Using the new Kickr Smart Bike: The wattage appears to “freeze” until I just stop (and it drops to zero) on some of the workouts/FTP tests.
For example, during the Zwift 101 Ramp FTP Test (The third workout of the package) the power reads fine for the first ten minutes (warmup phase), but as soon as I hit the starting line (the “hold 100 watts for one minute” phase), the wattage just sits at 100 watts no matter what I do. If I keep pedaling until the next phase which starts a minute later ("Hold 120 watts for one minute) the the meter jumps to 120 but stays there no matter what I do (except when I completely stop it does to zero).
I have tried rebooting/setting/pairing everything to no avail.
Free rides seem to work ok, though.
Thoughts? Is this a Zwift issue? A Kickr Bike issue?
Hi Bradley!
Welcome to the Zwift Community Forums, we hope that you feel at home here!
This is actually how ERG mode works. You have a target wattage, and your trainer will apply the resistance needed to hit that target at your current cadence, so if you raise cadence, your resistance drops, and if you lower cadence, your resistance raises. Your trainer will do it’s best to keep you at the target. With the FTP Ramp Test, it’s recommended to just find a comforable cadence and keep going, your trainer will slightly raise resistance with each interval till you eventually start struggling to go. Just keep going as long as you can to get your FTP result.
Once your FTP is set, when you do workouts, they are all % of FTP based, so an accurate FTP is key to maximum usage from the workouts. They also use ERG mode the same way, so if your FTP is 200, and the interval is ‘80% of FTP for 5 minutes’ your resistance will auto adjust based on cadence so you are putting out 160W for 5 minutes. ERG also ignores incline and decline, so you can just focus on your target wattage
This is opposed to just selecting a route and not doing a workout, or a ‘free ride’ where Zwift uses SIM resistance mode, which simulates the incline and decline of the virtual map.
You can check out this page for more details about Workout Mode and this one for more details on ERG Mode.
Looking forward to seeing you on the roads of Watopia!
Ah…lol…the joys of being a newbie. That makes sense. THANK YOU!!!
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