I use Rouvy without ERG because it always results in an oversized pedal drag on even shallow grades. I tried again today and when it hit a 3.5 % grade 276 watts wasn’t near enough to not be brought down to a crawl. I hit it at about 90 to 100 watts so it wasn’t the dreaded Wahoo slow march of death. Any higher grades take pulling up on the bars while standing and in no way match outside ride efforts.
I know Rouvy has a percentage adjustment for making your ERG mode work for you. I don’t think customers have the knowledge base to set a percentage with any accuracy approaching reality. This should be Rouvy’s responsibility.
I use a Wahoo Kickr and it’s wattage resistance seems quite accurate on TrainerRoad rides so I think my trainer is working properly. Has anyone else noticed this or have a way to accurately set that percentage adjustment for Rouvy?
Rouvy just says “you do it!”
I haven’t used Rouvy in a long time and NEVER used ERG mode while on Rouvy, so I could be completely wrong in my assessment here BUT grade should have no bearing on power output if you are running in ERG mode.
Are you positive you are in ERG on Rouvy? In sounds to me like you are in sim or resistance mode.
1. ERG Mode (Ergometer Mode)
- What it does: In ERG mode, the trainer automatically adjusts the resistance to maintain a specific power output (measured in watts) regardless of your cadence (pedal speed).
- How it works: If your training plan calls for, say, 200 watts, the trainer will keep the resistance steady so that you’re always generating 200 watts. If you pedal faster, the resistance will decrease, and if you pedal slower, the resistance will increase to keep you at the target power.
2. SIM Mode (Simulation Mode)
- What it does: SIM mode simulates outdoor riding by adjusting resistance based on factors like gradient (hill incline), wind speed, and even road surface (if the trainer and app support it).
- How it works: The trainer dynamically changes resistance to mimic real-world terrain. If you’re climbing a virtual hill in an app like Zwift, the trainer will increase resistance to make it feel like you’re actually climbing. When you go downhill, it reduces resistance, mimicking coasting.
Conclusion: If your trainer/Rouvy setup changes resistance when approaching a virtual gradient, you are not in erg mode in the first place.
Thank you both for responding.
I used sim mode to day happily shifting to match the grades and that was fine.
A few days ago I used the Rouvy “devices” page to get the program to recognize my trainer from two selections. The upper left selection lets the program read power from the trainer. The lower right selection allows the trainer resistance to be controlled by the program, Rouvy. So a few days ago I set that trainer controlled option to “on”. Also known as ERG mode.
I was not using a training set of intervals with a zone setpoint. I was riding a virtual route with hills in a typical ERG single gear on the cassette. Being a film and gps route from a real course it has undulating terrain. So all I’m saying is when going from flat ground to a roughly 3.5 % grade the resistance from the program was much harder than what I have experienced riding hills outside with the grade showing on my Garmin. I live an hour from Mt. Rainier National Park so I have ridden a few hills with changing gradient.
I’m saying the program on at least a few of their routes is sending a quite an exageratted resistance. As a customer I don’t feel it’s my responsibility to make my best guess at setting their adjustment scale to make it rideable and accurate?
Beyond that I assume if a riding route in Rouvy will get harder when it has started going up a grade. I have calibrated my Wahoo trainer and I will see if everything software wise is up to date, but I’ve had this issue for years.
Sorry, one more thing. I know of another guy with a Kickr and Rouvy, who is a many decades long serious rider who has his adjument set at 50% of reality for the same problem I have mentioned.
The trainer control setting doesn’t automatically set the trainer to ERG mode. ERG vs SIM mode is determined by the type of session you are doing… SIM mode would be the default if just riding a route, while ERG mode would be the default when running a structured workout.
Given what you said here, you were definitely in SIM mode, not ERG. if you were riding a virtual route in SIM mode and using only a single gear (as the above sentence suggests) I could see where it could feel very hard depending on the gradient being simulated. In SIM mode, you should be shifting as the gradient changes, just like riding outside, not staying in a single gear.
I have always found indoor riding on virtual gradients harder than riding outside when talking about similar inclines. I believe it comes down to many factors, including but not limited to…
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more/different muscle recruitment when outside (outside you’re bike is at an angle going uphill and your position on the bike will likely be different then when inside, where your bike angle hasn’t changed)
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more movement to the bike outside vs inside
That said, there is where the trainer difficulty setting you spoke about comes in when trying to get inside to feel like outside. To set that (I use Zwift, not Rouvy), I generally think about the gear I am in when going up an incline outside and try to set that slider to a percentage that gets me into roughly the same gear for the same incline inside. This is typically around 70%, but is likely very individual and would be why Rouvy (or any other platform) wouldn’t just set that for you (Zwift defaults to 50%, not sure about Rouvy).
I hope that helps answer your follow up questions and doesn’t cloud things up further.