Standing starts on wahoo kickr

Hey,

Today i upgraded from 1st gen direto to an wahoo kickr v5.

To test the unit i wanted to do standing starts.

But i seems that when rpm are sub 60, the resistance drops( to prevent spiral of death i guess). So I can speed up from 20 to 60rpm without much strength, after 60rpm then the resistance kicks in( but that is kind of to late for this training)

With my old direto I would put it in level mode, and would feel good resistance from the first rooms.
Is there a way to change this behavour?

Thanks
Jeroen

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Are you in Level mode when doing this? If not, you ought to be, and if so, perhaps try one of the higher levels where the resistance kicks in sooner. Also, if you’re not, you should probably be in your big gear and closer to the small end of the cassette than the big end.

Glen, thanks for the reply.
I am in level mode, and in a big gear(kind of) 50-14…
problem is that sub 50 rpm i have little resistance, no matter what level i am in.
mind you, if i start pushing, i cant get past 70 rpm… so the unit is more than strong enough, but in low rpm’s there is some softwarething that decreases the resistance(probably to prevent spiral of death)

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Weird. I have not found that. My Kickr is the '18 model and I have to do a spindown calibration thingy every couple of weeks. With the v5 there is no calibration needed so I dunno what’s going on. It’s been a SUFfing long time since I’ve done standing starts though (last time I did it I strained my low back :stuck_out_tongue: )

Edit: and I thought the spiral of death thing only occurred in ERG mode. In any case, it may be worth sending the minions a ticket.
https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

you are right, spiral of death is only in erg mode… sorry for that

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If get the courage to do Standing Starts again, I’ll seek out this thread and let you know. I am afeared to do it at present given my lack of core strength (think doughy minion :slight_smile: )

i seriously think my grandmother of 85 years of age can spin up from 20 to 50 rpm when in level 9 and 50-15 gearing…
she does have massive legs… although not all muscle hahaha :slight_smile:

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Reach out to the minions and check back in. I’d like to hear how this resolves.

Same here, having also just changed from Direto to Kickr v5 !

Here are the power curves for level mode for the KICKR. At low speeds, power is pretty low and builds as you speed up. Every trainer has its own curves. The KICKR one is supposed to more or less mimic the effect of slope and wind resistance.

If power seems way too low, check the wheel size setting on the KICKR. You find that in the configuration section of the wahoo app that you used to set it up. When the KICKR calculates speed, it takes flywheel speed (which comes from cadence x gearing ratio) times the circumference of the wheel you selected in the configuration. If you set it with a small wheel size, speed would be lower than you intend at any given cadence which would result in lower power. I’d check that out to make sure that’s not the problem before escalating the issue.

Dont forget to update Firmware, even with your new Kickr V5 & HRM
It helped me out with drops in cadence & strange power data, even weird heart registration.

i did the firmware update, which does have an effect.
also changed the size of the weel to 29"(to shift to the right on the powercurve graph)
its much better now.
but still, i have a full rotation before i feel a big resistance increase.
so when is start at 20rpm ive speed up to 50 rpm before i produce significant power
so for now, its much better then before… but still not perfect(even not as good as the old 1st gen direto - but kickr is way better in all other aspects)
but the minions are on it…(they are investigating the workoutfiles)
i’ll keep you informed

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thanks for the update.

its solved.

the kickr measures the cadance, but if you dont apply pressure on the pedals it isnt correct.(it measures a lower cadance than what it is in real life).
solution was installation of a cadance sensor attached to the crank.
do love the kickr now. And wow what a service from wahoo… just awesom! thanks!

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Yeah. It obviously doesn’t know how fast your pedals are turning directly. So instead it measures power variation and makes an assumption that the two high points represent the downstroke on the left and right pedals respectively (and the low points the times when the pedals are roughly at 6 and 12 o’clock. If your stroke is reasonably smooth (and you’re applying pressure as opposed to being spun out), that works pretty well. But if not (like when there’s an abrupt power reduction in ERG mode and you’re waiting for the flywheel to slowdown while you pedal with no force), it can’t measure cadence properly at all.