The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Annoyingly it looks like you have to regularly amend the 'Prefs.xml' file if you want to ride a different map/route to that scheduled? :(

Not a huge PITA but was hoping I could just add them all in once and be done with it! :p
 
It looks like only the first tag will affect which routes/maps you see. I've left all 3 in there and then just move whichever 'world' you want to the top before opening Zwift :cool:
 
Bear said:
Got £300 worth of Wiggle vouchers for Christmas so I bought a Wahoo Kickr and no moaning from the missus at all :p not that she moans anyway to be fair.
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Nonsense. Swapsies? Women, not Kickr's :cool:

First go on the Kickr yesterday. Not sure if happy with it.
If I want to just control the resistance on it manually do I need to use the Wahoo Fitness app? I am using with Zwift which is great for the FE-C stuff wehn needed, but yesterday I was doing low cadence intervals so didn't want to use the FE-C element of it as wanted to maintain a set power @ set RPM.... Also, power from it is over, way over! Either that or I have magically gained 20 watts somewhere at 60RPM over the last 3 days.

I updated firmware and performed a spindown.
 
xdcx said:
Nonsense. Swapsies? Women, not Kickr's :cool:

First go on the Kickr yesterday. Not sure if happy with it.
If I want to just control the resistance on it manually do I need to use the Wahoo Fitness app? I am using with Zwift which is great for the FE-C stuff wehn needed, but yesterday I was doing low cadence intervals so didn't want to use the FE-C element of it as wanted to maintain a set power @ set RPM.... Also, power from it is over, way over! Either that or I have magically gained 20 watts somewhere at 60RPM over the last 3 days.

I updated firmware and performed a spindown.
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Odd, are you checking it against a proper power meter? From reading DC rainmaker the power is supposed to track pretty much spot on to a Quarq and P1 pedals.

Yes you have to use the Wahoo app if you want to manually control the resistance to hold "x" watts.
 
Bear said:
Odd, are you checking it against a proper power meter? From reading DC rainmaker the power is supposed to track pretty much spot on to a Quarq and P1 pedals.

Yes you have to use the Wahoo app if you want to manually control the resistance to hold "x" watts.
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Yeah I have Garmin Vectors and use a Wattbike regularly. I haven't had to alter or change zones between these 2 as they are very very close and I cannot notice a difference. But with the Kickr, I was pushing 20 watts more average on the efforts, ended up with a higher TSS and the session was nowhere near as tough as the same session on Monday on the wattbike, which resulted in lower watts average and lower TSS therefore.
 
I get a 20-30w discrepancy over my P1's with the Vortex but it's indicative of my road power. But if you're getting 20w above road power from your KickR that sounds odd.

Shame John Lewis don't do cycling related items as we had a bumper year here so was handed an additional £500 gift card yesterday :) that or my employer should have gone to Wiggle :p
 
xdcx said:
Yeah I have Garmin Vectors and use a Wattbike regularly. I haven't had to alter or change zones between these 2 as they are very very close and I cannot notice a difference. But with the Kickr, I was pushing 20 watts more average on the efforts, ended up with a higher TSS and the session was nowhere near as tough as the same session on Monday on the wattbike, which resulted in lower watts average and lower TSS therefore.
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I was thinking earlier, did you get the kickr2 or the 1st gen one? The reason I ask was that the 1st gen unit used a strain gauge which was unreliable and prone to damage giving unreliable numbers whereas the 2nd gen one measures torque off the flywheel so is more reliable. Either way, they are supposed to be +/- x% accurate so you could speak to Wahoo to see what they can do for you.

Edit: apparently you can use your external power meter to control the kickr as well although I have yet to try my one out.

You can set up the KICKR to be controlled by an ANT+ power meter. Go into the Wahoo Fitness App, pick the KICKR under sensors, turn on "control with ANT+ power meter" and enter the ANT ID of the power meter. You can also choose "get candence from ANT+." That takes care of it.
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Bear said:
I was thinking earlier, did you get the kickr2 or the 1st gen one? The reason I ask was that the 1st gen unit used a strain gauge which was unreliable and prone to damage giving unreliable numbers whereas the 2nd gen one measures torque off the flywheel so is more reliable. Either way, they are supposed to be +/- x% accurate so you could speak to Wahoo to see what they can do for you.

