I’m still new to using this product but it appears others have also received funny numbers with cadence readings from a Kickr Core. Most prevalent is what appears to be half the actual cadence but other funny readings also show up.
The questions are; why does this happen? How does the internal sensor actually work? and is there anything i can do about it?
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Here’s my best understanding of how direct drive trainers measure cadence. If you’re getting half cadence, that might be because you are pedaling long much harder with one leg than the other. Or it might be because something else is wrong. If you think it’s the latter, I’d contact customer support.
I have also had strange/slow readings.
I bought a wahoo cadence sensor which helped.
I removed it after I was advised to as I was having power issues.
It generally is ok unless I am doing fast accelerations or above 150 rpm and also slowing down from high speed.
I may put my sensor back on.
The KICKR cadence algorithm seems to fail at high cadence—I think over 130rpm or so. I find the KICKR cadence metric responds faster for less high speed cadence, but I switch to an external cadence sensor when I do high RPM drills. Interestingly (at least to me), as my pedal stroke got more even after doing Elements of Style and various cadence drills several times over a couple months, I found that the KICKR cadence measure worked better. Earlier on, I found that the external sensor worked better for lower Rpm too.
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Below is a copy & paste reply that AkaPete gave in another thread. My opinion now is that Wahoo added cadence to Kickr Core as a distant second to power measurement. The sensors or algorithm is not precise enough to give the accuracy desired.
As you’ve surmised, the KICKR doesn’t measure cadence directly. Instead, it analyzes the pattern of your power over time. It assumes that power will be lowest when the pedals are in the 12 o’clock/6 o’clock positions. By measuring the time between low points, it can estimate your cadence.
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