are these pedals osymetric / q-ring compatible? (Vectors 3 are not compatible)
Not compatible.
So basically if you have osymetric or q-rings the P1 is the only solution from the three avove mentioned PM pedals…
Why not compatible? The same inflated power readings as with any crank based power meter?
Correct, inaccurate readings. Physically they fit and all.
Could I ask where you got the info about osymetric incompatibility? I couldn’t find any mention one way or the other at their site, nor in the manual.
I did find reference in a review at the5krunner.com that “oval/elliptical chainrings appear to increase the power reading by 2-4% depending on the ovality. POWER CORRECTION settings on the app can adjust for that if you like.”
I have absoluteBLACK oval chainrings and would like to use them with the Assioma, if possible, if the error isn’t too much or can be corrected via an app setting…
Thanks.
I got similiar info to TFK from Favero directly. Not sure if it’s listed on their site elsewhere.
The thing is though that the power correction setting won’t really fix it. It’ll just shift accuracy. See, oval/non-round rings accuracy will vary by cadence, not a set percentage.
Of note: link to bikeblather.blogspot.fr
Hello Ray, I have missed the not compatible with non round rings part. Could you please point me to some data or information on this? Is it based on cadence sampling?
Best Regards, Jens
I guess i may be late to the party but i am pretty sure that favero stated on their website that the assiomas support osymetric chainrings
They didn’t…until last week. Now they do.
“look for an upcoming post where I’ll dive into little quirks like q-factor differences (shhh…doesn’t matter)”
I’m REALLY curious about that!!
Q-factor of Assioma is claimed to be 54mm. I measured the q-factor of my Ultegra 6800 pedals, it is also 54mm. Ticks the box for me!
If you want to buy these pedals, please consider customer service. I had a very bad experience with favero’s service. Had to pay more than EUR 200 for a repair which should have been warranty, but they just said ‘it’s your fault, not ours. If you don’t want to pay, ciao.. ‘ Never again for me (and I really never have issues with companies/warranties).
As a counter, I had issues with one pedal of a dual system completely failing to send data. A few to and fro emails with Favero including some ride data and I sent it off, receiving a warranty replacement fairly promptly. Sorry you had a poor experience, never great, but I didn’t have that view.
You were testing P1’s at the same time as the Assiomas? Impressive ?
Thanks, typo. But normally I pedal with four legs…it’s why my power is so awesome. 🙂
That’s what the 3rd cutout on the Assioma box is for. The Assioma Quattro!
Must have had the Lama doing some pedal work for you 🙂
Hi Ray,
I’m looking for my first PM and considering between Favero Assioma UNO, Powertap P1S, Garmin Vector 2/3s. What do you suggest? Is Vector 2s still worth buying? Or maybe better wait for Vector 3s?
Any of those are solid, and honestly I’d just follow the same advice for the full-fledged versions noted above.
I wouldn’t however buy Vector 2 at this point, primarily due to the pod stuffs.
Let’s say that price is not a concern. Do you go for the Faveros or the V3s?
Favero is more or less available now. Vector is probably 2-4 weeks out.
Vector gives you a slimmer overall unit though.
I guess at the single-sided aspect, it’s less interesting for me to have Vector. Whereas in dual sided you’ve got a lot more data (albeit not entirely sure what to do with that data).
Thanks, that advice was useful, so probably I just stopped looking and made my decision.
Much with the other power meters I am still stuck with two issues.
1. Can I change them easily between bikes? If not then price is by far the dominant factor as I need 3 or 4 units. Looks like these are getting there for movability?
2. I change my components regularly, for pedals that means every 2-3 years and service them annually but I don’t want to be spending new power meter money that often. Are the pedal bodies, bearings etc accessible to refurbish them?
1) Yes, within 1-2 minutes depending on how quick you are.
2) Yes, a replacement pedal body from Favero costs $59USD. The bearings can also be replaced as well.
I got the Assioma Duo pedals yesterday after they were shipped from Florida to Hawaii and then to Massachusetts. I installed them last night and made a few videos. One of them is a Q-Factor comparison to the Shimano Ultegra PD-6800 pedals.
I totally agree it’s not an issue, but the comparison might surprize some people since the results aren’t apparent at all by looking at the 2 pedals separately.
link to youtube.com
Thanks for the video. I think your questions about Q-Factor and also shoe interference are answered by this Favero tech doc. link to drive.google.com
In there, if you do the math (diameter of pod 33.5mm / 2 minus height of platform above centerline 10.5mm), the height of the pod above the pedal platform is 6.25mm, which is about the same or less than the height of a keo cleat.
Also, another reviewer (the5krunner.com) posted this excellent picture of shoe clearance. I don’t agree with some of his other conclusions, but the picture is pretty clear. link to i0.wp.com
But they do make note that in some situations you may need a shim for the cleat. If it really wasn’t an issue, why did they go through the trouble? Legacy from BePro?
I checked it out tonight. I have a ton of clearance. Way more than 2mm.
Q-factor of Assioma is claimed to be 54mm. I measured the q-factor of my Ultegra 6800 pedals, it is also 54mm. Ticks the box for me!
Hi.
Amazing review as ever!
Just wondering, I have Rotor QXL rings can I use these pedals with them?
The power readings with oval rings will not be accurate.
“I’m not including the Xpedo power pedals because for 3 years they’re “going to ship in 2-3 months”. Seriously, they’re not going to ship.”
Best line in the entire article….
I’m gonna wait to order these for the holiday season…not that they’ll be further discounted than what’s available on CleverTraining, but no rush.
Any feeling if there will ever be a pedal-based power meter for SPD pedals? There have been rumors at times, also with Favero, but it seems nothing ever goes beyond the rumor stage.
I suspect we’ll see something again, ala what Garmin did with Vector 1/2 and Shimano support.
I think I a lot of distance/endurance/touring cyclists would prefer to use a power meter with walkable cleats, but the manufacturers well know SPDs would also be widely used on mountain bikes where they might not hold up to the abuse. So we’re left with crank arm-based solutions such as Stages/4iiii/Pioneer or one of the various spider-based power meters to try to match up to whichever bottom bracket our bike happens to have. :-/
Not only that there might be more abuse on MTBs; the nature of the tracks might also influence power accuracy, I can imagine. So I completely understand that there are less dedicated off-road power meters. But no on-road power meter – is it that just the cleat is not large enough or is it purely that this market segment is too small? Sure, mountainbikers might also use an on-road power meter, but then abuse would be in their own problem, no? Same with 23mm tubes on a rocky downhill trail. I won’t blame Schwalbe if it blows up.
Honestly, I’m biased, but if I had enough engineering skills and the ambition to launch a new power meter company – the SPD folks are what I would target. The best shot for a portable power meter that we had was Limits. Which, well, had its limits, to say the least.
Those pics really show how portly the P1s are!
It’s not fat, just big boned.
Great write up as ever (literally don’t buy any tech until after a review on here) and extremely keen to go for these but just wanted to check if they were compatible with carbon cranks? I couldn’t see it explicitly mentioned. Thanks
Yup, totally compatible.
Hi Ray
Thx for review.
I’m little bit concern if fenix 3 is good enough “head unit” to use with assioma uno? I would not prefer to buy another device after buying power meter 🙂
No issues there. It’ll capture everything that Assioma can transmit.
Ray,
1) Did you see any “bedding in” required with the Assioma pedals after transferring them between bikes before the power readings stabilized? I believe that was an issue with the bePro.
