Bespoke Ridden and Reviewed

Bespoke Founder Barry has been putting the Assioma Duo through their paces:

I have used a lot of power meters over the years; at least 4 SRMs, a Powertap hub, Garmin Vector pedals and 2 crank-based Quarqs.

I still prefer crank based PMs (mainly because I am a total snob and think they look the most Pro - tragic I know!). But given that I test so many bikes now I am becoming more and more a convert to pedals...

Garmin is the best known one out there, and Powertap do a highly regarded P2 pedal, but it was the small Italian brand Favero that I was keen to try for the first time.

So far I have 3 weeks on them; including 950km in Portugal. Spoiler alert: They have been flawless.

They are ridiculously easy to put on and set up; just like a normal pedal, no fancy tools or alignment required. Pairing is with your phone; as is calibration. I did some intervals with these compared to my SRM and they were within 1 watt of each other, so accuracy is good.

They are fully rechargeable and are meant to give 50 hours of use before needing a charge; for many people that will be once a month.

Our ride time in Portugal was 35 hours and they were still showing plenty of battery life left from a single charge.

These are 1/3rd the price of my SRM, and they have capabilities the SRM does not such as left/right power split and the Garmin Cycling Dynamics (Torque effectiveness, pedal smoothness, rider position etc). To be honest I am not sure of the real world use case for some of these data fields; but Left/Right balance is definitely useful, especially to track changes in balance under different intensities and duration (i.e. does your L/R power balance get worse as you tire).

The main reason I was interested in trying these was the near universally positive reviews they received. People such as DC Rainmaker and GP Lama probably do the best tech reviews out there - and both of them use Assiomas as part of their baseline set-up for accuracy when they try new power meters. And if its good enough for them...

They are every bit as good as everyone said they would be. Very good value for money, easy to use and set up, very accurate and a with only minimal weight penalty over standard pedals (probably the lightest way to get power on a bike).

The only downside I've found is that if you prefer Speedplay pedals or SPDs (as I do) you are wedded to the Favero Look Keo-style cleats.

That one issue aside it's amazing how good these are. When you look at the SRM Exakt pedal at £1200 you realise the Favero is almost half the price, more accurate and infinitely easier to set up. Literally a case of plug and play.

Given training and riding with power is probably the second best investment you can make in cycling (after a bike fit) I predict within 3 years almost all bikes sold with have some sort of Power Meter device.

Given you can easily spend £150 on a pair of good quality pedals anyway; the Assioma at £699 with precise power measurement built-in represent fabulous value for money.

• Read more and Buy the Favero Assioma Duo online, with free UK delivery