I used a Tacx Flow Smart Trainer for about a year, and now I bought a brand new Wahoo Kickr Core. First impressions: Much more fluid response, smoother gradient changes and more realistic riding feel. But, Kickr Core felt somewhat easier to ride on. For instance I tried climbing Epic KOM (as part of TOW Stage 4) and I mostly climbed on bigger front ring. In the end my average power output didn’t happen to be unrealistically higher but I wonder if I’m doing something wrong. The first thing I’ve done when I set up Kickr Core was to check for new firmware if available and a spindown calibration.
I’d be happy if Kickr Core users and more experienced Zwifters would comment on that. I don’t want to deceive myself and I want to train as realistic as possible.
Yup. A standard road bike. As I said, my average wattage was not unrealistically high, but somehow it felt better than my previous rides. Maybe it’s because of the direct drive. I just wanted to be sure whether I skipped something or not. Thanks
It has no calibration so I’m quite happy abt it.
This might be of no help, but I hadn’t realise until recently that when you do a spindown, it needs to be a gradual going up to whatever speed the app asks you.
For some it may seem logic, but for me, I was just going real hard for 10 seconds, reaching the goal speed and then letting it spindown.
I did an FTP test after doing this calibration and got a terrible result down to 157w, tried 2 weeks later, without riding the bike in between with the Kickr v5, got 186w.
Wheel on trainers are not v precise, but they don’t automatically show too much power. They can also show under power.
Make sure you add your weight and height on your Wahoo profile in the app, calibrate it nicely, set up the wheel as said previously, and you should be good to go
PS : Now I will add lastly, my wrong FTP may not have been the fact I wasn’t accelerating slowly, but the state of your tyre, the pressure inside it can make a huge difference without you even “noticing”