“Zwift support” seems to be them referring folks to this forum and hoping fellow Zwifters figure it out.
Just tried to do a free ride on zwift Wahoo KICKR v5 and latest Apple TV but the gradient changes and power levels where erratic so abandoned ride
I’m still getting issues within free ride on zwift using the kickr v5. I feel like it’s only getting worse as well. Just no smoothness of riding and constant resistance surges no matter what the gradient is. Power just spiking all over the place. The same happens whether I’m connected used bluetooth or ANT+. It’s ruining a lot of races of Zwift 
After successful runs using my Samsung S10e instead of Apple TV, I decided to give the apple TV another try. To give it the best chance of success, I first did the following:
- Removed a cadence/speed sensor that is not needed with the Kickr Core.
- Moved my fan about 1 foot further away
- Turned my phone off.
I then started up the apple TV and Kickr Core. I did a long free ride (The Mega Prezel) to check that nothing showed up later in the ride. This set up worked just fine. Even the fan did not affect the workout. Next I will try a ride with the phone on and the companion app running. Hopefully, my issue was due to the first two items on the list.
The other thought is that when recalibration is needed, it should be done at the end of the session when the Kickr is warmed up and the blutooth connection to the Wahoo app will not be lingering to mess with Zwift. If I need to calibrate at the start of a Zwift session, I’ll restart my phone after recalibration.
Did a second free ride with no issues. This time, I also ran the companion app. Just to be safe, I turned my phone’s blu tooth off for the session. So, I think my issue is resolved. (fingers crossed)
Trainer difficulty 100% and driving a 10% uphill drive with a ratio of 50/11 is not enough for me to twist my legs. When I am doing a descent there is resistance to the hill. Why is the reverse of the resistance ??? I have the same. Sometimes it’s ok, but it’s more like the opposite of the slopes. If you set the Trainer difficulty to 100%, you can’t race. Uphill races totally broken!
When will Zwift COMPANY fix it?
Wahoo kickr v5 + Apple tv the latest update
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I feel your frustration, and it’s good to know that I’m not the only one experiencing these resistance issues. Do you also have cadence spikes where the RPMs will suddenly shoot up to 140+ then drop back down at it just repeats constantly?
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Cadence spikes, probably not. I found it to be the opposite of the shape of the terrain. Have you written to zwift ?
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Yesterday I started a group ride (without any warm up) and the resistance issues started almost immediately and kept going throughout the 2 hour ride.
I then stoppet, quit, unplugged Kickr, and started everything again and did another 2 hour group ride with no issues.
Kickr V5, Apple TV and Companion app.
(I have never seen any cadence spikes.)
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perhaps we have slightly different issues but the resistance problem sounds very similar. I have emailed Zwift about this so hopefully I get some advise soon. I’ve even tried rolling back the firmware version of the trainer but unfortunately that didn’t change anything.
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A few days ago I wrote to Zwift. They know the problem and admit it. But they can’t locate it. Yesterday a zwift update was released, I wonder if something will improve.
Hey Artur, I’ve updated Zwift to the latest version but I’m still having issues with the resistance, just no smoothness to it at all. My cadence readings are also still completely out with every few seconds the cadence spikes to 120+
It’s a complete mess, doesn’t matter which device I run Zwift on either, these issues occur no matter what. I know there is no other interference now as all possible devices that can interfere have either been switched off or moved away so it’s no where near the trainer.
This may be obvious to you so forgive me you already tried this. I was having similar trouble with a new Wahoo Kickr Core and Apple TV 4k. As a test, I switched back to running off my Samsung S10 and it worked after I recalibrated the Kickr. My ultimate fix (I hope) is: turn bluetooth off on my phone prior to turning on the Apple TV or my Kickr. I had also removed an extraneous bluetooth cadence/speed sensor that I no longer use. I think that I needed to recalibrate when I first switched back to Apple TV. (In this case turn the bluetooth back on to run the calibration. Then turn off bluetooth and restart your phone. Turn the Kickr and apple tv off for about a minute before turning back on.) Over the last 10 days, so far so good, but I have only done free rides and a couple of workouts. I haven’t tried group rides or races.
