That is really poor, plus a good reason to avoid their products.
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After sending my ride files over to them, wattbike have said they want to take the bike in to do a factory check and calibration and will come and get it as soon as they can pending the covid situation here (UK)
So, to be fair their customer service and response so far in this matter has been very good. I do actually like the Atom too for the time Iāve currently used it, it works as I want it too and itās soooo convenient being a stay at home dad to a 1 year old that I really value having the small size and being ready to jump on go!!!
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It actually makes no sense because a manufacturer could easily cherry pick the best performing unit from inventory and send that out for review.
And a reviewer like @GPLama could easily send out a request to his followers to test out an actual ownerās Wattbike.
They can run, butā¦
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just following up hereā¦ borrowed a Wattbike (not atom) from a gym over lockdown (8ish weeks) and have been using with Zwift. Loved so much I have purchased a Tacx Neo and now with Zwift it is so so hard! Iāve been a bit run down and did a big mtb last w/e so trying to recover before I give it a good shot and redo FTP. Not sure if Iām not hitting the watts because Iām tired, or if the accuracy between the 2 is waaay off. Would expect it to be off slightly as just 2 machines but my FTP on Wattbike was 253 W, and I could barely hold 210 W for 20mins last nightā¦ any thoughts? Maybe it is the rude awakening I need. I will do a new FTP on Tacx and create workouts from that, but just a bit gutted Iām not as good as I thought I was!! haha
Just received my Atom today. Based on perceived exertion, Iād say the Atom felt 20-30 watts harder for the same power target than on my Elite Drivo, either reading the Drivo power meter reading or the Quarq DZero. 2 vs 1, Iām happy to conclude the Atom is wrong. Of course, thereās no calibration to be done, so Iām either stuck with very different FTPs indoors vs out, or the Atom goes back.
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You can do a reset in the preferences and this might help.
But, it seems a common bit of feedback by various user groups that the atom under reads by about the margin you mention.
On the plus side, itās an indoor trainer, aslong as itās consistent thatās what you want and id rather it under reads than over readsā¦
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Agreed - rather not discover my FTP has been 20-30 watts lower than Iāve thought the last 3 years!
When you say preferences, do you mean in the TrainerRoad app or Wattbike Hub app? Canāt find that option in the Wattbike app
If you go into known wattbikes in the hub, click on your atom, preferences then there is a reset option in there.
Same place as you switch between 11/22 gear options.
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The perceived difficulty could also be position, Q factor and cadence driven?
I do feel a difference between my 165mm cranks and the wattbike 170mm.
Iāve got 170mm cranks on both Atom and the Quarq, so itās not that. I did play about with the position a bit, reset in preferences, and a few other bits, but Iām still convinced itās at least 15w harder on the Atom, jumping from bike to bike. The difference is more pronounced the higher the wattage.
Sadly, it looks like a ramp test for me tomorrow to ascertain my āindoor on the Atomā FTP, which will look like Iāve suddenly stopped doping. Unless Wattbike come up with something when they reply to my support ticket.
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After sending my ride files over to them, wattbike have said they want to take the bike in to do a factory check and calibration and will come and get it as soon as they can pending the covid situation here (UK)
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Did this ever happen? What was the verdict?
It hasnāt happened yet but I contacted wattbike last week and they assured me that it would, they are just dealing with a long backlog due to the covid lockdown and are taking them in order, apparantly itās a one in, one out, operation when bikes go back to the factory for calibrations.
Best of luck on your ramp test!
Remember to mentally push yourself a couple of seconds more if you have a ramp step goal in mind. I found that because the Atomās addition of resistance is slower, I found that it steps up to the wattage target about 10 seconds after the notification on the screen. So a 400w 1m best power would be 10 seconds into 420w step (if that makes sense)
At least you donāt immediately hit a 20W wall and immediately go into cadence grinding deathā¦
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Bumping up an old thread hereā¦ Iāve just taken delivery of a next gen Atom and it seems to be outputing far higher power than my previous trainer (Elite direto). Previously I was around 4.3wkg max, now jumped to over 5.0wkg on racesā¦ very suspicious! Anyone else had this issue on a next gen Atom? I donāt have any power meter pedals etc to check output. Any other way of checking? Or any advice appreciated! Iāve emailed WB support but they are often slow to respondā¦
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Iād recommend trying to borrow some power meter pedals from somebody - only way to be sure.
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I think in general, its important to remember the context of the readings. So its not 200W, its 200W_Atom, or 160W_Powertap. There is a conversion factor required in going between these devices. As I understand with the Wattbikes, you can tinker with the calibration yourself. However, you probably want to do a FTP test directly after the new calibration. So really, you are not looking at 200W_Atom, but 200W_Atom_20201129. So the reading depends on the calibration (obviously).
Provided you have a FTP ramp test on a calibrated Wattbike, and dont muck around with the calibration, then Trainerroad should dovetail into place.
Obviously, throughout this process of calibration, your actual FTP is remaining the same.
Thereās a reset option within the settings, worth tapping that and checking.
Few people have stated that after having had service it can over / under read till it is reset.
Thanks, yes in the advance settings option, the āset zero stateā button seems not to do anything on the wattbike hub app, itās a red button that just goes grey but no conformation anything has been done. All a bit odd, especially as wattbike state āconfigured for lifeā
Iāll report back for any others that get this issue, or just to say power meter pedals match the Wattbike output (5.0wkg would be nice!)
Did they get back to you and what was the result. I myself have an old wattbike atom and an assioma uno and found the same reading 10% low on the assiomas compared to the wattbike. What was the end result
Yes. They agreed that it needed taking in for a calibration and weāre going to collect itā¦then the V2 Atom was a announced and people whoād ordered within an overlap timeframe of the V2 being announced we offered an upgrade to the V2 at Ā£150 (Vs the Ā£300 extra it costs) sooooo, I rang them and argued the case that when I logged the fault with them was within my return period/the same timeframe others were offered the upgrade and that I should be offered it alsoā¦especially as they were coming to collect my faulty V1 to fix it anyway!
Anyhow, after some back and forth they agreed to let me upgrade and also keep my V1 until the new bike arrived which I was very happy with.
Anyhow, my V2 power matches almost spot on with my powertap P1ās.
I canāt fault the service (even thought I had to be quite insistent) and now with some software updates the is starting to perform pretty well. Overall Iām very happy
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