I got an ant+ upgrade for christmas, is reads 40% lower than the one that came with the VASA, I haven't used it much since they basically asked me to do their regression testing for them.

Thinking of upgrading myself. I was actually planning on ordering the ANT+ unit first thing tomorrow but after seeing your post, I am waiting.

So you're saying that it's not accurate and not worth doing? Is there a calibration? How do they want you to do regression testing?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

I have it, and it's been working fine. For me the numbers are exactly what the older unit showed, so I haven't seen any discrepancy.

The way I use it is to wear my Garmin 735 (that way I get HR without wearing a strap, though accuracy of optical HR on the wrist can be an issue for some people) and put it in Indoor Bike Mode. You will see the ANT+ sensor connect with an ANT+ id (of course, first time out you will have to Add New, and it will show up as a Power Meter). I perform the workout, then save it and upload it to Garmin Connect, which I have set up to sync to Strava and TP.

Then comes the "post-editing" phase: correcting the activity type in each of the three platforms from Bike to Swim. For TP, I also clear the IF and TSS values since they're based off of my bike FTP, but saving the workout then has them automatically recalculate off of my swim threshold, so it's a much better approximation. That said, in general the pace I do on the Vasa is ~10 secs/100m slower than I actually swim in the pool at the same effort level; I believe there's a lot of variability there for individuals depending on how efficient they are (e.g., one of my female training partners is 10 seconds faster per 100y in the pool but is way slower than I on the Vasa).

Anyway, I like the automated data capture with the ANT+ unit - makes my Vasa sessions more valuable, as I can chart the progress in AP and NP, and the trends track very closely with my pool sessions.

Ian

Has anyone paired their vasa erg with TrainerRoad or Zwift?

No but I've got something in the works for this season :)

TR, yes. There are even a couple of Vasa workouts on there. The problem is that you need to change your bike FTP to your Vasa FTP for them to make sense.

Ian

So I connected to my Garmin 735, collected the data, and then downloaded it. I did just 1100m, but TrainingPeaks has over 23000m (I wish!). Basically ~22.5 times as far, in case that scalar gives any hints. Any ideas what I need to change?

Unrelated, but how do you guys position yourself on the bench? How much, if any, do your shoulders hang off the front of the bench?

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Oh, I forgot one important detail: in the Settings menu on the 735, go to the power meter for the Vasa and set the Wheel Size to 100mm. That should fix the distance issue!

My shoulders are off the Vasa, yes - I have the top of the bench at the upper 2/3rd of my pecs.

Ian

Awesome, thank you! I think I have it now. Man, this thing is so hard. I'm doing 20min on the easiest setting and it crushes me, there's no rest!

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Dimond Bikes Superfan