Amongst all of the problems that turbo trainers can have; dropouts, refusal to connect, pairing with the wrong item and not being fantastically calibrated - my direto has developed potentially the most infuriating.
Holding onto the resistance at the end of an interval and refusing to drop it as you reduce your cadence. No, you piece of shít machine, I do not want to continue to try and do 500w for the first 12 seconds of my 30s rest interval.
Power smoothing is off, happens on both ant+ and bt on multiple adapters. Inconsistent, but happens maybe one in every 6 intervals.
I may have kicked my turbo a few times in anger.
Humble brag
Thats why I use a dumb trainer with a speed/cadence sensor to give virtual power. It's consistent and I just use the gears to increase resistence/power output. Perfect for intervals.
@joebristol surely that's heavily dependent upon how long I was holding 500w for? If 30s, pretty weak. If 5min - solid brag?
My Direto does this if I let up on cadence/effort as soon as the interval finishes.
If I pedal at a constant rate for a few more seconds while it sorts itself out, it drops power much quicker into the rest interval.
Might be worth a try?
Re-reading your post, it sounds exactly like what you are doing:
Holding onto the resistance at the end of an interval and refusing to drop it as you reduce your cadence.
Not a criticism of the way you are using the turbo by the way, as it's natural to 'ease off' as the interval ends.
Just try to maintain your cadence for a few more seconds & let the trainer 'come to you'. You'll probably find that the overall effort time remains the same as I find the Direto takes several seconds to ramp, so a bit more effort at the end means you are nearer to hitting the prescribed time for an interval anyway.
I'd echo stumpy01....
Keep the cadence up through the end of the interval...it'll take a second to drop.
Even my Tacx neo 2t can do it if I drop cadence right before the arch..but only for a few seconds..
DrP
smallspinsized
Free MemberThats why I use a dumb trainer with a speed/cadence sensor to give virtual power. It’s consistent and I just use the gears to increase resistence/power output. Perfect for intervals
That definitely depends on the particular turbo. Mine was wildly inconsistent as the viscosity of the fluid changed with temperature
I have an original Tacx Neo 2 which cost just shy of a grand at the time and whilst it has been very reliable up to now I've noticed that it has developed a pretty loud creaking which I think is the 2 main parts of the outer plastic shell rubbing together when pedalling.
This is after (I think) maybe 3 years fairly consistent use...is this sort of thing inevitable with turbo trainers, even the expensive ones? Or should I be annoyed about this?
On the one hand I have my music on anyway but it was sold at the time specifically as being the quietest on the market etc etc.
That definitely depends on the particular turbo. Mine was wildly inconsistent as the viscosity of the fluid changed with temperature
Not noticed any change with temperature. But then it does warm up quickly in the first 10 mins, so any change would only be during a warm up anyway.
I agree with those above, try to hold your cadence a bit longer. Changing too many of the variables at the same time confuses the trainer a bit (you can see the same if you drastically increase the cadence at the start of an interval, you can even “out sprint” a short interval this way).
And… if that doesn’t help, I’ve found Elite customer service to be useful in the past.
I have a drivo, 5+yrs old now
erg mode is kack on it, so much so that I never use it. Lags at both beginning and end of an interval and takes ages to stabilise. They supposedly fixed it with firmware at some point but I don't think mine changed at all (and I think it's fully up to date). I do workouts on "free" mode
I've had similar issues using erg mose in zwift and sufferfest, but very rarely with TrainerRoad. My theory is that they don't have to worry about graphics or videos so they've spent quite a lot of development time getting the erg mode to work really well.
I had that on my Direto, I'd get saving for a new trainer. Stepper motor thing is on the blink. Check it does the same thing across a few packages, that will identify if its the trainer or the software thats the issue
A while back on the trainer road podcast they were talking about the development that they do to combat this. To paraphrase they do work on it but the effect is quite specific to each turbo. I imagine that the other apps also tweak it about and I don't notice it on mine as much as I used to, using systm/sufferfest for what it's worth.
They also said that they get loads of emails complaining about this effect of intervals finishing late, but surprisingly no emails about intervals starting late. Apparently the data shows that the two go in step to a greater or lesser degree. Any which way, I fully sympathise as falling into the ERG black hole at the end of a beasting is the worst!
Don’t know if it holds true on all trainers but worth also doing erg sessions in easy gear/small front ring if you aren’t already. It keeps the inertia lower in the flywheel and makes it easier for the trainer to manage resistance.
Actually, I find the spin-out sometimes as frustrating. Gear yourself up for an interval, no resistance, no resistance, 10 seconds in BAM, but it ends on time.
I have no issue if the interval is slightly delayed - 3s ramp up, 3s ramp down - because you expect it and in some way you could argue it's just bluetooth delay.
It's the capriciousness of the whole thing that winds me up. Small ring, mid-cassette.
Similarly, if I had to keep my cadence high as I spin down every time I'd get use to it. But if 6/10 intervals, going from 110rpm to 90 for my recovery is fine - it's hard to guess when I need to keep doing 110 for most of my recovery.