2) Did you do any testing of the Assioma in Uno mode or just in Duo? Any reason to believe or data to show their accuracy and consistency are any different?
Thanks
1) No bedding in, beyond what I normally do which is just a few second sprint 1-2 times when I move pedals. That’s it.
2) Just Duo. Uno simply doubles the left leg, so wasn’t something I was super interested in testing.
I’ve switched the pedals between bikes without any issue. Just performing a full reset and it was good to go from the beginning. They perform auto calibration.
I think it’s important to note that the chunkier PowerTap pedals can hit the ground when putting in power during a tight curve on a fast descent, at least if you have 175mm or longer cranks. It almost killed me the first time, and despite that experience putting me into super-cautious mode with them, I still managed to scrape the other side a few months later.
I will replace them with Assioma (thanks for the review!), and sell them to someone with shorter cranks.
Where did you manage to get them retail? I am not able to locate them in stock anywhere.
Clever Training. They’ve been shipping out units pretty constantly since the first week of August. Still backlogged, but also still a ton of units have gone out. I can try and find out how long the current backlog/queue is.
Ordered them at Clever Training UK at 14 august. Still waiting, though I got a mail that they have got a bunch, and are going to fullfil the first orders now. No idea if I am among them.
Their site gives a “late september” date for new orders.
Thanks Ray,
I live in India, and was wondering if I could get a pair delivered to Philly by 22nd, as I am there for a few days. Have mailed Clever Training also.
I’ve sent a note over to the US side, and the person who’s generally tracking the Favero stuff should be waking up in a few hours. So I’ll have a better idea of where things stand.
But logistically speaking, yeah, tons of folks send stuff to hotels/etc in the US while on travel.
Thanks Ray. I get stuff ordered to a hotel all the time too, and my daughter studies in Philly, so address is not the issue. I am doubtful about whether the date would be possible.
On 23rd morning I fly to Nice for a cycling vacation, and would love to use the pedals. My current power meter is a hub, and it’s on my titanium bike. This vacation I am taking a Bike Friday thanks to the absurd bike charges for flights to the US.
Ok, circling back on inventory from Clever Training. Essentially, all current backorders on the US side should be shipped by no later than Sept 25th, likely quite a bit earlier. There are multiple deliveries in route, and CT is getting weekly shipments – with the US and UK/Europe side alternating weeks.
New US shipments for orders placed today, would likely go out on/about the week of Sept 25th, as part of that shipment coming in that week. That’s a pretty substantial shipment, but so are shipments to date.
So a new order today wouldn’t likely make it in time for your Sept 23rd departure to Nice unfortunately. They did some digging, but all the current back orders would fulfill the existing units allocated to arrive before then. Sorry!!!
I don´t know if you can answer this, but why the price of Duo changed from 735 to 799 at CT? Early buyers deal?
Short version: Favero told them to. CT’s been pushing back, and is still working on it. It’s a bit weird because the way it works Favero sells products in Euros, not USD, and then retailers convert accordingly. In theory that should convert to $735USD (roughly), but Favero is forcing retailers to $799.
All of which begs more questions. Obviously, anyone who ordered under the $735 gets it for that.
Many thanks. I imagined that but nothing like a inside explanation. Will wait until the end of the year to buy anyway.
These look really interesting. I sold my P1s after being replaced three times. Everytime the right pedal acted up and died then. Dealing with the importeur was always a lengthy process.
However, I must admit, those new Vectors look sleek. Really nice … and no (ugly) pod. But I would never every buy a first gen product from Garmin again. So I guess Favero will see my money.
It’s a 3rd gen product … It’s even called Vector 3
I don’t care what marketing calls these. Completely new technology, so for me this is a first gen product.
If it satisfies you I will call them first batch products in the future.
In the case of Vector 3 (like Assioma), both companies are leaning heavily on their past product experiences. When talking to the product teams at both companies, I’ve got massive bulletted lists of things they’ve taken into account from their previous iterations (Garmin Vector 1 and 2, and Favero BePro).
But what’s not obvious to most consumers is how many versions both of these companies had under the previous product names. Vector 1 was in theory one product, but there were actually multiple variants within it over the first 12 or so months. A ton of tech changed there in that first year from a manufacturing standpoint.
Even Favero also changed items with respect to the BePro pedals in that first year too, learning from their first few months. As did PowerTap and the P1’s.
None of these companies are producing first gen products at this point. They are however, as you implied, starting initial production runs of the current products. And as is usually the case there are often small quirks in these first production runs. Some are noticeable to consumers, some not, and some not for months.
Still waiting for mine….
Question: I now use Shimano SPD-SL cleats, on two bikes (one for inside, one outdoors). What would you recommend, when I put the Assioma’s on the outdoors bike? Two set of shoes, or replacing the cleats on the indoors bike? (Al those just a bit different systems :(. It is a shame some manufacturers are so anal about letting others use their models).
Personally I’d just swap cleats on both shoes and have the same across my bikes. I always hate when I can’t use one thing with another thing.
Ray,
You mention the Fenix 5 and their PM connectivity issues a couple of times (in your review, and in your comments).
Did you test the Assioma’s with an F5, and did you notice any dropouts?
I believe I did one ride with the Fenix 5, but most was with the FR935. I don’t remember seeing a drop-out, but will need to dig around for the files.
Another question: what’s the weight of Favero pedals? Garmin Vector 3’s are 324g, right?
150g per pedal for Assioma.
161g per pedal for Vector3
216g per pedal for P1
All sans-spacers, which generally add .5g-1g per pedal.
Perfect. Cheaper + lighter sounds almost a full win-win for me :))
Hello,
If we are interested in buying pedal parts in 2 to 5 years, is Assioma a Winner ? Or Vector 3 is better because the company is older ?
Thanks.
It’s hard to predict 5 years out.
On one hand, from a pure distribution standpoint you’re far more likely to find older Garmin parts, simply because there’s thousands of outlets that carry them. So someone’s likely to have them somewhere, even if just eBay.
Inversely, with Favero, being a smaller company it’s probably easier to get those parts longer term from them, or at least have them sort you out a solution.
Thanks Ray, this is something to consider before buying.
Are the bearings standard ? I mean, can I find them somewhere else, even if Favero is dead ?
Of course, I hope Favero will be still alive. 😉
Favero has full tech specs on their website. Take a look at the drive Link Josh posted above. The bearings appear standard and user serviceable. But having said that I’ve not confirmed a second source.
I’ve bought some parts for bePRO on the past with no issues. Just ordered through them.
Hi Ray,
Could you elaborate a bit between the Uno and the Duo?
I’ve got a friend that’s looking to buy their first power meter, and I’ve suggested they look at the Assioma Uno as a start.
Is there an upgrade path?
Is one a slave and one a master (ie does it matter if you have the left or right Uno?)
The Uno is left-pedal only, and simply doubles the value to get total watts. There’s no magic beyond that.
You can then upgrade if you want via upgrade kit to the Duo, and use the app function to pair them. The left remains the master throughout.
Bear in mind that if you start with left only and then upgrade, it will cost you more than buying dual sided from the outset.
The price difference is of the order of US$150 more.
This probably applies to whatever you choose (Garmin, PowerTap, etc.) and not just the Assiomas.
