The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Soldato
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I tried the SST (Med) on Zwift last night and failed horribly.

Either I’m more unfit than I thought or there’s something wrong with the power calculation with my Elite Volaire Mag.

I was in the hardest gear pushing as hard as possible and I couldn’t break 250W.

Zwift wanted me to hold 275W for 5 minutes and I simply couldn’t do it, then it wanted me to do 360W for 1 minute and I had to stop because I couldn't break 300.

The thing is, I had it dialled in last winter so I don't know if something has happened to the Turbo in the meantime…

I guess I'll have to drop my FTP in Zwift so it doesn't ask me to hit such high wattages for the SST?

Can I use this to justify getting a Kickr? :D
 
Soldato
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Too tight means the read may very well be affected.

Equally you shouldn't need to eat anything at all, let alone such a large amount for such a short workout. Presumably you would have eaten in the day, something far smaller would have sufficed :)

I don't eat breakfast so then I eat lunch early - 12 noon, then I don't eat dinner till 7pm, so I figured I needed the snacks 40 mins before starting (at 6.50pm).

The calibration was green - it was within limits - but the bar for me is always towards the "too tight" simply because anywhere near the middle of the scale and I can flick the wheel into wheelspin with my hand with little effort - it's something other Vortex users have noticed that since a firmware update getting the calibration needle in the middle just means instant wheelspin.
 
Soldato
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I don't eat breakfast so then I eat lunch early - 12 noon, then I don't eat dinner till 7pm, so I figured I needed the snacks 40 mins before starting (at 6.50pm).

The calibration was green - it was within limits - but the bar for me is always towards the "too tight" simply because anywhere near the middle of the scale and I can flick the wheel into wheelspin with my hand with little effort - it's something other Vortex users have noticed that since a firmware update getting the calibration needle in the middle just means instant wheelspin.

My mistake, I misread as 'past' the too tight marker for some reason. Used to have Vortex myself.

Fair doos, I'm not dissimilar, Intermittent Fast (about 10 years now) so usually eat around noon-1PM and have a small snack about an hour before riding. 'Flapjacks' are quite broad though, could be the small 'bites' supermarkets sell at 70 calories each or full on 120g whoppers at 650+ calories each ;) 2-300 calories is usually sufficient for tough workouts 60-90 minutes in duration I find.

Then again, after a little conditioning, I can ride & perform reasonably on a fully fasted moderate intensity 4hr~ ride.
 
Soldato
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Many reasons.

I have a power meter already.
I don't want to use either of my existing bikes. (More wear etc)
Turbo would he super faffy to set up
Takes up more space
Louder
Neo is £1k is it not? I'd happily pay the 500 extra for all of the above convenience.
 
Soldato
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I think wear is a bit of a moot point truth be told, the cost of replacing consumables would be considerably cheaper than bridging to the Atom.

KickR can be had for close to £800 on occasion.

Sometimes you have to ignore your head and scratch the itch :cool: enjoy the wait :p
 
Soldato
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I agree wear is not a big del at all.....it's more the faff of setting the bike up on the turbo. As I wouldn't have the space to permanently leave it in situ. I can move the Atom to the side of the room when finished, and move it back again when I want to 'ride'.

I haven't told the misses yet anyway, I'll have 3 months to think of something lol!
 
Soldato
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£1500? ouch.

well my Tacx Booster is ready to run now. Cost me £30 after some spare Amazon balance.

Went dumb in the end, figured if I want to go Zwift I can get an ANT+ dongle and use my Garmin sensors.
 
Soldato
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the faff of setting the bike up on the turbo. As I wouldn't have the space to permanently leave it in situ. I can move the Atom to the side of the room when finished, and move it back again when I want to 'ride'.

I haven't told the misses yet anyway, I'll have 3 months to think of something lol!

Tbh those would be just enough reasons for me, if I were in your situation and had been considering it for a while.

Currently I lug all my gear (Kickr, Bike, Mac, Water) out to the garage 15m away. I could leave most of it in there but I prefer not to. Would save about 20 minutes otherwise but it doesn't bother me greatly and I'm not that time crunched.
 
Soldato
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So far I'm less than impressed with the Neo.

This morning I tried to do a 45 mile Zwift ride and it just wasn't happening.
- The Neo was paired with Zwift but there was no Neo resistance changes.
- Gears are all over the place on the Neo : I spent a couple of hours trying to sort them on Friday but they still jump and click like they are out of sync. I bought a new cassette and chain in the hope it would improve but no.

So I lost an hour+ riding time and was forced to go out in the pouring rain :mad:
 
Soldato
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i guess thats a hazard of the cassette based trainers, theres no guarantee that the axle spacing is going to be 100% match to your wheel and/or its dish.

on the flip side, tried my cheapo tacx booster out for the first time this morning and very pleased. just need to sort some better ventilation, got a bit toasty.

G9rOdse.jpg
 
Soldato
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It was paired as a controllable trainer and not a Power Device right?

For now I don't bother with re-indexing on the KickR as I'm mostly outdoors so I just pick rings that are 'best' and leave it in ERG. Recovery spins I'll have a quick index tweak as I usually stick it on % resistance as the inertia is higher, therefore kinder.
 
Soldato
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Yep - I have my power meter paired as the power device.

I think you'll need to enable power-match in order for your trainer to be controlled by your PM. TrainerRoad has this feature and it took Zwift quite a while to deliver it but they did relatively recently.

I'm not too familiar with the option on Zwift but sounds like it'll create the bridge you're missing.

Pair the Neo as the PowerDevice & Controllable Trainer and try it. Should come to life.
 
Soldato
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I did a race last night, great fun - loved it.

Only problem is that I got disqualified - you couldn't use time trial bikes and I kinda skip-read the rules. Oops. :p
 
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