Hi, thanks for this. I have just bought a Tacx Flux direct drive, moved from the Nero Elite.I was happily a mid B Cat rider and pushing 3.2W/Kg - 3.5W/Kg. I now struggle to get higher than 2.0W/Kg.
I’ve calibrated the Tacx and it feels like a much tougher ride than the wheel on trainer I was using before.
Any thoughts please folks?
Hi @J_onny_Race3R, welcome to the forums. Wheel on trainers are generally known for not being as accurate as a direct drive trainer. Did you happen to verify your power was correct or accurate with the old wheel on trainer? I thought the Elite Nero are rollers, not wheel on trainers?
Doh! Sorry I got it wrong, the wheel on trainer was a Elite Novo Smart.
Thanks for the reply, I’ve just tried a firmware upgrade again on the Tacx utility app.
I wasn’t able to verify wheel on was correct, prior to that I had a Jet-black Z1 fluid trainer and the results were very similar.
Thanks again for the reply
Accuracy of the Novo is +/- 5% and the Flux is +/- 3% so you should have a more accurate setup now and were probably getting over estimated power with the Novo. That is quite common I believe.
doh! I was hoping that wasn’t the case… back to CAT C for me then.
Again, thanks for taking the time to reply.
I have the same issue… about 20 -30 W lower. Adding insult to injury I gave My kicker snap to my 14-year-old and now he’s outpacing me!
I have a Kickr 2018 and it was a replacement for a prior Kickr that self-destructed. This one about kills a fellow as you have to go REALLY hard to maintain 220 watts. I have Quark and Power2max power meters on my bikes and they both read significantly higher (vs the Kickr), especially as the watts go up. At 100 watts, not a huge variance - but at 300 - a 40watt or more variance.
I do a lot of spin downs and nothing seems to help.
For these reasons, and reading the issues here, I think I may look at the new Stages SB20 bike (vs the Wahoo bike)- I want to believe that they have the power meter stuff figured out.
In both cases, I sort of wonder if both bikes are something of v1.0 and will be leaps and bounds better when version 2.0 comes out.
I’m the same about 50 watts and doing my nut in. Use the taxc neo 1 and everything was going good regarding FTP and strength. Now after buying the kickr bike I’m pissed off think I’ll change it for the neo smart bike.
Wahoo need to fix this problem
Just started with Kick Bike. I have been using two regular Kickrs in the US and Asia for over two years. My watts have dropped massively on the Kickr Bike. I have been a solid C, borderline B rider. Now struggling to maintain D. Huge drop. Not an issue with moving from a “wheel on” trainer, as the Kickr is direct crank. Anyone found a solution to the problem?
I Zwifted for nearly a year on a Kickr Smart V4, a direct drive trainer. About six months in, I added Garmin Vector 3 pedals for dual recording and to verify the output of the Kickr. The pedals read about 2% higher than the trainer and that’s considered to be within measurement error.
I got my Kickr Bike a coupla months ago and sold the trainer to a friend. The main reason for the switch was the great deal I got on the Bike and an opportunity to help my friend get started on Zwift.
I put the pedals on the Kickr Bike and have been riding with two power meters. My Kickr Bike reads about 2% higher than the pedals! My ability to keep up with the groups I’ve ridden with in the past is the same and other than the crap clamping of the handlebars and seatpost, I’m pretty satisfied. I think it’s noisier than it should be but they say, they’re all that loud.
I would suggest contacting Wahoo if your Bike is reading lower than expected. They may have a calibration process you can do to mitigate your power drop. Good luck…
I am also experiecing the same issue, is guess my Kickr Bike show 10/15% lower reading compared to my previous Wahoo Kick v5, and Quarq power meter on my mtb and gravel bike. The topic is silent for two years, which means some solved the issue?
Are you running a V2 bike? How old is it? My V1 has not varied in power output in three years and is still around 2% more than the pedals.
Nope. Same issue on my kicke bike shift. Around 30 watts less than my old wahoo kickr core. Also checked with my pedals and core and pedals are much closer than the bike.
I am quite upset, due to the high investment and the rubbish results in races now.
I’ve recently tested my version 2 Kicker Bike with Power tap pedals, and the results were surprising. To my amazement, both the power outputs were exactly the same. I even had to double-check that I didn’t have the same power meter connected to my watch as I did with Zwift. Previously, I used to own a Kickr, and I always had higher readings for it compared to the PT pedals. I used to think that the pedals were inaccurate, but it turns out that I was wrong. The readings were correct, and I am just weaker than I thought. I can confidently say that outside rides always range between 170 and 200W, and this is the same for Zwift free rides.