We've tested the Garmin Rally XC200 off-road power pedals for 6 months - here's how they stack up in the long run

All the capabilities of the Garmin Rally power pedal encased by the popular Shimano SPD off-road clipless pedal body

Garmin Rally XC200 power meter pedals mounted on a gravel bike
(Image credit: Rachel Sokal)
Cycling Weekly Verdict

The choice of off-road power meters is pretty limited in comparison to those compatible with road bikes, and pedal power meters are even fewer and further between. The Garmin Rally XC200 offers all the dual-sided capabilities of the Garmin Rally pedals within a Shimano SPD pedal body. Not only does this mean you can access more data than you probably know what to do with, you don't need to buy a power meter for each bike you ride. Realistically you will only want a SPD body for off-road riding so it could work out an expensive option if you only have one gravel or mountain bike. The Rally series does allow you to swap to a road pedal body but that's not a job you'll be wanting to do every ride.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Uses reliable and popular Shimano SPD pedal body

  • +

    Masses of data available

  • +

    Spindle inter-changeability means you can swap into road pedal guise

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Cost

  • -

    Swapping spindle not practical on a regular basis so limits swapping between road and off-road pedal bodies

  • -

    Battery life not as good as advertised

  • -

    Some software bugs

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

We've now been testing the Garmin Rally XC for six months - click here to jump to the section where we share our long term testing update.

Until recent years power meters have been fairly uncommon in the off-road world. Power isn’t so important to many mountain bikers and there aren’t many options that are compatible with off-road bikes and conditions either. But changes are afoot and power meters are starting to feature more and more as technology advances and gravel riding pushes demand.

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Rachel has been writing about and reviewing bike tech for the last 10 years. Cynical by nature, Rachel never really trusts the marketing hype and prefers to give products a mighty good testing before deciding whether they're worth buying or not. 

Rachel's first riding love is mountain biking where she's been European and UK 24hr Champion on more than one occasion. She's not just confined to the trails though and regularly rides - and occasionally races - on gravel and road too.