New Favero ASSIOMA Body & Firmware v4.0

There is some fairly interesting news just announced by Favero about their ASSIOMA power meter pedals. The news comes on two fronts, firstly A NEW SHELL and, secondly, new DATA-METRICS.

Recommended: Favero Assioma Review

From a personal perspective, I’m more interested in the new pedal body than the new metrics but I’m pretty sure that there are a sizable chunk of you guys out there who will love the new data – and even with my data nerdy hat on, the new Favero data metrics are ‘interesting’.

The new firmware should be available to you all NOW, although I’ve had it to play with for a couple of weeks so I’ve managed to grab some images from the ASSIOMA.

IAV Cycling Dynamics

Let’s start with the Cycling Dynamics which are the same as Garmin’s…but different.

Favero already supported Pedal Smoothness (PS), Torque Effectiveness (TE), Cadence & Power Balance but Garmin have, since 2017, kindly allowed any of the power meter vendors to also support Power Phase (PP), Riding Position and Platform Center Offset (PCO). It’s just that there hasn’t been much action from anyone..I’d imagine that there is a cost to implement it and few sales will materialise as a result. Maybe you could see implementing these metrics as a ‘badge of honour‘ or a statement of intent ‘I’m here…and I’m doing all of it properly‘.

I think that’s why we have the announcement today from Favero. They’ve taken every criticism on board with the BePro and then gradually chipped away at them with the newer hardware in the ASSIOMA and then subsequent firmware iterations with the ASSIOMA. These things just take time.

Anyway.

Power Phase

My understanding of Power Phase is that it is derived from Torque Effectiveness. As you push and pull (or not) when you pedal then the phase where you are producing a net positive torque is the Power Phase. That phase has a start point and an end point in each pedal revolution (measured in degrees). Sure it will change from one revolution to the next and so various averages of the start point and end point of the phase can be produced over laps or time periods

Within that Power Phase, there is also a PEAK power phase where you are really kicking out the speed juice. By default Favero say that PEAK PP is 50% of the total PP. The centre of the PEAK PP can be at 90-degrees but doesn’t have to be. For me when riding further forwards on a TT bike that position is about 100 degrees and about 105 degrees when standing.

Over time I’ve endeavoured to align that PEAK power phase with the ellipticity of my oval chainrings and TT riding position. Or at least I have when the chain has managed to stay on!! #OvalGrr. But the point is that there is at least one performance-tuning aspect here that could be useful. (ROTOR do a similar thing called OCA and that’s where I got my original power angles from).

Minor Point: Apparently you can change the 50% Peak PP parameter on some head units eg you could change it from 50% to 80%

Riding Position

Hey, c’mon. You know what this means. Basically, it’s on your saddle or standing. It doesn’t know where your hands are.

Platform Center Offset

Favero hasn’t implemented this. They might in the future. They have implied that to produce PCO would interfere with their IAV calculations.

Viewing the IAV Cycling Dyncamics Metrics

There’s more to come further below on the metrics from Favero but for now, let’s have a look at the basics and how they would appear in Garmin Connect from an Edge 820 linked to ASSIOMA DUOs.

You get some summary numbers like this, naturally with ‘0’ aganst the PCO as we’ve just discussed:

And some pretty charts of lots of data points over time. GarminConnect is kinda useless for analysis as you can see.

But the ride summary chart, below, is nice enough.

I had a break half way on this VERY SHORT test ride where I changed up from my front circular ring to my front oval ring….it didn’t seem to make that much difference over a short and effort-free duration.

So far I’ve talked about these measures as Garmin’s CYCLING DYNAMICS but Favero have branded theirs as IAV Cycling Dynamics. Whilst Favero use the ‘IAV’ prefix, as you can see above, the data is still treated the same.

We need to go back to April 2019 to understand what IAV is. In a nutshell, it’s just more claimed accuracy arising from a more “frequent measurement of angular velocity“. The DO have research to back up the claims.

Assioma – New V2 Firmware For Super Accuracy

FAQ:

• Does this work with the UNO and DUO models? – Yes but UNO is single sided
• How do I update my firmware? – use the ASSIOMA app and make sure you have v4.0 or newer. Click on the search icon to let the app find your pedals which must also be active and follow the instructions
• Does this work on the BePro? – No
• What head units/watches are compatible? -so far it’s just Garmin Edge 1030, 830, 530, 820, 520+. But any ANT+ device can add compatibility, it’s up to the recording device and NOT the ASSIOMA. ASSIOMA follows the ANT+ standard.

A NEW Pedal Body

You can order the new pedal body as an accessory.

It has 2 key features…1) It’s black. and 2) It permits a widened range of tension regulation.

Pedal tension ranges were 11Nm to 22Nm and are now 8Nm to 20Nm. I have found that cleat wear, cleat cleanliness and cleat damage all subtly affect the ability to unclip (with the tension setting unchanged).

So you could say that it’s a bit prettier, partly countering the argument that Vector 3 is the prettiest pedal, and you could also say that a lower tension will help certain ASSIOMA users unclip more easily. I have to say I find them hard to get out of some times and I know I’m not alone.

Favero didn’t comment about SHIMANO cleat compatibility when I asked. But I reckon it will come as that is the only big ‘hole’ in their offering. Once we get Shimano cleat compatibility I will have run out of reasons to criticise the ASSIOMA.

Along with the Wahoo ELEMNT, ASSIOMA is one of those products that ‘just works’. Keep on buying that new Garmin stuff if you want to.

Summary

ASSIOMA has now got the most important of the cycling dynamics metrics and they are claimed to be more accurate than those produced by competitors.

There’s a new ASSIOMA pedal body that you can more easily unclip from.

Favero ASSIOMA Review – Longterm Report