Hi all, new user here getting wattage and speed at probably half of what’s real.
Any help would be much appreciated. I’m wondering if there’s any way to just force the numbers up to make the platform usable.
My setup includes the well-known Magene cadence and speed sensor 2 pack:
along with a cheapie Amazon trainer
My bike is a Rans V-Rex recumbent.
I’ve tried different trainers other than the unlisted one. I’ve tried choosing 700 wheel size even though mine is 26". Nothing helps. My power and speed are about half of what’s probably real.
I can’t even get through more than 10 minutes of a random workout on the welcome screen with intervals at 110w to 130w and that’s after minimizing the intensity to its lowest level.
My references against which I’m measuring what I think is real are:
I have an outdoor bike with the Magene P505 power meter that gives me an experience of 50w when pedaling very lightly and over 150w when applying some significant but not at all extreme power into pedaling.
Although I’m not in great shape at all, at 50yrs old, I recently returned to kiteboarding after getting into some kind of shape to prepare, and was able to kite on the water for an hour and a half straight.
So, I’m confident my Zwift experience is essentially broken. My avatar crawls along at about to 10mph while I’m applying serious power the pedals to get over 110w. Doing the same on my outdoor bike would have me screaming down the general use path at my local park and would put me at something like 150w to 170w.
Anything I can do about this?
I mistakenly sat on the fence on the Jetblack Victory pre-order that will ship in Jan, so I’m stuck with this cheapie trainer until probably 2nd quarter next year as I’m not interested in going with another trainer from FB marketplace and certainly not new for north of $700.
It’s really hard to get anything like accurate power estimation if you choose the “unknown” trainer. If your trainer is on the supported list you should certainly choose that instead.
If you’re looking for a reasonable deal on a trainer you could also consider the Wahoo Kickr Core “recertified” which comes with a full warranty. They’re not always in stock but it looks like they are now. I’m not sure which currency you are talking about but this is US$400.
I’m pretty sold on the Jetblack. Not wanting to bother with another trainer although I may bend on that in some weeks.
Thanks for the suggestion on using the other bike, but I got this Rans specifically for this indoor project. It’d be untenable to haul my outdoor bike up to our walkup 2nd story condo in between work meetings to squeeze in a Zwift session. That bike’s staying outside.
Anybody try setting their weight at like 5lbs? Maybe that’d at least make this platform usable despite the fakery of it?
I think I read the grouprides keep you together despite or no matter your wattage. Is that right? I think at this point unless there’s some way to force my numbers up, this platform is unusable for me until I get a smart trainer.
If you’re a Facebook user I suggest asking about banded rides on the Zwift Beginners group. That’s a good place to find the people who operate them. Just ask where can I find banded rides, and let them know the time of day and timezone.
Tried my setup on Trainderday. Worked well and was plug and play. Just connected each sensor in the app and rode the workout. Power output felt exactly the same as when I’m outside on my bike with the Magene P505 PM. Was able to track the prescribed output very closely as well.
The Trainderday founder seems to do really good work. Not sure what’s going on with Zwift but I’m going to cancel it until I manage to get a smart trainer.
If all you are using to give Zwift any data is a speed/cadence sensor, then unless your cheap trainer is abysmally hard to pedal, you should be able to get results on Zwift. All Zwift is doing is looking at how fast you’re turning the cranks and how fast the wheel is spinning. So if your trainer is ridiculously hard to spin, then you’ll be sending low cadence and rpm numbers to Zwift. And if you’ve selected a trainer in the software that’s not as hard to spin as your trainer, Zwift will think you’re putting out a lot less power.
Try all the other trainer options for Zwift. Unless your trainer is so bad that no other trainer Zwift has data for is as hard to pedal as yours, you’ll be able to find one that’s similar enough.
Hey thanks for this feedback Tom. All of this makes sense. My trainer is actually not hard to spin on. And I’ve tried several other trainer settings in Zwift from fluid to mag trainers. All produced the same results.
Get this, my cadence is spot on in Zwift. At least appears to be exactly the same as my outside bike with the Magene P505 when it sends cadence readings to Trainerday during an outdoor workout.
After experiencing Trainerday on this indoor setup, taking the readings from both the Magene speed and cadence sensors, and calculating a virtual wattage that feels exactly the same as the wattage readings from my Magene P505 on my outdoor bike, I decided to just give up on Zwift’s virtual wattage abilities.
If all Zwift does is perform a calculation according to the crankarm and wheel rpm’s, then it appears for me that it needs to nearly double the value its applying from the wheel rpm’s, or at least provide a multiplier setting like in FPS games with the mouse pointer speed settings.
I can understand that they restrict the adjustability probably to disallow a ridiculous bunch of silly cheating (if a cheating solution is provided, they will come as proven in competitive FPS games). But the only serious Zwift stuff requires a smart trainer anyway so…
Anyway, thanks all for trying to help me figure this out. I already canceled my subscription earlier today. Will try Zwift again when I manage to get the Jetblack. I need some time to condition before I’m ready to race anyone in the lowest possible category anyway. And for me the racing is the only thing that I think will be of any real value in Zwift. For me, a virtual world to ride through is much less interesting to me than podcasts as a peripheral focus thing during a ride. So I’ll just Trainerday and have some brain cells on matching my wattage number to the prescribed target with the other braincells watching podcasts for now.
It estimates power based on your cadence and wheel speed, and the power curve of whatever trainer you select. The only data you give it in any moment is the cadence/wheel speed. Different trainers take different watts to spin them at different speeds, that’s why the trainer selection is important.
