I have recently purchased the Nordic exercise bike I was quite happy using the iFIT subscription that came with it. It was solely for the purpose of doing HIIT workouts.
I have now though discovered Zwift and a Great app that makes me able to use my Nordic exercise bike and Zwift..
The only downside is that I have to manually change the resistance..
I was wondering how accurate the data is, as an example the most wattage I can achieve its between 530 and 540 watts, this is about 100 rpm on resistance 10 this is quite comparable to the output when I use the iFIT app.
Any advise or input would be much appreciated
At some point I wouldn’t mind doing one or two of the races but I don’t want to feel like I’m cheating if the spin bike is giving me an advantage which reading other posts seems like in might do.
Thanks in advance
The only way to know whether the spin bike is reporting power inaccurately would be to install some power meter pedals on it and compare the numbers. In general, nearly all spin bikes are not accurate because they do not have a real power meter. They make some inferences and broadcast a power number, but it doesn’t mean it matches what you are actually doing. The few that do have a real power meter are quite expensive. I can’t guess exactly how inaccurate your bike is.
Personally I would not use that bike in races but for maintaining your health and having more fun riding indoors it’s fine.
Just an update.
I’ve been advised to change the watt gain setting in the QZ app to 0.85 to get a more realistic measure.
I’ll try it on tonight‘s workout
The bike is meant to be used with the iFIT app so if it doesn’t measure how does the iFIT app pick Up the data when you increase or decrease your cadance or increase the resistance
its making up the numbers using what’s known as a power curve, they probably have some basis in real life power measurement but you could be over or under by a large percentage.
Thanks for all the advise
Would love the Zwift bike now I’ve experienced the app.
But Having just got the Nordic bike I may have to wait a while.
The peddles look a good compromise but aren’t cheap neither.
you could get a kickr core and second hand bike for less than power meter pedals would cost and you’d have a much better zwft experience as it would simulate the gradients in game and you could do erg mode workouts if you wanted.
You do not need a speed sensor. On the Zwift pairing screen you would select the pedals as the power source instead of the bike. You would need a set of cleats and cycling shoes to use with the pedals. It would be useful to be able to do the zero reset of the power meter and set the crank arm length. The pedals I mentioned are obsolete and the PowerTap app doesn’t exist any more, the company was bought by Quarq and then I think they were bought by SRAM… I don’t know if SRAM has an app that can zero reset those pedals, maybe someone else knows. However a cycling computer could do it, or perhaps a Garmin watch that supports power meters (most of the modern ones do).
If you’re buying direct from Favero to the UK, you’ll be subject to import/custom fees mind - though when I did that it still worked out slightly cheaper than going through a UK seller.
Edit, the front page of Favero’s shop does state [Favero Assioma Shop | Products] that VAT isn’t included on non-EU countries, and import duties may apply. So bear that in mind please.
