So I just recently upgraded to a Saris H3 from a dumb trainer. The Saris seems so much harder. I’m hitting about 150-170 watts regularly. I could go way above that on my old trainer. I feel like I’m doing something wrong. Maybe a smart trainer is just that much harder, I don’t know. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks I’m advance.
How did you measure power on your previous trainer? It’s likely that it was not measured as accurately as on the Saris H3 unless you have a power meter. If you have a power meter, you should use it to compare with the H3.
I measured it with cadence and speed sensors.
Grab the Saris app to possibly update the turbo firmware (there is an option to offer you beta firmware hidden away) and to do a calibration spindown after you have warmed the turbo up for ~10mins.
I did a calibration on mine the other day, iirc the spindown time increased from ~12.3secs to ~13.2secs.
I’ll echo that calibration is important. I was showing some folks how to use Zwift this weekend–just stuck a speed and cadence sensor on a bike that was on a dumb trainer. We were just goofing around to demo, so I didn’t bother trying to calibrate. And, man–it was the opposite problem you’re facing. Without calibration, I was fighting like mad to turn out half the recorded power that I should have been.
Whether your old trainer was calibrated correctly, and/or whether you had the right dumb trainer selected from the list, and whether the H3 is calibrated can all have a big effect.
Thanks for the replies so far.
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Was your dumb trainer one that Zwift let you pick from a list and gave you a resistance setting to use for your trainer? If not then Zwift didn’t have a power curve to translate your speed into power and it is highly likely to be way off reality.
It’s definitely worth calibrating your new trainer (use the Saris app and not Zwift for that). But it may well make little to no difference, and if so you’re just going to have to get used to a much more accurate setup,. sorry.
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