I’m using an NPE RUNN mounted on a dumb treadmill. Despite varying combinations of stickers, mounting heights and calibrations I’m still seeing fluctuation in reported speed versus treadmill speed. This is down to the treadmill. I’m tempted to use the treadmill speed transmitter app as this will keep the speed constant and I tend to not vary my pace.
I’ve tried the virtual run option on my Garmin Fenix 6 but this isn’t particularly accurate either.
The Zwift footpod is notorious for being inaccurate.
So I’m left with considering whether to purchase a Stryd.
Does anybody use one regularly on Zwift and if so how accurate is the reported speed and distance from the Stryd to that of your treadmill?
This is normal of the majority of treadmills. Each time your foot strikes the belt the extra weight temporarily slows down the belt before the motor speeds it back up to the selected speed. The lower HP motors have this issue more than more powerful ones and commercial treadmills.
I have a Stryd and a Bowflex BXT 216 (4 CHP motor) and I even get small variations in pace due to my weight slowing the treadmill down with each foot strike. Expecting a 100% constant pace with a motorized treadmill is not realistic, IMO.
I’ve a NordicTrack T10 which has a 3hp motor and it’s all over the place. Tired of calibrating the RUNN and I can calibrate it then the next time it’s well out again. Almost needs to be calibrated every single use to get anything close to accurate.
I use our works gym treadmill which is 4CHP and that doesn’t fluctuate much. Perhaps +/- 0.2mph
I’m tempted to get a Stryd but if that’s going to pick up the belt slowing issue I appear to be suffering then it’ll be a waste of money.
My Stryd reports about .2-.3kmh less than the treadmill says it’s doing.
Based on my research treadmill speed displays are not super accurate and I trust the Stryd speed more. And there is slight variations in speed throughout a run in Zwift (ie 6kmh to 5.8kmh then back to 6). As I said above this is normal as the motor of the treadmill has to put out more power every time your weight strikes the belt to speed it back up and this power increase is not instantaneous. (For what it’s worth I’m also heavier, 100kg+ so that factors in to the treadmill belt speed issue. The more weight being applied the harder the motor has to work to “catch back up”)
I have Zwift set to use my speed from Stryd and haven’t had issues with it.
That’s good to know. Seems more accurate than my RUNN presently and whilst being polite I guess your athletic size is more likely to cause a fluctuation.
The accuracy you are getting is pretty much the same as what I get from the RUNN but on a commercial treadmill.
Could you not calibrate your Stryd to the treadmill speed so they tally?
You could but I wouldn’t want to. I run both inside and outside. If you calibrate the Stryd to the treadmill it won’t be accurate outside. Check out the Stryd Facebook page. Plenty of people have tested the Stryd versus the treadmill and found the Stryd to be accurate (as is out of the box with no calibration) and the treadmill to be inaccurate.
I fully suspect that to be the case. It’ll be my treadmill causing the issue rather than the RUNN. I do run outside but I’ve a Garmin watch that I’d use for the GPS so wouldn’t need the Stryd for that. To be honest I don’t need any of the advanced data the Stryd offers, I just want the speed to reflect the treadmill and for it to not going up and down. It becomes really distracting.
I’d calibrate the Stryd to the treadmill.
They used to do a Stryd Live which was half the price and was designed to pretty much be treadmill only but they were short lived and replaced by the Stryd Wind. If I could find one of those somewhere it’d be an ideal solution.
I’ll reach out to Stryd to see if they have a demo or trial option.
Using an older Precor treadmill with NPE and my wife, the only user, reports that she is satisfied with the speed agreement between the Precor and Zwift. It took a couple of calibrations with first NPE and then two on Zwift before she was happy.
I only have two stickers on the treadmill. Actually four as they are in pairs. The Runn wasn’t happy with the original two so I added two more beside the originals.
I’ve ordered a 2nd cradle for the RUNN which I am going mount on the other side of the belt and have a different sticker combination. My wife uses the treadmill also but runs at a different pace to me (whispers slower).
If I calibrate at her pace it’s out for me and vice versa. That why if I bought a Stryd i’d default to that and leave her with the RUNN.
I have no “dog in the fight”. DC Rainmaker listed a 15 or 20% holiday discount on the Runn and that was enough to get my wife running on Zwift. She bikes on Brand “X” and I thought perhaps if I got her started on Zwift she might get interested…
TM measures speed usually on the motor itself. Some TMs maybe on the front roller.
Be sure if your belt is tight enough, vendors usually tells you to step off and set speed to 3/4 Km/h. Then try to stop the belt applying your weight with one foot, you shouldn’t be able to stop it.
Another option if you can expose both rollers is to put some tape marks on each on the same position. Run on it and and by the end if no slipping occurs the marks will be always matching both rollers, expect some minor changes from time to time but most of the time they are always right. If they are always on different places between each other then the belt is slipping and that can lead to different/varying speed NPE vs TM dashboard
This is my situation - NPE stopped working - I have a Stryd, if I don’t calibrate it runs at around 2kph slower than the treadmill, if I calibrate it starts at the treadmill pace then increases between 1.5 - 2 kph faster than the treadmill. When i do calibrate the lowest speed has to be 12kph or it won’t calibrate as it believes I’m not running. I’ve had the stryd over a year, in & outdoors, done resets many times. Longing for any suggestions.
The Stryd does not require any calibration. If you run outside and everything is correct, as it should because that’s how Stryd works, there is nothing to do. Just go on the treadmill and run, your indoor speed and outdoor speed will be identical.
The speed displayed by your treadmil is NOT the speed you run but the speed of the belt while you run on it. So ignore this speed, and just take what Stryd says because that will be correct. You can try on other treadmills if you have the possibility, and you will see the difference will vary. You could go into the TM menu and calibrate the TM so that you would increade the speed of the belt to match your running speed, but in most case, unless you are very very fast and you are able to run at the maximum speed of the TM, just ignore what the TM says and use only the data from Stryd.
In general, that’s the point of using Stryd, to be able to run anywhere outdoors or indoors on any TM and ensure your running is the same every time. So you would not wonder why indoors you are faster than outdoors for example. This won’t happen.
Of course, if you are running at 13kmh according to stryd but your TM is at 15kmh, well you would be running faster in Zwift connecting your TM instead of your Stryd, but that wouldn’t be fair nor realistic… Averaging 15kmh indoors and “only” 13kmh outdoors, what’s the point ?
thank you for the reply - if one has calibrated on Zwift can one just delete the calibration in the Zwift section and that reverts back to ‘normal’? Or once you calibrated does it still have an effect on the styrd itself, therefore it also needs to be reset? I hope that makes sense??
If you haven’t modified anything about the Stryd itself you’re good. You could just ignore what you’ve done in Zwift. Zwift itself can’t “modify” the Stryd itself
I have exactly the same experience. My Stryd indicates that I run about half a minute per kilometer slower than my treadmill. However, I am sure that my speed outside hardly differs from that of my treadmill. I also synced in Zwift. To my surprise, Zwift does indeed regularly give a higher speed than my treadmill. Usually one or two-tenths higher. However, recently I was practicing my cadence and then the differences were even greater. Stryd just doesn’t always indicate the correct speed on the treadmill. It is very unfortunate that they deny this so harshly. When I posted a question about this on Facebook, it was even rejected. Up to twice.
To undo the calibration you can edit the prefs.xml and delete the calibration-section for the Stryd. There is a thread about this (called: Uncalibrating foodpod) but somehow I cant link to it.
