This is for people that have problems with footpod speed not matching the treadmill speed, even though it’s been calibrated from the pairing screen…
I was fed up of my RunPod being slightly out even after calibrating. I knew about them generally not being good outside of the range it was calibrated for, and I always hear people saying “if you want accuracy, go for Stryd”… so I did. I blamed the RunPod, so I sold it and bought a Stryd.
To my disappointment, I had the same problem with my Stryd. I trust the Stryd, so I blamed Zwift. It seemed worse than the RunPod:
DKN EZRun + Stryd Wind (calibrated for 8.5kph to 11.5kph)
TM Speed (kph) vs Zwift Speed (kph)
8 = 8.7
9 = 9.7
10 = 10.8
11 = 11.7
12 = 12.9
I decided to calibrate again. But, this time I was really on the ball when it came to switching between speeds during the calibration. With a second or two to go on each change, I prepared for the next speed a second or two before it wanted it (It’ll want to do it in mid/slow/fast order in the range you set). The end result was this:
DKN EZRun + Stryd Wind (calibrated for 8.5kph to 11.5kph)
TM Speed (kph) vs Zwift Speed (kph)
9 = 9.1
10 = 10.1
11 = 11.1
12 = 12.2
13 = 13.4
I’m happy with that! It started to drift outside of the range I calibrated for, but that’s to be expected really.
What have I learned? Don’t blame your footpod, don’t blame Zwift… blame your treadmill or yourself for not getting the speed it wanted EXACTLY when it wanted it during the calibration.
However, I’m hoping someone from Zwift will take note of what I’ve discovered here. Maybe an improvement could be made to the calibration process to either make the process longer to account for treadmills getting to the required speed, or it could be better detecting the required speed before continuing? The calibration screen suggests it’s detecting and waiting for the speed before the countdown, but I don’t think that’s working effectively.
Until now I thought RunPod was just bad, but now I think the calibration might be giving them a bad name (for people with treadmills that can’t get up to speed quick enough at least).
Hope this helps people!