I am glad to share that I have just upgraded my indoor trainer setup, changing my BikeErg to a road bike + Kickr v5 + Climb.
After testing it today for the first time with Revolver, I have to say that the ERG mode is fantastic, not having to worry about hitting the power target and just thinking about cadence and letting the Kickr do its thing.
However, I have a couple of questions with both the Kickr and the Climb that I hope you guys could help me figure out:
For the Kickr:
In Revolver, when I finished one of the (many ) hard intervals, it called for a 1 min recovery. However, coming from a strong effort (for me anyhow, around 210 Watts) and having to reduce it to around 60ish Watts, the trainer will be spinning out for two-three seconds giving out 0 Watts and in most occasions even stopping the workout since I had it in auto-pause, is this just to be expected when coming from hard efforts to a recovery section?
During the recovery sections, I think the trainer is having a hard time matching the low Watts (again, around 60ish) with the recommended cadence (90rpm) and it seemed very to spin out - recover and not being able to match the power for the cadence. Is this also to be expected? I just decided to work at around 60-70 rpm for these recovery sections and that worked well, but I am not sure if that is the best solution
For the Climb:
For those of you who have the Climb, do you remove it every time you do a workout where it is not needed (no control on inclination)? I am just pondering whether it makes sense to keep it attached when not needed, and I could just remove it and put the wheel in (not too difficult after all) just to avoid any unncessary pressure on the unit/belt, for which I think the belt tendes to become deteriorated over time basedon what I have heard
I have the impression that the Climb is not perfectly aligned when attached to the bike (see picture), but it is a bit tilted to the left. Is it just my impression, or is it something that I may have done wrong when installing it?
Turn auto-pause off. or get a separate cadence sensor. The auto pause works off the reported cadence, if it is zero it pauses. The cadence detection in the Kickr only works when you are applying pressure to the pedals. At the end of a hard interval when the resistance drops suddenly, and the pedals feel “light” the cadence detection doesn’t work so reports zero.
What gear are you in? The trainer will respond faster to changes in power if you use a lower gear so that the flywheel is spinning slower. If it is possible to use a lower gear to get your cadence up to 90rpm at 60w that would be better, the coaches have posted before that this is an optimum cadence to help your legs recover faster.
1 and 2 both sound like gear choice might be partly the issue. If you you’re in a hard gear and doing a hard effort the fly wheel will be spinning quickly so will take time for that to slow down. Go to an easier gear and see if that is better. For 60w you might be better with little front ring and somewhere in the top 1/3 of the cassette.
And congratulations on an excellent indoor set up!
Yep. I use the small ring (34) and a middle cog to get the trainer to respond more quickly to cadence changes. In a higher gear, it’s hard to get it spin up when you increase cadence, and it takes a long time for it to spin down when you decrease cadence.
Congrats @JotaBg on the new setup. That’s what I upgraded to this year as well and have never regretted.
To pile on the “low gear ratio for ERG mode”, running a smaller gear ratio (as low as you comfortably can on your setup) minimizes inertia in the flywheel…i.e. doesn’t let you cheat = better suffering.
No reason to ever disconnect the Climb. If you set it up according to the guidelines, it should set your bike to level in its neutral state, so if you’re in a non-Climb type workout, it will just be level (you can also level manually with the button setting in the guidebook).
And yeah - if the Climb is mis-aligned, your bars are crooked.
Yep, you’ve already got your answers here, but just to echo:
1&2: I always used the lowest gear possible for my workouts (8sp cassette), little ring and big cog, but definitely be little ring and the biggest cog that gives you a clean chain-line for anything with fast changes.
3: I had mine connected for ~18 months using it most days over the winter and still regularly in the summer with no issue. Only stopped with upgrade to Kickr Bike
4: Yes, looks misaligned, check your bars
Many thanks to all of you. This is a great and supportive community and I think you of course nailed all of the answers.
For 1&2, I indeed think I was using a gear too high. I was on the little ring but on my 8th gear of the 11 of the cassette, so I will certainly try a lower gear and hopefully that will solve it
For 3, fantastic, one thing less to worry about
For 4, thanks for pointing that out. I thought that I had indeed made a mistake when attaching the Climb but it seems to be aligned with the fork and the handlebar seems to be the issue. I will fix that!
) hard intervals, it called for a 1 min recovery. However, coming from a strong effort (for me anyhow, around 210 Watts) and having to reduce it to around 60ish Watts, the trainer will be spinning out for two-three seconds giving out 0 Watts and in most occasions even stopping the workout since I had it in auto-pause, is this just to be expected when coming from hard efforts to a recovery section?
