Zwift/trainer watts question...

[Hard-Drive]

I recently picked up a Elite Turbomuin fluid trainer off a cycling club member FOC as it has stopped working (would not connect). The plan is to get the better half going on Zwift with me. Turns out all it needed was a new battery in the Misuro B+ sensor, and I confirmed it was working by pairing it with my phone and turning the cassette body, and my avatar moved.

Last night I set it up properly, connecting it with my own Zwift setup which is an Apple TV box and big TV, and I got her bike mounted on the Turbomuin. Now I am a regular Zwift rider, my own setup is my road bike mounted on my Tacx Neo smart trainer, however when I had a quick pedal on her bike on the Turbomuin I was pretty amazed at some of the power figures it was coming up with. A big stomp on the pedals saw a peak of 900W which with no warm up and wearing jeans seemed pretty blooming unlikely, as were some of the W/kg numbers too. Trundling along at a cruising power output however did seem to produce more sensible power numbers.

I've not done any "scientific" comparisons yet, but I guess I could find a flat bit of the virtual road, have each bike in the same gear (as in ratio/teeth, not "top" gear as they will be different) and ride to a set cadence and see what the average power is on each trainer.

However, my main question here is this...is there something wrong with it, or is it just that the Turbomuin is not nearly as accurate as a higher end smart trainer like my Tacx Neo?

Thanks

[okgo]

A quick google confirms that they're very far from producing figures that are realistic. As you'd probably expect from something so cheap.

https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/t/how-close-does...

The more concerning bit is that they're not consistently wrong according to that, which makes it all but useless really for anything that is based around wattage, which obviously Zwift is entirely. If it was just 10% out across the board then you could easily adjust your weight in Zwift to make it a bit more realistic I suppose, but doesn't seem to be the case.

[esuuv]

Another reason that Zwift racing is largely pointless if you're doing it for the "win" opposed to just thrashing yourself.

[okgo]

esuuv said:

Another reason that Zwift racing is largely pointless if you're doing it for the "win" opposed to just thrashing yourself.

It is fairly questionable, but Zwiftpower does a good job I think of weeding out most of the cheats.

[Hard-Drive]

OK cheers guys, and that info seems to back up my brief experience of it being more unbelievable the more watts I put into it.

TBH it will be fine for her, she's more of a fair weather occasional cyclist at the moment and it should at least get her going and build her up a bit ready for spring/summer on the road. I doubt very much she has any aspirations on racing, and if she really takes to it then she can either get a better trainer or we could sell everything and invest in a Wattbike.

Thanks again

[andyeds1234]

Hard-Drive said:

OK cheers guys, and that info seems to back up my brief experience of it being more unbelievable the more watts I put into it.

TBH it will be fine for her, she's more of a fair weather occasional cyclist at the moment and it should at least get her going and build her up a bit ready for spring/summer on the road. I doubt very much she has any aspirations on racing, and if she really takes to it then she can either get a better trainer or we could sell everything and invest in a Wattbike.

Thanks again

For what it’s worth, I bought a Wattbike predominately because the whole family can use it with very little adjustment. No need to throw wheels in and out, or spending 10 mins getting set up, when you only have 30 mins to train anyway. It’s not perfect , but it’s a great solution, especially if you are sharing it.

[Hard-Drive]

andyeds1234 said:

Hard-Drive said:

OK cheers guys, and that info seems to back up my brief experience of it being more unbelievable the more watts I put into it.

TBH it will be fine for her, she's more of a fair weather occasional cyclist at the moment and it should at least get her going and build her up a bit ready for spring/summer on the road. I doubt very much she has any aspirations on racing, and if she really takes to it then she can either get a better trainer or we could sell everything and invest in a Wattbike.

Thanks again

For what it’s worth, I bought a Wattbike predominately because the whole family can use it with very little adjustment. No need to throw wheels in and out, or spending 10 mins getting set up, when you only have 30 mins to train anyway. It’s not perfect , but it’s a great solution, especially if you are sharing it.

Yeah, makes perfect sense. TBH my road bike sits on the trainer all winter, and I ride my gravel bike as my do-it-all winter bike. But I do see the attraction of the Wattbike.

[keith2.2]

esuuv said:

Another reason that Zwift racing is largely pointless if you're doing it for the "win" opposed to just thrashing yourself.

Not really - Most race series' require people competing for the win to provide data from two power meters plus HRM. So you need to have your bikes power meter feed as well as the trainer.

For what it's worth, my Quarq DFour, Garmin Pedals and Tacx Neo are within about 2% of eachother when I've run them all at the same time.

[upsidedownmark]

Neos are notably accurate (for reasons). The turbomuin is I believe just a 'trainer plus speed sensor and known curve' packaged together.. which is about as accurate as something very inaccurate

[Stever750]

In practice, technically no home trainer is correctly calibrated. To qualify, it must be checked at a predetermined frequency against a known reference, usually the SI unit at a national level.

If interested, we are hosting a free to join webinar that touches on measurement and cycling in one of our upcoming MMN events.


https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mmn-measurements-fo...

Happy to try and answer any Qs around measurement etc.

[KobayashiMaru86]

I have the Turbomuin and bought the MisuroB+ to do it. It needs to be in the right mode too. Should be in the guide how many light flashes it needs to be. When I first hooked mine up to Zwift I was so much faster than everyone but was in the wrong mode. I do need to use it more but didn't want to commit to a Zwift sub.

Edited by KobayashiMaru86 on Wednesday 26th January 17:46

[oddball1313]

I think there is massive variations in the smart products, i'm over 7 minutes faster up alp de swift on a standard road bike fitted to a Tacx flux compared to being on the wattbike. The watts i'm putting out aren't massively varied between the two (around 210 average for the whole climb)

[Hard-Drive]

Cheers guys. Good to know that the Neo (my setup) is pretty accurate! Did my first TDZ the other day and finished in the top 200 odd...I wonder what would have happened had I done it on the better half's Turbomuin and laid down 900W on the final sprint haha!

(Don't worry, I would not do that, I'd only be cheating myself, and I suspect my proper workouts would suddenly get a LOT harder with my newfound superhuman FTP!)

I have set the Misuro up with 12 flashes which I understood to be the correct setting...however if anyone knows of a different, or more accurate setting, please let me know.

Thanks!