Just wondering if anyone else suddenly experienced resistance issues recently with this trainer, I’m new to Zwift and I’ve only had my trainer since the beginning of lockdown in the UK in March 2020. Until this week it has been great.- I think Zwift are aware of the problem with the trainers but I couldn’t establish a date from their website when this was flagged and whether it was a more general issue.
I was competing with my team for the first time in the WTRL TTT Platinum finals last Thursday night (Mocha class - so we are not the fastest) when, with about 4k to go, it seemed as if I was pedalling through glue, blowing from every orifice with a HR too high for a man my age - all this for 1.5 watts/kg! My team mates split leaving me to struggle tothe line! . I am a more ‘senior’ cyclist and this is reflected power numbers – (FTP 168 watts, (2.7 watts/kg). At one point the power spiked up to 8 watts/kg but most of the time I was struggling to get 1.5 on the flat.
I have tested the trainer again
1 It makes a very strange groaning sound on switch on and during a Zwift session
2 On the flat it requires a big effort and yet I am only producing around 1.5 watts/kg.
3 On downhill sections, again it takes a big effort but records even lower power output. Going up a gradient, the power reading increases and the perceived effort seems to fall. For example, I flew up a 7% gradient at 6 watts/kg without any change in heart rate.
It’s almost as if the trainer is doing the reverse of what it should be in terms of feedback on the gradients.
Further testing revealed
On the iPad in ERG mode it seemed to be behaving normally
On both the iPad and a PC running Zwift when I went for a free ride the effort to produce quite modest watts was excessive.
Is it a case of waiting for Zwift to come up with a fix or is there another solution?
Thanks for your help and attention
Jim