Was hoping to smash out a few last week of the season rides this weekend but looks like heavy wildfire smoke will be keeping me indoors…again. I want to test out my anaerobic/Z6/FRC power that I’ve been training this month but probably won’t be doing it on the road.
What’s the safest maximum power that a carbon bike/dumb trainer combo can handle?
I’ve done a bit of searchy search and can’t find an adequate answer.
Most likely only going to hit <1,000 watts…depends on how many coffees I chug.
Not going for pure out-of-the-saddle sprints, more like 1-2min seated efforts.
Haven’t broken my bike doing 15-sec seated sprints with 900-1000W 5-sec power. I think GPLama has videos hitting 1500W while testing smart trainers. No worries IMHO.
That depends on the trainer. My Elite Volano direct drive dumb trainer is rated for 1,400 W max. Its predecessor, the Muon for 2,500 W. I have hit 1,300 W for a second or two with 1,000–1,100 W max power over 20 seconds, I think. Honestly, I am not worried that my trainer is going to explode just because I hit 1,600 W for 3 seconds even though my trainer is officially rated at 1,400 W max.
While there are people who can put out 1,000 W average over 1 minute and exceptional sprinters 1,800+ W, I don’t think max wattage is something anyone ever has to worry about. The only exception are Olympic-level track sprinters perhaps. But even for them there are trainers that can handle that kind of power.
Max power only matters in so far that certain gradient simulations are only possible with a sufficiently beefy trainer.
My husband had a supersix evo on a cycle ops dumb trainer and could hit over 1200w 5sec power without any problem. I don’t recall his peak. He’d do it seated though.
…and here I am near death, keeled over trying to hold 700w for 5 seconds outdoors I’m a fair decent sprinter…but man that does not translate indoors for me.
It’s been a while since I sprinted on mine. My old issue was wheel slip unless you really wound up “steady”. But I might have been over 1000w per my PowerTap hub at the time.
I’ve been over 1200w on all my wheel-on trainers, since slip isn’t an issue.
True. I’ve used the my 2012 Roubaix on the trainer, hard since 2013, and its still kicking. Did some sprints way back fully rigid, but I’d bet I was sub 1000w back then (no power at that time).
I built my first rocker Dec 2015 for the Road Machine, with sprints hard for training Zwift races in 2016.
So hard use for many years with sprints. My bike is the lower end model with aluminum dropouts and likely more sturdy (heavy at least) carbon build. I’d be fine sprinting my new Emonda on a rocker. But I’d be extra careful if I tried rigid.
Do it inside. Trial and error my threshold for riding outside is 50 AQI when PM2.5 is the primary pollutant. Others have higher limits. Know enough people down here that had stop cycling for a week or two after riding outside above AQI 100 that I don’t think it’s worth taking the risk.
I want to test out my anaerobic/Z6/FRC power that I’ve been training this month but probably won’t be doing it on the road.
outdoors I’m a fair decent sprinter…but man that does not translate indoors for me.
