I’ve joined the local gym and was quite excited to find they had watt bikes.  (I have powermeteres / wahoo kickr so used to training with power)

I was pretty surprised to find they don’t appear to have any type of erg mode?  I was expecting to set the power to a certain amount, or to use and app or something to upload a training session and then for the bike to control the power.

From what I can work out, I have to manually set the resistance with a lever and then pedal, is this is the case?  If so a right pain for short interval work, and when working hard probably not really viable.

Is it a case of user error / not understanding?

The only thing I see it being useful is training for a more efficient power distribution with the little hour glass thingy.  Any thing else I could use it for that is better than my kickr at home?

That is the more expensive one I think.

I’ve used them with Sufferfest on the effort scale but you can link that via the app to it

Friend of mine has just bought one, he loves ERG mode and hasn’t mentioned anything about missing it…think it’s the Atom

maybe it’s the older / cheaper model then.  shame.  I’ll prob use a bit for the pedal dynamics thing but stick with the kickr for intervals

We have 2 of the older ones at work, one with and one without a power meter. As mentioned above the Atom is the newest one and has an erg mode.

I’ve used the one with the power meter for trainer road and it soon becomes second nature to adjust either of the resistances although still a bit of a pain.

I’ve always been curious as to whether a Wattbike is actually a concept2 Rowing Ergometer with pedals, a quick google shows both companies based in Nottingham..

I’ve always been curious as to whether a Wattbike is actually a concept2 Rowing Ergometer with pedals

Not sure, but the Concept2 BikeErg is a rower with pedals.

I use quite a few different watt bikes (I travel with work so joined a gym that has them in multiple locations).

Sufferfest is my app of choice, I manually increase the resistance. To me this is just like changing gear, its quick, I know the resistance / setting for what cadence / power I need to use. But that’s possibly because I’ve been using them for years.

Going slightly off topic…I use the Sufferfest 4DP training and for me it works really well. I race on the road, I find it great for interval training. Nine Hammers and Revolver are sessions I start doing leading into the racing season. At the moment I’m mixing it up with Blender (Mini Version) and Butter.

I don’t think I’ve ever thought that I would like an app to control the power, but then I’ve never used one so could be like DI2, thought why spend more when changing gear is easy enough, tested / bought a bike with DI2 and now I wouldn’t go back to manual gears!

With the ERG mode, when the app goes to 120 cadence, max watt sprints, how quickly does the bike recognise this and change the resistance? No chance of you starting to early / late etc? Starting early, any chance of doing an injury with sprinting while in a lower gear?

I only know erg on my kickr.  you can sometimes get a problem if you time the power wrong.  too fast and you can outspin the power increase too slow and it can grind to a halt.  it’s very rare and I suspect it might relate to a dropout of signal

has anyone found they used the dynamics thingy to improve their pedal efficiency? did it make much difference? what drills did you do?

I’m between this and a few other bikes such as the Life Fitness IC5 or Kettler Racer S. Would be great to hear opinions.

well I’m not impressed for an expensive bit of kit.  my kickr and zwift / trainerroas is much better.  but can’t use them at lunch so putting up with it.

DT78 I’m thinking that something with a larger flywheel would be better like a life fitness ic5 or Kettler Racer S. Wattbike is only one that seems to control the resistance from Zwift however. Not sure if that is important.

Wattbike is only one that seems to control the resistance from Zwift however. Not sure if that is important.

As per my reply in your other thread, having a controllable platform makes Zwift more immersive. It means that when there’s a change of gradient in game, the resistance at your pedals increases, just as when you hit a hill in real life. Without controllability, there’s no increase – or decrease – in resistance at the pedal, you, your avatar that is, simply goes more slowly for the same level of effort. Sure, you can increase the load by changing to a higher gear, but it’s not quite the same. I guess ultimately it depends on you.

Is there any way you can try Zwift on a smart trainer? You could always use it in full controlled mode to start with, then turn the difficulty slider in settings down to 0%, which, I think, would mean it ignored the gradients, so would feel like a non-controllable trainer.

Thanks BWD. No one I know has a smart trainer. I’m getting a bit fed up of this. Think I’ll buy a £100 bike from Argos and watch Netflix instead of all this complications.  🤪

It’s  only the newer Wattbike Atoms that have ERG mode.  I was looking at buying on recently but there seems to be loads of issues with them.  Especially for short intervalls.  Wattbike recomend long steady state intervals for a reason it seems….!

Decided to stick with my old trusty Kickr.

The new Tacx Neobike looks interesting, if you have money to burn

I’ve got my finger hovering over the buy button on the Wattbike Atom page, but I’m wondering if bit of a subjective question I guess).

i would be likely to use the on board apps as I don’t fancy spending £20 a month on Zwift etc.

I belong to a gym and can go to spinning classes each day if I want – is there a benefit of having a Wattbike over going to a spinning class?

four – if you cycle Zwift is the way to go. Turbo and power far more beneficial than spinning. Erg and power makes you work way harder. Great for structured work outs. Zwift is the icing on the cake, fun, group rides, races etc. It keeps you working. Boredom is your enemy with aps. Ive tried them all. Plus I dont see the point in paying out £1500 then baulking at cost of zwift 🙂 Id take a lesser turbo option and use zwift if money was a problem. Look on the forums Zwift changes training like night and day.