2 people, 2 bikes, 1 kickr snap = erratic resistance

Equipment
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With the extended pandemic my wife has decided to try out using an indoor trainer. I set her up on my trainer bike, adjusted the seat, and showed her how to use the simple wahoo app to control the kickr snap. Tried to put my road bike on trainer to do a TR session today and it was too easy. Then did a spindown. Then it was incredibly hard. Later my wife hopped on her bike and was getting erratic behavior.

I am using a stages PM to control the snap on my bike. On hers she will rely on the snap’s onboard pm.

Any thoughts? Should I do a spin down each time we swap riders/bikes? I have been using this snap flawlessly for the last few years, but only by myself and only with one bike. Anyone have experiences or tips?

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  1. If you are planning to use your power meter on your bike each time, you can rely on PowerMatch (via TrainerRoad or the built in one on the Snap) to set your main power. With PowerMatch in play, spindown calibration is not expressly needed. The apps will set the resistance based on your power meter and you will get consistent results for resistance based upon that power measurement.

  2. For your wife using the Snap as the power data source (as recommended by most wheel-on trainer makers) she should be perform a spindown calibration after a 5-10 minute warm up period. That is meant to establish consistent power (accounting for variation in tire pressure, trainer roller pressure, tire flex and so on) so you will get “accurate and consistent” power from session to session.

    • Some people skip the calibration saying they are consistent with their tire pressure and trainer roller pressure, but I think it leaves the door open for power data errors. What good are these devices if we don’t take the steps prescribed from the makers to have them perform to their best?
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Thanks Chad!

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