Smart Trainers = vs Watt Bike less power/harder?

Equipment
1

In the last 18 months of using a Smart Trainer all my power values have dropped compared to an FTP I set on a Wattbike October 2017. I have also “offset” my 4iiii PM to match my Smart Trainer - a Direto. I thought others may be interested in they phenomenon.

a) In 18 months of TrainerRoad on an Elite Chrono Fluid I went from 208 to 257w FTP.
b) I moved to a Coach, and six months tested in their facility on a Wattbike - 281w.
c) I spent 3 more months on a training plan with the Elite Chrono Fluid, then upgraded to a Directo.
d) 9 months later - October 18 I tested at 274w on the Wattbike
c) a years training and racing and with a few warmup sessions I tested on Sunday at 261w. It was a messy test, for some reason I find it hard to complete intervals immediately after off season.

All of my power PB’s come outdoors, although I got literally a couple of watts within them over the last few weeks for 2min, 5min and 1 min power.

I just find the Smart Trainer takes more effort and is giving me worse results. I appreciate in some respects it doesn’t matter - we just train to our power whatever it is, but it just feels like a decline and I’m not sure if its equipment related or not.

Anyone else?

2

That’s a lot of different power sources :man_shrugging:

As long as your training zones were set up (ftp test) on the same equipment you run your intervals on then I suppose it doesn’t matter; if you want to compare indoor and out rides then you really need to keep the measuring device the same.

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