Stages SB20 ERG Mode is unusable

Hi

I took delivery of a Stages SB20 smart bike a couple of weeks ago. I bought it to replace my Tacx Neo 2 that is brilliant but we wanted the size adjustability of a smart bike instead of swapping bikes between family members.
I only ever do Zwift workouts with ERG mode enabled and on the SB20 these are nearly impossible to complete. It takes about 30 seconds for the power to settle after starting an interval which is no good on short intervals. Intervals where the power and cadence change are even worse. Earlier I was doing 6 blocks of 6 over unders at 300w at 90rpm for 2mins then 400w for 30s at 65rpm. The power would shoot up to 600w for the first 20seconds of the over which soon got tiring.
My daughter is suffering the same in erg mode and she has had to stop using it for racing due to the lag.
Seems like a common problem which I had read about but didn’t expect it to make the bike unusable.

Any one else had similar?
I’m going to see about returning it (although I have thrown the box away) and will probably buy the neo bike.

…

Have you made sure the firmware is up to date? There’s been various improvements to ERG over time which has made it better than it was. I don’t use ERG very often but it wasn’t that bad. From reading around, ERG mode is much less ‘artifically smoothed’ than a lot of the smart trainers so will always seem a bit spiky.

Also make sure you are pairing zwift to the crank power meter direct, rather than the bike – this will probably help with ERG mode and reduce the lag in racing.

The Stages Facebook page is a useful source of info: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StagesBikeOwnersGroup

Some discussion here too: https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/t/settings-to-make-my-stages-sb20-more-responsive-in-erg-mode-takes-10-15-or-more-seconds-to-get-on-target/80744/24

Thank you both. I have had a read of the links and done a bit of testing. I’m not sure the left power meter is working correctly. It wouldn’t show up on Zwift until I put a new battery in then it blinks green and pops up on Zwift. Then after a few seconds the blinking stops and it disconnects from Zwift. I’m not convinced this is causing the erg problems though as I have found a paragraph on the stages support page stating it may take 30 seconds for erg to stabilise during an interval. What use is that? I would never of bought the thing if I had seen that. Their support seems pretty bad too. I messaged about the handlebars rocking from side to side and have heard nothing yet. Again it seems a common problem that a reply takes literally months.

Are you trying to contact Stages in the US, or Saddleback in the UK who are the distributor?

Saddleback have been pretty quick to respond when I’ve contacted them : https://saddleback.co.uk/pages/contact-us

I bought a Stages SB20 and found the ERG mode quite problematic but not unusable. I just pair the bike and don’t bother with power meters.
When my bike was delivered I set it up myself but it was as dead as a door nail. Informed Stages in the US but nothing, so called saddleback and an engineer turned up 2 days later and refitted all the electrics.
You can turn off in Zwift.
See DC Rainmaker’s review.