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PowerTap reads lower than Tacx
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Trainer Road today. The computer was grabbing watts from the Tacx Vortex Smart, and my Garmin from the PowerTap. 5 x 10 @ 200 Watts. The Garmin/PT was reading 10-20% lower. I did the FTP test with the Tacx, but thought everything was calibrated correctly. How should I track this down? Or does it really matter? Accuracy vs. Precision. As long as I test outside with the PT I guess it doesn’t matter. But I’d like Watts to reflex work done....
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Re: PowerTap reads lower than Tacx [mpderksen] [ In reply to ]
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Did you recalibrate everything? I find that usually solves any issues I have with power discrepancies between units.
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Re: PowerTap reads lower than Tacx [imswimmer328] [ In reply to ]
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imswimmer328 wrote:
Did you recalibrate everything? I find that usually solves any issues I have with power discrepancies between units.
Just the PT. I always top off right to 100psi before a ride too. But yeah, I should double check the Tacx. Also, I could recalibrate on the 935. Haven’t connected that yet, since I like the twist mount on my 910, and that has funky cal settings.
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Re: PowerTap reads lower than Tacx [mpderksen] [ In reply to ]
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My vortex was very inaccurate, and the offset changed with temperature. That being said it was never a problem because I had a powertap and used trainer road power match to use the powertap.
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Re: PowerTap reads lower than Tacx [cobra_kai] [ In reply to ]
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cobra_kai wrote:
My vortex was very inaccurate, and the offset changed with temperature. That being said it was never a problem because I had a powertap and used trainer road power match to use the powertap.
Building my PT into a new Flo60 and I don’t want to burn up a tubeless tire on the trainer.... but yes, I’m doing TrainerRoad
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Re: PowerTap reads lower than Tacx [cobra_kai] [ In reply to ]
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cobra_kai wrote:
My vortex was very inaccurate, and the offset changed with temperature. That being said it was never a problem because I had a powertap and used trainer road power match to use the powertap.

I also had a Vortex that I used (several years ago) with P1 pedals. The Vortex was wildly inaccurate with swings as much as 40w, depending on duration of use (heat in the unit), tire pressures, etc. A one-hour TrainerRoad session would basically have two totally different 'characters' depending on how warm the Vortex got. The more watts I needed to produce in something like a VO2 max or sprint interval, the worse the Vortex performed. I tried fans, outdoor use, etc.... it was also inaccurate.

I finally threw the whole thing away and moved to a trio: Elite Drivo, Elite e-Motion B+ rollers, and a Cyclops Fluid 2 (portable). All three are significantly more accurate and stable. I have cross calibrated/checked all with a combination of P1 pedals and a Quarq Dzero.
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Re: PowerTap reads lower than Tacx [JRT_Racing] [ In reply to ]
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JRT_Racing wrote:
cobra_kai wrote:
My vortex was very inaccurate, and the offset changed with temperature. That being said it was never a problem because I had a powertap and used trainer road power match to use the powertap.


I also had a Vortex that I used (several years ago) with P1 pedals. The Vortex was wildly inaccurate with swings as much as 40w, depending on duration of use (heat in the unit), tire pressures, etc. A one-hour TrainerRoad session would basically have two totally different 'characters' depending on how warm the Vortex got. The more watts I needed to produce in something like a VO2 max or sprint interval, the worse the Vortex performed. I tried fans, outdoor use, etc.... it was also inaccurate.

I finally threw the whole thing away and moved to a trio: Elite Drivo, Elite e-Motion B+ rollers, and a Cyclops Fluid 2 (portable). All three are significantly more accurate and stable. I have cross calibrated/checked all with a combination of P1 pedals and a Quarq Dzero.

I can echo this. The Vortex was also very jerky besides the ultimate sins of both extreme inaccuracy and consistency. Like JRT_Racing bailed on it. My gf and I are now indoor training on a Tacx Neo with a combination of SRM, Vector 3, Neo Power data. I can watch each of those and see accuracy and consistency. Plus it is easy to use. The Vortex was finicky for me.
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Re: PowerTap reads lower than Tacx [turdburgler] [ In reply to ]
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My vortex wasn't jerky but it did have the variable offset issue that grew especially with harder intervals. The problem I had with this was when trainer road changed their power match algorithm to match the offset at the end of the previous interval. The vortex would cool off during a low intensity recovery interval and the offset would shrink so it would way overshoot at the start of the next interval. In vo2 intervals when I should have been hitting 380 watts or so it would sometimes start upwards of 420, which needless to say made things pretty difficult.

I also eventually got rid of it because of these issues and got a neo, which has been a revelation. That being said I used the vortex for two years and got quite good results with it, and at the time the price was definitely right.
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