Here’s the lowdown on Garmin’s new range of Rally power meter pedals
It was only a few days ago that we covered a leak from a Garmin retailer which showed a whole new range of inbound power meter pedals. What we didn’t know was that the release was just days away. The pedals are now official. Here are the details.
Wholly replacing the Vector range, the new Rally range of power meter pedals covers three distinct cleat systems: Shimano SPD-SL road, Look Keo road, and Shimano SPD mountain bike.
This means Garmin is the first to market with a pedal-based power meter solution built on Shimano’s SPD-SL cleat platform (although a leak suggests Favero may be close). Meanwhile, SRM/Look now has some much-needed competition in the off-road-friendly SPD space. The Look Keo version of the Rally remains mostly unchanged from the now-discontinued Vector 3.
As expected, the naming of the Rally range uses the first two letters to designate the cleat interface (RK for Keo, RS for SPD-SL, and XC for SPD), while the numbers that follow indicate whether the pedals offer dual-sided or single-sided power measurement (200 Series for dual-sided measurement, 100 Series for single-sided measurement).
All three platforms share the same power-measuring steel spindles, a feature that means the three different pedal bodies are interchangeable (pedal body conversion kits are sold separately for US$200 / AU$300 to US$250 / AU$369). Similarly, the new Rally pedal bodies can be fitted to Vector 3 power spindles (older Vector and Vector 2 pedal spindles are not compatible).
The power-measuring axles retain all the same advanced and independent left-to-right measurement features of the Vector 3. Likewise, the Rally pedals offer ANT+ and Bluetooth connectivity, along with a claimed +/- 1% accuracy.
Like the Vector 3, the new Rally spindles offer 120 hours of claimed battery life from the user-replaceable LR44 coin-cell batteries. Structurally the Rally spindles match those of the Vector 3, however, Garmin suggests that improvements have been made to the “sleep current” so that the claimed battery life figure should hold true across more use cases.
The single-sided 100 versions, like the previous Vector Ss, feature just left-sided power measurement; a measurement that is then doubled. And like before, users can upgrade to the dual-sided version at a later date (US$550 / AU$800 to US$600 / AU$879).
The simple installation and easy swapping between bikes (using a regular 15 mm pedal spanner) remains unchanged from the Vector 3.
Weights, figures and pricing
The RK200 (Keo), RS200 (SPD-SL) and XC200 (SPD) pedals are claimed to weigh 320 g, 326 g and 444 g respectively. For comparison, a pair of Look Keo 2 Max Carbons is 250 g, Shimano Dura-Ace R9100 tips the scales at 234 g, while the XTR M9100 SPD pedals sit at 314 g. Clearly the weight gain on the two road models is better managed than what’s seen with the XC version.
Both the RK and RS offer a 12.2 mm stack height that’s unchanged from the Vector 3 (which were subtly taller than the earlier generations of Vector). By comparison, Favero’s Assioma pedal has a claimed stack height of 10.5 mm, while Shimano’s lowest pedal, the Dura-Ace R9100 (no power measurement) sits at just 8.8 mm.
The Rally XC has a claimed stack height of 13.5 mm, a figure that’s a fair bit more than the 8.4 mm Shimano achieves with its top-tier XTR M9100 pedal. An increase in stack height also directly impacts ground clearance when riding off-road.
All three versions offer a Q-factor of 53 mm, with the option to widen that to 55 mm with the supplied spacer washer.
All models are available now, with pricing for the RK200 (Look Keo) and RS200 (Shimano SPD-SL) dual-sided versions set at US$1,100 / AU$1,599, while the RS100 and RK100 single-sided measurement versions will sell for US$650 / AU$949 (yes, you get a pair of pedals). The Rally XC200 and XC100 (SPD) are a little more expensive at US$1,200 / AU$1,749 and US$700 / AU$999 respectively.
The Rally XC is compatible with Shimano SPD cleats (two-bolt mounting). 
The Rally XC has quite a tall stack that’s likely to limit its appeal with cross country racers. However, the pedal will likely find plenty of buyers in the gravel space. 
The Rally RK is effectively unchanged from the Vector 3. 
Garmin is tight-lipped about whether the Rally RS is licensing Shimano’s SPD-SL cleat design or just mimicking it. We suspect it’s the latter, especially given non-Shimano cleats are provided and that the system’s patent has now expired.
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