@alhan
I did my first ride with the new PowerMatch in the beta iOS app. I just wanted to say that so far the results are great vs the old powermatch. I’m using a kickr snap (my unit is particularly bad at both power accuracy and precision by itself - without power match), and a Specialized left crank power meter.
Improvements I noticed:
Holds a constant power better
Responds to step down in power much better - even with or without cadence changes. With old powermatch, when the power stepped down after a hard interval, I used to have to grab the brakes to slow down the wheel to my lower resting cadence, otherwise it would just freewheel at zero power for a long time. The new power match keeps right on the power and I can naturally bring my cadence down
With the old powermatch, if I stopped pedaling, it would really struggle with hitting the power target for about a minute after I resumed. This is gone
I have been using power match on Android mobile with my Favero UNO pedals and Bkool Smart Pro 2.
A quick comparison in terms of power numbers indicated the pedals were always 20-30w lower than my trainer.
When using powermatch the results were fairly erratic but manageable for my plans. However when running a ramp test with power match on my mobile it was pretty hard going as the steps up would swing atleast 20w higher than target before settling out. (pic 1)
I completed another ramp test yesterday but this time used TrainerRoad iOS on my Mac and selected the new powermatch. (pic 2). It was very smooth but I am now questioning if powermatch was even being used. I definitely had it enabled, on Auto, ERG trainer mode.
All previous mobile app training sessions have registered the favero pedals as the power source. The most recent ramp test on Macbook iOS referenced the trainer
The power was so smooth it seems to good to be powermatch?
My FTP went from 230w to 254w which is roughly the 20-30w difference i have previously observed when comparing the pedals to the trainer.
My last 2 tests came in at 230w so maybe I am stronger after SSB MV1 & MV2 but kinda feel like i’ve just changed the measuring tape.
Normally, seeing that second test I’d say you were not using a pedal based power meter; it’s not spikey enough. However, having used the new power match myself for a few rides I am seeing the same as you. It’s not a smooth as trainer only, no power match, but is a lot less spikey than previously power matching from pedals.
I am using the assioma duo and the new powermatch actually gave less spike results but not as smooth as your second ramp test. You should experiment with the sensitivity level. I set mine at a lower level of 0.3 because I aim to keep my cadence steady so I do not want the powermatch to over react if there are slight variation in my cadence.
tacx neo 2t, assioma duo pedals. power match was not great. I found way too much variability and lag during changes. No I use Garmin to track workout independent of TR and have my Garmin head unit linked to assioma pedals and TR linked to tacx. At most the difference is 1-2 watts (FTP ~200) for NP, avg power, total effort, etc. As a result I never use power match and find things to be great with the tacx. only reason I use the Garmin separately is for tracking other metrics on Garmin connect (VO2 etc)
There may be something there with mobile vs desktop depending on your phone. I had the same problem with an old vs a new laptop. I tried to use my 2010 vintage macbook as a dedicated TR machine but I was getting painfully erratic power fluctuations, long delays on dropping power at the end of intervals and just generally a terrible experience. Using all the same sensors on my more current macbook and all those issues just went away and it works really well. I suspect powermatch may be computationally expensive and on older/slower/overwhelmed hardware it may end up lagging behind.
Using a galaxy S8 and a 2013 Macbook so that might be possible.
One other thing to note is i used ANT+ only on my phone ramp test but for the 2nd iOS Macbook test i had bluetooth and ANT+ for the trainer and the UNO.
Going to run some SS tonight with the Macbook, ANT+ only to see how it looks. May have a look at sensitivity aswell.
Tested a couple things tonight (results below). Concluded that in my case the difference is marginal and doesn’t impact the overall quality of my sessions. Both intervals felt similar in terms of intensity. Much the same conclusion as the TR thread the explains powermatch…
Session completed on my Macbook.
Block 1 - ANT+ only. Favero UNO and Bkool pro 2. Powermatch (new)
Block 2 - Put bluetooth on. Seemed much the same as ANT+ only
Block 3 - Disconnected and reconnected all ANT+ and bluetooth devices and it looks like it defaulted to the bkool with no power match but power match was on.
