Where are you guys putting the difficulty setting in Zwift for the atom mine is at default but I could never get to gear 22!!
Any help appreciated
Hi! I would be interested to see what other people’s feedback on this is also. I am having issues with power output on my V2 atom. On a flat road I can ride comfortably in gear 10 at 200-250 watts doing a sensible cadence. Once I have been riding for a while resistance seems to ramp up until I am down to gear 1 doing 240 watts at 40 cadence.
I also don’t understand why the gear ratios are so hard. I can’t use anywhere near 22 going down the alpe. That is after I have ground my way up there with the worlds hardest gear 1
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Hi. Fellow Atom user. After much digging (Watt Bike said the trainer adapts its ratios to your style which is simply not true) I’ve found the ratios are set to 52/36 and 11/28 so sort of semi compact. They have introduced an 11 ratio option but I can’t find what it is and it’s an option you have to change in the wattbike app and changes it in the firmwear settings so you can not change it in Zwift. My view is the ratios (and I’m a low reving grinder) are too difficult and put even me off the climbs as you end up going up the 10% bits in 1st at 60rpm getting (slowly) passed by people spinning away at 85rpm plus 
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Thanks for the reply, I’ve set the trainer difficulty setting in Zwift to approximately 30% and find it much better it’s like changing your ratio to 50-34, 11-32 if that makes sense 
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Interesting reading these posts, I am new to zwift and have just got my Atom and find that I don’t get anywhere near gear #22. Does this mean I should reduce my trainer difficulty? And also would switching to the 11 gear option for the Wattbike make things any better?
I use an Atom at either 50% or 100% difficulty, depending on whether I’m racing or free-riding. The higher gears feel like ridiculously high ratios to me, much higher than the 52/36 and 11/28 I’ve seen mentioned a few times. I’m a natural grinder and use 52-11 on my road bike all the time on flat terrain, yet I’ve never gotten close to gear 22 on the virtual flat - I think 17 is the highest I’ve ever used outside of steep descents, and I tend to use gear 14 for pushing hard at threshold (around 280 watts). That said, I find the gearing at the low end perfectly fine even at 100% TD - if I turn it down to 50% I end up climbing AdZ using gears 6-10 instead of 1-5 so I’m grinding up the climb no matter what…
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Try reducing the difficulty setting you’re not cheating by doing so you still need the same number of watts to get from a-b it just means you’re in a lower gear so will appear to be easier like changing your cassette from an 11-28 to an 11-32.
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Interesting observations. I ride an Atom and when on Zwift I have it set on middle TD. After reading a different thread on how the TD works - it was clear to replicate their road bikes set up, many riders’ set the TD to 100%. Did this yesterday on the Tour de Zwift ride (Watopia 3 sisters) and it was quite different. As expected I had to sit in lower gears for hills, and for the first 1/3 to 1/2 that was manageable, albeit the watts were lower even when I was pushing what felt like a lot more. Tried to sit between 280 and 310 but it was variable and my cadence was noticeably lower. When the gradient got much more steep going up to the radio tower I was down in gear 1 and could barely turn over the pedals at watts of 220-230. I was full standing and had to stop. I changed the setting back to middle TD and could then turn the pedals over so feeling was back to normal but now the watts sat at a level 30-40 below what my legs felt. I’ll keep playing with it and maybe somewhere between mid and max is the right point for me. (I am a heavier rider…c100kg and grind out the big hills).
Hello fellow Wattbikers - is there any way to find what the trainer difficulty ACTUALLY is/ was at the time or riding or after? I don’t trust the slider in Zwift - on occasions I think the settings have changed and slider is in dummy position.
Is there anything is wattbike logs, hub app, zwift logs?