A review of some smart turbos over at cyclingtips…

The best indoor smart trainer: CycleOps vs. Elite vs. Tacx vs. Wahoo Fitness

Bit of an odd review, not quite sure how they rate the Kickr as top, given how they say it’s not as good as the other turbos on feel or power measurement. Must be those adjustable feet!

Think I might have just won C in the WBR one lapper. I like short flat races like that, they suit my disposition.

Confused me there for a minute, I won the 19.40! Slightly faster than your race as well. Short flat races definitely suit me as well, can happily hang in there for 15 minute before my body gives out.

Back to the slow burners tomorrow, but couldn’t resist mixing it up a bit.

I held the A/B group until about 3/4 of the way up the short climb off the river. Got back to within 4-5m but they just pulled away. Was a B cat that got dropped as well so I drafted him for the rest of the race as it was 45s or so back to the next group and could see the two C’s that stayed in the lead group were likely to be DQ’d so didn’t seem a lot of point in pushing it too hard.

Sounds a very similar format Jambo. We had the first three C’s across the line upgraded but they were a long way ahead, I was with a group of B’s but got dropped on the climb off the river too.

I just had a sprint against another C, think he thought he had it in the bag with 100m to go as he just sat up, I cranked it up, beat him on the line as he couldn’t get going again. Think that’s the first sprint finish I’ve won.

Well I buggered that up, 4.0 average!

Here’s hoping I get upgraded rather than dqd. Was pushing as hard as I would have had I entered in A, certainly couldn’t go any faster 😀

Here’s hoping I get upgraded

hope not, no-one likes a sandbagger 😆

Haha touché.

AVG HR of 170 there, don’t think I can be accused of holding back.

Sounds like a cracking night/evening all round guys 🙂

Not bad for someone who has no power Scaled 🙂

Rest day here so will have to make do with reports and write ups from you lot.

I’m going to jump on a WBR 1 lapper on Thurs though.

This is the most encouraging thread on STW 🙂

I might head out into the real world for some snow cycling today, just for giggles. Zwift wise, my numbers are about the same as they were last week, and you’ve all reminded me that I need to get some races in.

Did the Kiss wake up race yesterday morning, was horrific. Alarm set for 7 minutes before race start, hopped on the bike with 22 seconds to go having not even had a sip of water. Turns out that’s not conducive to mustering any power, exacerbating my breathtakingly unfit state!

Stayed with the leaders for about 2 minutes, decided that was silly when my heart nearly exploded, cruised between a couple of small groups and sat up for the sprint for a stellar result of dead last in B. Managed to get 204bpm and an average of 186bpm. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that. Might try eating something before doing that again.

Njee that is impressive hr stats,if my heart did that it would end up splattered all over my ipad!

Some great results the last couple of days, STW starting to dominate the scene.

and sat up for the sprint for a stellar result of dead last in B

Wow… considering what sort of a rider you used to be, that’s well… quite eye-opening ?

Yeah, yeah, thanks for the reminder! 😉

It’s pretty shit; new job meant riding dropped significantly in 2016, then had a baby, lost interest a bit, other hobbies came to the fore, usual story. It’s a funny thing really (without this wishing to be a humble brag/sob story) but because I used to be really fairly quick just being “alright” was a bit depressing, friends got faster than me, so social riding stopped being fun.

Rode my MTB once last year, and did fewer than 200 miles total in October/November/December combined and all of that was commuting (into Central London, which isn’t the most fun).

Need to get back on it (hence Zwift at 5.55 on a Tuesday morning), got far too fat, riding does make me happy, otherwise it’ll get to summer when it’s a pleasure to be outside and I’ll be really unfit and won’t enjoy it, and that’s a bit of a vicious cycle.

Anywho, I’ll try eating something next time, maybe strive for the middle of category B!

I think it’s time for me to face up to some cycling truths that are becoming more and more evident.

It doesn’t seem to matter what question I ask of me or my bike, what races I enter, Zwift, Enduro etc it seems the answer to the questions always ends up as ‘do some bloody intervals’

I might have to do a ‘plan’

Good news is that I should have some CVR points coming my way.

Did the Kiss wake up race yesterday morning, was horrific. Alarm set for 7 minutes before race start, hopped on the bike with 22 seconds to go having not even had a sip of water.

I can’t imagine anything worse, I’m impressed you even attempted that!

Yeah, yeah, thanks for the reminder!

It wasn’t supposed to be as harsh as it may have come over as.

