Bike Pedals, Garmin Power Meter Pedals, What to Know about Calibration

Do you have the Garmin power meter pedals, like the Rally series, and want to understand why they need calibration and learn how to calibrate them?

Let Sportsmith help you power on with your pedaling.

To get accurate power readings recorded by the pedals the Garmin power meter pedals must be calibrated.

Calibration of the power meter pedals can happen in two ways.

1. Auto-Zero
2. Manual Calibration

Auto-Zero

When the pedals become activated by the spinning of the crank arms, they will try an auto-zero. The Garmin power meter pedals have strain gauges within susceptible to external factors that can influence their accuracy. This is when the auto-zero comes into effect. The auto-zero process is about 10 seconds. There is no indicator of the process or its success compared to failure. The bike requires being upright and stationary for the auto-zero process to complete. Auto-zero can fail when the offset is too large. This can be due to the pedal leaning against something or when shoes are clipped in during a transition into the bike portion of a triathlon race. It is recommended that the pedals are activated and you allow the auto-zero to complete before clipping the shoes into the pedals for a triathlon race.

Manual Calibration

It is necessary to manually calibrate your Garmin power meter pedals after installing them onto your bike. Doing this will put the pedals into a range that allows the auto-zero to track and adjust any further minor changes. Zero-offset or manual calibration can be triggered by a prompt from the paired device or head unit. Zero-offset or manual calibration can also be triggered from the sensor menu on the paired device or head unit.

Click here to learn the steps of how to manually trigger calibration with a Garmin cycling computer or watch.
Click here to read about how to manually trigger calibration with a Garmin Connect App.