Wattbike Atom - NY

General Discussion
1

Hello,

My first post so apologies if it is in the wrong forum :slightly_smiling_face:

I have always ridden Zwift using my Tacx Vortex, never had any problems and enjoyed the worlds of the last 2 years. I recently upgraded to a Wattbike Atom to tackle this winter, and on Watopia it does feel like a significant upgrade.

Riding around NYC at times is brilliant and the steep hills along with the drops have also provided enjoyment. BUT, what I am finding at times is that sometimes when riding NYC you hit a hill, the resistance takes a second to hit the bike, then by the time you’ve adjusted your gearing you are already on a small down hill so again change down a gear and then can hit another small ‘mound’ where you are doing the same thing. You end up spinning out or the opposite and almost locking up.

I hope this all makes sense and I just wanted to know if;

A) It happens on everyones turbos and not just the wattbike
B) If zwift have maybe put a little too much detail in and there is no need for the up and down short hills randomly placed
C) If anyone has a fix by adjusting some of the Zwift settings to make the Wattbike more compatible?

Thanks in advance

Matt

2

Just to add, you also can’t hold any sort of Watt stability when cycling in workouts. Again is this normal for Atom users?

3

Hi Matt, I use an Atom and have a couple of comments:

  1. I don’t notice a delay exactly when hitting hills, but did initially find it quite/overly volatile with up/down sections. I found ramping down the trainer difficulty to 25/30 % in Zwift settings massively smooths out the experience. Maybe slightly less realistic in terms of small undulations but much nicer riding experience.

  2. Re workouts, I do find the watts vary quite a lot (whereas some of the graphs of others posted online for a given interval are millpond flat. However, I think the watt volatility I experience is probably realistic in terms of the output I am producing. Certainly doesn’t impair ability/enjoyment of workouts and I completed the recent Zwift Academy training successfully.

I was a bit sceptical before buying the Atom given what I’d read online, but had it 4 months now and with a few tweaks to settings I think it is great, both in Wattbike Hub and Zwift. Hope you find the same.

Dan

1 Like
4

Thanks Dan, I’ll give it a go.

Bit of a shame you need to adjust the trainer difficulty to get it to respond well though.

Cheers