So far feels more like “Defeat” than “Victory”.
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I bought the victory to replace my Neo which I have had a ton of problems with. One of the problems was vibrations and I think there were a couple of problems that contributed to that. One of them was a broken magnet inside the trainer that was rubbing (I managed to fix that by taking the trainer partly apart and removing the broken pieces).
It sounds like it needs to be taken apart to be repaired or replaced.
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Your accuracy looks great. Do you mind sharing your spindown protocol, connection type, and platform?
Today I did trainer calibration on jet-black app pre ride (so it was cold , tho used daily).
Disconnected everything from app.
Pedals were calibrated post warm up as they were reinstalled today.
Win 10 dedicated PC with BT 5.0 dongle (as WiFi is rubbish).
Pedals did drop out once…
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My understanding of it is that it’s actually Wahoo’s protocol that they’re trying to follow since Zwift did not make a protocol.
Thank you! Do you have wifi disconnected for the trainer?
Yes I removed the WiFi connection to my trainer completely.
The wife still has hers linked up despite using Bluetooth
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Seems like you are right. But also looks like Wahoo didn’t publish how that protocol is supposed to work. So Jetblack must have reverse engineered it - like some other vendors - in an attempt to copy it.
Still doesn’t change that Jetblack’s current implementation of Wahoo DIRCON is lousy at best.
I don’t think this is the consensus. Other than the WiFi Direct Connect issue (which I’m sure they’ll get fixed) I love my Victory. The shifting is so, so, so good and it’s way more accurate than the v4 Kickr I upgraded from (which didn’t have auto-calibration and so I just couldn’t even use the power from, which resulted in a frustrating mess of reconnecting sensors every time to use my power meter instead). My complaint about the bright green light staying on had already been fixed, and support was super responsive and sent me the firmware with that fix, so I’m so far impressed.
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The good news: I believe I found the cause of my Jetblack Victory’s vibrations. I remembered this picture of DC Rainmaker who opened up his Jetblack Victory trainer.
So I did the same to see if I notice anything obvious. And I certainly did:
This is a screengrab from a video that I took. It shows that the screw in the center along with the washer underneath, which attaches to the flywheel, is off balance and basically “dances” while spinning.
Such an off balance on the flywheel mass will obviously create vibrations at varying speeds.
(Unfortunately I can’t post the URL to the Youtube video here, which shows this pretty clearly.
You can go to youtu.be and add Hnpx4sRlvnQ to the URL to find it.)
The bad news: I don’t think that this is easily fixable by the end-user and the device has to be swapped.
What’s more concerning: That it is possible to mount that screw and the washer off-center to me shows two things:
- Jetblack is not calibrating the balance of the flywheel in the factory and rather taking the approach of “good luck”.
- There is a design flaw which over time will affect all units more or less and probably destroy the flywheel bearings over time.
To be fair, failing bearings on flywheels due to imbalance is something that Wahoo and Tacx, but also spin bike manufacturers are all well aware of.
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Urghh… odds on mine will be the same then. FFS.
Oof, just opened mine and it’s like that too. Washer is off-center. I don’t have the vibrations though, but could this be the reason why power is reading higher than my Assiomas?
Based on what I saw in my trainer, here is why I think that Jetblack made a fatal design flaw on the Victory:
Ideal Design: This is how the screw that connects the flywheel to the belt drive along with the washer should look like: A well-fitting washer (blue) where the inner diameter fits the flywheel screw (grey) and the outer diameter fits into the inner belt drive (black).
This would make sure that the axis of the flywheel is always well-aligned with the axis of the belt drive, reducing the likelihood of the flywheel being off-balance and minimizing vibrations.
Actual Design: But this is what they actually did instead: The washer (blue) neither matches the flywheel screw (grey), nor does it match the belt drive (black). As a result that causes the risk that the axis of the flywheel might end up being more or less aligned with the axis of the belt drive. Similarly the axis of the spacer might not align either, but is less critical due to the small mass.
(Dimensions are obviously not to scale and overstated to explain the issue.)
It effectively becomes pure luck how much your flywheel is off-balance and how much vibrations you end up having or if you feel that vibration or not.
To prevent this the factory would need to find a way to align the axis of the flywheel to the axis of the belt drive and tighten the screw while that alignment doesn’t change. Call it individual calibration per trainer.
In my case based on the “dancing pattern” of both the inner screw and the washer, I can tell that they are both off center with regards to the belt drive. Therefore there is definitely no “calibration” that happened on my device. And as a result I get vibrations, that vary based on rpm. 
Your device will most likely look different and therefore cause you more or less vibration. Or the vibration is below what is noticeable.
Of course it’s possible that the actual design called for a better fitting washer and the factory installed something else. While that’s then not a design flaw, it doesn’t make the result any better.
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If only the washer is off-center, you are fine. That washer has minimal mass compared to the flywheel. Only if that screw in the center of the belt drive - which connects to the flywheel - is off center and “dancing” would you get vibrations.
The reason you are seeing different power readings than via your Favero Assioma Uno or Duo pedals is that Jetblack does a lot of smoothing on the power data they sent out, while the Assioma do pretty much no smoothing. Especially in ERG mode.
You should be able to see this difference if you zoom in to the power curve in a Zwiftpower Analysis, especially in an ERG mode exercise. Also in DC Rainmaker’s review that’s called out and shown.
Here is an example of an ERG mode section. Blue is Favero Assioma Duo and purple is Jetblack Victory. In average the power reading of Assioma are +2.68% higher:
Outside of ERG mode this seems less of an issue. Here is an example where the average power of the Assioma is +1.11%:
Jetblack is probably trying right now to reduce the amount of smoothing that they do without breaking too much of the overall feel. And based on the reports here of the new beta firmware they are making some improvements already.
I’m pretty confident that they will be able to improve the power accuracy somewhat through firmware. That’s why I’m not sweating over that part too much.
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Well done on the research on DNS. I like you have had WiFi issues with JBV, even when updated to early release 4.12.0
I find I am riding with no issues and then I lose virtual gears etc.
On my last two group rides I had drop outs resulting in me losing the group I was in.
I had to jump off and unplug the JBV and then power back on. Zwift detects all the wireless connections again and I am on my way.
I unplug my JBV after every ride so not sure what causes the drop out - very frustrating.
Since upgrade to 4.12.0 I am also experiencing low cadence even though I am in 90 rpm range. Zwift reports 45-60 rpm and my Garmin reports the higher rpm I know I am spinning.
I wonder if Zwift is getting no cadence data at all, because it can manufacture a low value when it’s getting nothing (as in the case of the Van Rysel D100 on firmware 0.104)
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That sounds feasible and I would say that is what is happening.
How are people informing JB of these issues? I have been sending them FB private messages but if there are alternative channels please let me know.
I really want the JBV to be the best it can be so it would be great if JB support know about these issues.
I went via the website which was then followed up with emails from support@jetblackcycling .com
To be fair been happy with responses.
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Just want to show the power difference between the Victory and my Assioma Duos:
I really hope the next firmware update fixes this. (Assioma is the lower purple line.)
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Thanks Mike, I have now reached out to JB support. Hoping they take all of the things end users report and make updates to address these issues.
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