Zwift & Dumb Trainer- gears on dumb trainer

Hi,
I have a dumb trainer (Taxc Blue Motion) which has 10 gears.
When riding on Zwift I have this in the lowest gear & use my bike gears. I presume this is the correct thing to do, if I go up gears on my Taxc my wheel doesn’t spin any quicker & Zwift doesn’t register the extra effort- correct?

Thanks,
Pa.

When you go through the pairing screen on Zwift and select this trainer (I think it’s a supported trainer) the screen should tell you which resistance option to choose (the Zwift set up page seems to indicate the correct setting as 4: Setting Your Manual Resistance Level). And once you do that you should leave it there and then use the shifting on your bike (along with changes in cadence) to change your power output.

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■■■■, so I wasn’t cruising along at 45 kph as I had my manual resistance at 1…

One more thing: I think there are also some specific set up parameters for wheel-on trainers with regard to tire pressure and the ‘friction’ setting between the tire and the roller (i.e. how much to tighten down the roller).

Thanks, I’ll hunt around for that.

Hi Nigel,
I’ve hunted around for this but can’t find anything about the friction. If you know where it is could you share the url please?
Thanks,
Pa.

I’m not sure about all the old trainers, but of the trainers that have a calibration or spin down option, the differences in friction from the tire is accounted for when the calibration is performed.
If a trainer does not have that, then you have to guess.
I recommend tighten till the wheel touches then go 1.5 turns further.
Get on your bike and start to pedal slowly.
Stand up and pedal with as much force as possible.
If you feel the tire slip or hear a slip, tighten up a 1/2 turn and repeat until there is no slip.