Hello, I am a XC MTBer who wanted a way to stay fit over the winter, so I bought a trainer at the end of this past November. After getting it set up, I noticed right away on my first ride that it would suddenly lose all resistance and the flywheel would coast rapidly for around 10-45 seconds, and anything I tried would not stop it, even if I shifted up all the way, I had to just wait until it got resistance again.
After doing many rides and the trainer having the same problem, I started to talk to Garmin customer support and they eventually decided to send me a new unit. When I received the new one it still had the same issue. I am using Virtual Shifting with Zwift Click, and a JetBlack HR monitor, all connected with Bluetooth. The incline severity slider in Zwift is set as high as it will go. I did update the trainer’s firmware out of the box, and it will lose resistance whether I’m in a very low gear going up a hill or putting down steady power at no incline. It has been very annoying, because it affects my stats when I have to stop pedaling and wait for the trainer to get resistance. When it does get resistance it’s often all at once and I get bogged down.
Hills often feel inconsistent, I notice that sometimes I am able to ride a specific severity of incline with less effort and in a higher gear, where other times it feels more realistic.
The room where my trainer is is kept at 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and the walls are sheet metal, I don’t know if that could interfere with Bluetooth? Has anyone ever experienced issues like this? I’d appreciate any help.
Here is a picture of the power graph in Garmin Connect of today’s ride. I had 17-18 times this ride where it lost resistance, which is an all time high. Anywhere on the graph where the power goes to zero is when I lost resistance. Normally it’s 1-4 times, but I guess the trainer hated me especially today. Let me know if there’s any more information that would help or if you guys have any questions. Sorry for the long post 
If you’re running the game on anything other than Apple TV, you can upload a log file to trainerdx.com and find out if there are Bluetooth interruptions. That’s the first thing I would do. If there are problems identified there, solutions would depend on what kind of device you are running the game on. In TrainerDX you can use the Share button on the log report to copy a URL and post it here for feedback. You may need to mangle the URL like stick a space in ‘https’ in order to get the forum to accept it.
Thanks! How would I get a log file from Zwift?
Here is the log file from my last ride with 18 instances of resistance loss in TrainerDX:
https ://trainerdx.com/public/069d95c1-c42e-4536-aa8e-9bc9a8f5950e
The things that jump out are that you had simultaneous Bluetooth and network interruptions late in the ride, and the system performance is very poor, like worse than Apple TV. The Bluetooth and network interruption also coincides with the lowest recorded frame rate. But since you said 18 losses of resistance, I imagine those did not all happen at the end of the ride when the really bad stuff was observed. Wondering if you have any other devices to run the game on.
My only other option is a Fire TV, but would a Bluetooth dongle help? Or is there anything I could do to my laptop that would help?
The Fire TV is of no use for running Zwift. I’m unsure if a Bluetooth dongle will help since you’re getting unexpected resistance at times when the logs didn’t show any problem other than a PC running rather slowly. The other question about the PC is whether it is busy running any apps other than Zwift, things in the background, productivity apps, bloatware, anything that might be making it busy other than Zwift. If you do decide to try a Bluetooth dongle, the safe choice is the TP-Link UB500 since loads of people use that one. There’s also a possibility that the problem lies with the trainer.
By the way, I searched for your CPU model on trainerdx and it looks like the performance you’re getting from the game is worse than most people are experiencing with the same processor. That would also tend to indicate that there is something wrong with the PC or it is too busy doing something else.
Interesting. The only apps that are running while I am riding is Chrome, which I will close while I ride today and see if that changes anything. I did check my task manager and it doesn’t look like there is anything that could be a problem there.
Things to check:
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Not running Zwift on a phone or tablet? If so, shut it down and delete.
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Running a non-Microsoft Anti-Virus/Security Suite? If so, disable. Windows Defender is sufficient.
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Can try re-installing Windows…maybe save for last.
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Wireless?? If so, are you in a high density area (apartment building or home close together)? Change the default channel on your router. I have had interference issues and I am 150-200 feet from my neighbors.
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Running a mesh system? Jumping from AP to AP can cause problems.
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If at the edge of an AP coverage area, might try alternative locations. And yes, metal walls can cause signal problems. I put a metal roof on my house and messed up my OTA TV antenna.
Also, a long shot…not near an airport are you? Planes can mess up signals.
Before my ride yesterday I ran a full CCleaner service and cleaned out a bunch of stuff like cookies, unnecessary files, etc. I also closed all the other apps on my laptop except for I had one tab open it Chrome for part of the ride. During my ride I noticed that the resistance was very realistic and hills felt as they should. I did still have 10-11 times where it lost resistance, but when I had resistance it felt great. I ended up having a 5w FTP increase on that ride without trying.
I am not in a high density wireless area, the closest people are probably almost 300ft. I live in a rural area. I do live a few miles from a small airport, though.
Here is the log file from my last ride: https ://trainerdx.com/public/069d95c1-c42e-4536-aa8e-9bc9a8f5950e
That is the log analysis you posted previously, do you have another one?
Do you have a phone you could run the game on for testing?
Sorry, must’ve got them mixed up. Here is the right one:
https ://trainerdx.com/public/cd3f39dc-eaec-4c12-b7c8-f3e2f82cdcd9
I only have an old iPhone 7 with ios 16.7.14
I do have a slightly newer laptop that I could probably use. How would I get the game on that device without paying for another subscription?
It’s weird how you are getting both Bluetooth and network disconnections near the end of the ride in both log reports. In this latest one performance is a little bit worse than before.
You can use any number of devices with the same account as long as you don’t leave the game running on both at the same time.
It is possible to run Zwift on an iPhone 7. It won’t be great but might be interesting as a troubleshooting step.
Weird. Maybe for today’s ride I’ll try running the game on my other laptop and see if that does anything.
I CCleaned out my other laptop and tried running the game on that, but as soon as I started to ride it lost resistance almost immediately. While starting up the game the boot time was a lot faster but when in a route the graphics are worse. I switched to my normal laptop so I could get my ride in and it did the same as yesterday, when it had resistance it was consistent and better that before but it still lost resistance half a dozen times. @chris_benten1 I don’t know if I’m running a mesh system and I’m not quite tech savvy enough to understand what you mean about AP coverages.
If you are running the game on a PC, pairing using Bluetooth, and not pairing through a phone, using a mesh network won’t have any effect on pairing.
