Garmin has overhauled its Rally power meter pedals, with a redesigned spindle that features an internal rechargeable battery for the first time.
According to Garmin, the new Rally pedals feature a “redesigned sensing spindle” that makes them “more responsive”, offers 90 hours of battery life and enables them to measure your power output “within 1 per cent accuracy”.
Alongside this, Garmin has redesigned the pedal bodies – paying particular attention to the off-road versions – for improved performance and easier swaps between pedal body types.
As before, Garmin will offer pedal body options for Shimano SPD-SL, Look Keo and Shimano SPD (off-road) cleat systems.
On paper, it looks as if Garmin may have finally caught up with – or even surpassed – Favero’s Assioma PRO RS and Assioma PRO MX pedals.
However, the sticking point is the cost.
With prices for dual-sided, Rally 210 pedal systems starting at £929.99 / $1,199.99 / €1,099.99, Garmin’s new Rally pedals cost significantly more than the competition.
Prices for Favero’s latest power pedals, for example, start at £599 / $759 / €750 for a dual-sided set, and with the Assioma PRO MX pedals scoring a full five stars in our review, it’s hard to see why you’d spend any more.
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Refining a successful formula
While Favero has deservedly garnered much praise in recent years for its power meter pedals, Garmin’s own efforts have long been a dependable option too.
Although its Vector 3 pedals began life with a few battery-door related teething issues, they offered solid performance with excellent data accuracy and a long, 120-hour battery life from user-replaceable CR1/3N coin cells.
I still use a set for benchmarking smart trainers and other power meters to this day.
When Garmin rolled out its Rally 200 in 2021, it was a first for compatibility with Shimano SPD-SL cleats, as well as offering the tantalising prospect of being able to swap between road and off-road pedal bodies.
With the new Rally 210 systems, Garmin is refining the system even further.
As noted, the big news is the move to an internal rechargeable battery, with a claimed 90 hours of run time.
Garmin also says the pedals have a ‘quick-charge’ feature that means riders can gain “up to 12 hours” of riding time from only 15 minutes of charging. It’s easy to imagine that being useful if you realise the batteries are flat just before heading out for a ride, for example.
As well as potentially offering better weather-sealing (battery doors are a common weak point on power meters), Garmin says it also makes it easier to swap the spindle between pedal bodies.
While the previous Rally pedal bodies could be swapped at home, it was a fiddly process that involved a precision screwdriver and some very small bolts. It wasn't exactly traumatic, but equally not something you’d want to be doing before every other ride.
Garmin says this can now be accomplished using only a 15mm pedal spanner and 5mm Allen key / hex wrench, and will be selling road pedal systems bundled with off-road pedal bodies (£1,129.99) to enable riders to enjoy the benefits of both pedal types.
Of course, we’ll reserve judgement on exactly how easy this is until we’ve had a set in to test, but Garmin says "It’s now a matter of a couple of minutes to swap pedal bodies, change from one ride type to another and move [the pedals] from bike to bike."
Redesigned sensing spindle
When quizzed on what improvements have been made to the sensing spindle, Andrew Silver, Garmin's lead bike product manager – engineering, told BikeRadar that the sensor design now includes a gyroscope, which enables "more instantaneous power measurement".
According to Silver, "this allows for greater responsiveness and accuracy in short efforts as well as oval chainring support."
These changes also help the pedals determine whether they need calibrating – a new feature that Garmin calls 'Pedal IQ Smart Calibration’.
Smart Calibration
In what might be a first for a power meter, Garmin says the new Rally pedals can notify riders (via compatible Garmin bike computers and smartwatches) of the need to perform a zero-offset calibration.
Garmin says this isn’t simply a periodic reminder, but a ‘smart’ system based on “several factors”, including ambient temperature changes, the time since a previous calibration and whether the pedals have been swapped to a different bike.
Although Garmin doesn’t specify, I’d imagine this feature comes in addition to the auto-zero or automatic calibration the previous Rally system featured. This triggers an automatic calibration every time you wake the pedals up, provided your bike is stood still for 10 seconds.
Updated pedal bodies
One criticism of Garmin’s previous Rally XC200 pedals – the SPD-compatible off-road version – was that the pedal body itself left something to be desired.
My colleague, Tom Marvin, for example, tested those pedals and noted the stack height was fairly high.
Seeking to address this, Garmin says its new XC210 pedals feature an all-metal body with a lower stack height of 11.5mm (2mm lower than before and within 0.3mm of Favero's Assioma PRO MX pedals).
The road pedal bodies have also been subtly redesigned, with a "carbon polymer material" contributing to a lower overall weight and improved durability.
A dual-sided set of Shimano SPD-SL-compatible Rally RS210 pedals is now claimed to weigh 312g, compared to 320g for the previous version, for example.
Garmin says all pedals have also received updated bearings for better long-term durability.
Garmin Rally 210/110 pedals claimed weights
- Rally RK210: 312g
- Rally RK110: 320g
- Rally RS210: 312g
- Rally RS110: 320g
- Rally XC210: 436g
- Rally XC110: 444g
Can the Garmin Rally 210 pedals take on Favero?
While we’ve yet to get a set of Garmin's latest Rally pedals in to test, I’m impressed by what, on paper, looks to be a solid refinement of an already high-performing system.
The switch to a rechargeable battery is a smart one, and hopefully means Garmin will avoid any teething issues with battery doors with this release.
Likewise, the improved XC pedal bodies should please plenty of cross-country and gravel racers – a power meter pedal needs to be a good pedal first and foremost, not solely a good watt-measurement device, after all.
If the pedal bodies are easier to switch, as claimed, then that will also be worth celebrating, as will the quick-charge and smart-calibration features.
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to ignore the price compared to the competition.
The base prices of £929.99 / $1,199.99 / €1,099.99 for dual-sided road pedal sets are markedly higher than Favero’s offerings, and the off-road sets are even pricier at £999.99 / $1,299.99 / €1,199.99.
Prices for single-sided sets are cheaper – £549.99 / $749.99 / €649.99 for road pedals and £629.99 / $799.99 / €749.99 for off-road sets – but still relatively expensive compared to the competition (and they only measure power output from one leg, of course).
Favero’s latest Assioma PRO MX pedals cost only £649 / $789 / €699 for dual-sided sets and £399 / $499 / €439 for single-sided sets, for example.
Meanwhile, its off-road Assioma PRO MX pedals cost even less – only £599 / $759 / €750 for a dual-sided set and £399 / $450 / €499 for single-sided sets.
Even in a best-case scenario (the most expensive dual-sided Favero pedals versus the cheapest dual-sided Garmin option), the Garmins are more than 43 per cent more expensive in the UK.
At its worst (Favero's Assioma PRO MX versus Garmin's Rally XC210), the difference is a whopping 66.9 per cent here in the UK.
Given Favero’s offerings are practically flawless – I awarded the Assioma PRO MX pedals a full five stars when I reviewed them, and am currently wrapping up testing of the road version (spoiler, they’re also excellent) – I’m not sure Garmin’s latest offerings can justify their price premium.
