Quick training question: I do my weekend training on a tacx vortex at home, and my during the week training on a nice spin bike at the gym. I have favero assioma pedals that I take with me, so power accuracy really isn’t an issue. I’ve been slowly but steadily doing more and more work on the gym bike, because my vortex is super annoying on high-intensity intervals (power spikes at first and settles, but that’s a different question).
tl;dr; since the spin bike has a larger flywheel, will that in any way make my ramp test easier or less valid, or should using the pedals on both mean that it doesn’t matter where I take the test?
That is an open and unsolved discussion (no hard science at this time). But many of us feel there are differences in flywheel speed/mass/angular velocity and the effect on the body.
There may be functional differences that load the body differently and could affect the results of an FTP test and subsequent training.
I feel there is a real difference and that testing and training should be conducted in the same basic conditions in most cases. I do advocate mixing the flywheel speed in training and that mix should vary based on rider and event needs.
Here is a thread with lots of related discussion.
All that said, it makes sense to me to test the same way you do most of your training, on the spin bike. Even beyond those potential differences, there are likely other environmental changes that may impact you as well (temp, fans, etc.)
Thanks Chad. I appreciate the response. I’ll do the test on the gym bike then and make that my standard. I’m going to assume that any effort differences won’t really affect me that much, since the power is consistent.