I picked up a smart trainer the other day (Tacx Flux s) and I’m attempting to make the swap from my dumb trainer (Kurt Kinetic Road Machine).
All setup issues aside, I just can’t get the same feel or resistance. For example, attempting to do Wynne today, the resistance floor adjusted for the required power to do the sprint efforts was way too high. Also, the high power efforts felt like pedaling in sand and didn’t feel anywhere near the same as my fluid trainer. So far, I haven’t been able to get erg mode to work. Would that fix my problem?
On the mud thing, what gear you’re in makes a difference in feel. The bigger (faster) gear you are in, the faster the flywheel spins and the increased inertia can give a more road like feel.
Do you have a power meter? If not, there is probably a big difference between the virtual power you were using and the Tacx. IF you have a power meter, there is still probably a difference.
Make super sure your power meter if you have one and the Tacx are regularly both calibrated.
Use power match in TR if you have a power meter. That takes the power reading from your PM to run the trainer resistance.
FWIW - I switched from a Road Machine to a Kickr last fall and it was a bit of an adjustment. the feel was great but you definitely can not cheat on your FTP or the workouts are too hard. I like my smart trainer but it lopped about 20 watts off my FTP
Forgot to mention I do use a power meter and haven’t used power match as of yet either. So far, little ring and big ring set to resistance mode the resistance hasn’t had a slope to it. It’s consistent which is throwing me off.
PowerMatch turns on automatically, any time there is a smart trainer and power meter paired. Are you saying that you went into the device options and turned PowerMatch off?
Yes, I was under the impression that in resistance mode it should be turned off. So, I’ll try there.
Also the wattage floor causes an issue where when set for my smallest gear combo to be the recovery interval power, my biggest combo results in a power below a semi high power (<450 watts).