I compared the values of my Wahoo Kickr with Assioma. They are strongly different, axiom on the values not low +40W approximately. How do I compare the two values to use Kickr rollers with the power sensor on the pedal? Thank you
Assuming that:
A) You’re using the 2017 KICKR firmware (released earlier this year), and that you’ve done an advanced spindown afterwards
B) And that you’ve done a calibration on Assioma, and have properly set crank lengths
Then…
I’d suggest trying out the DCR Analyzer to overlay the two plots: link to dcrainmaker.com
I’d focus on figuring out why they are different first honestly, as that’s a massive amount. Rather than trying to fake one of them to be like the other. Or as my Dad always said: Fix the problem, don’t hide it.
Hi Ray,
I am also seeing some difference in power readings between my Assioma Uno and a 4iiii left-side only power meter. It is a smaller difference of ~12W @ 220W, but still big enough that it slightly throws off my previous power zones and FTP.
Is it typical to see this kind of difference when switching between left-only power meters?
How would you recommend transitioning to using only the Assioma…. retest FTP (and lose some relevance of previous power data) or use power correction in the Assioma mobile app to match my current FTP to the 4iiii?
My L/R balance is 47%/53% on the Assiomas.
If my FTP with the 4iiii was 250W, or 125W from my left pedal and doubled, that would work out to 125W L/140W R. Or 265W total.
That’s a 15W difference just due to the 4iiii multiplying the left leg vs actually measuring both on the Assiomas.
So your 12W figure is totally in the realm of possibility.
I understand there would likely be a power difference if one was dual-sided and one was single-sided, but they are both single-sided and measure the same leg…
Someone’s always got to ask…any plans for a Speedplay body?
hello, I already have my fabero duo. My question can you turn off the pedal lights ??
I guess you save energy
good product
No method to turn them off.
Though, I don’t think they blink constantly, I think only the first few seconds. Honestly not something I ever thought about because you can’t actually see them while riding (shoes cover them).
Any issue with the shoes interfering with the pod?
None that I’ve seen.
Great review.
I recently received my Assioma Duo power meter pedals, but I’ve unfortunately run into a few problems using them with my Wahoo Elmnt Bolt. I’ve also found the power readings to be quite different from that provided by my Elite Qubo Digital Smart B+ trainer. I’m not sure if you tested the Assioma power meter pedals with the Wahoo Elmnt Bolt and/or compared the readings against that provided by an indoor trainer, but was hoping you may be able to shed some light on some of the oddities I’m encountering.
For example, if I connect the power meter pedals via ANT+, I’m unable to change the crank arm length through the Wahoo Elmnt bolt head unit/app – the option just doen’t seem to exist. So the only work around is to set the crank arm length in the Favero app (however from the Assioma manual, this seems to be the less desirable way to set the crank arm length.) Oddly, however, the option to set the crank arm length via the Emnt Bolt does exist if the power meter pedals are connected via Bluetooth. I’m not sure if this is more of a problem with the Wahoo Elmnt Bolt as opposed to the Assioma pedals, but was wondering if you encountered this and what might be causing the disparate functionality.
Another area I’ve had problems with is calibrating the Assioma pedals using the Wahoo Elmnt Bolt. When the pedals are connected to the Elmnt Bolt via ANT+, calibrating the power meter returns the following: “calibration compete torque offset 0”. However, when the pedals are connected via Bluetooth, I consistently get the following message after attempting to calibrate the pedals: “calibration complete torque offset 65535”. I also tried to calibrate the Assioma pedals when connected to TrainerRoad via Bluetooth, and I keep getting an offset value of -1. Any idea what could be going on here?
Finally, and most importantly, I get very different readouts between the Assioma pedals (when connected to the Wahoo Elmnt Bolt via both ANT+ and Bluetooth) and the Elite Qubo Digital Smart B+ trainer (when connected to TrainerRoad and Zwift via ANT+ and Bluetooth). In all cases, the Assioma pedals show a power output that is significantly less then the indoor trainer. When connected via ANT+, the power readout from the Assioma pedals are roughly 40-70 watts lower than what the trainer says (although sometimes even more so), and when connected via Bluetooth, the readout is even more off from what the trainer says. I don’t know if this means the Elite Qubo Digital Smart B+ trainer was off all this time and I just didn’t know it, or if I perhaps have defective Assioma pedals. Another possibility is that one or more of the above problems (setting the crank arm length via the Favero app vs the Wahoo head unit when connected via ANT+ and very different calibration results when connected via ANT+ vs Bluetooth) are affecting the accuracy of the Assioma power meter pedals.
Any insight you have on these problem would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Katie-
As noted up above, I (and every other power manufacturer), pretty much strongly encourage folks to use ANT+ for power connectivity over BLE right now, for many of the reasons you noted.
RE: Crank length on BOLT
On most pedal systems with the BOLT you can set this via the BOLT companion app while paired. Failing that, you can set it once via the Favero app. The ANT+ protocal is defined such that it’ll keep the value in the pedals unless overwritten otherwise. For reference, the difference in crank lengths is roughly 1.45% per 2.5mm. So it doesn’t account for a huge swing if wrong.
RE: Calibration on BOLT
The ANT+ torque offset 0 value is the same I get on my Garmin. Different wording, but same resultant. Said differently – you’re good. Also, I presume here that you weren’t clipped in (no weight on the pedals).
RE: Comparison between Elite Qubo
The first question here is whether or not you’ve done a calibration of the Qubo. The Elite Qubo Digital Smart B+ isn’t exactly a super accurate trainer, and depends very heavily on having been calibrated properly with a roll-down.
Shifts in accuracy of trainers like the Qubo are easy to spot as they often change over time during a workout as they warm-up. You could use something like the DCR Analyzer or another app to plot those (or just Excel). Analyzer here: link to dcrainmaker.com
Once that’s done, if they’re still different then I’d likely lean heavily towards Assioma being right in that case. If you were comparing against something like the Tacx Neo, Elite Drivo, or others with a built-in power meter, then that’d be more mysterious.
From what I’ve seen many times on Zwift facebook groups and other online forums, Elite Qubo Digital Smart B+ can be potentially very veeeery inacuarate out of the box. To achieve any accuracy with this trainer you need to go through painful process of calibration alongside power meter (and nothing is guaranteed). If you never did it then it probably just spits out random numbers. So I wouldn’t worry at all about Assioma accuracy when comparing it to Qubo or any other Elite trainer except their new generation (Drivo, Kura, Direto).
Hi Kate,
I’m having the exact same issues as you. Can’t set crank arm length when connected via ant+. Can’t calibrate properly when connected via blte. Without setting crank arm length, elmnt bolt readings much lower than my garmin 935 watch (where I can set crank arm length).
Did you have any luck resolving any of the issues?
Cheers,
Luke
The difference I see with the bolt is the avg power. The power displayed and the NP remain accurate but the longer you ride the avg power continues to reduce. I don’t know if it is an algorithm issue from configuring the data from two sources. The avg power works fine, with 4iiii single side or wahoo kickr but with the pedals it doesn’t display correctly. When pulled into TP it shows a low average (just copies field) but if you highlight ride as a segment the avg power is correct. WKO4 and Strava both pull in the avg correctly. I have contacted Wahoo several times – it is either a low priority or they haven’t cracked it yet.