Back in the day when you were racing Elite at Gorricks, you were one of the untouchables, one of the blokes I’d think “Sheesh, that’s just unthinkable”…. For me to now sit here and think “I’d probably have beaten him today” is just crazy bonkers to me.

I can’t imagine anything worse, I’m impressed you even attempted that!

I’ve done loads of races where i end up signing in with a minute/2 left before the race and it seems to work arguably better for me. Possibly because the HR then takes the first 4-5 mins to get up to the peaks, whereas if i start from a higher HR i’m peaking sooner…

Weeksy, it’s more the 7 minutes after getting out of bed that I’d find abhorrent.

just being “alright” was a bit depressing

Welcome to my world 🙁

Welcome to my world

It’s all relative isn’t it ? You’re far better than ‘alright’ in my world Kryts, you’re certainly quicker than me… and i think i’m ‘alright’… But then compared to an Elite, you’re only ‘meh’.. but the Elite compared to Nino is ‘meh’….. So it’s relative.

All you can be is the best you are and enjoy what you/we are doing, whether it’s on Zwift or outside, you have to accept your place in the world and the grand scheme of things, otherwise it all becomes too much of a chore

just being “alright” was a bit depressing

#goaveragegooften

Right, someone talk to me about Smart Trainers. Right now I’m trying to maintain 300w average intervals but the fact that the terrain is changing and my effort / cadence is not reflected by the landscape seems to make the constant watts mentally challenging

I think I need something that makes a hill feel like a hill.

Or is it me and I need to adjust my technique/head?

the terrain is changing and my effort / cadence is not reflected by the landscape seems to make the constant watts mentally challenging

I think I need something that makes a hill feel like a hill.

Or is it me and I need to adjust my technique/head?

I’m not dismissing smart trainers (they’re great IMO) but changing your gears would achieve “much” the same. At least worth trying first

All you can be is the best you are and enjoy what you/we are doing, whether it’s on Zwift or outside, you have to accept your place in the world and the grand scheme of things, otherwise it all becomes too much of a chore

Ha yep, lifes ladder etc. I am enjoying my training this winter (mostly) despite some of it being very challenging indeed – Swift has really helped. I’m getting nervous about my first competitive race at the end of Feb and what worries me most is if I get through this – and I am showing improvement by numbers – and don’t improve my placings my head might drop. Still, I have help for that.

Smart trainers make it harder in some ways to maintain on Zwift, because when you hit say a 1% drop, then your 95rpm and effort suddenly drops from 300w down to 230w so you have to up the cadence/gear to maintain… but by the time you’ve done that it’s back to 0% and you’re now at 350w as you’ve changed cadence/gear….
What it does mean is that on certain courses you can hit higher W for longer, e.g up box hill you may average 350w as you’re climbing…. but down the other side you may only hit 100w and it all evens itself out.

Taking a break for Events in Zwift, the strict rules regarding w/kg and so on are irritating, stopping at the top of leith hill for 10 mins pissed me right off but felt like i had to stick to the rules and wait for everyone to not piss anyone else off and be polite.

Instead, doing the 4 week FTP booster workout, can fit this in around work and family time so it works for me however, there is a gran fondo on sunday which has thrown a spanner in the works…unlocks a limited edition jersey which i think i must have. Anyone else doing it? Gonna do the bambino route for time purposes, supposed to be a garden weekend with the mrs

Right, someone talk to me about Smart Trainers. Right now I’m trying to maintain 300w average intervals but the fact that the terrain is changing and my effort / cadence is not reflected by the landscape seems to make the constant watts mentally challenging

Eh? In Zwift? Just change gears? You want changing terrain, you want to need to maintain a power with changes in cadence and gear, you want to be able to cope with the little accelerations and decelerations.

Or is it me and I need to adjust my technique/head?

Probably you.

I’m not dismissing smart trainers (they’re great IMO) but changing your gears would achieve “much” the same. At least worth trying first

I am doing that as I have cadence targets too. I am riding that in 54/13 to achieve the cadence target, its just the visual thats messing with me. Maybe its me then.

Oh right I see, so dumb trainer but the visuals making you press harder on hills etc. Yes found this too. Don’t look at the screen 🙂

I think I need something that makes a hill feel like a hill.

if you’re using workout mode, I think Zwift might ignore terrain. If you’re just doing intervals manually, yes a smart trainer feels better/more realistic but as said you could just adjust gearing yourself to get the effect. Having Zwifted with both dumb & smart trainers though, much prefer smart.