Not entirely sure why the second interval resorted to the bkool only even when both devices were connected.
I did try bluetooth only but that didn’t work as i hadn’t enabled the double power function in the UNO settings. Will give that a bash.
Wondering what y’all’s experience has been with the new powermatch and your ramp tests.
I have been using the regular ERG without powermatch with a 2018 kickr for most of my training and more recent ramp tests, but I switched to powermatch for my more recent rides and my latest ramp test. I have been training pretty consistently (and feeling good), and went from 312 (ERG) → 325 (ERG powermatch). Of course I’m second-guessing the result because I have read that wahoo kickrs can be off by 10 W. I calibrated my powermeter (new force quarq) and did a spin-down before the test.
Hey, all! Just dropping a note on this thread to help us move forward with making sure athletes are getting the best experience with past/present/future versions of Power Match. If something seems amiss with Power Match, we’ll have athletes get in touch with support from now on so that we can more effectively manage reports of device-related issues.
I tried it today on a ramp test. It felt fine at very low wattages, but it seemed like once I got up to higher wattages it was impossible to hit the power targets. Usually I find on ramp tests in pure erg mode I end when I simply can’t push the pedals anymore and my cadence drops. This time I found my cadence was where/if not higher than where I expected it, but didn’t feel that same heavy trainer resistance in those last few steps. It was my first time trying it out, using a kickr core and vector 3s. Perhaps I am just not used to it yet or need to adjust the sensitivity.
Sounds similar to what I’ve been experiencing on the desktop app (using a Saris H1 and Assioma Duo power meter). Initially, the beta version of EPM felt great - a noticeable improvement over the previous PowerMatch. However, something seemed to change following an update to the TR desktop app. It was OK on low and mid-range power but higher efforts didn’t produce the same level of resistance that the beta version of EPM did and/or there was a bit of lag going up to higher wattages. Consequently, I found it harder to hit my targets.
Following a suggestion somewhere on this thread I increased the slider scale setting on setting one to one. This made a bit of difference but was still not as good as the beta version. In the end, I went back to using the legacy version of EPM. Not perfect but better than EPM.
There’s just been another update to the TR desktop app, so I’ll try EPM again to see if it’s any different.
Sorry for the trouble, its hard for us to tell here exactly what’s going on without seeing your internal ride log, so I think the best move here is to email support@trainerroad.com, so they can take a closer look at that data, walk you through any troubleshooting or firmware updates, and see exactly what’s amiss.
Cheers. I tried it on Mary Austin -1 today with the advance setting slider set at 1 and it seemed to be a bit better, though there was a slight lag at the start of some of the intervals after the recovery periods.
I’ve had more than one kickr and haven’t found the power to be out of line with my power meters. There are known issues with overheating, but generally it’s been within the margin of error. I have noticed that I can see drivetrain losses, recently lubricated my chain and gained 7 watts… the pm and the kickr power are back in line. Bike has been on the trainer too long me thinks.
Hi everyone, I just ordered the Assioma Duo pedals, and was wondering how well the powermatch works with the Tacx Flow Smart (or the Vortex, which is almost identical)?
I ordered the assiomas to get more accurate power numbers on my indoor and outdoor workouts, but reading some comments in this thread, now I’m afraid the indoor workout experience might not be very good.
I have the Garmin Vector 3 single side and use them with a Tacx Flow Smart. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but in general it works well. The power fluctuates a lot more than when using just the Tacx, but from what I have read, this is a better reflection of reality. Tacx on its own shows a higher W than with the powermeter as well.
VO2 max intervals require some help from shifting gears to get sufficient resistence, and often I have to shfit down to my lowest gear to get sufficiently low resistance for the recovery intervals. I figured it was likely to be down to using a low end smart trainer rather than software, but haven’t been able to try the new Power Match to be able to tell how much of an improvement it makes.