Hi,
I get this very issue with my Powertap hub and my Elemnt. Totally different type of calibration screen when on BT and on ANT+
Quote:
Another area I’ve had problems with is calibrating the Assioma pedals using the Wahoo Elmnt Bolt. When the pedals are connected to the Elmnt Bolt via ANT+, calibrating the power meter returns the following: “calibration compete torque offset 0”. However, when the pedals are connected via Bluetooth, I consistently get the following message after attempting to calibrate the pedals: “calibration complete torque offset 65535”.
I experienced something similar using my new Assiomas tonight on TrainerRoad for the first time. I was using it over BLE to my Android phone and the calibration returned -1 as well. Then when I started riding I noticed that the power on TrainerRoad was less than my 520 and my Fenix 5. At first I thought it was a calibration or crank length issue, but couldn’t find anywhere in TrainerRoad to change that so eventually I said screw it and just did the ride. What a realized during the ride is that TrainerRoad was only using the power from my left pedal and multiplying it by two (even though I have the DUO). My 520 and Fenix 5 were using the two pedals so they were matching and correct. This might be what Katie was seeing with her power being left. I confirmed this with single leg drills as well as looking at my power balance. I don’t know if I use the pedals over ANT+ on my phone if that will help. I had issues in the past trying to get the ANT+ to be stable on my phone but I will give it a try and see. Not sure if TrainerRoad is updating to get the power from both pedals or not on BLE…
Just to follow up, I connected to the pedals using ANT+ on my phone and the power was matching correctly with my head unit and was using both pedals, not just doubling the left. I actually contacted TrainerRoad as well and they confirmed that over BlueTooth, all two sided pedals report just the left side and double it for their app. Sounded like they are working on a fix, but there was no timeline.
Faverro service is not peerfect as could be expected or not they a good garantie on their Products.
I had a charge Connector (micro USB) issue after abort 14 months on a bePro pedal.
Repair did cost me 100 euro !
They did repair the pedal without inform me of the cost. Took several weeks – they start claiming they could return after 10 days ….
An the otter side – i have been happy with the bePro when not focusing on the charging
Thanks for the review Ray. Two questions;
If running the UNO, is the second pedal a perfect match for a standard Look KEO? Switching one pedal would halve the time.
Crashing is a part of racing, sadly. I’ve ground down the body of a carbon KEO, and generally abused a few others. Looking at the three candidates, which pedal body do you think offers the best crash resistance? I’m not proposing taking them to the belt sander, just some real world feedback!
The Uno kit includes a secondary pedal for the other side. Or are you asking something else?
Looking at durability of all three, I find the casing on the P1 pretty darn durable and kinda built like a tank. But realistically all units can have the pedal bodies replaced cheaply in the event of a crash.
My comment was really that if the pedals are sufficiently close to Look KEO in Q-factor and stack height, I’d just swap the left pedal between bikes. Which must be the fastest interchangeable power meter (Powerpod notwithstanding).
One other thing that i dont understund, is why nobody tell surface contact area of pedal based powermeters (except this is totay not important and just marketing on models they put this info as big advantage if this area is bigger)
I was using Time Xpresso 10 pedals, and switched to Look KEO 2 Max Carbon, just to test Look system. When i realize i prefered vs Time, i ordered Look Keo Blade 2 Carbon Ti pedals. Blade 2 vs Max Carbon have bigger contact surface area, and also lower stack and i find them much better. Not sure how surface contact area help or maybe lower stack, but i feel them much better then Keo2Max Carbon.
So im wondering how much of “just pedal” performance are compromised on PedalBased powermeters like Garmin Vector 3 (they have higher stack as i can see, like 12.5 mm and no information about contact surface area), and same question about Assioma Favero (they have 10.5 mm stack, and i ask them about contact surface area, they replied that someone from technical support will reply soon, and never happened).
On reviews im reading no detailed things about just “Pedal carateristics” of them.
Also i really like Non Grip LOOk Cleats (no creaking noise, they last very long…). Ray u are suggesting that u are not satisfied with Look Cleats on Favero, so u are using provided cleats , which have some rubber grip as i can see on the pictures. My experience with LOOK Rubber Grip version cleats, was a lot of cracking noise and not silent at all. So wonder how is the situation here as well?
And to adjust my cleats i found usefull ERGON Look Cleat tool. When i bought compatible cleats their shape was a bit different then original, so could not use this tool. How is the situation about this with provided cleats?
I used the Xpedo cleats on the unit. Since the PowerTap P1 shares the same cleats, I had a pair already on my shoes there. Same-same.
So i understund that XPEDO are exactly same shape as Original KEO’s so i can use the ERGON Tool for adjusting.
And please comment Contact Surface area on Favero and Vector 3? How big is it compared to Look Keo Blade 2 pedals? And how smaller surface area compromise just pure pedaling quality? Similar question about higher stack on Vector 3 vs Blade 2 and compromised pedal quality because of that?
Yeah, I honestly don’t really have any comment on surface area. It’s just not something I mentally can wrap my head around, or at least, is something that impacts me. I pedal, and the bike moves. When it comes to the non-tech side of things, I’m simple that way. I’m sorry!
Hmm.. As pedaling is primary function of Pedals, secondary function power meter, it’s a bit strange not mentioniong in the reviews their primary function. Maybe there can be the most advanced power meter function but if somehow compromise my BioMechanic and pedaling performance, then i’ll chose less advanced, but without primary function compromise. Or maybe will be reason to go crankset option.. Anyway thanks..
Perhaps.
However I talked about aspects like whether or not the cleats were prone to popping in/out/etc, so that is a function of pedaling. And the function most people care about.
But in the years of doing this, and thousands and thousands of comments left on the various pedal power meter reviews here – not once has anyone ever asked/hinted/etc about pedal platform surface area. Nor have I ever heard a single industry person ask/talk/discuss it in any presentations, events, press materials, marketing junk, etc… Never.
Further, despite loads on bike fit, q-factor, stack height, float, and others – this also has never come up in anything I’ve seen from any major players or any other publication with smart people writing the posts.
Again, I’m not really sure what to say here.
if contact area surface was not important, we will be still on MTB style pedals i guess.
And if that is claimed when u are buying regular pedals, and sometimes reason to choose one model vs another, very strange why u think it’s not important on PowerMeter pedals (since they are still pedals as first).
But everyone can decide what is important to them. I was almost ready to order Favero, but until i dont get reply about this spec, i’ll just wait and post the same question on few forums (since i dont get answer from Favero about this).
Maybe there is other people who think this is something important. If we find something interesting in that discussions, if u like i can post it here for ur followers as well..
Thanks
Guess what? Many people are still on MTB style pedals 😉 One of the reasons is because area of contact surface is not that important when your shoe sole is rigid.
Probably u read this from someone’s review 🙂 that is not that important. So if its not important then why at all road pedals exist?
Why not only one standard (MTB pedals), since they are more practical? Maybe Because contact area it does matter?
I own three pair of Shoes, and all with stiff insole.
1. Specialized S-Works MTB Shoes, and im riding them with CrankBrothers pedals
2. Specialized S-Works Road Shoes (Look Keo Blade 2 Ti Pedals)
3. Gaerne Stilo G.+ Shoes (same pedals)
There is huge difference between S-Works MTB shoes/pedals vs S-Works Road shoes/pedals (put here Gaerne shoes as well if u want, same huge difference) . Specially on very long rides (even MTB SWorks insole is very stiff i can feel the pressure point from the CrankBrothers).Just to mention on all three pairs im using the same insoles (Specialized Blue version)
Dont know what kind of rides u ride, but im riding ofen long distances (more then 200 km), and a lot of climbing (let’s say often between 1500meters to 3300 meters climb per ride).
