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Spindown for power match?
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I've been learning the ins and outs of a smart trainer (Tacx Bushido) the past month. Here's my latest question: if I'm doing a workout on TrainerRoad, and I calibrate my power meter (Vector), do I still need to do a spindown calibration of the smart trainer for power matching to be reliable? I've been doing them but I can rationalize that if the power meter is driving everything then it's not required. The trainer is simply breaking to impact power meter readings.
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Re: Spindown for power match? [wcb] [ In reply to ]
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wcb wrote:
I've been learning the ins and outs of a smart trainer (Tacx Bushido) the past month. Here's my latest question: if I'm doing a workout on TrainerRoad, and I calibrate my power meter (Vector), do I still need to do a spindown calibration of the smart trainer for power matching to be reliable? I've been doing them but I can rationalize that if the power meter is driving everything then it's not required. The trainer is simply breaking to impact power meter readings.

I hope it's not breaking!

Anyhow, the manufacturer of another smart trainer told me not to worry about spindowns when doing power match. I don't think it's a big jump to assume the same for a Tacx.
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Re: Spindown for power match? [dangle] [ In reply to ]
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Guess that should be braking, eh?

Thanks for the feedback.
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Re: Spindown for power match? [wcb] [ In reply to ]
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wcb wrote:
I've been learning the ins and outs of a smart trainer (Tacx Bushido) the past month. Here's my latest question: if I'm doing a workout on TrainerRoad, and I calibrate my power meter (Vector), do I still need to do a spindown calibration of the smart trainer for power matching to be reliable? I've been doing them but I can rationalize that if the power meter is driving everything then it's not required. The trainer is simply breaking to impact power meter readings.

The spindown calibration isn't absolutely necessary when using PowerMatch, but I still perform one anyway. Here's why: the potential disparity between your power meter's power and your smart trainer's power may be even larger when your trainer isn't calibrated—making PowerMatch have to work a little harder to eliminate any discrepancy there. I'm sure you'd be fine either way, but with that logic I usually knock one out before starting my workout. :)

Feel free to shoot us an email at support@trainerroad.com if you run into any other questions or concerns.

Cheers,

Get Faster with TrainerRoad
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Re: Spindown for power match? [wcb] [ In reply to ]
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I haven't been bothering with the spin-down and the power matching feature seems to work just fine.

The spin-down seems to only be necessary if you are using the trainer's own power meter.

Now if TR would just start reading both of my P1 pedals that would be great. Doubling my left leg power is not a good solution as I have a pretty significant imbalance and my left leg is stronger
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Re: Spindown for power match? [Nick Kanwetz] [ In reply to ]
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That's what I wanted to know - how TR does power matching. My trainer usually runs ~20W below my PM. I did not know if power match used the trainer power at all, or if it was simply applying brakes to get the PM to a specified value. Sounds like trainer power is actually part of the equation.

Thanks for the info. I'm actually considering unpairing my PM from TR for a round and simply testing then using the trainer in Erg mode. If I go that route I'll track my PM test intervals separately so that I have a meaningful PM FTP and trainer FTP.
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Re: Spindown for power match? [noofus] [ In reply to ]
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Are your P1 pedals paired via bluetooth to TR? If so, they will only read your left leg. Make sure to pair via Ant+ if you can as it will then read both legs. I have P1 pedals and use TR too. I had that problem until I paired to Ant+ instead of bluetooth.
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Re: Spindown for power match? [triguy1984] [ In reply to ]
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triguy1984 wrote:
Are your P1 pedals paired via bluetooth to TR? If so, they will only read your left leg. Make sure to pair via Ant+ if you can as it will then read both legs. I have P1 pedals and use TR too. I had that problem until I paired to Ant+ instead of bluetooth.

*sigh*

So I am using my iPad for TrainerRoad because I decided to be an early adopter of the Kurt Kinetic Smart Control unit. TrainerRoad for some reason decided to only support the proprietary protocol for the KK unit on its iOS app. I don't have an ANT dongle for the iPad so I am stuck with left-leg-only BT readings. If they had updated the software for the MacOS app I would certainly be using my laptop and reading via ANT+
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