I’m encountering similar problems with my new Direto XR when using it with TrainerRoad. Have been working with it for over a month with no resolution. In Zwift it works flawlessly, but with TR once I try to get to power target if feels like it provides no resistance. Using inner chainring and cassette recommendations per DCRainmaker has no effect. For example, I tested with Petit last night. Holding steady cadence @ 90rpm, as the intervals went up the resistance didn’t change at all. To get to the required power I had to increase cadence to try to hold power. So now I’m spinning at 110rpm to achieve the same power I was holding at 90rpm. Next interval I’m now at 125rpm to hold 90rpm power. If I tried to back RPM down the trainer then gets max resistance and becomes impossible to turn the pedals unless I completely stop for 10-15 seconds.
In my experiments I have also tested with Stages power meter, and the reported watts are usually identical, so it appears the Elite is properly measuring my power output, but isn’t applying appropriate resistance. I’m elevating to Elite Customer Support this week as I’ve tried every option/fix I’ve found online without success.; I really like the trainer but if I can’t use it with TrainerRoad then it’s going on Ebay.
The Diretos have certain power “floors” and “ceilings” for different gears…this is especially true for lower power segments. I’d often have to nudge the chain down a cog or two to get it to settle in.
So I’m not surprised you experienced this w/ Petit. I would recommend just trying a larger gear and you should be OK. I would normally run a 53x18 or 19 and then occasionally drop it down to a 16, if needed. Counterintuitively, you can then go back to the smaller gears on higher intensity intervals.
I reached out to TR and they identified bluetooth interference from Stages even though it wasn’t connected to TR. There are a few methods to try and resolve:
Enable powermatch
Use a bike without a powermeter
Distract Stages with something else - like a head unit
I’ve been leaving my bike w/ Stages is in the garage far away from my trainer and the Direto works great now.
Appreciate the insight and I’ll try that. Ironically I tried to test on Petit last night because the jumps are small and thought it might be easier for the trainer to keep up/make the changes.
I’ve been trying it with multiple different TrainerRoad workouts over the last month and get the same result. What tends to happen is that at the start of a given interval I’ll maintain my cadence (90-95rpm) and the power will match for a second or two, but then the power begins to slowly drop with no noticeable increase in resistance. If I increase cadence, the power comes back up but typically after 10-15sec starts to drop again. Increasing cadence brings it back up, but again it will start to drop. And, before I know it I’m pushing 140rpm to maintain 150watts.
With Zwift, it seems to work perfectly, both in free-riding and performing a structured workout.
I played around with “Ven-Top” this past weekend as a test. This felt like a real effort based on climbing here in WV and down in TN/NC and I could “feel” the subtle changes in gradient reflected in resistance bumps. I stopped pedaling occasionally and played with crazy gearing to see how the trainer responded and it seemed to work fine.
Here is a capture from “Geiger”; you’ll see power is all over the place while cadence stays fairly consistent. I wanted to see what would happen if I just maintained my normal cadence (85-100rpm) and not “chase” the power number too much. The power spikes are where I stopped pedaling to see what the trainer would do, and then resistance clamped it down.
This leads me to the conclusion that something is going on with how the trainer is interpreting (or not) the signals from TR. I’ve tried with multiple devices (Iphone/computer) and communication protocols (bluetoon/ANT+) and consistently get the same results Zwift vs. TrainerRoad.
Appreciate the suggestions Treadpedalwalk; the Stages PM has been disabled (removed the battery) so it’s not interfering. But I’ll try your suggestion of enabling Powermatch; that is one protocol I haven’t tried yet.
Thanks for the suggestion; I’ll try that tonight. Enabling Powermatch is a protocol I hadn’t considered. The Stages PM has been disabled (no battery) so it shouldn’t be a source of interference.
I’ve read you reply in this post with much interest.
Is your problem solved (by Elite)?
In the first 12-14 months my Direto XRT worked perfectly fine with TrainerRoad. Since a few months the (visualized) poweroutput and/or the power that I actually need to put on the pedals is completely off, of what it should be according to TrainerRoad.
