New to Smart trainers, too much resistance!!!

bangacan

I recently bought a Wahoo kickr snap. Did the Zwift free trial and loved it ! Best indoor workouts ive had. When trying other apps, however, the resistance is off the charts hard. Getting the firmware updated on my trainer seemed to help a little bit but 6% grades and higher are so difficult that trying to ride famous climbs in the Alps would not be worth the pain in my knees. Is this normal? I've tried both Rouvy and BKOOL with the same results. I have read that inclines on smart trainers are more difficult than in real life but this seems ridiculous. Thanks!

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Calibrated turbo? Some require it for each session.

cougie

Are you using your gears to make it easier ?

bigmitch41

Do the spindown test on the Wahoo Fitness app to calibrate the trainer, should be done every couple of weeks.

dabber

I can only speak from my own experience but I use BigRingVR https://www.bigringvr.com/ and find the experience very close to the real thing. I've done a couple of Pyrenean climbs in real life (Tourmalet and Luz Ardiden) and the gradient resistance/feels just the same as in real life.
I've also used BigRingVR to ride some of my own recorded rides (GoPro/Garmin) and again, just like in real life.

itboffin

I have the same issue on my tacx vortex, even when its 1% it feels like 10. Calibrated and warmed up with the latest firmware updates

schayaraks

When riding inZwift do you have the "Trainer difficulty" setting at default? (When you are in the game, click menu and then the settings gear icon). The default setting is 50% so all those 6% climbs in Zwift were actually 3%. If you end up subscribing to Zwift try setting the Trainer Difficulty to 100% and it'll probably be very close to BKool.

StillGoing

schayaraks wrote:

When riding inZwift do you have the "Trainer difficulty" setting at default? (When you are in the game, click menu and then the settings gear icon). The default setting is 50% so all those 6% climbs in Zwift were actually 3%. If you end up subscribing to Zwift try setting the Trainer Difficulty to 100% and it'll probably be very close to BKool.

And it really does make a difference. Zwift will slow your speed down calculating the gradient against your power etc to compensate for the 50% setting, but you really feel the effort in the legs with it set at 100%