Zwift iOS and the Phantom 5

The Cycleops Phantom 5 is bluetooth controlled.  Does the new Zwift iOS finally provide controlled resistance to this indoor cycle?

YES.

I’ve seen no announcement of this, but I tried it out on my own and IT WORKS.  Very kind of them.  These are some weirdo edge-case trainers that not a lot of people have purchased, so it makes perfect sense for this to have been very low on the priority list.  I would not have faulted them at all for only supporting more popular trainers, of course.

i tried it last night and it is working, finally. i was using my ipad air, and except for some issues at lower power - as jerry suggested below 200W it was “hunting” to provide proper power to the resistance unit so smooth pedaling is really required in order to minimize this issue. other than that - it is working just fine - as it should have a long time ago… i am extending my subscription with zwift after this discovery. i just have to purchase bluetooth HR strap, in order to have my HR read by the ipad… 

Does this only work erg mode? So you set a power range and it will adjust your resistance to keep you at a specific power level.

I only use erg mode as I use training plan by Zwift… I think Jerry tried non-erg as well and can share his experience in that setting… 

Right.  I shared on another thread but happy to recount here.  I tried non-erg mode and I found that it did something other than straight “gradient mode”.  I’m not sure what it is but I noticed some behavior that made it more useful that true gradient mode.  For example, when pedaling along at a fixed grade (flat) and RPM, you could “sprint” and while true gradient mode would just change your speed linearly with RPM like a single-speed bike. this did something like virtual shifting in a way, and increased the resistance dynamically so you could end up at the same RPM and a much higher wattage.  Call it automatic shifting.  Anyway, without knowing the details of what I observed, I can tell you that the end result was that it was possible and enjoyable to ride around the entire “island” including negative grades and hills of over 10%.  On the steep hills I was able to keep a decent climbing cadence like 70rpm and do about 250w and 6mph.  On the downhills I was able to keep some resistance on the pedals and get up to close to 40mph.  If it was true gradient mode this would not have been possible; I would have have either stalled out on the climb or I would have spun out on the descent.

It’s good.

I searched for more info on this, and I found that I apparently noticed and reported this 2 years ago - so it isn’t specific to the Phantom.  It is a Zwift thing.  Back then it was with a Kickr.  Zwift does something special in non-erg mode.  I hope they weigh in and explain one day…

https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/201086445-My-setup-and-erg-v-gradient-mode

 

Thanks for the info