I have an Elite Crono Fluid red roller classic ‘dumb’ trainer, but it’s one of the older ones with a resistance dial. I need to know what to put the dial on, I think it’s either L3 (Power Mag) L4 (Hydro Mag - looks similar, so possible this). Zwift site lists that some are L3 and others are L4… Also, if you can let me know the roll-down time and the tyre pressure you have (say 100-110 psi) let me know.!
Thanks in advance!
I think I have the same trainer so I would like to know the answer too.
I realised (via a friend pointing out to me!) that actually my trainer is an Elitre Crono Hyrdo-Mag and Zwift recommends this to be L4.
See this post:-
https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/204151529-Setting-up-an-Elite-Classic-Trainer-with-Zwift
I have the Elite Crono Fluid and Zwift recommends using L4 - however, I felt that this was not correct and sure enough after installing the new Garmin Vector 3 power pedals I can now see the difference between the real power readings and those predicted by Zwift Power (ZP).
I put my Elite Crono Fluid on Level 1 and for the first 5mins found the ZP readings to be higher than the real power readings:
ZP=150w / Real=140w
ZP=250w / Real=200w
ZP=350w / Real=265w
But as time went by the resistance seemed to keep increasing so after about 30mins the real power readings were becoming higher than the ZP readings (but only at the upper end!):
ZP=150w / Real=100w
ZP=250w / Real=265w
ZP=350w / Real=420w
After 40mins:
ZP=150w / Real=150w
ZP=250w / Real=320w
After 50mins all real readings were higher than ZP:
ZP=150w / Real=175w
ZP=250w / Real=340w
So basically the resistance of this turbo increases with time and in a non-linear way.
Another day I recorded the real power readings against a set speed (recorded by a garmin speed sensor) and got the following results as time progressed:
35kph:
- 170w after 5mins
- 175w after 10mins
- 170w after 20mins
- 186w after 30mins
- 190w after 40mins
- 194w after 50mins
- 280w after 2hrs
40kph:
- 200w after 5mins
- 213w after 10mins
- 215w after 20mins
- 220w after 30mins
- 246w after 40mins
- 250w after 50mins
- 400w after 2hrs (yes 400w!!)
50kph:
- 276w after 5mins
- 300w after 10mins
- 315w after 20mins
- 380w after 30mins
- 430w after 40mins
- 460w after 50mins
In summary the power calculated by Zwift (ZP) is not very useful, especially when racing and you’re trying to hit those higher numbers!