Been putting in a lot of time on Zwift, albeit on a cheap Merach exercise bike which I had to increase resistance manually. Just received my Zwift Ride with Kickr Core 2, and it feels dramatically different. Resistance almost feels like it’s just stuck at the max, I definitely could be wrong and maybe the Merach just gave me an insanely incorrect sense of my ability level, but I am really struggling to do even a fraction of my power that I’m used to. I’ve updated the firmware in Wahoo app, I’ve tried setting Trainer Difficulty to low settings and even “off”, I’ve tried different virtual gears, I’ve switched from Wifi connection to Bluetooth, but to no avail. I have heard of needing to do spindowns, but that option is no longer possible with Kickr Core 2 based on my research. Does anyone have other ideas or am I just not as good a cyclist as the Merach led me to believe, and the resistance is more true to the actual road resistance one would feel generally using a road bike rather than exercise bike?
I mean, based on my experience with people using spin bikes - yes, it’s likely that the spin bike greatly inflated your results. I’ve seen multiple people go from a mid-A cat to a mid-D cat.
That doesn’t mean that there isn’t something wrong with your setup as well, and also - keep at it, it’s still fun whatever relative speed you’re at.
I would think, the core is more right about your power. What kind of watt are u doing right now with the core?
Are you trying to do a workout in ERG mode or just a free ride in Sim mode?
I’m having the same issue with a new Ride with Core2. I had the Core v1 before and the Core v2 is definitely incorrect. It feels like I’m pushing at least 70-100W harder than what is registering on the screen. I’ve tried everything from power cycling to bluetooth to wifi, even trying Rouvy vs. Zwift. Something is up with the Core2 trainer. I’ve sent a note to support but given it’s Friday I won’t hear back until hopefully Monday.
All-out efforts hit a bit higher than where my Merach was at, but comfortably I’m hitting about 100w-130w on the Core versus comfortably hitting 260-280w previously. I figured there would be a difference but not this different. I guess I just have to accept going much much slower and try to let my pride go about the whole thing. We press forward!
I’m very interested in hearing how that plays out. I honestly feel a bit discouraged thinking it’s probably just that my previous bike was misleading me on numbers, but curious if maybe there’s at least some element of the trainer being stuck too high of a resistance somehow.
For me 280 watts is not comfortable, I set a new 45 minute PR yesterday at 287 watts and it was very difficult. I would tend to think your kickr is fine and you just are now getting accurate power.
Well, if u can ride 260-280W comfortably, (like lower Z2), u would be among the best riders in the world. Since u have never done any workouts, i doubt, that this is the case.
My Core v2 is definitely way off. Hitting ~80W on Zwift feels like close to 180-200W and I’ve biked plenty outside with my power meter to know what that feels like. I wouldn’t care much if it was only off a little bit, but it’s difficult to even have a Z1 or Z2 ride if I’m having to register 40-50 watts on this thing. Seems like there should be an easy way to calibrate this thing but it just doesn’t exist. I’m also having WiFi connectivity issues continually with the unit.
If you have a power meter, use it on the trainer to see how they differ
My use of the word comfortably was definitely misleading - I was hitting 280 watts but that was in like z4 or 5, i just meant like I was capable of maintaining that for a little bit.
I also never said I have never done any workouts? I’m not sure where that came from lol. I do a lot of workouts lol.
Yeah I misspoke when I said “comfortable”, I should have said like, “accessible” or something. Could never sustain 280 watts for 45 mins with the generic bike by any means
I’ve tried both workouts in ERG mode and free rides. What do you mean by Sim mode?
There is no ERG mode in free rides. That’s when SIM mode is what you get. In workouts, you can choose either ERG mode or incline mode.
I have no idea whether your new trainer is faulty or if this is just more accurate power. Spin bikes are mostly very inaccurate and often report excessively high power up to some maximum level where it flat lines, so it wouldn’t be unusual to discover that a proper trainer gives you much lower numbers. But the only way to know for sure would be to compare each trainer to another power meter and see if it matches up reasonably well.
Update for everyone: thank you all for your responses, after using the Zwift Ride for awhile and logging a bit more time with it, things seem to noticeably be improving with it. As my research on discussion boards and reddit has revealed, it sounds like the Kickr Core 2 takes awhile of use to calibrate fully, and although the numbers are super different than where I was at on the spin bike, the resistance feels MUCH different than the first few days of using the Ride, now in a much more reasonable spot that feels more like how I would imagine it’s supposed to. Thanks everyone for your thoughts!
My support contact is saying the same thing. Keep riding it and see if it improves. I’ve logged about 90 mins on it so far without any improvement yet, so a bit strange that calibration would take this long. I’ll keep cranking and hope for the best
Yeah, my numbers aren’t like insanely higher than they were when I first started but they’re certainly more in line with what I was expecting for this transition now, and the resistance feels a lot more variable and how it should be. I haven’t logged THAT much time though so I’m surprised yours still isn’t calibrating more, maybe there’s a broader issue or maybe even the amount of time is variable. Weird.
Isn’t there an option to do a manual spindown with the kickr core? Maybe that doesn’t exist anymore, or maybe it’s not suggested now?