Or go the whole hog and get that Wahoo thing that actually inclines your bike, can’t get much more realistic than that! 🙂

and I am showing improvement by numbers – and don’t improve my placings my head might drop

How much can you realistically expect it to improve by though ? How far ahead is the guy 5 places higher than you… if it’s 30s over a 1 hour course then maybe… .but if it’s 5 minutes, then are you expecting more than is likely to be possible

Taking a break for Events in Zwift, the strict rules regarding w/kg and so on are irritating, stopping at the top of leith hill for 10 mins pissed me right off but felt like i had to stick to the rules and wait for everyone to not piss anyone else off and be polite.

Do a race, or a TT – no waiting, hint of competition; all good fun

yeah some mental adjustment needed. Its going to be worse soon as I’ll move outside as soon as and when I can and my outside/inside power has a 12% differential.

Vis a Vis I have some VO2max efforts at Hadleigh on Sunday 😐

It wasn’t supposed to be as harsh as it may have come over as.

Don’t worry, I knew exactly what you meant, and no offence was taken! Even if it was you made up for it by referring to me as “untouchable” 🙂

In fairness you need to take some credit for that too – it’s easy to use others as a baseline but the reality is that both you and they can change.

I’ve done loads of races where i end up signing in with a minute/2 left before the race and it seems to work arguably better for me.

Yeah, I’ve never been a “warm up” kinda guy, was definitely just the lack of food/drink before that meant I had nothing in the tank. I contemplated a gel before hand, but that just seemed ludicrous!

Right now I’m trying to maintain 300w average intervals but the fact that the terrain is changing and my effort / cadence is not reflected by the landscape seems to make the constant watts mentally challenging

So you have a dumb trainer which isn’t changing the resistance and it’s messing with you psychologically because you expect it to be getting harder because you’re going uphill? If you’re wanting to do intervals at x watts then I’d say a smart trainer is actually frustrating, the change in resistance makes it quite difficult to hold a consistent wattage. If I’m doing something where I want consistent wattage I’ll turn off the smart trainer stuff.

FWIW I’ve got a Tacx Vortex and it’s alright. The power reading is way out, but seems to be consistently out (gonna sell my P1s because I effectively have two incomparable data sources for power and I’m doing no riding outside where power matters), the resistance changes are quite abrupt, and it takes a good while for you effort at the pedal to be reflected on screen, which I find means I’m prone to ‘yo-yoing’ through groups, takes a while to get used to how much effort to put in to avoid shooting straight past. I’d love a Neo, but they’re just too expensive.

he change in resistance makes it quite difficult to hold a consistent wattage.

I actually prefer it, as all you have to do is maintain a consistent cadence. YMMV

Do a race, or a TT – no waiting, hint of competition; all good fun

Yeah I will do once I’ve got myself in a decent fitness position after this 4 week workout. Sitting halfway between D and C I think, who knows. Guess i’ll have to race and see what happens!

How much can you realistically expect it to improve by though ? How far ahead is the guy 5 places higher than you… if it’s 30s over a 1 hour course then maybe… .but if it’s 5 minutes, then are you expecting more than is likely to be possible

Its not like that. For a start, as you know MTB is very variable. Rather than focus on places (I know I stated that) I’m focussing on my race performance. So its comparable lap times vs 2017 where possible, average lap times, RPE and so forth. Also, I know the people around me from previous years so I can compare from that perspective.

To give you an example I did a “test” race in December at 98% VO2max for the duration and was in the mix of a bunch of riders all of which where 1st, 5th, 7th and 8th in their Eastern League series finishes in 2017. I finished 4th. Now, I’ve no idea where they are in their fitness, but that felt like an improvement to me.

there is a gran fondo on sunday which has thrown a spanner in the works…unlocks a limited edition jersey which i think i must have. Anyone else doing it? Gonna do the bambino route for time purposes

If the forecast snow arrives then I’ll probably end up doing this.

The bambino is the 3 sisters which I actually quite enjoy. Takes roughly a hour and a half.

gonna sell my P1s

OT – might be interested, I’m looking for a cheap 2nd hand pedal for my TT bike end of Feb. I do mean cheap though as its only used a few times year, so if it is cheap drop me a line? 😀

I actually prefer it, as all you have to do is maintain a consistent cadence. YMMV

The exact opposite is true…? Maintaining a cadence whilst the resistance increases means that your power goes up.

I want to just be able to maintain a constant cadence, hence turning off the auto resistance changes. Not talking about Erg mode, which I understand varies the resistance to keep you at the required power, but the resistance changes in response to the terrain.