Last week I got on my kickr snap to do an easy ride, and found myself gassed yet the wattage showed me only in Zone 2. After calibrating several times nothing seemed to change, with my perceived effort being much higher than the wattage would suggest.
I then proceeded to compare against my Assioma UNO power meter, and noticed a relatively large discrepancy. After having done a factory spindown on the Snap, I set the trainer to 100w via the app. The pedals read consistently over 150w.
Fast forward to today, another ride on Zwift and again the same discrepancy both against my perceived effort, and the pedals. This time for a set power on the trainer of 110w the pedals read between 150-180w.
I understand there are drive train losses from the pedals to the trainer but it doesn’t explain how it is so much harder to get to my Zone 2 power as compared to a couple of weeks ago. I hope (and think) I am fitter than when I did the ramp test that set my power zones.
Is this a common fault when trainers get to a certain point? Is it worth contacting wahoo to get it replaced?
I was experiencing the same phenomenon with my Snap vs my PowerTap pedals for about the last month. My pedals (which I’ve had for about 5 years and I think are reliable) were consistently reporting 30 - 50w higher than my Snap. It forced my to do workouts in level mode with an eye on my computer while my PC screen displayed that I was missing all my targets.
I got so frustrated that I disconnected my Snap and pulled out my dumb trainer for about a week.
I set things up again and this time when I did the calibration I made sure no other Bluetooth devices were on (no PC, no TV, no speaker, no bike computer) to avoid the risk of any interference. After calibration, I turned on my bike computer which was reading from my pedals and magically the power was comparable again (generally within about 5-8w of each other).
Honestly, I can’t explain why they drifted apart or why they got back together, but I’m hoping their relationship stays strong.
I’m in a good spot now but I’ll be watching for a more technical explanation of what I should be doing in the future.
BTW, my Snap is the more current version with the 2 LEDs.