Why does it do this?

[Jack_Russell_Racing]

See below. ERG mode, Tallac -1. Top chart is straight TR reported data from my Kickr. Bottom chart is the same ride reported through my Quarq.

Obviously, I hit all the intervals and the trainer adjusted properly for the workout. But why does the chart on TR look like this? I had zero awareness of it during the workout, so obviously TR was sending the commands properly to the Kickr.

I see this same behavior on both short intervals and long intervals, but not really with any consistency. Thoughts?

[rocourteau]

Sounds like an issue with the KICKR. Power command clearly went up, since you can see actual power measured by the Quarq going up, and even your HR going up on the TR version of the graph. It’s the actual power reported by the KICKR that stayed flatline. Cadence is also changing on the TR graph during the “snooze” part of that interval - is that coming from the KICKR, or from the power meter?

I would venture an intermittent disconnect between TR and the trainer, such that the new power command did get transmitted, but somehow power wasn’t? The simplest patch (and a patch it is) would be to use your Quarq as the power source for TR, and enable power match.

[Jack_Russell_Racing]

@rocourteau

is that coming from the KICKR, or from the power meter?

For this ride, I have intentionally not paired the Quarq to TrainerRoad and (obviously) not used anything like PowerMatch.

… but now that you mention it, back in the olden-times when I did use PowerMatch and paired the Quarq, I don’t recall seeing these oddities. hmmmm.

[rocourteau]

So cadence is from the KICKR? Makes it even weirder, and points more to the trainer. These issues usually come down to the communication link (BT or ANT+) being dropped, or the sensor source going funky. In this case, one can pretty much rule out the communication link, since the trainer is getting power commands, transmitting cadence, but flat-lining power. That’s hard to do on the app side too; highest probability is the trainer.

[trpnhntr]

I wonder if its something to do with the fact that you have power smoothing turned on for the kickr

I think with that on (think being the operative word…this is a theory) that the kickr broadcasts the power as exactly what is sent - not what is being measured by the trainer. So…the kickr receives the inbound message from TR to set the power correctly, but the outbound message from the kickr to TR is dropped (wifi noisy training area?) so even though the kickr adjusted correctly TR remains blissfully unaware

Having typed that out…power smoothing might be irrelevant to this - the above failure type could happen either way, although the logic of the kickr’s power smoothing might make it more likely

[WindWarrior]

thats an email to support@ for the answer.

Also, a friendly reminder that friends tell friends to use the Wahoo app to turn off erg mode power smoothing

[Jack_Russell_Racing]

Friends don’t actually give a rats arse about Wahoo power. My only ‘reported’ dataset that matters is the Quarq on my Garmin Connect. I raised this question because I was curious if others had seen it before.

May your legs be smooth, and your power be spikey:

^ that’s the ‘real’ data from the workout. Quarq only.

[WindWarrior]

Wahoo power

I’ve had some intervals delayed due to radio interference, but that looks like radio interference on reading power from the Kickr. Except for TR continuing to display recovery power for that gap you’ve shown, I would have expected zeros but I didn’t write any code for TR

Or simply a display bug on the TR chart.

Only TR support can sort that out.

[ZackeryWeimer]

Hey there! Good question – something does look a lil funky here.

Since it looks like you’re running two power sources, we’d recommend turning PowerMatch back on. That will eliminate the “competition” between your Quarq and your KICKR, which will probably get rid of these odd power graphs we’re seeing here. If the Quarq is the power source you’re using for the rest of your training, we’d recommend having it connected to TR as well.

Outside of that, it might be a good idea to check your Wahoo Fitness App for any updates that may be available for your KICKR. Additionally, try keeping the trainer unplugged between sessions if you don’t do so already – this will help it reset and clear out any bad data “stuck” inside.

It also looks like you’re on a KICKR Core, which needs to be calibrated every two weeks (per Wahoo’s recommendation). You can calibrate your trainer through TR’s Calibration process, or you can do so using your Wahoo app instead.

Hope this helps – feel free to reach back out to me or TR Support if this issue persists!

[Jack_Russell_Racing]

Thank you! I’ll look at each of these suggestions during the next few workouts.