So my Son is a new ‘Wahooligan’. His experience thus far is less than stellar. He is currently in his free trial but when he is doing the workouts, he finds he ‘spins out’ quite often. He has the latest Kickr v5, heart rate monitor but no cadence monitor ( the new Kickr doesn’t require it?). Several attempts to get help from the minions has thus far been unsuccessful. Any suggestions? Thank-you!
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No he shouldn’t need a cadence sensor, the Kickr will report cadence to Systm.
Two basic questions:
- Is he using ERG mode? If that’s working correctly then the resistance should be controlled by the trainer and he shouldn’t really be able to spin out
- What is his FTP setting? (if it’s far too low he might spin out, I think)
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I was going to ask the same question.
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So yes he is in ERG mode. He seems to be spinning out during recovery sections of the workouts?
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My guess, like @bukharin is that his default FTP setting (and other metrics) is too low. There are a number of other things to check too.
- make sure the Kickr is registered and paired to the Wahoo Fitness app (can only be done in iOS or Android and that is a separate app at this time). This will ensure that any firmware updates have been applied.
- make sure there are no other apps open and trying to steal the connection (I’m assuming Bluetooth, but this also holds for Ant+). Other apps include the wahoo fitness app which should be closed (and forced closed not just minimized)
- what platform is being used? Windows,Mac, iOS, Android. Be sure the latest version of any of these is also being used.
- make sure the latest version of SYSTM is installed too.
Spinning out during recovery sections? Well most recovery sections only have you spinning at 80-90 rpm. Are you saying that he’s running out of gear even at that? If so, he might be in too big a gear. If he is in the big ring and small cog for an interval then is dropped to a recovery interval the flywheel will be spinning fast and wil need time to slow down to a lower resistance. As a general rule, in ERG he should be in the small ring mid cassette to prevent this from happening.
Let us know if any of this helps Sir @ronburgundy !
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Thank-you Sir @Glen.Coutts . I shall report back!
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I often “spin out” at the beginning of recovery sections if they also call for reducing cadence. Not sure “spin out” is the right word, but I either have to reduce cadence slowly or wait for the flywheel to slow down in a spun out mode before I have resistance. (Or I cheat and slow cadence right before the end of the interval and then ERG mode slows down the flywheel for me!)
Check whether that’s what he’s experiencing.
If others never experience what I described, I wonder what I’m doing wrong!
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Yes that’s pretty normal, especially if the cadence in the interval was high. Here’s an extreme example of my power curve from Cadence Builds - the recorded power drops to zero after 5 of 6 intervals despite me still turning the pedals.
Me too. I figure it’s the same sort of cheat as increasing the cadence just before a big jump in power 
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Is he new to structured training? It might be that he feels he should be working harder in the recovery sections than he is, so is increasing his cadence, in erg that will decrease the resistance and so he will increase his cadence… bit like the exact opposite of the erg spiral of death! Alternatively his numbers might be way off, or he’s in poor gear combination for his power/trainer - but the Kickr can cope with a lot of things so I doubt it’s that.
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If he’s in ERG mode, just have him slow his cadence down to the target. The trainer will compensate the resistance for him.
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I had this issue when I first started and found that my trainer was paired with more than one device. I had to unpair everything and start over. Fixed it first try.
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…was thinking this might be the problem. Could you elaborate on ‘paired with more than one device’ ? Thank-you!
Apparently if you have a phone that has been paired with the kicker, say to run Zwift, it can interfere by competing to pair to other devices. I understand that the kicker is designed to only have one device Bluetooth paired with it, so if you have tried to use two different phones or an iPad, things can go wrong. I have also heard of getting interference if there are Bluetooth capable devices too close to the kicker even if they aren’t paired. I had to make all of my devices “forget” the kicker and started over.
I found what I needed here: We have a handy troubleshooting guide to remove any potential interferences which I have included below:
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Huh. I’d dismissed the occasional spikes as demonic possession of my Kickr… Signal interference, who knew!?
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