Piling on to report that I’m seeing this same issue. I feel like I’ve seen it a handful of times in the past, I’ve had my trainer for over a year, but with the latest update it’s happening almost every other time.
Here are other posts I found today with the same issue, it’s just happening a lot more frequently now. I removed the http prefix since the forum won’t let me post links.
I posted to this thread: Wahoo Kickr & Climb out of sync with Zwift course gradient changes - Bugs and Support - Zwift Forums.
This seems to be the same: Elevation (grade%) does not match Trainer Resistance - Bugs and Support - Zwift Forums.
And this too: Kickr Climb not syncing properly with Zwift rides - Bugs and Support - Zwift Forums.
I thought this issue was behind me, but had a very interesting session with the 10-12 Week FTP Builder Week 4 Day 1, running Kickr Core in Erg mode with Apple 4k TV.
the workout called for a 12 minute warmup, 6 x (6 min at 155W and 1 min at 115W) finishing with a 10 minute cooldown. I observed the following:
- the Kickr took a while (probably a minute or so) before reaching 155W in the first 6 minute segment.
- The power remained at 155W through the following 1 minute segment where it was supposed to drop to 115W for one minute.
- Some time (1 to 2 minutes) into the follwoing 6 minute segment which called for 155W, power dropped to the 115W for a minute or so before going back up to 155W.
- Each subsequent step was longer previous one. e.g., the third 6 minute segment at 155W was about 30 seconds longer than the second 6 minute segment. This continued so that the Kickr was about 4 minutes late going into the final 10 minute cooldown step.
The power readings produced by the Kickr seemed accurate and there weren’t any spikes or other issues. This was an easy workout, so my cadence, etc. was pretty steady. It was interesting to see the consistency in how much longer each segment would be. It also seems that this may provide clues to the resistance issue. (on the other hand, it may also just be a different problem)
Unfortunately for me, the most recent update is when the issue started. I use a Kickr18 with a 4th Gen AppleTV, and I’ve never had any gradient issues until this most recent update went through at AppleTV. Now, I’ve experienced it on my attempt to do a Saturday ride and my rides this afternoon–my Sunday ride in Innsbruck was issue-free. I’m going to try turning bluetooth off on my iPhone for tomorrow’s ride (it’s the only bluetooth device other than the AppleTV) and see if that helps.
But man, is it frustrating! And going into winter when I’m going to be using Zwift the most!
I observed that my BT heart rate sensor connects quicker than the Kickr and I also observed dropouts on the heart rate. Since a while I disconnect the heart rate sensor in the start up screen and connect it only once the Kickr is fully connected. I did not have reverse gradient or dropouts any more with this setup. Mabe a trick worth trying…
I’ve been noticing this issue again over the last few updates, where resistance is out of sync with the gradient.
For example, today I had barely any resistance on a 10% gradient.
Something I’ve noticed, in case this helps track down the bug, is that the issue seems to start after sudden changes in gradients.
Not having seen the game’s code, I can only guess that it is as if a lagged variable hasn’t updated (or drops update in state) and then causes a dependent delta variable (change relative to some baseline) to fall out of sync with perceived resistance in the game.
By way of experimentation, on the above mentioned 10% gradient I changed to my highest gear and spun up to a sufficiently high cadence to get the wattage up a bit, and then the issue seemed to resolve (temporarily). i.e. once there is a big enough change in wattage it is as if the above lagged variable finally updates and then the deltas are back in sync.
From my side I will not pay for Zwift as long as they don’t fix it. I will try other providers and check how it works with them.
Wahoo KICK v5 = Apple tv 4k
I had this error again with incorrect resistance. This time in training. I have noticed that this happens mainly when shooting at a standstill before a race and meetup. However, this is not a reverse, but rather a shift in time. I noticed that it is as long as it took about 2-3 minutes to move the resistance from what it should be. During training, I saw a 600w task and the ERG kept the next task at 200W. I was not able to pick up 600w because it was holding 200w ERG. The initial 200W task I got halfway through the resistance at 600W. Everything shifted. After the meetup training was over, the shift shifted to the terrain. When I went down the hill, I had about 3 minutes to go down. Everything shifted backwards.
However, when I turned the trainer off and on, the resistance returned to proper synchronization.
However, during the race I cannot afford to restart the trainer.