I’ll keep it brief/easy
I’ve had a Kickr V5 and a Quarq DFour that I use for all my indoor training rides working perfectly the last year and a half. (typically within 1-2% of each other, on major power spikes like sprints maybe 5% difference only).
For some reason recently the Kickr has started to read wildly lower (or perhaps the quarq wildly higher). sometimes 35-40% off !
I reached out to both Wahoo and Quarq, have followed all of their troubleshooting steps. Full factory reset, calibration etc. Wahoo has even replaced my Kickr (the new one is showing the same issue). And have a new Quarq I’m installing today!
Assuming I continue to have this issue any other thoughts/insight or help?!
Appreciate greatly any advice
I have to imagine you can feel the difference between 15s at 268 and 462. Was this a totally steady endurance ride or did you do a hard 30sec push up at hill at some point?
The fact that the two different kickrs agree have me leaning toward Quarq being the issue. Kickrs are the standard in accurate power IMO and when they’re not accurate the factory calibration (the hidden one for the V5 that I assume Wahoo walked you through) usually solves any issue.
I did a sprint during that, good eye! and yes did the hidden factory spindown but sadly didn’t alleviate. Hopefully the new Quarq solves it but I’m quite discouraged atm!
I had a teammate with a Kickr power issue who just kept doing the hidden spindown until it was fixed. I want to say it took him three or four tries. Maybe worth a shot? His discrepancy was only 5% or so though. This is something way worse. Makes you wonder if there’s an issue with the connection to Zwift…
Maybe pair quarq to Zwift and Kickr to Bolt and see if it’s the same discrepancy.
I mean just one ride but instead of Kickr as the Zwift power source and Quarq recorded to Bolt, reverse that. You won’t have anything paired as controllable for Zwift but that’s fine for a test ride.
My and friends experiences with quarq is that its a overpriced, hyped shitproduct because the wattage so often is off by like 8-15%. When people ride outside they tend to not notice things like that. Tried many PMs and I´ll never buy a quarq again sadly. Theres many PMs that so much better out there. Stages dual, SRM, INFOCRANK and ofc favero assioma
Interesting development
The replacement quarq seems to read much much closer leading me towards the quarq being the issue not the kickr ! Will keep testing
Overall figures are difficult to use as they’ll be skewed by the recording device. If you’re using Zwift with BLE to record one meter and the BOLT with ANT+ to record the other, the start-stop power ‘events’ will be different. Even if you’re recording the same power meter the numbers will be different for mean max data. Dive into Zwift ‘sticky watts’ for more details.
ok so if I got this all right.
1- my original quarq was no good and needs to be replaced/fixed . Hence the insanely high readings.
2-my replacement kickr and quarq combo are working as designed, however there will continue to be a discrepancy because the quarq will send sticky watts vs the kickr , likely resulting in the 3-5% differences I see.
My only question is that it seems sticky watts are mainly when sending to zwift, and since I’m using the kickr for zwift and the quarq to my bolt I’d think it’d be less an issue.
Like GPLama said, don’t look at the average numbers because slight hiccups in the data throw that off and you can’t see what’s going on. You have to look at a graph of the data to see if they align most of the time and what the type of issue is.
word, have started to play around a bit with the DCR Analyzer for further insights. Will try a great ERG workout compare tomorrow to see how things go. Appreciate all the help!
Did a factory spindown on the new Kickr, and Zero’d the replacement Quarq and a great ERG workout (thanks for Shane for the tip)
here’s where we ended up…
still appears to be about 5-8% differences in general but perhaps that is OK.
will just have to bias up my Kickr 3-4% for workouts I suppose.
It’s a great question! It’s a two month old cassette and chain. And while I don’t clean the cassette that regularly I definitely clean the F out of the chain and rest of bike frequently