On this kind of rides the comfort and power transfer are very important and its totaly untrue that there is no difference between MTB and ROAD pedals/shoes if ur shoes are stiff enough (that’s how i got misleaded and rode few seasons with MTB shoes, until i tried my self).And i regretet that i just truested reading this kind of comments. Luckyly i had a chance to try and to feel that big difference so that how i bought my first pair of Road Shoes + Time Xpresso Pedals.
In meanwhile i google it a little bit, and because im even simplier type of rider 🙂 (worryng first about simple things like quality of pedaling, then advanced things like power meter in pedal power meter) i’ll share few words from what i found:
link to biketestreviews.com
“PEDAL SURFACE AREA
700 mm² cleat/pedal contact, wider, taller and more surface area means higher power transfer and less foot rocking. With more surface area than a Shimano SPD-SL, there is absolutely no rocking back and forth of the feet”
link to aerogeeks.com
“LOOK claims that this provides a better surface for comfortable and efficient pedaling, which we’d have to agree with. Throughout our time with the Keo 2 Max Blades, our feet have felt stable and solid on each and every ride. We’ve especially noticed a difference at times when we really hammer down the power. There is a stability and stiffness there that is hard to describe exactly, but it’s definitely noticeable—and in a good way.”
“The larger surface area provided for a ton of stability and power transfer, and the Blade technology worked as it should (with the added benefit of a flat surface on the underside of the pedal).”
link to pezcyclingnews.com
“From the very first click these pedals displayed the usual LOOK characteristics of a simple click in and solid feel but it was the extra surface area that set them apart from my other stable of Kéo pedals. Using exactly the same cleat as any Kéo pedal I was slightly skeptical of how big a difference the extra surface area would actually translate to in ‘feel’. The difference from the very first pedal stroke was immediate though with an extremely solid and connected feeling. In fact there was actually such a big difference in feel between the Keo Blade 2’s and my previous generation Keo’s on my two other bikes that I no longer wanted to use them..”
link to road.cc
“The big thing with the Xpresso pedal is it actually is just that: big. The pedal platform is visibly oversized with a 700mm2 surface area which is quite an increase from the previous iClic’s 445m2, something that should help with power transfer, comfort and cleat wear.”
link to bicycles.stackexchange.com
“Surface area – The size of the contact point on the shoe. This can make a difference in how evenly the pressure of the pedal is distributed to the foot.”
Hope i helped a little bit. But everyone know whats best for him, for me simple things first 🙂
And i’ll really appreciate if someone actually measure the surface area of Vector 3 and Assiomo since doesnt hurt, and can not see any negative side of that in the review (specially if its considered like detailed review), except beeing something that company’s who prouduce this powermeters try to hide that from some reason…
I just post u a reply to ur comment providing some more detailed informations and arguments (with links to the source). But seem that Ray (or who moderate this 🙂 ), didnt like it (since it’s question why no surface area info when there is no negatives providing that info), so he didnt aprove it. Ill continue this discussion on weightweenies forum. So if u are interested join me there (if Ray dont delete this comment again 🙂 )
Holy crap dude, chill the f out. If you have two or more links, all comments go into a pending queue. Since I was sitting here as we speak in front of the pedals trying to figure out how to measure it for you, I didn’t yet have time to get on my laptop and approve it.
Good lord.
The status from Waiting for moderation, went to message dissapiared (and i went some effort to type it) . So that why i thought u deleted.
Anyway, why so nervous when we try to discuss something which can be helpfull? And u not measuring just for me.. U are doing that for all ur followers, and of course if ur attention is to provide correct and honest review and opinion.
And i really like how u reply .. Very good attitude from someone that seem to be NON Biased and provide honest review.. Keep going like that.. Really professional..
I’m happy to reach out to the companies and ask them.
But I’m skeptical it means anything at all. Those articles you referenced read like press releases. Seriously. Out of curiosity, how would you measure the surface area? Look at your pedal now in front of you. It’s not a square area. it’s filled with curves and cutouts. And what part do you consider the surface area exactly? The part that comes in contact at the mid-foot that’s metal or another material? Or also including the tip of the cleat/pedal where the toe is? What about the rear portion along the edges? That’s partially in contact, but not totally. Meanwhile, between the mid and front portions the cleat doesn’t touch on any of the pedals I have here (power or non). So do you count that?
There’s no accurate why for me to measure it. Thus, when I see people quote that 700mm2 figure, that tells me they’re reading from a press release to make them feel technical. Because there’s no way they measured it themselves and magically came to the same number.
As for my attitude – it’s called keeping it honest and real. Each time you post taunting replies, my desire to help you is less and less (because again, it’s only you asking). If you don’t like it – there’s an entire internet out there you can find.
Still, I’ll ask the companies and report back when they reply.
In order to measure a surface area, you could take a picture and use a software.
True. Here’s a high resolution photo of all of them, plus a Look Keo pedal for reference, for those that want to try and figure it out.
Photo (full res, 13MB): link to dcrainmaker.com
Note: The first order of business will be defining what ‘surface area’ means precisely, per my post above.
Since im not interested in review of ur attitude, ill let that part to the followers who are interested about it (specially the part: If u dont like it, go somewhere else on the net when i try to have discussion which maybe is important in main function….).
Anyway get back on the topic we have: Surface Area, so please let’s keep the communication and discussion in this borders if it’s not a problem of course.
Thanks for the picture of the pedals, and to have real comparation let’s compare to the HighEnd Pedals with big surface area not the Look Pedal u put in the picture (the users of this powermeters wont buy low level pedals, i guess they are interested in High End pedals). For this reason im attaching the picture of that surface area of Look Blade 2 Ti to be reference for comparation.
If i did not feel improvement from smaller to big surface area, i would not mind it at all, but when i switched from Keo Max Carbon to Blade 2 Ti, i realized that surface area can be important, so thats why i post this topic.
So let’s compare the picture im attaching, and lets analize potential contact surface (for me surface where cleat can have contact during pedaling. If there is some float, even that cleat have less surface, still while floating benefit from wider/biger contact platform of the pedal).
And when i compare the pictures u send i can see one of the compromise the both Favero and Garmin do.
They claim that they are not much heavier then regular pedals (but they dont compare this weight to lightweight pedals like Time Xpresso 10 or Look Blade 2 Ti which is about 108 gm and 125 gm of important Rotational mass difference), and to keep that weight i guess they cut the material from the Surface Area (and made compromise in primary pedal function).
If they make the pedal with as big surface as pedals im comparing, they ll be probably much much heavier so that why make compromise here, and just dont post the information about that. This will be not a problem, if that is Primary Function Compromise. (And if Look and Time cut that surface willl be even lighter then they are, u got m point i guess).
And now im even more interested how much they cut it from that area (to know how big potentional compromise is in main function).
About part how to measure the area (of course after we defined it what is it, for me metal part where cleat can have contact during pedaling), Orus allready commented, but lets learn that together, since i never measure it my self.
I found this software:
link to imagej.nih.gov
And tutorial how to measure it.
link to youtube.com
In this moment im not able to measure it my self (work) , but will try later or tomorrow
Still, it will be the best beside this kind of measuring, to get information from the manufacturers them self, which can be considered as official (together with explanation how they measure and which surface)
And will really appreciate if some of ur followers who switched from Keo Blade 2 to Favero Assioma , to share their own experience about this.
