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I'm a Zwift newbie, I decided to try out the dirt destroyer training plan as it sounded close-ish to what I want to achieve.
One thing though is that a couple of rides want you to pedal at a set cadence (e.g. 65rpm) and also a set power. My turbo has the my 11speed hardtail mounted to it and is non adjustable.
I try and pick a gear that gets me close to the cadence and power it asks, but it doesn't always work and I get told to pedal faster but produce less power. I presume it's just a limitation of my setup but as a general rule should I aim for matching the cadence or power that it suggests?
Cheers!
Had the same issue when I set up my dumb turbo a few weeks ago. Got a better range of gears by switching to a bigger chainring on the commuter bike that I use on there, 38T to a 48T. Add in it's only got 8 gears and it's not perfect but good enough for my current needs.
If I have the cash and any are available I'll most likely buy a smart trainer and a cheap road bike for a more permanent setup in the autumn as I'm noticing a marked improvement in my riding fitness. Tried a smart trainer a few years ago and as it varies the resistance to get you at a certain power at the correct rpm it's a much better experience.
What turbo have you got? Assuming it is smart they have watt ceilings so you will only be able to produce certain power depending on how fast you can spin the flywheel.
@reluctantjumper see my issue trying to find a bigger chainring https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/trying-to-find-a-chainring-94bcd-40t-or-42t/
I’ve fitted a 36T ring, bike would take something bigger if I could find one, I’m only really using the top 4 or 5 sprockets. Would a bigger chainring actually give me any more fine adjustment or just move the useful gears further up the cassette? I guess I’ll have to check the ratios to be sure.
@robbo1234biking it’s this one https://www.halfords.com/cycling/turbo-trainers/smart-turbo-trainers/elite-turbo-muin-smart-turbo-trainer-298775.html Apparently max power is over 2000W, which is plenty. It’s just matching the cadence to power that I’m wondering about, not the max.
I’ve fitted a 36T ring, bike would take something bigger if I could find one, I’m only really using the top 4 or 5 sprockets. Would a bigger chainring actually give me any more fine adjustment or just move the useful gears further up the cassette? I guess I’ll have to check the ratios to be sure.
If it's telling you that you need to pedal faster then surely you need lower gears, not bigger chainrings?
For me on my trainer FTP at 90prm is about 36-14 gear, FTP at 60 rpm is 50-13 so it can need quite a large range.
If you can't hit the wattage and the cadence target despite being at the highest or lowest gear you have then just focus on the watts as that's what exhausts you.
I'd assume that if you've bottomed out and need to produce less power then it's the recovery between intervals and you can largely ignore the power targets. E.g. if it's 5x 8 minutes at 105% FTP, the 3 minutes recovery between each interval is just bottom gear and spin as fast as is natural to clear the lactic acid out.
You only need a big chainring if it's asking you to do to do 60rpm and large numbers of watts to simulate a really steep hill.
If it’s telling you that you need to pedal faster then surely you need lower gears, not bigger chainrings?
It also tells me to pedal slower and make more power sometimes!
I don’t run out of gears, it’s just missing some inbetween ratios I think.
I presume an adjustable turbo would increase the resistance itself to make sure my 65rpm = the power it was trying to get me to pedal at?
It also tells me to pedal slower and make more power sometimes!
I don’t run out of gears, it’s just missing some inbetween ratios I think.
Ahhh, gotcha. Yes if your gear falls in between what it's asking for then you'll just have to live with it. Even on a 11-23 cassette with mostly 1t gaps I can't get it quite right sometimes.
Just get the cadence as close as possible and focus on the power. I usually exagerate the targets, so if it says 100rpm to improve leg speed, I'll aim for 100-105, if it's asking for 60rpm to improve strength and coordination I'll aim for 55-60.
A bigger chaining might help as the jumps between 10t and 11t are proportionally bigger than those in the middle of the cassette. But I'd not worry too much.
I presume an adjustable turbo would increase the resistance itself to make sure my 65rpm = the power it was trying to get me to pedal at?
Yes, a smart turbo in erg mode you can pretty much just wack it in the middle gear and watch the cadence number as it adjusts the slope within the machine to hit the power target in erg mode. It only becomes an issue as most trainers have a floor and a ceiling to their power based on the slope.
e.g. at 0% slope if you're in top gear at 90rpm it's still going to provide the equivalent to the air resistance at that speed (ish), and at maximum slope in bottom gear you'll never be able to spin the gear fast enough to hit the quoted 2000W at 40km/h or whatever, so you still need to change gears, just far less often.
If you don’t want to faff about putting new gears on your bike then just aim for the power target. The workload of any training plan will be the ‘cake’ and any cadence or standing/sitting stuff is icing at best. It’s more likely sprinkles.
Excellent, cheers for the explanations, especially the bit about erg and what you mean about floor/ceilings makes sense now.
I’ll carry on using it and aim for the power, keeping cadence somewhere close.
I’m just trying to make sure I don’t get too unfit while we can’t go out and ride properly, but I’m actually enjoying more than I expected. I might even keep using it after things go back to “normal”.
This is what I meant about the wattages. Depending on how fast you are going (spinning the flywheel not on Zwift) depends on what part of the power ban you have available to you. You don’t have 0-2000w available at all speeds and all gears. So depending what speed you are doing when you drop to 65rpm you might be dropping below the wattage floor.
This is for an elite Direto. Trying to find one for a muin.