I am not a strong zwift rider, ftp about 3.6w/kg, but as i don’t ride outside (when i have strava tells me I’m averaging low watts) or dual record i sometimes wonder if my kickr core is reading high. Its def 5-10% higher than the C2 bike erg i was using.
But if i had to bet, I’d say its fairly obvious when readings are significantly high like yours, if you’ve not got big recent cycling/endurance history getting above 4w/kg is pretty difficult especially as we get older!
Hi James, I was in this race (and got dropped by the surge after 6 mins in )
The winner seems legit, he’s a good racer from what I can tell and sometimes just helps push the pace for GC before backing off and letting someone else win.
Given this was a flat race, its more about watts/CDA, and he put out almost 1600 watts per meter squared of air resistance. Which will get you to a pretty high speed
From the article: " On a less positive note, taking power reading at the flywheel means that some watts are lost, when compared with more direct measurements - for instance at the crank or pedal. Attaching a pair of power meter pedals, you will see a +15 - 20% difference which is a big factor to take into consideration if you are intending to race online."
Every smart trainer that calculates power based on flywheel angular velocity inherently compensates for drivetrain losses. As a result, you won’t typically see the actual 15-20% power difference compared to other measurement methods.
However, the key issue lies in the lack of standardization for this compensation. Each manufacturer applies its own approach, leading to potential inconsistencies (Wahoo is known for making their trainers extra juicy on purpose). And if your drivetrain is more optimized than the average assumed by the trainer, it might overread your power output.
Yes, i saw a few people say similar things, and def got an overnight bump. The c2 also struggled massively with registering quick changes in power. As someone said, great but of exercise kit but not for zwift. An expensive mistake!
Quite easy to cheat using a c2 though. The old towel over the flywheel technique!
One of the things that threw me off the scent was borrowing a friend’s Wahoo Kickr Core, a wheel one bike stand trainer for an RV vacation early last year. It pretty much matched the power I was putting down with the WKB V1. And at the same time I was riding with a group of fast young punks and while my power wasn’t quite as impressive as my Zwift numbers they weren’t super far off. And I’ve tended to ride much harder indoors than IRL for the most part. A blob of accidents in 2021 put me off my prior aggression outdoors.
It’s a matter of finding the right place outside to ride hard. For me that’s finding hills and doing repeats of them. The effort is still there but the risks of going at really high speeds aren’t there, especially given in my area kangaroos are a risk and they are especially silly and will randomly charge across in front of you.
They won’t attack you - it’s just that they are scared and very unpredictable which way they will take off.
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