I am writing as I have a FTP of 328. I have re calibrated my Kickr with on the Zwift home page and within the Wahoo app. When I free ride or join a race I struggle to get to 328 watts even when in my top gear and spinning at 100-120 rpm. My biggest frustration is that when I start a free ride I can sometimes get the watts to 380 but then it seems to be stuck in ERG mode and brings me back down to 220. I have not been getting the full benefit of the app and would like some assistance. I am running it with a 2015 MacBook Pro should that impact anything. Please can someone help as I am finding it incredibly frustrating and looked at all the relevant threads but nothing seems to assist my issue.
What’s the gearing of the bike you have on the kickr?
Ant+ fe-c will increase resistance compared to Bluetooth.
Sounds like either you have a low gear bike (eg gravel or Mtb), or another device (eg wahoo app) is controlling the slope or difficulty of the kickr, your have trainer difficulty at 0%, or your kickr needs wahoo support attention (dodgy unit).
Thanks for responding. I am running ant+ and bluetooth but will check again tonight and quantify what difference it makes. In terms of bike I have my Focus Izalco Pro III race bike with compact gearing. Trainer difficulty is set at 50% and moved it to 100% yesterday following reading forum posts but makes limited difference except for on the hills which is what it is designed for.
I have tried manually intervening by putting the wind resistance up on the wahoo app and then this seems to change the base resistance for a while but eventually this resets itself (hence why I was able to complete an FTP test and get 328). However this can not be the long term solution and if you are racing and going full gas then it is impossible to sign into your phone given the sweat.
Would you advice speaking to Wahoo as well?
You should be able to ride zwift without needed to start the wahoo app. The wahoo app could be a hindrance here. Try to unpair the trainer from the wahoo app. Properly close the wahoo app. Pair the trainer to zwift via ant+. If there’s no difference and you still are spinning out then I’d be contacting wahoo.
Using the wahoo app to add resistance to the trainer for extra power is a bit of a hack, you can do it but you shouldn’t have to. For example you could pair trainer to wahoo as controllable and adjust power/erg on that while sending only power to zwift (that loses the hills in zwift tho and is a pain to adjust on the app as you say).
Hi Michael, have you been able to sort this issue out?
I bought a new kickr and am having the exact same issue. Resistance works perfectly fine in erg/workout mode when the power is set but in free ride or a race the resistance is so low i’m spinning out…
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Same problem here…
Welcome to the forum.
Tell us more about your system and the problem. What is your bike gearing?
Same here.
Resistance is too low. On IOS and MacOS. I spin out at around 350W on a 53/11.
I hear it is better on ant+, but can’t put it to the test.
Hi all
Same issue for me with KickR V5 and appletv, gears 11-28 and 53/39.
I set the incline resistance to 100%.
The experience on zwift is not so good, the resistance is either too hard pedaling in force (53 with gears 11 to 14) or too soft spinning in the void 
The power curve is not correct especially for flat route.
So I prefer to use TrainerRoad belong to zwift for my free ride which are not so free …
Cheers
Try increasing the tension on your Kickr belt, although a little at a time. If the belt is too loose I’ve seen a loss of resistance. Likewise if its too tight, you get to much resistance. This may help.
Thanks for suggestion. I played around with the tension this evening. Any tighter and it whines something chronic. Wahoo spindowns are around 28 seconds so from I have gleaned on the internet, that does suggest belt tension is low, however I can’t make it any tighter due the deafening whine. Perhaps some bearings or similar are borked.
Its reported that many kickrs leave factory with belt very tight which hastens the demise of the bearings. The good news is they are fairly simple to replace. That said, wahoo have a good rep for support. Worth an email.
Hi All,
I have two different wahoo kickrs, the first gen works ok in both ERG and non ERG free ride. The second gen kickr works well in ERG but in free ride I spin out at 150w. My FTP is around 4,2w/kg and gearing 52/11. My troubleshooting has led me to the problem that it’s not Zwift app settings but the kickr itself. The comment that belt tension needs to be checked is valid.