Thank u
Listen what this super smart bike fit expert has to say about contact surface area:
link to youtu.be
I have no reason to not believe that you feel discomfort in your feet using MTB pedals (hotspots etc.). But are you absolutely sure it is caused by contact surface area? Do you have 100% trust in your bike fit on MTB bike or MTB pedals/shoes combination? There is a lot of reasons that may cause feet problems.
“So i understund that XPEDO are exactly same shape as Original KEO’s so i can use the ERGON Tool for adjusting.” – I confirmed both cleats fit the ERGON tool.
But they are not exactly the same shape there are minor deltas.
Hi Ray,
thanks for another great review. I’m currently using a Polar V650 and V800, which are Bluetooth devices. It would be great to have some stats around accuracy when using these pedals also paired to such devices, I know you said that you encourage people to use ANT+ for power connectivity over BLE right now, but it would be great to see some data before buying these pedals or any other power meter.
+ can you calibrate, using a V800?
Hi Anders,
I have Polar V650 working with Favero Assioma Duo. Due to bad weather condition I have managed to use them on the road only once. I also did some test while indoor training with Tacx Neo which is known for its power accuracy. In general: Favero Assioma Duo works properly with Polar V650. There is a tricky way to calibrate these pedals using V650. Comparing power measure accuracy between Tacx Neo and V650 I noticed that there is almost no difference between those devices while free ride on Zwift. Using ERG mode results in 1-2% deviation. There are 2 issues I have to investigate a little bit deeper: 1st – V650 does not report left/right leg force though in theory both Favero and V650 are able to do it (it reports power balance between L/R but not force area). This is rather a gadget so I am not special concerned about it. 2nd – form time to time right pedal seems to not report any power. This does not affect total power but I have to report it to Favero.
Did you manage to get anywhere with your issues? I’ve just fitted these to my bike today and tested them and I was getting some very odd results. The power values on the display while riding were showing half of the expected power and when I checked the L/R balance I had a 97/3 L/R balance showing.
I just got the Assiomas and here’s my take on compatability (quoting the email I just sent to tech-support):
“Hi,
I am using my Assioma Duo (newest firmware) with
a) a polar V800 (BTLE) and
b) my iPad running ZWIFT (BTLE).
Obviously not both at the same time since bluetooth doesn’t work that way.
I have the following 3 issues:
1) In “Unified Chanel L”-mode, the power-distibution is reversed on my V800. When I completely take off the left foot, the watch shows a “100/0” L/R balance and when I take off the right one it shows “0/100” L/R
2) Switching to “Dual channel L/R” solves issue #1, but then Zwift can’t handle that as it can only connect to one of the pedals and then obviously only show half the power.
3) The calibration via the V800 always fails (with either of the two transmission modes). It works via the app. The pedals, the watch and Zwift all run on current versions”
.
I’m really struggling to decide between Assioma Duo and Vector 3.
Can V3’s advanced dynamics really help with optimizing cleat positioning, or is it just bull…?
I’m asking because of returning knee aches, which I hope to minimize with correct cleat positioning. Either try out myself or with the help of a bike fitter / physiotherapist.
Thanks for a great site Ray.
I went for a first ride with my Assiomas yesterday. In general, I like them.
One thing I don’t like is that the Xpedo cleats don’t have any rubber on the front lip, which means that my foot tends to slip on the ground when I push off to start riding. Makes for some awkward starts compared to my old Shimano SPD-SL cleats. And they are VERY slippery indoors! I have noticed that Look makes a “Keo Grip” cleat. I think I will be buying a pair of them.
The blinking lights do indeed stay on for the entire ride!
No rubber on the front edge:
link to dcrainmaker.com
Keo Grip:
link to lookcycle.com
I switched to the Look Keo Grip cleats for that very reason. Totally compatible.
I went to the 4.5 degree cleats.
Thanks for the reply! I’m going to order them!
Great review! Any knowledge about the compatibility with the POLAR V650?
Great review as always. I’ve decided on the Uno which puts it in my price range. I currently use a 920XT for my rides and runs. Any feedback on possible connectivity issues? I’ve not had any with my Garmin speed and cadence sensors. Thanks.
Shouldn’t have any issues there.
How do you put the pedals to sleep? so that they don’t ‘wake up’ during transport. I currently have the Assioma DUO; is there a switch I’m missing?
Thanks for the great review btw.
I can’t quite find it in the manual, but I somehow remember somewhere that if you connect the charger for under 5 seconds, it’ll put it to sleep. To take out of sleep, connect charger again.
But then again, perhaps I’m just thinking of something else now, as I can’t find it anywhere in the current manual online. I’ll double-check that again today.
Saw mentioned how to wake the pedal: “When using for the first time, Assioma can only be switched on by connecting it to the battery charger with the supplied cable for a few seconds.”
I have already activated both the pedals and they’re working fine. I just saw in the review “that you can put the pedals into a sleep mode while travelling” which I though could be really useful.
Thanks though.
Sorry if not clear, my comment was that they can be woken, so it implies they can be put to sleep as well. Some procedure the factory does before transit.
Hoping Ray/Favero can help clarify this as I could see the battery going flat during extended transport.
Oh right I see what you mean, yeah.
Hi Ray. Thanks for great review, as always. I bought some of these pedals and will be flying 12 hours to Cape Town for the Cape Town Cycle Tour and would really like to put pedals to sleep for trip (and myself for this red-eye flight!). Did you ever find out about that elusive sleep mode?
wow..thanks for the pic (and link). exactly what ive been wondering.
I’ve bought the UNO, I just use my phone as a head unit …. and it doesn’t work (I tried Strava, Wahoo and a few other apps).
I contacted Favero.
They told me to try CatEye. I will when I’m out of office.
And for calibration they told me to use TrainerRoad … which is far from being free…
Just to clarify, when you say ‘it doesn’t work’, what do you mean? To set calibration, or in general what happens?
I mean it shows 0 power even if I’m pedaling…
It showed the cadence in strava for a little while, but after I tried a second app (Wahoo fitness) it disappeared, now it is just showing Power:0W.
I’ve tried restarting my phone, using an other phone, restarting the power meter, and a good number of apps …but not CatEye yet…
I’ve had very little time to play with it for now, maybe it’ll get sorted out. I’ll post here if it’s the case.
For the calibration I just told them I couldn’t find an app capable of doing it. In the manual they just mention “bike computers”. About that, they just answered “you could use TrainerRoad”.
Huh. That’s really odd. I’m not sure what to say there.
As for the lack of calibration in the app – I’d agree that’s an oddity. I hadn’t really thought about a scenario of using a 3rd party app/device that didn’t support calibration (mostly because I often yell at devices that try and skirt adding that feature).
So, I tried yesterday.
CatEye doesn’t work any better than other apps. It shows a blinking 0.
I tried Strava again too. here is a screenshot done while riding: link to goo.gl
I never saw anything other than 0…
On the plus side, the CatEye app does seem to have a calibration button. although I can’t vouch for its efficacy!
To be fair, zero is the correct value if it’s working.
I don’t see how 0 would be correct … I was riding .. and pedaling.
