Wheel on Trainer Calibration with Power Match?

Equipment
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I’ve listened to most of the podcasts and took a quick look around the forum but hadn’t seen anything that addresses this:

  • Should you perform a spindown calibration and maintain consistent tire pressure / resistance wheel settings for a wheel on trainer if you’re using a power meter with power match?

The TR team is pretty adamant about keeping variables the same with wheel on trainers (tire pressure, clicks on the engagement wheel etc) but not sure if this diligence is required for if you’re using a power meter. I think it’s no as the power meter should be able to compensate but wasn’t sure if maybe having a spindown would help limit the amount of hunting that power match seems to do.

Any thoughts or experiences one way or the other?

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You don’t need to calibrate if you are using PowerMatch. But Nate mentioned that calibrating may help make it more stable and predictable, if the power data from the trainer is more accurate.

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To my understanding, those are concerns for virtual power users. If you’re using a power meter and zero- offsetting it each time you ride, I don’t see why it would matter.

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  • This has nothing to do with Virtual Power.

The PowerMatch feature ONLY works if you have a Smart Trainer AND a Power meter.

The OP doesn’t state a specific trainer, but the comments about spindown calibration imply use of a Wheel-On smart trainer, like a Snap, Magnus or Vortex.

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Yah I didn’t think it was necessary but using a Vortex Smart with a left-side only Stages power meter.

Seems like keeping the trainer calibrated might help make power match work better which meets my understanding of it. Was a bit lazy and skipped the spin down this morning, so don’t feel too bad about it.

Thanks!

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