Are you on the most up-to-date firmware?
I also have a gen 1 Kickr and it’s definitely not an option.
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I know that a later firmware update turned off the strain gauge power meter and made the first gen models perform and measure power the same as all the following ones.
I was wondering if ERG smoothing option came along for the ride with that firmware update? Assuming that you are both on the latest firmware and don’t have it, that seems to show the 1st gen’s are stuck with whatever Wahoo has them set at.
Whenever I try to turn off erg smoothing on my '17 Kickr, I get wide swings in power and nothing near what the prescribed power is in the trainerroad workout. Today I did Warlow, and started out with the smoothing turned off in the Wahoo app. The warm up is 3 steps; 154 watts, 200 watts, and 293 watts. It consistently ran 50 watts above the 154, and did not settle down for the 200 watts, and was 60 watts low for the 293 watt step. It felt like I was in resistance mode and not matching the power. I discarded the workout and started over with smoothing on. I’m using TR on an Android phone. I don’t have any control over smoothing in my app; I have to go to the Wahoo app to add or subtract erg mode smoothing.
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I have a wheel-off, direct drive Kickr 2017. It has been ~9 months since turning off smoothing in Wahoo app. I saw no difference with that setting on or off. I’ve also been using TR’s PowerMatch.
Have you contacted TR support?
Hello,
had my first ride with Erg Mode Power Smoothing OFF, on the Wahoo App, and using a Kickr Core.
What I noticed was:
With it ON
- Much straighter power line (yellow one) and also much less shift in power output
- Almost immediate clamping down of the resistance unit, so the Kickr wouldn’t allow me to fluctuate much from the target output. Perfect for long SS and TH workouts, but really crappy for Spanish Needle, for example.
With it OFF
- Power graph and output was much less consistent, a little more as you’d expect to be riding outdoors.
- Power adjustments were delayed, i.e. the higher the cadence, the higher the power output, until then the resistance unit adjusted. But it was a more gradual adjustment it seems. Seems perfect for sprint/bursts efforts.
In both, the interval target power was met. The OFF setting just made it maybe a little more natural. But I am curious to better understand this setting.
Additionally, I have power smoothing at 3 seconds (which I believe is irrelevant in this conversation).
Is my understanding of this difference consistent with what other Wahoo users have experience?
Below are two screen shots to show difference. You can see the OFF Version also has a spike of power, which the Kickr/TR app allowed me to do because it didn’t clamp down hard as soon as I increased my cadence.
Setting OFF:
Setting On:
Cheers! Ride On!
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Understood. Very powerful mind game if it’s only psychological. Thanks for the info and I’ll do some additional research.
Am curious though in that with the setting ON I was never able to go over (aside from a few watts) the prescribed target output. With it OFF, I was able to significantly increase the power, which then also adjusted to the prescribed target. Wouldn’t that quick spin up help in quick bursts intervals, rather than the “clamping down” which I’ve felt in the past, and therefore, as suggested, it is not recommended to do Spanish Needle in full Erg.
Will continue the research, thanks for the input.
How do you turn off power smoothing?
Go to the Wahoo app, then Sensors, select your trainer and you should see it at the bottom:
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Thank you sir
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Interestingly I’ve contacted Wahoo support who state > This should be an option for the KICKR 14, despite it not showing up on my Kickr! They are struggling to make it work though, resorting to removing and reinstalling the app!
Does ANYONE with a v1 Kickr have this option?
Is this just on a wahoo kickr? I have a cyclops H2 which feels fine ,and I have not seen a option to adapt the power, except the onscreen erg or resistance mode on the workouts. Surely you can just put it into resistance mode and it will feel more realistic. I did this with my KK trainer that was also giving me false power reading,Too easy, like you were getting
- If you are asking about the “ERG Mode Power Smoothing”, that specific setting is just on the Wahoo Kickr, Core and Snap models.
- Other trainer makers may apply smoothing to their trainer power data, but most I have seen do it for the trainer regardless of the mode (Resistance and ERG). This smoothing varies between each manufacturer and even between certain models (Tacx Vortex has some heavier smoothing compared to the Tacx Neo models).
- Right, the Saris/CycleOps trainers have never offered a version of the “ERG Mode Power Smoothing”. I can’t claim to know what if any smoothing they apply that is baked in, but the power graphs I’ve seen on my H2 and Magnus are “rough” enough in all modes to show there is not a ton of smoothing (as compared to my P1 pedals on the same workouts).
- So I think the Saris stuff is more “what you see is what you get”.
- That depends on what you mean by “more realistic”. If you mean the power data, it is the same in either mode, as I mention above.
- I dislike the Kinetic smart controlled trainers (wheel-off and wheel-on) and have no faith in their power data on any level.
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Thanks Chad, that’s very helpful.
And I am thrilled with the Cyclops Hammer 2!
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Good deal. 
I know I love mine and it’s the one trainer I would keep if I had to thin the herd.
Hey @Giorgio_Orlandi, was the straight line with power smoothing turned on with the TR app only and off with the Wahoo app? Or the reverse? Mine used to match perfectly, but this season it’s been choppy (not sure if this was from a Wahoo firmware update). Thanks!
FWIW, here’s a 20-minute test with erg mode smoothing disabled on the Kickr via the Wahoo app, no changes to the TR settings. It’s a little more choppy (obviously) but matched the PM much more closely (as expected). Just to clarify, turning off erg mode power smoothing on the train does not change anything about how the trainer matches power in erg mode, just how much smoothing is applied before broadcasting the data.
Versus Byers Peak which had erg mode power smoothing enabled.
Hi, I have to be honest, I can’t remember right now as I’ve been off the trainer for several months. But I can tell you that after writing here I learned that it was merely a graphical representation. In the end, the Watts were always as prescribed by the TR workout. I think there is a good Lama video on it that should be in this thread.
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Did you get a resolution to this? I just picked up a gen 1 second hand and don’t have the power smoothing option