Occasionally I come across a rider who is producing a nice constant wattage but is not pedaling - at least the avatar is not. I got once overtaken by one of those riders on a mountain climb. Is this a glitch, are the trainers not calibrated or are they using ebikes? Surely, those could be automatically flagged by zwift.
My guess would be no cadence sensor paired.
I once did a ride and did not have a paired sensor but my avatar was happily pedaling. There could be other reasons:
A cadence sensor was paired but was wonky or the battery ran out during the ride.
or
The rider was doing one-leg drills. My cadence sensor is on my left foot so when I do these drills my avatar stops pedaling. However, I am certainly not passing anyone when doing this drill.
Thanks for the explanations.
I used to wonder the same thing. Then it happened to me a couple days ago! I have an Elite Direto and use a garmin cadence sensor on my left crank arm. I’ve had occasional issues with the cadence sensor going ‘dead’ in the past (always on my old ‘dumb’ fluid trainer while using zPower) but even then, w/ RPM reading 0, my avatar always kept pedaling in the game.
But, w/ the direto, when the cadence sensor stopped working - my avatar stopped pedaling while my power stayed high enough to keep me moving at speed through the game. I can assure you, I was still doing the work! Eventually, I got the cadence sensor working again and things went back to normal.
I have had that happen to me too.
I use a 4iiii Viiiiva heart strap/bridge to transmit multiple ANT+ devices as Bluetooth to our Apple TV.
It isn’t always 100% reliable and sometimes, when it cuts out, my Wattage and heart rate stick at whatever they were but my cadence disappears. That leaves my avatar moving along at ‘stuck Wattage’ appropriate pace without pedalling. It’s pretty annoying from the user’s perspective and must look very odd to any onlookers.
Sadly it rarely seems to ‘stick’ when I’m peaking at a higher Wattage (in as much as I ever do); normally choosing something lower than the actual effort I’m putting in. No false glories for me.
Just happened to me last week for the first time. The Garmin cadence sensor was working, the cadence numbers on the screen were correct, power/speed were correct, but the avatar wasn’t pedaling. It spontaneously cleared up in a couple of minutes
It randomly started happening for me with my computrainer. It has always worked. I’ve checked everything - position, cord to sensor, cord to computrainer computer, cord to my computer - everything is solid. It’s as close as it possibly can be w/o impeding my pedal stroke. What does it mean that it “goes bad”? It’s a very simple concept. Any help appreciated. It’s awkward to be riding w/o pedaling - everything else works just fine - power, speed, etc. No spontaneous clear up for me - two rides w/o pedaling.
Jeannie,
Are you using the Computrainer’s cadence sensor or an external one (e.g. Garmin, Wahoo, etc)? Also, does Zwift display your cadence correctly even though your avatar isn’t pedalling?
Joe - it’s the computrainer sensor. And no it’s not reading in Zwift and just realized not reading on my computrainer computer either. duh! I guess it “went bad”. I checked the cord from the sensor and it looks solid - not frayed or bent or anything. I’ll have to see about a new one - not sure it’s possible since no longer in production. thx
Unfortunately looking like I need a creative alternative to the computrainer pedal sensor. Can’t find much of anything from them anymore. Any suggestions?
Maybe just put a Garmin sensor on. BTW all my nonpedaling/power drop issues disappeared after pairing the snap as fe-c so the Garmin is working reliably
Just my $0.02…
If I were in the market for a new cadence sensor? I’d probably get a wahoo over Garmin (and that’s coming from a guy who’s only ever used Garmin sensors) I’ve had both the Garmin SC-10 w/ magnets and the newer accelerometer-based sensors (still use those).
So why would I choose Wahoo? Because it’s ANT+ and Bluetooth 4.0 compatible. Better to have the extra flexibility, imo.
Thanks Joe. So I just install this and connect it to Zwift separately from my computrainer? And they can work together? It looks like it has a shoe mount so I can use it both on the trainer bike and on the road. Pretty cool - thanks for the tip!
I rode last night w/o pedaling - very annoying, especially now that I know others see it the same way.
Yes, just make sure Zwift pairs with the Wahoo sensor and not the malfunctioning Computrainer one and you’ll be good to go.