StagesBike. Anyone else have one?

[shaunwelch]

Picked one of these up last Saturday from my LBS. Works great in Zwift, cruising around, racing, etc, but my wife mainly uses TrainerRoad, (as I do also) and ERG will not work! It tries to work, but overshoots the targets when the power increases and when it decreases the power drops well below the prescribed wattage.

Its very new, just wondering if anyone else had one and has any issues? I have a ticket with them and have been doing the back and forth, but from them its just check this setting, check that setting…

Other than that, its built like a tank, its quieter than my heavy breathing… Oh and the Ipad/Phone holder is top notch. Lot of money, but we have multiple users, and swapping bikes daily and changing the axle adapter as we have different bikes was getting old.

[GPLama]

Unboxing one today… I’ll get to the ERG zone tests this weekend sometime.

[jfranci3]

That would be a big heavy flywheel in action. Same reason the Neo is abusive and the H3 is friendly. You need a big resistance engine to slow down that flywheel

[shaunwelch]

Which it feels like has. Wind that flywheel up and the brakes stop it within 2 seconds.

GPLama, look forward to your review

[bbarrera]

There have been a couple blog posts from Jim the product manager, the first one:
https://stagescycling.com/us/news/jims-basement-blog-1/

has a pic of Erg workout that looks like what I do with a Kickr direct drive and TrainerRoad. How over/under shoot are you seeing?

[shaunwelch]

Here is a screenshot of a short 4 min workout I did to send them. They asked for a .FIT file and a screenshot. Was trying to be as smooth as possible. When the power increases it goes way above, and when it decreases its like the resistance goes to zero and youre freewheeling for 5-10 seconds. I havnt heard back yet other than check your settings…

You can also see at the workout start it took a while to react.

[bbarrera]

From the blog it appears Erg is working when Dash is controlling. From your short test it appears some tweaking will be required to get it working with TrainerRoad.

The Stages gym bikes have worked well for me, and this bike looks interesting. Software for smart trainers and smart bikes always seems to take a awhile before its fully baked. Your feedback on the hardware is encouraging.

[shaunwelch]

I am confident it will be fixed. Everything else on it is solid. Works good for zwift if thats your thing.

[bbarrera]

same, pretty much every review of every new training product has something that can be updated and improved. If I was the Stages PM my first priorities would be making Erg work well with my bike computers, and making sim mode work well with Zwift. From your 4-min test it appears to be a matter of improving Erg experience with TrainerRoad. And I’m guessing you could use standard/resistance mode with TrainerRoad, gotta believe that is supported in first release of the bike.

[jimstemper]

Hey all!

Jim from Stages here trying to find the forums and answer the questions you all have. We have tested TrainerRoad pretty extensively with Erg mode and expect it to work well. The behavior you are describing we think is due to the Power match feature, which we recommend you turn off any time you are using the StagesBike to do workouts;

The reasoning here is Power Match is designed to use your power meter to inform the trainer, but in the StagesBike case, we are already doing this. We use our power meter to inform our trainer to make sure Erg mode is super accurate. If TrainerRoad starts to try to do this at the same time as us, you will get a chasing effect where we both make a change to the resistance at the same time, doubling the effect, and then back and forth and back and forth, like a sin wave.

This is a bad experience! I can replicate this bad experience here by enabling power match, so I would suggest you disable it and try again. If you are still having a bad experience let me know. Im new to this forum so its not in my mind to always check it, but ill try!

[bbarrera]

Hey Jim thanks for stopping by and answering the question!!! Look forward to reading more blog stories!

[shaunwelch]

Hi Jim, thanks for the response.

My settings are just as you describe… I sent the .fit file, screen shots and my setup to your support. I have a ticket open. Your support sent me the same information. I haven’t heard back. Hoping my bike isn’t defective in some way, but starting to think it is. I will await their response.

[CZS]

@jimstemper and/or @shaunwelch,

What’s the Q factor on this bike?

[GPLama]

Measures 160mm here… but could be -/+ 2mm on that. Official spec looks to be 157mm

[CZS]

Perfect, thanks @GPLama. Looking forward to your review.

[jimstemper]

Hey Shawn,

I think were talking to each other through the CS team, let’s keep that conversation going, erg mode should certainly work so we should be able to get there.

Talk soon!

[shaunwelch]

I will try to do a couple ERG workouts and send the fit files. My wife uses it more than I do, maybe I can get one of hers!

[KatuskaMTB]

@shaunwelch

Works great in Zwift, cruising around, racing, etc,

For the racing - how did you find the shifting / responsiveness to be? Curious especially about sudden changes in pace / sprinting at the end of races - any experience there? Thanks!

[iamholland]

ERG mode in Zwift training/workout. How is that in comparison? Same? Different?

[buh_buh]

Velonews does a pretty good quick and dirty overview of the 4 smart bikes available right now.