Is there a way to check if there a huge difference between the watts recorded by the pedals power meter (Favero Assioma Uno) and the trainer (wahoo kickr) and guess if the bike needs a good, deep maintenance (maybe bearings, or whatever)?
I assume you have some sort of cycling computer? If so just ride 5 minutes by recording both the TR and computer the same ride. AVG power should show good start point between the pedals (computer) and Turbo (TR application ).
There might be bigger differences in different zones so you can include e.g. 10 sec sprint and 1 min steady effort and compare those as well.
I don’t think that’s a good idea. Your power meter pedals and your trainer can disagree for all sorts of reasons. My Suito and my Quarq disagree now after agreeing perfectly initially. When I think about it, it drives me crazy. And the difference is not due to bearings or me not lubing the chain.
You can check bearings for wear with your fingers: e. g. remove your cranks and spin the bearings on both sides with your finger. My right BB bearing on my mountain bike felt a bit rough when I checked it today, and I will have it changed soon.
I was thinking about their normal gap, and probably I should make a measure when everything is good and new to have a number to be used as a “golden standard”.
I was trying to find a way to avoid removing stuff. I’m afraid no being able to put it after
Pedals to trainer will always measure different. Pedals are at the source, trainer will have drivetrain loss. That said, most meters have a +/-1ish% so that’s probably going to be very similar. I wouldn’t sweat it unless the numbers are massively off
Just do a workout without power match. Use the device that runs TR to record the Kickr data. Also record the workout on your bike computer, but only pair the pedals to it. You can compare the two files, think there’s a tool for it on DC Rainmaker’s site.
However, I’m not sure that measurement will help you diagnose bearing failure. On one hand, I’m not convinced the gap is constant - it might drift over time, or is affected by temperature for example. On the other hand, not all bearing failure will immediatly increase resistance in the bearing.
It doesn’t work like that. If you feel overwhelmed or don’t like to tinker with mechanical things, just have a bike shop do it. I usually have my bike checked out once a year at my LBS.
Thanks to all.
A little more of context: I was wondering about the potential bearing failure because I noticed my numbers going down around 10% (normalised power) on my standard rides. I have also the comparison with my usual ride people (from being with them to struggling to follow) and all of this almost suddenly after I washed the bike (with a simple garden hose) and after the bike was under the rain for about an hour (I was driving to my ride and bike was “outside” the car).
Last year I got something similar, we rode about two hours under a big rain and suddenly (the day after, when everything dried out) the pedals were blocked, my LBS told me “your bearings are rusty”.
I was wondering if the same happened this time.
I’ll probably give it to the LBS for a full check, thanks.
With context, that’s a big difference… yea drop it off at the shop.
As for getting wet, most modern bikes have sealed bearings that don’t really care if you get em wet. Now if you’re on cup and cone, much different story
Even if you do a lot of stuff yourself, the people in the shop (provided you have found a good shop) are professionals. It took the owner of my LBS literally seconds until he realized that I had overtightened my stem bolts and cracked my carbon handlebars (I used a torque wrench and was within spec, but a crack is a crack). He confirmed it by tapping it with a screwdriver.
Still, I’d encourage you to learn at least a little bit of wrenching. It helps a lot if you can at least pinpoint a problem or apply a temporary fix to it.
Bearings are ok for a while, but especially BB bearings are wear components. That means you will have to have them replaced every few years.