Power meter using trainer road

I have just brought some power meter pedals in the black friday sale to have power when i am outside.

I assume if i add the pedals to trainer road when connected to my wahoo kickr would i lose the erg mode on the kickr?

No. You can tell TrainerRoad to either use the Kickr of your power pedals to determine power output (it’s called power match). You could still use ERG mode if you decide that your power pedals are your main source.

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Thanks, ill give that a try when they arrive tomorrow.

@shoeyuk I never connect my crank/pedal power meters to TrainerRoad. PowerMatch only gives me headaches.

One thing I make sure to do before a race, though, is several workouts with my trainer power displayed/connected to the TR program and my pedals connected to my headunit. That gives me the chance to mentally note any power difference between my training power readings and what my pedals are going to show me during the race. If everthing is set up properly there will be some difference because the drive train is between the two sources. For me, it’s important to understand the difference so I’ll know how to pace on race day.

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As @PhydomiR mentioned, you can use PowerMatch, which allows you to use a power meter to control the resistance on your smart trainer.

Click here for our support article with instructions on getting it set up with your new power pedals. :slight_smile:

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@Brennus I don’t know what’s going on with your setup, but powermatch has only been fantastic for me, and I’m sure thousands of others who use it. @shoeyuk you should definitely use your knew pedals with TrainerRoad powermatch and have the same power measurement inside and outside - it’s brilliant!

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:rofl: Me neither! Ha! All I know is that after a while it would put me into ‘user ERG mode’ where pedalling gets so hard it makes the rider go ‘ERG!’ and stop the workout. I just know that after a collective couple hours of futzing around with PowerMatch I had to ask myself, ‘OMG, why am I even doing this? What’s the best possible outcome?’ :smiley:

It’s all good. Nobody needs powermatch. All you need to know is the difference between power at your pedal & power at your hub. Just observe proximal to race day and meter race day effort appropriately.

Your outdoor power curve is different to indoors anyway. In fact your outdoor power curve will vary based on environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity etc anyway.

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For sure it can be! But even if your power curve exactly matches, power at the pedal should never, ever match power at the hub. It should be different by 5, 6, 7 watts.

I remember after ceramicspeed acquired frictionfacts I was reviewing some of Jason’s new data & the total drive train loss was something like 60% higher than my old frictionfacts data. I thought there must be some mistake so I emailed and asked about it. It turned out that at FrictionFacts Jason had a rig with a chainring, chain, cog setup. At CeramicSpeed they added a derailleur to their rig. That added several Watts to the drive train power loss.

Drive train losses from the pedal to the hub are non-trivial. And if you think they are matched…then you shift to a bigger gear…and they still look matched…THEN SOMEBODY IS TELLING A FIB! :smiley: Ha!

It’s important to understand that. But, mostly, powermatch just jerked around with me whenever I tried to use it…and even if it worked perfectly I’m not convinced of the utility.