Anyway I got my hands on a garmin edge 510, did the calibration, problem solved. Power and cadence are displayed. Here is a new screenshot: link to goo.gl
Still not being able to calibrate … and consequently use it … without a garmin or similar (costly) device is a bummer …
And… I strongly suspect the values are divided by 2 …
On a 23 minutes climb I did today, the power recorded with the powermeter is 1.7x lower than what Strava estimated last time I climbed it … despite being faster by more than 3 minutes this time…
I calculated the power for today’s climb: 1.98x the power recorded with the power meter …
Sorry, I thought you meant that the calibration was done when you went out for an outside ride – not while actually pedaling. Meaning, like pre-ride.
So the way calibration works, if you did that while pedaling it could have impacted calibration, since it’s looking to measure zero load. At the same time, most calibration routines will error/reject if there’s any cadence being shown.
I’d agree that half the power sounds like something is amiss there. The Edge series doesn’t know anything about halfing or doubling power. Rather, it just does whatever the power meter says. I’d say it’s probably a good time to reach out to Favero Support and see what they say.
I’m already in contact with them as I said.
They’re on it but so far unable to reproduce the problem.
In the meantime I made a little program to double the power values in a gpx file and I reupload it 🙂
So, a little bit of progress: they say they can reproduce the problem with Strava.
They have contacted them and suggest I do the same.
Update on the halved values.
Favero says it’s Strava’s problem, Strava says it’s Favero’s …
That really does not sound trustworthy. And that keeps me from buying an Assioma.
I see 2 problems:
1. No calibration without a “real” bike computer or with the Assioma app. I own no Garmin etc. I was planning to use the pedals with Strava on my iPhone (mounted on the bike) via Bluetooth.
2. Power values are divided in half. You can read about it on the Zwift forums as well
link to support.zwift.com
Is there anyone who sucessfully has the Assioma working with a BLE connection and with Strava and Zwift?
To be clear: It’s 80% Strava’s/Zwift’s problem, and 20% Favero’s problem. Favero could change the way they are doing it to do whatever Garmin is doing on Vector 3 to have it appear as a single unit.
But Strava/Zwift also treat all other left/right pedal systems the same today as well. And those systems act the same as Favero (exception being Vector 3 as noted).
I actually got the strava support interested in the issue about a month ago after sending them the link to the zwift support where they say they’ll do a work around.
But a few days later they added that:
“Unfortunately, we cannot create a special rule for this device to double the power data due to an error on their side.
I am going to try to reach out to see if they can correct the issue.”
It’s been two weeks.
Thanks, Ray, for your fast response.
This is a huge advantage of the Vector 3 then. And IMHO easily compensates the higher price of the Vector 3. Sorry Favero, but I do not want an ANT dongle on my iDevice. I think Favero needs to make this work when competing with the Vector.
Now I am waiting for the BLE certification of the Vector 3…
And hoping for an updated test of the Vector 3 with BLE and Zwift/Strava 🙂
This is all similar to what I saw on TrainerRoad, though on TrainerRoad they double the left power over BLE – which I confirmed with their support, so I don’t know why Strava/Zwift couldn’t easily do that. It is what TrainerRoad does for all pedal based systems.
One question about calibration – If I calibrate on my Fenix 5 do I also need to calibrate on my Edge 520 and TrainerRoad, or is only one unit necessary? I ride with all three running at once indoors.
A zero offset is saved to the power meter, and then ‘accessible’ from any further connected units.
I’d argue that in general you see Strava and Zwift take a bit more ‘holier than thou’ position on most things. Usually wrongly so, but I can also emphasize with trying to deal with boatloads of vendors all asking for wonky-ass things.
I went for a 58 mile bike ride yesterday with the Assioma Duos. Another friend on the ride had the Assioma Unos.
Two things.
1. These cleats really suck compared to Shimano SPD-SLs. You slide when trying to push off due to lack of rubber on the leading edge of the cleat. You slide around when walking in the house. They are difficult to get situated on the pedal due to a shorter leading overhang edge than the Shimanos. It is hard to tell if you have the cleat positioned properly. And then it takes a lot of force to get them to clip in. I had to stand on the pedal a few times to get them to click. My pedals are adjusted about halfway for tension. I am going to adjust it to be lighter tension before my ride tonight to see if that fixes it.
2. The pedals go to sleep very quickly when you stop. Not usually a problem, but my Garmin Edge 1000 refused to connect to the pedals again after we stopped at the top of a hill 30 miles in. So I rode the rest of the way without power or cadence. 🙁 I believe the Garmin is the culprit here since I have had issues with my sensors disconnecting or not connecting manually recently. I have since done a full factory reset of the Garmin by holding the lap and start/pause button while turning it on to see if that fixes it. So far so good.
I’m going to order the Keo Grip cleats and dump these Xpedo cleats. Hopefully that fixes one of my complaints.
I have had the Assioma pedals for almost 2 weeks now, and am very happy so far.
In reading through Ray’s review and some of the comments, I’m trying to figure out the cleat situation. I have Look Keo Grip cleats (4.5* float) and it requires a great deal of force to click in and out. Almost to the point where I’m a little nervous about being able to click out. I have loosened the tension all the way, no difference.
These cleats do have a full season on them, so that may be a factor, but they were pretty much effortless on my Keo Classic pedals. 6* is a little more float than I would like (for the included cleats), and I really appreciate the Grips when walking around. Thoughts?
See my comment above yours. I have also had a really hard time clipping into these pedals with the xpedo cleats. I have had to stand up and really press down to get them to click. The adjustment is at about the 50% mark. I am going to try adjusting it lighter. I didn’t want to do it last night since there was a bit of sprinting involved on this particular ride. I’ll loosen them up and see if it helps.
I also have just ordered some Keo Grip 4.5 degree cleats to see if that helps.
It sucks that a decent power meter seems to be attached to a questionable (so far) pedal body. 🙁
Same, ice loosened the tension as far as it will go, but quite hard to clip in and out. Glad I live in the country where I rarely have to mid ride!
They seem much easier to clip in and out compared to my Look Blade pedals(12nm), I’m using Look Keo Grey grip cleats with ~500Km on them
Got the Favero Assioma last week and did a few rides on my Tacx Neo and two rides on the road so far. Instead of trying the supplied cleats I used new Look Keo Grip 4.5 degree cleats and after loosening the tension of the pedals I have no problems at all clipping in or out. My weight is 65 kg.
which one is great between assioma duo and power2max ng eco?. which one more suitable to student
I purchased the Look Keo Grip 4.5 degree cleats, and the difference is night and day compared to the stock Xpedo cleats. I can push off. I can clip in much more easily. I can tell when the cleat is engaging the pedal. I don’t have to stand to get it to click. And I’m not going to kill myself in the house because I’m not sliding all over my floors.
I haven’t had any issues with the cleats disengaging when I don’t want them to, either.
Everyone with these pedals should swap to these cleats. So much better!
Good to hear. I had some non-grip 4.5* Keo cleats in my spare parts stash, and it’s better, but still tougher than I would like for clicking out. The non-grips are suicide on hard surface floors though, so I have some new Grips on order.
I’ve seen a couple of times my L/R was way out of the normal range, and the power was also out (too low in one case, and too high in another case). I did a zero calibration mid ride, and it brought values back to what I expected. I’m now doing a calibration before each ride just in case. Anyone else seen this?
I’ve bought my Assioma Duo from Clevertraining Europe. Unfortunately I only got one charging cable instead of two, Clevertraining hasn’t responded yet to my mails (already 4 days). Has anyone faced similar issues?
