Not able to sustain average wattbike power on an acutal bike.

the wattbikes power meters are probably suspect at best, but what power meter are you using outdoors?

Edited by dmiller5 2018-03-28 7:53 AM

This, you'll have to do some discovery using your bike's meter to find out what the right numbers are. Don't try to chase the same numbers.

I used to do most of my cycle training on gym watt bikes, before switching to my own bike and a tri club Computrainer, then my bike with a power meter. The watt meter on watt bikes seems to calculate power somewhat differently than the latter two. To me it seems like watt bikes tend to undervalue torque and overvalue cadence in whatever algorithm is being used to calculate power. Power seems higher than it should be when I am spinning quickly at low resistance, and lower than with my normal power meter when I am pushing a harder gear at lower cadence. It is often off by as much as 15-20 watts, depending on what kind of workout it is.

The numbers on watt bikes can be used as a reference for training sessions on the same kind of bike (ideally, the same bike--gym bikes may not all be calibrated or worn to the same degree), assuming you did your power tests on it, but you can't compare it to a Computrainer or normal power meter. If you are going to do a lot of training with the road bike and your own PM, I would suggest doing an FTP test with that equipment and using those numbers when you train on it.

Why do you care about watts? ..at the end of the day only time counts

I started using trainerroad a couple years ago with a Kurt Kinetic trainer and virtual power. My ftp power was around 272 watts. when I changed to a Garmin Vector 2, the power dropped to around 253W. The difficulty of the workouts was very similar. I bought a Wahoo KICKR last year, and without power matching, the KICKR power was around 10-15 watts different from the vector 2 pedals.

Why do you care about effort? At the end of the day, only positive feelings count.

Why do you care about positive feelings? At the end of the day everyone gets a trophy (or a finisher medal).

Thanks for all the useful suggestions - will investigate further. Would prefer to do an FTP test outdoors but it's finding somewhere in my local area that I can do one uninterrupted and with relatively uniform terrain.

You can do the FTP test indoors--much safer! Just be aware that when training outside in the real world, power will tend to have more moment to moment fluctuations due to varying road and weather conditions. (For example, your power numbers will tend to be much higher when going uphill; low or even zero downhill.) But overall these should average out for most rides. It's okay to use the FTP from an indoor test as a guide to what goals you should be pushing in a workout or race; just realize it's going to be more variable than indoors on the trainer. I do almost all my bike training on the trainer, but am generally able to hit typical targets for % of FTP (based on an indoor test) at various race distances.

Edited by Hot Runner 2018-04-12 7:26 AM