My 2019 Kickr is reading 30 watts lower than my single sided Stages, I’m sure this has been discussed ad nauseam, but I am currently losing my mind.
I have done several factory spindowns on the Kickr and the stages is calibrated, removed the wahoo app, reinstalled. Firmware is up to date.
This is my 2nd Kickr and this one just seems off. Wahoo support has been less than helpful, telling me the kickr is fine and its within tolerance. Which seems insane to me because Kickr states on their site +/- 2% power.
I understand there are some discrepancies between hub based and crank based power. Knowing that, I just put on a new cassette and chain on to no avail.
I know stages can be generous with their power output, but this seems way beyond generous.
did an additional test with the kickr and a different bike with a Quarq…and got the same 30 watt power differential, with the kickr reporting 30 watts lower.
anybody have this problem or any solutions?! I am losing my mind, I paid a lot for the kickr and would like it to function as intended and wahoo support seems to have written me off.
You can analyze the two files on zwiftpower, that might show the comparison better to see where the power is off track. Just comparing averages doesn’t really tell the whole story.
All power meters will be somewhat different. There could be power loss in the drive chain when comparing crank or pedal based power meters to hub based or smart trainers.
I just realized why my Stages reads high. According to my Assioma pedals, my power balance ranges from 54/46 to 57/43. That means my left leg puts out 20% to 30% more power than my right. Since the Stages only measures left leg power and then doubles it, the Stages reads 10% to 15% high.
Yeah, I’m starting to think that the one sided Stages is probably not the best in terms of precise accuracy. I always assumed my Right leg had the dominant power, but who knows?
I’ve also having the same Issue. My Stages is reading higher then my Wahoo Kickr. I had an old left only Stages and is was consistently higher then my Kickr 2016, around 30 Watts or so. I’ve since changed my setup and bought a L\R stages with the same issue. My L\R and my older Left only read about the same maybe 5watts but nothing else, I’m pretty consistent with my left and right pedaling. : ) So, just a week ago I got the new 2023 V6 Kickr and road on Zwift this morning. My Kickr was again around the 30 Watts lower and I got shot out the back of a group ride I was doing, DIRT 100 Saturday Mornings. : ) Again, my Kickr is lower and I think it probably has more to do with where it’s reading the power from. The Wahoo Kickr probably looses power in the drivetrain and it just doesn’t compensate for it. Hence, I tend to think my Stages is more accurate. 1. higher watts make me feel better. 2. Stages seems to reflect more with what say a Quark PM, also crank PM, says. I do wish there was a better explanation and I’d like to hear what someone says with regards to how the new Wahoo Speedplay pedals correlate with the Kickr. All that to say, I think the Kickr is just low and there’s now way to fix it from what I’ve been able to find out there on the interweb. If anyone has something please let me know I would love to have a better explanation.
Yeah, quite honestly I’m fine with just using my stages and having my trainer \ zwift just be resistance. Works fine. Plus I get the same power readings inside and outside riding.