Hi Ray, I am planning on buying the assioma duo pedals and a bike computer. I am trying to decide between a garmin edge and the wahoo bolt. Which do you think works best with the assioma pedals? Thanks for your effort in putting out these reviews.
Hi Ray,
Are there known issues with shoe rubbing on the pods?
I run a size 9 (US) Sidi Genius 7 Carbon for reference.
Thank you.
Hey, i think of buying the assioma duo. You know if they are compatible with my suunto ambit peak 3?
Thanks alot
Hi Ray,
It could be worth mentioning in your review that the Favero Assioma will not give accurate readings with the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt (and I am guessing the Elemnt) IF you do not have a standard 172.5mm crank arm length.
When I first got my Favero Assioma pedals I still had a G3 hub and was using a garmin head unit where I could change the crank arm length (my crank arm is 170mm). Both power meters corresponded well when they were both recorded on a garmin (one was on the 520 and one was on the 935 forerunner). Hence, I know the Favero Assioma is accurate when crank arm length can be set.
Then, when I got the elemnt bolt, it is not possible to change the crank arm length for the favero assioma. You can change it in the assioma app, but the head unit overrides it to its default (i.e. 172.5mm). The readings (935 compared to the bolt) are greatly different. For example, average power for a 1hr ride was 129 on the garmin compared to 92 on the bolt.
I contacted Wahoo and got the below response. Could be worth having a disclaimer/warning in your review for those elemnt owners out there.
“Hi Luke,
Thank you for reaching out to us! Unfortunately at this time, setting the crank length for Favero Assioma isn’t an option, however we are currently working on being able to set crank length for your specific power meter. I’m not sure when it will be available in a firmware update but we are working on it.
I’m sorry for the inconvenience.
Cheers,
Margaret”
Hmm, I’ll reach out to them and get clarity on why this is. They support the ANT+ standard for setting crank lengths on other ANT+ power meters (PowerTap P1, Vector, for example). So not clear if it’s a Wahoo issue or a Favero issue. Either way, I’ll poke and circle back.
Thanks Ray! I’m sure you will have more influence than me and hopefully will give them a kick up the ass to get the firmware updated ?
I was really keen to purchase the Favero Assioma Duo and am glad I just read the comments here. I have a Wahoo Element and a bike with a 175mm crank. I don’t want to buy a power meter that is giving an inaccurate reading. Hopefully this will get sorted but I will be waiting or looking elsewhere. Fingers crossed Wahoo/Favero will fix this in the next firmware update. Ray if you hear anything please let us know ASAP. Thanks!
Hi guys,
Just thought I would let you know that I got an update from Wahoo (see below).
“Hi Luke,
Thank you for reaching out to us! This is scheduled to come out in the next firmware update. At this time, I do not have the date of when that is but it is planned for the next update.
I’m sorry for the inconvenience.
Cheers,
Margaret”
Hi Luke
Thanks for letting everyone know. I will probably buy these soon now as they are just what I am looking for. I think firmware updates from Wahoo for the Element roughly tend to come out once a month so I can’t imagine there will be too long to wait. Fingers crossed!
John
I noticed this but it’s also true for my 1st gen Garmin Vectors. When I contacted them the impression I got was that they’d somehow accidentally regressed the functionality. Luckily I’m on 172.5’s…
Clarification – by “them” I meant Wahoo!
I completed a ride on the trainer last night and there does seem to be a major difference with the calculated average power that the Elemnt (and the android companion app is showing). I compared the two on the attached spreadsheet.
The element is showing an average of 137 watts and Strava (via Zwift) is showing 194 watts. If you look at the download raw data for the Elemnt and zwift they are within 1 watt of each other at 194/195 Watts. Yet the calculated power %FTP on the Elemnt seems correct for 194 watts. Is it simply just a matter that Elemnt is not displaying the correct field for average power (just a guess)? Does this happen with other power meters? Any thought or ideas that we can make available to Wahoo?
I’ll forward my findings to Wahoo.
I’ve just noticed that I can’t attach files but hopefully there is enough in the message with regards to my findings.
I don’t see the attachment (it mostly only accepts pictures) – can you upload just a photo of it? Or simply shoot me an e-mail using my first name at my domain name.
Hi Ray. Yes of course I think it might be too big for a photo. I will send it to you via email. Could you let me know you have received it ok.
Thanks
John
In looking at the files John sent, it’s recording the power numbers properly – and the two are incredibly close.
My guess however is the large gap in the middle (I assume you stopped for ice cream or something). Here’s a link to the set: link to analyze.dcrainmaker.com
The ELEMNT appears to be doing averaging inclusive of the stopped time (thus bringing down your total power average. While Strava and Zwift don’t include zero’s in the power average. It’s a bit of a religious debate on which method is best.
Thank Ray. Yes there was a stop but the element did auto pause (it’s not the weather for ice cream in the UK at the moment!, I was actually helping out my OH car stuck in the snow). I’m going to try a short ride later and set the element to not include zero power and not stop at all and see how the figures compare.
I’ve tried a couple of rides over the weekend and the Wahoo is still reporting a much lower than Zwift/Strava average power with or without zero’s excluded (and zero stops). Yet other power data from the Wahoo such as normalised power and Intensity factor are comparable.
It seems a little odd it almost (and this is a complete guess) that the average power that is being displayed is not actually average power, but the correct average power is being used to calculate other power metrics.
I’m not sure if anyone out there could try the Favero Assioma with both a Wahoo head Unit and maybe a Garmin head unit and see if there is a difference in average power?
I’m going to keep collecting data for rides and forward to Wahoo.
In practice I suppose average power is not that important a metric it is really normalized/weighted power that’s important. Still seems odd though.
i see the same thing and it seems like a bug to me, the total avg power that wahoo displays just seems wrong.
i took a raw .fit file created by the bolt and averaged all the power readings (incl zeros) and it matches up with the average power displayed in strava, the avg power that the wahoo app shows is 40 watts low. It is definitely not reading low – the captured values are correct, the instantaneous (3s, etc) averages displayed on the device are correct, and the NP are all correct, there just seems to be some issue with how they are calculating the avg power.
If you’ve done the math, then honestly my suggestion would be to either file a bug with Wahoo (since it’s not likely an Assioma problem), and/or pop a post onto the BOLT product review (which Wahoo engineers/support do follow pretty constantly).
Thanks Ray/Chris. I’m going to go for another ride and see what happens record the data and send it across to Wahoo (I have a support ticket open). I would suggest that others do the same so they have representative data. It seems like the Assioma is spitting out some good data and I’ve been really impressed with mine so far. It seems unlikely that the crank length is making any difference – it should really be set in the Assiomoa from the Favero app anyway and stay like that.
It’s been great with Ray’s help we’ve been able to delve into this and work out what is going wrong.
I don’t want to come across as overly critical I am a really big fan of my Wahoo Elemnt for the year that I have had it. Been the perfect cycle computer for my needs. However it would be good to try and iron out this odd little bug.
Hi, For those who have bought the Assioma DUO’s from CT uk. How long did you had to wait from submitting the order and actually receive the product?
I have ordered on 24/9 and still waiting.
The order has shipped (20/10), but for some reason it is still stuck in UK (last tracking status said, that it has been sent to national returns center). I have contacted clever training UK about it, but have no answer after 2,5 days now. The amount of time they take to reply to customer questions can be really frustrating.