Edit: apparently you can use your external power meter to control the kickr as well although I have yet to try my one out.
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It's gen2 I got after seeing DCR's review the gen2 seemed a good bit quieter and they made a lot of improvements. Also, there was like £30 difference so the gen1 was pointless :p PS the gen2 is bloody loud, that high pitched whine is not good for your ears surely, lucky I can't do riding indoors without headphones because if I had to listen to that it would be going back.

Going to jump on the Kickr shortly. I'll do another spindown and have the Kickr speak to Zwift and my Vectors speak to my 810 to see the difference.... I would seriously be OK with my Vectors being 20w too low this whole time, but the Wattbike is properly consistent with my Vectors which makes me believe the Kickr is talking poo.
 
Would be interested to know how the KickR feels relative to a Wattbike?

Spent longer than 5 minutes on one finally (90 yesterday) and despite the equivalent BB looking/being a bit wider than my hollowtech 2 the overall feel was lovely and the closest thing (in my limited experience of turbo's other than a CycleOps Mag and my Tacx Vortex) that I've felt to the road.

My P1's read on par with no major discrepancies which did confirm for me poorer inertia costs watts.
 
xdcx said:
PS the gen2 is bloody loud, that high pitched whine is not good for your ears surely, lucky I can't do riding indoors without headphones because if I had to listen to that it would be going back.
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I cant believe how noisy the Kickr is and its supposed to be quiet !! The Kinetic road machine was far quieter.
 
The old 40" 7 Series Samsung LCD is being moved in to the garage this morning to be my 'Dungeon display'.

The garage is unheated and not particularly air tight so exposed ever so slightly to the elements. A quick google suggests it should be fine and I was planning on covering it with a blanket when not in use.

Are there any other precautions I could or should take? Thinking about it my Vortex is just sat there...:o
 
BennyC said:
Would be interested to know how the KickR feels relative to a Wattbike?
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I'll do a better reply once I use my Kickr more as I ended up going out for 60km instead yesterday. BUT, the Wattbike feels good, I was very taken back by how road like it feels but there are a few niggles with it for me and the main one is that low cadence work is pretty naff on it or out of the saddle work.... You always, always seem to be on top of the gear and then when you adjust the dial on the right for more magnetic resistance it goes from being on top of the gear to insanely hard with barely a quarter turn of the thing. For example, doing <60RPM power efforts, I had the left resistance lever at max and the magnetic resistance knob was about a quarter turn from max... I'm a 60KG little lad only putting out 280watts and I'll be doing those efforts at 320watts in a couple months so I seriously think the WB won't have enough range in resistance for these efforts :(

90RPM+ stuff including efforts etc feel superb on the Wattbike, I don't imagine the Kickr will top it but I don't expect it to feel "worse" really.

My coach is saying yesterday thought after I was posting that he really thinks Wattbikes read low. He has a few blokes switching between them from a range of PM's and says majority of cases they are reading lower. So it could be the WB that is throwing off everything for me right now regarding power readings.

The standard saddle on the WB is horrible. Truly bad. And some utter rocket keeps taking his own spanner to the gym and adjusting one of the WB's so its nose of the saddle is pointing to the sky. Everyone hates him with a passion, he must have NO balls.

Also, if using your Garmin with one in the gym. Switch bluetooth off on your WB. Other people come in and start pairing phones to them for their 15min "workout" and accidentally pair with your one, and therefore cancel your entire workout on the WB. Some lady done it to me 3 times, 2 of which were during my 3rd and 4th efforts on a 90min session so lost the data completely.
 
I'm going to have to buy an ANT+ USB stick as I've lost mine - can anyone recommend a cheaper one than the Garmin? Or do I really need to stick with the brand. Got an Edge 800 that I want to use with a Vortex Smart.

Clearing out a space in the (freezing) Garage in anticipation. Getting excited about the incoming pain!

@Roady as I know you have one, whats the PWM like on it? Pretty accurate?
 
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platypus said:
I'm going to have to buy an ANT+ USB stick as I've lost mine - can anyone recommend a cheaper one than the Garmin? Or do I really need to stick with the brand. Got an Edge 800 that I want to use with a Vortex Smart.

Clearing out a space in the (freezing) Garage in anticipation. Getting excited about the incoming pain!

@Roady as I know you have one, whats the PWM like on it? Pretty accurate?
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The Suunto stick is generally the go-to for Ant+ dongles.

Roady doesn't have a regular PM so he can't really compare. BennyC has a PM and a Vortex and has reported some discrepancies iirc but you're best off checking his posts. Might just be that he has lower power indoors vs outdoors.
 
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