Getting ready to do the 14 day free trial. Here is my question. I have a Minoura Kagura smart trainer coming and on my roadie I use Favero Assioma power meter pedals. I am thinking this combo will work well for the Sufferfest interactive membership. I am also going to use my Alien laptop for the interface as it being a gaming laptop I feel would be best for interactive riding. Anything else I need to consider?
Thank you.
An Ant+ USB adapter just Incase your power meter and HRM don’t jive well with your computer.
In my experience I was only able to connect to the Sufferfest app via Bluetooth when using an iOS device and ANT+ with my PC and Mac.
Thank you for the heads up.
Read Ray’s review, if you didn’t already: Minoura Kagura DT Smart Trainer In-Depth Review | DC Rainmaker - jump to app compatibility. It’s a two year old review, so things might have changed…
Additionally, if you can, I would suggest you use the Assioma’s (you mention pedals, so I take it you have the Duo) to capture your indoor workout files, to ensure you work with the same source, both in- and outdoors…
Just be aware that while you can read power from the Assioma’s, the resistance is set by the power generated by the smart trainer ie there is no power matching feature yet.
Thank you for the link. Hopefully they have made some changes in the past few years or if they do roll out the FW update. I think I can get a majority of things I need to work and Sufferfest, has the Minoura on it’s approved list for trainers.
I just could not justify a $900+ trainer whether on or off wheel. Worse case scenario, I have a simple trainer for using during bad weather.
I think you’re safe with your trainer by now - like I said, it’s a two year old review, and like you indicated, if there has been a FW update, it has probably fixed a few issues.
I’m not sure what Alistair meant, but while the resistance will be set by the trainer, you can record the power output from the Assioma’s to another app/device (I assume you have a bike computer that can capture it, or another app on your phone), so that you get consistency throughout your training.
The Assioma’s are Ant+ and BLE, so you can hook up multiple devices (one on BLE, more than one on Ant+) and if your trainer is Ant+/BLE too, you have a lot of combo’s to work with 
You can record power data from one device (in this case Assioma Duo) and the resistance from a smart trainer, but what power you do is governed by the power the smart trainer reads ie if your work wants you to do 200w, your smart trainer will alter resistance to get you to do 200w but your Assioma’s might be saying 220w if either of your power sources are out.
Hence my ‘for consistency’ remark. Use the same source to track progress.
For better or worse, but the Assioma’s are pretty accurate. I tested them against my Neo and Neo 2T and they are within 3-5 Watts on average.
Same here, but not all trainers are that accurate. My point being that it can be a bit disconcerting seeing a power target of say 200w and seeing that you’re actually putting out a different amount.
Yes, agreed. But, as long as the workout - driven by the trainer - is do-able or not too easy, a few Watts don’t matter much.
If there’s a > 10 Watts difference either way, Michael should adapt his training parameters to match.
I should add, but he might already know that, that if his Assioma’s under- or over-report, this can be compensated for in the Assioma companion app.
I.e. if the workout requires and the trainer reports 210 Watts, but his Assioma’s report 200 or 220, he can adjust ± ~2% on each pedal…
Yes I plan on utilizing the Assioma’s when trainer riding. I also utilize a Garmin edge 1030 as well when in the real world of road riding. My plan is to take each interactive system (Zwift; TrainingRoad; Rouvy; Sufferfest and RGT) to test during a trial period. I use to do Sufferfest many years ago under the old style and way and enjoyed it. I suspect Sufferfest will be no different now given the new platform. I want to see how each of these companies compare to the system I have chosen. My main goal is this…a system that will provide a structured training; an interactive fun aspect too that will allow riding with others whether friends or strangers and a system that tracks progress.
I have heard and read different things for each of these I listed. But one reviewer of several of these new age interactive trainer systems stated they felt Sufferfest did the best to combine fun and serious training.
We shall see. Thank you all for your candid feedback as that is what I am looking for. Hopefully the trainer will be here soon and I can start. The question is, do I save Sufferfest for last to test or first or in between. I feel if I do each separate and make notes and run the free trials I can come to a best decision model to choose from.
If you have your mind - more or less - set on SUF, I suggest you try the others first. I would skip RGT (Zwift is better), TR is dull (just looking at bars), Rouvy is good value for money and an excellent mix of Zwift and Tacx (i.e. real world videos, with cartoon character avatars, like in Zwift) and it offers the chance to win (substantial) prizes. Slim chances, but they are there…
I would also have a look at BigRingVR and/or VeloReality.
And then go for SUF 
(Disclosure: I’ve used all of them and I’m only here as I am a KoS, but I do not use it.)
I had the problem of having all ANT+ when the iOS app changed to all BLE. I found the North Pole Engineering “Cable” cured that problem, converting my ANT+ outputs to BLE that my iPad would accept.
https://npe-inc.com/cableinfo/
Not made up by any means but I have had experience with Suffer so I will more than likely keep it for last evaluation and trial. I will certainly try the others posted here because if they are free to trial, why not!!! LOL