Not sure if this is the right place, but recently bought a wahoo kickr trainer. When I tried to do the half monty ramp test I couldn’t hit any power targets because the resistance was so low. the cadence was up at 160 just to hit the first two steps, and my legs couldn’t go any faster any longer. I had it in erg mode as per instructions.
Is that normal? Or am I just woefully unfit?
In ERG mode the trainer will alter resistance to get you to the correct power, you shouldn’t need to up your cadence.
Have you done any other workouts in ERG? Did you feel the resistance change for those?
What gear did you have your bike in for the test?
Did the wattage targets on screen seem reasonable for you? If you have never down any test before the app will put a default for your MAP/FTP and that might be off.
Don’t be afraid to contact the minions for help, they are excellent at sorting out your issues.
Good luck!
Thanks TTDragon.
I had the bike in the most difficult gear but it still provided little to no resistance. The watts looked reasonable. I was able to hit them after it in another workout.
I did a work out at level 2 and it seemed to be fine.
But just on the fitness test I couldn’t get any power up to the targets because the resistance was so low.
Something is wrong. Please provide a bit more info to help us diagnose the problem.
Which fitness test did you do?
Did you see any power on your screen or was it 0 or just a dash?
Did you set the trainer in ERG mode or level mode at the start of the test in the Devices tab?
You might have set something up wrong. Or there might be a problem with the trainer or with your computer/tablet.
Was doing the half monty,
Power reading and heartrate and cadence all appeared correctly on screen, but the resistance was just to low.
Started in erg mode and and only moved to level 2 for the heart rate part of the test
@Brian_M all I can tell you is I encountered similar issues when I first started out w Kickr and Sufferfest. I had something off in my settings, contacted the Minions at their support email and they got me sorted out.
You shouldn’t need gearing for ERG mode (though in general I ride straight chain as much as possible - usually mid ring up front and center-mass on the cassette. Sometimes that’s too much for recovery efforts, so I’ll drop to inner ring).
I agree with @CPT_A — contact customer support for SYSTM. I’ve had excellent service using the online system, but it will be a couple days.
While you wait, I’d try completely deinstalling STSTM and reinstalling it. Also, use the Wahoo fitness app to make sure your KICKR doesn’t need a firmware update. Maybe one of those will solve the problem.
Something doesn’t sound right if you say that you moved to level 2. There are no levels for ERG mode. I suspect you might be in level mode when you think you are in ERG.
No it specially asks halfway through the half monty to move from erg mode to level. The ramp test should be done at erg, then the heart rate bit should be done at level.
I will email the customer support and see what they say. Was hoping there was a simple common issue that I was missing.
Trying out the 2 free trials to see which is the best systm or Zwift before u subscribe. Both have had a few bugs so far.
Sorry it’s just that you said you did a workout in level 2, so though you were doing everything in level.
Nope. Did the workout after the fitness test. I still had a full tank 
I have no idea how the kickr works but we once thought our trainer was on its last legs because the resistance was all over the place. It was sorted with a new $50 cable from the PC to the cadence meter which sits on the floor under the bike. I think asking the minions to trouble shoot is a great idea.
Thanks for all your help and time folks.
I just decided to stop been a pussy and to do the full frontal test. Even though for new and novice riders the half monty is recommended by the app. A few comments on further research suggested getting a 4DP number will help the erg work right. So will try an erg workout tonight and see how it goes.
Anyways now to do a load of cycles to increase my FTP.
Thanks again for taking the time and replying to my thread.
Given the ratio of your MAP:FTP (1.3:1) from your diagram, you may find any increases you attempt to make to your FTP hit your MAP ceiling, as the two are closely related.
You may wish to consider increasing your MAP first before going for big FTP gains.
Boom!!
