Hey everyone, hoping for some help here. Ive read many article on ERG, Resistance and Standard Modes and still cant seem to find the sweet spot while riding. Doing a 3 x 12 min sweet spot ride in ERG mode with the target being 234 watts…i cannot achieve these watts without doing over 100 rpm which i find ridiculous and when ive tried to change a gear its like hitting a brick wall and now im doing 84rpm…there doesnt seem to be a middle ground…this doesnt lead to a good workout? is this me? am i doing something wrong?
Trying Resistance Mode in other workouts seems to be the same issues when trying to hit the same watts ( 234 )…im either in a beautiful gear and can only get to 222 and rpms are 100+ and when i switch gears it goes to 250watts…and yes ive waiting and given it time to adjust, the watts eventually fall to 234…then to 222 no matter how hard i pedal and then i feel resistance back in the pedals and back up to 250watts…this is driving me crazy!
Thanks for the reply. This is using the Trainer Road app with input workouts and with related workouts. I have a Tacx Flux 2 trainer from Garmin. My bike is a 1x 50t chainring with a 11-36 11 speed cassette. Im using the Trainer power.
Set yourself small chainring, middle of the cassette, and pick the cadence you want. Ignore everything else. You’ll see, it will all work out by itself.
Ok - go for one of your easier cogs. Same thing- ignore the power. You’re most probably chasing power by changing cadence. It’s the trainer’s job, let it do it
That may well be true, but doesn’t explain the apparent issue he has in Resistance mode too. (Notably not knowing which gear he is using)
Still too many unknowns at this point to know for sure. I am curious to see the pairing screen and actual workouts.
It may well be that TR support needs to be used since they can see the actual logs and details we will never get even with the device screen & workout info I requested above.
Besides posting a picture of the devices screen in the TR app will you confirm what device are you running TR on? Is the TR the most current version? That no other devices / apps are connected to your trainer? When in resistance mode, what % / level are you using? Is your trainer on the most current firmware?
With resistance mode the trick is to adjust the difficulty so that you are in the right gear when you are pedaling hard. In my case the self-selected cadence at around FTP is about 95–102 rpm. What is yours?
The other thing that works well for me is to start towards the back of the cassette. The smallest gear I typically use in resistance mode is the second-easiest cog in the rear (I’m on 1x as well). When I am at FTP I am then in the middle of the cassette.
Couple random ideas to try before asking support They are really nice and helpful by the way.
If you have a power meter on your bike as well, try turning off power match. I have had similar-sounding issues with it. Just rule out if that might be the issue.
Make sure you have calibrated your trainer. You can do that from the device settings in the TR app.
Im using a Mac computer, everything is up to date and the trainer is calibrated. My resistance is set to 34% and the only other thing that is running during that time is my Epix watch broadcasting my hear rate and it is not also running a workout controlling the trainer. No power match is being run either.
I generally run towards the middle of the cassette to keep the chain straight, also trying to keep the gearing as real as possible. Im not concerned with nay speed readings, just trying to make sure the watts are accurate. Maybe i will set up and random workout at around FTP and try to workout that RPM and gearing. Prob in the same range youve suggested is about where i feel comfortable. Im not sure exactly what my range has been at FTP because i havent really done that test on here due to all these issues.
“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
It sounds like your cadence, gearing etc. are fine.
Did you try a trainer firmware update?
Do you have another ERG-controlling app you can try, like, a workout on a Garmin head unit, or Zwift, to see if the same thing happens? Then you will know if it’s the trainer or the workout software controlling it, and which customer support to contact.
What trainer do you have? 34 % on my Elite Suito would be a lot. I have a higher FTP and I usually set mine to 27–29 %. Of course, this setting varies from trainer-to-trainer. But some trainers have a significantly higher max resistance than the Suito.
As I wrote above, if you run in resistance mode, you should worry about the chain line when you are putting out power near FTP.
On your 11–36 cassette, that should be your 19-tooth cog. However, as you can see from the link, there is a big jump between the 22-tooth and 19-tooth cog that might get annoying. The 16 % jump means that you’d have to change your cadence by 16 % if you want to stay at equal power.
So you might want to add enough resistance so that your ideal gearing is in the 15-, 17- and 19-tooth cogs. For sweet spot and threshold, you want to be in the 19-tooth cog. For over-unders, you want to alternate between 19- (under) and 17-tooth (over) cogs, for VO2max work you want to be in the 15-tooth cog.
One more question: how much experience do you have training on the bike or riding your bike? Usually beginners have a smaller range of cadences that they feel comfortable at. Ideally you want to expand the range of cadences you feel comfortable with.
I’m having similar issues in resistance mode. It seems impossible to hold a steady power even when cadence is held steady. The resistance goes up and down all the time and power values follow the changing resistance. Im not sure if its the trainer itself (Kickr V) or an issue with TR.
I’ve also having occasional issues in erg mode, when the power should change at the start or end of an interval and it just remains at the previous interval’s power level. Sometimes it changes after a few seconds and other times it won’t change at all. Again I’m not sure if this is a problem with the Kickr or TR.
That’s typical of a communication problem between the app and the trainer. The latter does not receive the power setting command from the former, so it keeps controlling at the last power setting.
