Multiple Power Sources Revisited

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1

My on-bike power meter (Pioneer 930) and smart trainer (Wahoo KICKR v5/2020) return different power numbers. The Wahoo seems to be anywhere from 5-10% higher. This seems a bit beyond the sum of the tolerances of the meters, but it’s enough to disrupt the numbers on intervals.icu … for example I have got new, seemingly high eFTP numbers when doing trainer rides (esp. Zwift races, of course). What do you all recommend as the best idea here? I’ve come up with the following:

  • Just ignore it
  • Double-record all rides (Wahoo+Zwift, Pioneer+Garmin) and let Zwift use the Wahoo numbers, feed intervals.icu the lower Pioneer numbers via Garmin Connect so it will be consistent with all my outdoor rides (which are the bulk of my riding)
  • Fix Wahoo rides manually with the “Fix Data” feature (this seems like a pain to do it every time)
  • Does intervals.icu have some way to account for this, either
    ** Apply an automatic Fix Data based on Gear/ride type/whatever
    ** Track separate FTP per bike/ride type/whatever as mentioned in one of the threads
  • Just use Pioneer meter for everything by pairing it with Zwift (I don’t want to do this since I feel it would put me at a disadvantage… many folks on Zwift will be using a KICKR too, so I don’t want to use 10% lower Pioneer numbers in a race)

Any thoughts? What am I missing?

Here are the threads I dug up

2

As a quick option available now you could filter power curves between indoor and outdoor. Similarly you could set a slightly higher indoor FTP

3

Thanks for your suggestion. Didn’t realize I could filter the curves like that. I’ll check it out.

4

I would personally use the Pioneer for everything and PowerMatch the trainer where needed. So you always have power numbers from the same device.

If the disadvantage during races bothers you…and you’re sure it’s not the KICKR that’s over-reading…you can always Zwift-diet and shrink to compensate :upside_down_face:

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5

Thanks. I hadn’t heard of PowerMatch. Looks like Zwift does that automatically if you select the on-bike meter as the “Power Source” and the trainer as the “Controllable”. I didn’t know you could do it for other (non-Zwift) trainer rides as well – that’s cool.

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Wahoo trainers can be configured for it in their app so it works everywhere, TrainerRoad can do it natively as well (and probably has the best and most responsive implementation).