One more variable to consider: have you made sure the electronics pods on the pedals do not touch the cranks apart from at the threads? Use supplied spacers if needed.
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They haven’t technically offered that yet, only to test them if I send them back. I originally wanted to return them for a refund, but they tried to convince me not to do that since I would be subject to paying return shipping, custom fees, and their restocking fee. In hindsight I should have probably bought them through Amazon, rather than directly from the manufacturer. It would have made the return policy much easier.
All that said, and with all the problems, I still like these crazy things. Even though I do feel the readings are very low on the spin bike, it does offer me something to train with. That is partly the point, but it is also frustrating not being able to keep up in D and E group rides when I’m always riding in the A group (20+ mph averages) when doing group rides outdoors (pre-pandemic).
So true. And initially, when I got these pedals, I thought the very same thing. Power is power. So it would be the perfect training partner indoors and outdoors on any bike. As I switch bikes outdoors, all the power is pretty stable. At an average heart rate of 133 at an hour of riding, the wattage comes out to be between 206 and 209 consistently. However, ride with the same heart rate indoors on the spin bike for one hour and the resulting watts is 116. That is too much of a disparity to me and I can’t figure out why.
What sort of watts can you generate on the spin bike if you set the resistance to maximum?
I solved it!! Move your spin bike outdoors. 
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Thanks. Yes, I’ve had to use one washer whether it is on the spin bike or the bikes outdoors. Here is an example of it on the spin bike (left and right):
lol!..ironically, I’ve already tried this. I meant it when I said I’ve been searching for every possible answer to explain this. 
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Honestly, I don’t think I’ve tried this. At max I’m not sure I can even turn the cranks, but I’ll try it out. I will say that at about 50% resistance I get about 120 watts. At about 75% resistance I get about 200 watts. I’ll double-check these figures soon to see exactly what they come out to, but I think that is close.
I finally got around to seeing what wattage was reflected at specific resistance points on the spin bike. They do seem low to me given the amount of effort that has to go into the pedals. I’m not sure this really tells anyone too much, but for what it’s worth:
Resistance and wattage on the spin bike at 85 RPM:
- 0% - 60 watts
- 25% - 83 watts
- 50% - 142 watts
- 75% - 252 watts
- 100% - standing on the pedals and can only spin to 54 RPM - 410 watts
100% resistance does tell me something since I’m 6’3" and 230 pounds. 410 watts seems low to me for total max effort. On any other bike outdoors using the same power meter pedals I’ve gotten spikes above 800 watts a number of times.
So are comparing trainer to outdoor power? Trainer is usually if not always lower than outdoors.
Sort of. A spin bike with power meter pedals versus outdoor riding with the same power meter pedals. If you look at the first post the spin bike produces 116 watts at an AVG 133 HR for an hour ride whereas outdoors on any bike the AVG WATTS is 200+ at the same heart rate. Is that the same kind of difference you might see on a trainer versus riding outdoors?
I think comparing indoors, especially a spin bike, to outdoors where your power is far less constant is not comparing apples to apples. I had thought in your original post that you were comparing trainer power to pedals power on the same trainer under the same conditions.
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I don’t know , but this doesn’t sound like a pedal issue to me, it sounds like some sort of connection issue.
Above you mentioned a garmin head unit. Have you dual recorded on the spin bike? That is, connect the pedals to Zwift via bluetooth and to the garmin via ANT+, and then compare the files, both in real time while riding and after the fact on the computer?
Hmmm…maybe not in real-time, but Favero did have me compare using both Bluetooth and ANT+ on different platforms and the data always comes out the same. Low power on the spin bike with much higher power outdoors on multiple bikes using the same pedals.
I guess it comes down to how you apply the resistance on the spin bike. Did you recently oil the spin bike pads. I can do about the same power on the spin bike vs my H3 and outside. But with the spin bike it feel different because it does not have gearing and slower flywheel speed. If you don’t have enough resistance the flywheel will keep going and you wont be able to generate power even if your legs is going at 100rpm.
The spin bike has magnetic resistance so there are no pads and no maintenance required. I would have thought maybe that the magnets could be interfering with the power meter pedals in some way, but it seems on YouTube there are plenty of people using magnetic resistance spin bikes with these power meter pedals without an issue.
Yes, right, that’s good. I get that. But I’m asking something different. When you’re indoors, you see low numbers ON THE ZWIFT SCREEN, correct? And outside you see higher numbers ON THE GARMIN SCREEN, yes? So I think you should get on the spin bike, pair it with Zwift as usual, and also pair it with the garmin at the same time (probably Bluetooth on Zwift and ANT+ on garmin, but not necessarily). Then if both (Zwift screen and garmin) display the same readings you’ll know that it’s a problem coming from the pedals. If they are different then I would suspect it’s a connection issue of some sort.
I have no power pedals, but is it not necessary to set the crack length in the game / on the bike computer? Could the setting be the issue?
Good point. You can’t do anything about the settings in Zwift, you have to use the Assioma app to check the settings and modify them as needed.
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Crank length was already asked about by Gerrie in one of the early replies.