Turbo Trainer Advice

Sufferfest workout last night - violator (how apt) - it recommended to use level instead of ERG mode, I had a look & wondered how the fuck I was supposed to keep up manually adjusting for those intervals so I just left it on ERG to see how it would cope, seemed ok - the intervals were 5/10/15 sec max effort blocks with varying recovery & i'm wondering if i'm missing something obvious?
How can you go from 5sec 100w @ 90rpm recovery to 5sec 500+ @ 110rpm in the space of a couple of seconds manually adjusting the resistance? Or am I stupid?

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You can't. You set the trainer to a Resistance level and then use gears to get to appropriate power/cadence.

Isn’t the idea to keep the same resistance and use your gears?

yeah

Can’t do Max effort blocks in erg mode is the problem.

You start sprinting, and the erg mode cuts out the resistance to bring you to the ‘target’ watts.

Looks like you hit the targets pretty well, but not max efforts.

In normal mode, you do like real life on a flat road, you select a higher gear on your bike and ramp up the RPM.

I've been doing similar - "max" efforts although they're not really because I still use ERG mode but TR workout builder set to 300%. I tried using RES mode but I didn't get on with it. Maybe I need another play around with RES at a different base %? You can still spike the wattage to 1200+ but even in a 5s effort the thing is winding down and cadence or power gets messed up.

Ah - turns out I am actually stupid after all, it's been so long since i changed gears on the turbo I didn't think of manually setting a level then flicking between front rings, although that last block is 5/5 10/10 15/15 - not much time to change gear, ease off then get on it again

I get it that any proper max effort is hamstrung by the trainer trying to set the resistance to a target cadence / power instead of me just ramping up the gears until there's nothing left, but in all honesty I don't think I had more to offer in the first block, maybe the program has my max output pretty much sussed & the ERG settings were fairly close?

edit At the higher end of my output I struggle to get the cadence up above about 105-110, the cadence on the sprints was set to 110 so if I was struggling to hit that perhaps the ERG mode was still working fairly well by increasing the resistance until I hit 110rpm?

Once I forget the trauma of that effort i'll give it another bash on level mode & see if there's a difference - might be a while

For short hard efforts, I toggle between ERG and Resistance (on TR), where ERG is for the rest period and Resistance for the hard part and is pre-set - no gear changes needed.

It helps that I've got toggle and resistance up/down keys out front.

very geeky, show us your workings

very geeky, show us your workings

Can't take much credit, mostly off-the-shelf.
Keybow Mini + Pi Zero WH + some code tweaking and chopped up a stick on garmin phone mount from AliX.

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/keybow-mini-3-key-macro-pad-kit?variant=27890390696019

Yes. I would be interested.

more pics pls

More "I will make one to your standards" please.

Jazzy - I like that

Amazing. Is that just acting as a regular (but very small) USB keyboard into a computer? I was thinking of something like this as a lockdown project, but was looking more at pre-built wireless devices. But then they are designed around controlling media players etc.

This came up on another forum. It allows ant+ devices to connect to Bluetooth devices.
I think this would mean you could connect a power2max ant+ power meter to zwift on iOS which is Bluetooth only
Connector

The only problem with ERG is that it sets the resistance based on your cadence, so if you go up 120 cadence just before the sprint it will be easy to just use the momentum for a few seconds effort.
On the other hand if you're in a fairly low cadence it will hit you like a wall and get harder if you can't speed up the spin.
Max power with a pre set resistance I always find problematic, how much do people put on? At 30% I feel I ran out of gears but more than that it starts feeling like going up a massive gradient, no momentum at all.

Yeah, I was conscious to wait until the interval started before going for it - you can see on on the third interval of the first block I jumped the gun and went up to 115/120 rpm before the resistance could catch up, I think that's when the ERG mode struggles... when I managed to match the cadence closely it seemed ok for a rank amateur like me

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Has this worked out as decent enough under a turbo?

absolutely. I moved my turbo to the backroom where there's less space, so ended up just doubling up the mat. don't get any noise from vibrations - only noise is from the drivetrain and then a slight brrrrrr hum from the flywheel at high wattages (like a very low frequency whirrring that you almost feel more than hear.) I'm on a kickr core

the only minor (very minor) issue is the kickr core's widest leg is the exact same width as one column of the matting. this means the core can feel a little wobbly if for whatever reason the mat or core move, but it's simple enough to fix by just making sure everything is all lined-up/aligned properly. wouldn't be an issue if you were using in a 2x1 setup, as is shown in my original pic

the alternative would have been to run the kickr core while it sits on naked floorboards. I've not tried it but I can imagine that would produce a racket

Is it sweatproof as well?

Love it.

could always just cling wrap the whole thing

The two of us talking about keeping bikes clean seems a recurring topic lately

It's ironic because mine doesn't even make it outside at the moment

Thanks, very useful. No issues with the front wheel block being on the joint? (assuming you are using a wheel block or riser).