So yay me! Upside (first impressions): pretty much everything - smoother, quieter, no calibration, faster response to power fluctuations, 5º wig-wag side-to-side, etc. etc.
Downsides/open questions:
of the three rides I’ve completed to date (Cadence Builds, Primers, and Openers - I’m in my HM/FF prep week), my NP numbers on the Kickr have been consistently 10-15% below the numbers from my Snap for the same workouts (last done Jan/Feb), all other metrics being the same (HR/cadence/duration). I’m going on the assumption that the Kickr’s power readings are more accurate than the Snap, which makes me think I’ve been PEDALING IN A PAIN CAVE OF LIES!..ahem…doesn’t bode well for my HM today or FF this weekend.
In Cadence Builds - and any of the other cadence efforts - I’ve been able to spin up my max cadence into the 190’s on my Snap, but on the Kickr I’m getting into the 150’s - 160’s and it sort of freezes up, then suddenly registers only like 60 - 70 rpm, even though I’m still spinning hard. It’s not the cadence sensor, I just installed a new battery pre-ToS, and I tried it in multiple gear ratios in case I was spinning out or something. Could it be that the Kickr is new and needs to break in? Like maybe the belt is slipping or something? I was assuming (hoping, praying) that my Snap was keeping me from hitting the magic 200rpm due to friction, slippage, etc., and that I’d finally enter that hallowed club once I had a Kickr under me, but n’est pas?
What type of cadence sensor are you using and is it BTLE or Ant+?
Edit: and are you sure you’e selected the cadence sensor you have or is it reporting cadence from the Kickr which I have found tops out and stops at about 150-160.
Don’t know about the power question - let’s see what HM brings…
Re cadence, I believe that the kickr determines the cadence from the pressure pulses that come through the drive train as you pedal (it has no information from your crank speeds). At super-high frequencies, that pulse becomes difficult to distinguish. You may want to mount a cadence sensor to accurately measure the cadence.
Excellent question @Glen.Coutts! I have a crank-mount Wahoo cadence sensor using BT, but I hadn’t looked close enough at the BT linkage in SYSTM to see if the sensor was assigned cadence, or if maybe the Kickr was running it by default.
Thanks also for the info @TrapMeSuf! And yes, my wife is a saint, and REI co-op membership was a timely blessing.
If you didn’t pair the separate sensor it would default to the Kickr (internally calculated ) cadence.
Edit: I should add that I have the Wahoo cadence sensor as well, the one that I attach to my shoe and it also tops out at about 180ish. When doing Cadence builds, I will use a Garmin cadence sensor that is attached to the crank and reports only using Ant+. It is with that sensor that I have retained my membership in the illustrious 200+ club.
On the Cadence issue, I use a Wahoo sensor on my shoe connected via Ant+ for high cadence workouts because the Kickr doesn’t work so well and switch to the Kickr for very low cadence ones for the opposite reason
I top out at ~170rpm but that’s me, not the sensor
Mind: A shoe based sensor is useless for single-leg drills
Bingo, @Glen.Coutts. SYSTM was pairing with the cadence sensor, but still defaulting to the Kickr from when I installed it. Fixed.
And so far as the power output goes, I don’t know, but completed HM today and saw some solid MAP/FTP gains over last test, so likely a non-issue. Maybe my wattage was higher on the Snap because I was fighting against the wheel and friction?
You probably did it already, but make sure to update the firmware to 4.2.8. It improves cadence and power measures at high flywheel speeds, but you’ll still probably need an external sensor for the 200 club.
