My sister has a Spinergy spin cycle and wants to use Zwift primarily for scenery and mental engagement. She manually changes the resistance to generally simulate the terrain slope.
I realize this is not a “supported trainer” configuration, but there is no reason it shouldn’t work for getting basic movement and a no-so-correct speed/power in Zwift. We have put a cadence sensor on a pedal and a speed sensor on the hub of the spin cycle flywheel. They report fine and it all worked great for about a month. Now she is getting the Tire Slippage warning constantly and Zwift will not ride at all. Nothing has changed in her setup.
To make sure the speed sensor wasn’t by chance stretching on the rubber mount strap when up to speed I had her tape it to the hub as well as the standard mounting bands. No change.
In reading on the web, I’m seeing references to if your bike does not match the trainer selected you can get this warning. That’s possibly the cause as there is no selection for a spin cycle as the trainer.
Has anyone gotten such a configuration to work successfully long term?
Any suggestions to try to fix this issue?
Any suggestion what trainer to select that can enable Zwift to be happy with this configuration ?
Hi @Joel_Larner
Unfortunately there is not easy answer and not cheap solution. The problem is that the user can adjust the resistance and therefor zwift does no know at what resistance it is set so they cant have a speed/power curve for the spinning bike. I think the reason she is seeing the Tire Slippage warning is because the resistance is set to low.
One option is a power meter crank or power meter pedals.
A left sided crank arm is probably the cheapest option if it is compatible with the bike.
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I’ll add to Gerrie’s reply, while you might be able to find a cheap, used, power-meter pedal, this is still a multi-hundred-dollar item. On the plus side, power meter pedals are easily transferrable between bikes.
DCR mentions this in his article on using a Peloton (spin) bike with Zwift, and has a list of some likely pedal candidates:
Thanks for the insights. This is what I was afraid would be the case.
She is simply looking to use Zwift to get more mental engagement while on her spin bike. Not really wanting to spend money on the bike or pedals. Before she’d do power pedals, we’d just get a wheel on trainer such as a Kickr Snap and put it on an old road bike. We were just hoping we could do this cheaply on her spin bike already in the house. Sounds like not likely 
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