Multiple Pain Cave Bikes

General Discussion
1

I have two zwift bikes set up side by side. When both are being used, BLE (Bluetooth low energy) communications are disrupted. I have seen professional setups for the prologue at the 2019 Giro and elsewhere, how were multiple bikes setup without significant interruptions occurring?

2

What trainer are you using?

I originally thought I had bluetooth interference between two Elite Zumo trainers, but the problem turned out to be the first trainer that was powered on would connect via bluetooth to the second trainer and use it as a power meter, causing the second trainer to be invisible to Zwift. I had to disable ‘power meter link’ on both trainers via the Elite app to stop it.

3

I have a wahoo kickr18, a wahoo kicker bike, 2 tickr HRM, a wahoo headwind, wiFi and a Bluetooth keyboard all in the same room. All works well with one person riding, but not two ppl. I’d love to know how the giro prologue last year was set up with all those pros riding Zwift side by side in that hotel conference room. I could do the same way.

4

Are you connecting to separate entities of Zwift (ATV or computers) or trying to connect to the same TV? BLE is supposed to have up to 8 connections but not sure how Zwift would handle that. Might try connecting one device via Ant+ if possible.

5

I would be very interested in a solution to this as well. My wife and I have a similar problem. We are both on Tacx Neos, she’s on TrainerRoad (TR), I am on Zwift. While she is on TR (iPad with Wahoo Ant+ dongle) everything is fine. I enter the room and start zwifting (Mac, Ant+ dongle with extension cable), TR always performs auto-stops due to a lost power signal.

I think it is the Companion App on my iPhone that causes the signal dropouts. Once I close the Companion App, the problem seems to disappear (although the Companion App does not seem to interfere with my own power signal). So we either can’t train at the same time, or I am a douchebag who doesn’t gives ride ons :slight_smile:

6

Following the thread…my boyfriend and I have the same issue with our Wahoo Snap set up - we have two iphones connected to a TV and encounter problems each time we try to ride at the same time. Individually we are great but any group rides or other rides have been a major challenge.

7

You can’t both use the same device running Zwift. My wife will usually pair to the Apple TV and then I’ll have to pair to my laptop or iPad and we never have issues. We can ride together in Zwift if we want.

Sometimes I forget I’m on my iPad and look up at the big screen my wife is using, and think I’m being passed and try to give a ride on :woozy_face:.

8

Hi Patti,
how close are your bikes? Ours are pretty close (like maybe 30cm space between the training mats) and especially the Companion App seems to cause a lot of interference with the trainer signal. I am wondering if the same might be true for the signal from the iPhone(s) to the TV(s).

9

We just picked up our second KICKR Bike for our pain cave. I run one via ANT+ on a MacPro, and the other one via Bluetooth to an AppleTV. They both connect to the same 4k monitor. After we do the setup of the AppleTV bike, we turn the monitor to a different HDMI input for the Mac Pro, and set that bike up. We watch via the MacPro as the graphics are much better.

We use an iPhone on each bike running Companion. We turn off the stats on the big monitor so we can keep things competitive. (Seeing that heart rate is a no no!)

So far we have done meetups and club rides (Our own private club). They both are working really well. However, there are caveats we have encountered:

  1. Its inconvenient to switch the HDMI input channel on the TV to flip back and forth between bikes in the beginning. I’m going to add in a second monitor so they are not sharing a screen.

  2. Sometimes it seems as if one of the rider is coasting for the longest time, even when pedalling.

  3. There’s nobody else there! We are going to try doing a Pace Partner ride with 2 of us at the same time and see if it works ok. We want to ride with other people!

  4. When we tried “Ride with Friend”, we kept blowing past each other - couldn’t find each other or sometimes poof we would hyperspace in front or back of the other rider. It was so weird, that I will need to investigate this further.