Unbalance Watts between Elite Kura (Smart Trainer +-1% and Assioma Duo -+1% accuracy)

Hi all,

I have an elite Kura and as of today no complains. However, I recently acquired the Assioma Duo, the problem is that I see that there is a watts difference (about 10 or 15 difference, indicating the Assioma more) between the Assioma Duo and the trainer Elite Kura.

I have talked with customer support both with Favero Assioma Duo and Elite. And Elite Kura’s customer service responded as follows:

Please take note of:
Kura and your bike power sensor measure the power in two different points
In particular your bike power sensor measure also the frictions on pedal and crank and instead those frictions are not measured from the trainer (because the power sensor is placed in a different position), then also you need to consider that the bike chain give some power dispersion so in the wheel the power is reduced a bit respect the power read on the pedals

A difference of 15-20 Watts so is the result of all this aspects and is completely normal

You also need to consider that the maximum error between the two measure is given by the accuracy of the power sensor:
mean:
Direto power sensor has an accuracy of +/-2%, if your bike power sensor (just for example) has the same accuracy it means that the difference on the read between the two sensor could be up to 4% (from -2% of one sensor to +2% of the other)

What you guys think? should I worry or just take into account always the Assioma Duo in order to be able see the same range of watts both in workouts outside and inside.

Thank you in advance,

I wouldn’t worry about it. You will probably discover that once you get outside and are no longer in a “lab environment” that the 10-15 difference in watts will not be a real problem. Trainers, particularly those in ERG mode, keep us on target. Outside, there are so many other considerations that you won’t even be able to stare at the bike computer and notice fluctuations that little.

I could be wrong, of course. That is just my experience.

Thanks. Ir order to find consistency, I should rely only in one power meter, right?

I’m not sure, Silvio. Comparing indoor rides to outdoor rides is a little like comparing apples and oranges. They are two different experiences. I’m sure others will have something intelligent to add. I only have my own experience. I find that using Assioma duo outdoors, that I am pushing higher watts up hills and against the wind for longer periods of time than what I would expect.

I suppose it depends on how the read-out to the computer is set up. I’ve set mine up for power averaged over 9 seconds (one of the options the Edge 810 gives me, nothing I’ve done any research on). It feels like it is right.

Give it a try outside and see what you think. I think you’ll be happy with both, the Elite and the Assioma.

Unlike probably most people here, I work and live in two different states. In each location I have a Tacx Neo (which can’t be calibrated) and a set of Assioma pedals. Initially I only used the Assiomas outdoors and relied on the good accuracy of the Neos indoors. Then I got worried about having four different sets of power measuring devices. So, for the last few weeks I have been moving one set of assiomas back and forth and carefully calibrating them each time to try and see what the differences were between all the different devices. What I found was that the Neos and Assiomas all agreed with each other to within +/-5 watts. The only time I saw bigger than that was when I forgot to calibrate the Assiomas one time after switching bikes. What I decided to do was always do my FTP tests on the same single indoor setup to have a consistent benchmark. Then I use the other Neo by itself at the other house indoors and the two sets of Assiomas outdoors. All the other options are too much work with little benefit. I have found that the Neos match to well within my margin of error in my FTP measurement and the same workout on the two Neos feels the same to me within my normal day-to-day fatigue variations. Also, since I only rely on the Assiomas outside any difference between them and the Neos is included in the normal inside/outside difference. I also did some experimenting with Powermatch and I wasn’t that excited by the results. It worked great for longer intervals but I saw weird things going on for short intervals and power spikes. For example, if I stomped on the pedals for a second and the Assioma power would shoot up then powermatch would drop the Neo power like a rock to compensate. Then things would oscillate around for a while before stabilizing. And this happened for things like going from siting to standing for a second. I eventually decided that for anything other than long intervals powermatch did more harm than good compared to just letting the Neo do its thing. So, my recommendation would be to do your indoor training and testing using a consistent single setup. Keep it calibrated as well as you can. Then outdoors just use your power meter.

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I too have the Neo. Thanks for the insight on power matching. Since things feel consistent between the Neo and Assioma outdoors, I’ll just stay with that.

I did notice that my normalized power (NP) for a long ride ended up right where I was hoping and was expecting it too. That is very good to know.

Thank you all for your replies!