Wattbike atom

Bugs and Support
1

Has anyone had issues with Power on a wattbike atom. My old turbo on zwift the power would be quite stable but on the atom it’s all over the place. Very frustrating.

2

Hi @harry_finnigan welcome to Zwift forums.
Shuji at ZwiftHQ here. I’m looking at your Feb 18 session and noticed that your iPad is running v.1.0.43801 of the Zwift game app

Would you try updating the game app? We’re on a version a couple generations newer now, so Iet’s rule out older version errors.

3

hey @shooj thanks for the response. I am training tonight so will do that. I hope it works as i much prefer Zwift to the Wattapp.

4

@shooj I updated the app and did a work out and its the same. One minute i could be doing 400W then drops for 170W but I am doing the same power.

Thanks

5

@shooj Have you had a chance to look at this?

6

Hi @harry_finnigan
To give us more to troubleshoot - please let us know what modes you’re in when these power fluctuations happen?

  1. During structured workouts when the ERG mode is in effect?
  2. During events (weekly races or Tour de Zwift, etc)
  3. During a free ride when SIM mode is in effect?

Thanks for updating the game app. The last ride I’m seeing on our server was Feb 25. Were you experiencing this on that day?

If so - would you send us some files from your iPad to look at? We’ll want the log files and FIT file from that day. Here are instructions to locate them.
Please send them to support@zwift.com. In the body of your email, ask for Shuji and copy and paste the URL of this forum thread.

I’ll forward them to our QA team for further investigation.

7

Yes same problem with recently purchased atom.

8

Snap (delivered on Saturday). Any solutions before I send this thing back. Just tried the Beta Firmware and still the same. Stand on the pedals and resistance goes. Sit back down and you’re struggling to turn the pedals at 400watts +.

9

@Paul_Morris4355 Reason to the resistance goes is due to erg mode. So when start pedaling it kicks in. This is normal. However, I still think Power jumping all over the shop is not

10

Did a ride today and still too much or too little power, really hard to keep consistent. Customer support said I could wait for the lockdown to finish and they’ll send an engineer out.

11

is it ok on watthub? Mine is fine on that just not on zwift

12

@Richy_Baker

13

Yes it’s easier to be consistent on the watthub app.

14

Think I might stick to watthub. The zwift app is not stable on my iPad for some reason.

15

Also having massive issues with new wattbike and zwift. Really miss my old turbo trainer already.
I use Windows 10.
Firstly the resistance wasn’t working, and the resistance is ridiculously heavy if I stop during a ride. I found a solution to this via another thread. I now connect to blutooth via companion app.
However I am noticing on work out mode that the watts do not stay at a very consistent level. They are jumping as much as +/-30watts when keeping a steady cadence. Also, if you stop for any reason, the resistance goes so high, you cannot physically start riding again!
The wattbike has been a nightmare thus far.

16

Same issues. The strong resistance seems to be overcome with pedalling. Power meter still all over the place. Tried reinstalling the app to no avail. Seems to crash on races. Only stable on free rides and training.

17

@Zwift Support Team have you got any ideas?

18

I have just taken delivery of an Atom and am suffering exactly the same, works much better in the Wattbike app but is all over the place on Zwift. I have tried setting the power metric in settings to an average of 3 seconds, there is no change when doing this whatsoever

19

Having just took delivery of a wattbike atom this week, thought I’d share my initial impression (3 workouts on it this week).

First time using it in erg mode (my first time ever on an erg mode trainer) I thought it was broken… however having done some research it’s worth watching this video, explains it quite well: Indoor Cycling Smart Trainers: ERG Mode Explained - YouTube

“Spiral of death” is where you drop the cadence too low (or stop entirely) during an erg mode workout, with higher power targets (250+ watts) it’s almost impossible to get back up to 90+ cadence without ending up in a max effort while the trainer adjusts. I tried disabling erg mode in zwift menu, not yet found a consistent method to get going again in this scenario. Erg mode is supposed to disable after 20 secs when you stop, then get going on.

Workouts seem harder on the wattbike atom when in erg mode compared to what I was doing before (rollers + pedal power meter on road bike). I’m putting this down to a few things:

  1. Room the wattbike in is hotter (I am using a fan)
  2. Not quite yet dialled in my position on the wattbike compared to road bike
  3. I swear to god the power output is under reporting on the wattbike, therefore I am having to push harder… I have no proof of this yet, but the efforts feel 20-30watts higher than they would otherwise on the rollers + my heart rate is higher on same workouts done on rollers, some of this will be room temp, but not all explained by that. Is this because the bike is adjusting for in game gradient changes? Perhaps I should turn down trainer difficulty?
  4. The power output on the screen does chop around a bit in erg mode, again is this the bike adjusting for in game gradient changes?
20

Here is a review of your device that goes into great detail which you may find helpful. Wattbike Atom In-Depth Review | DC Rainmaker