Elite Direto cadence issues

I have just started a TR plan using my newly purchased Elite Direto (Performance Bicycle is offering 20% off them right now). Last week while doing Baxter I was pedaling in the granny gear to keep my RPM’s as close to 120. About half way through the workout I noticed the cadence readings got a little wonky. I counted my cadence and I was around 106 but the Direto was saying my cadence was 46. During the workout I was also having problems with the workout auto pausing. I read a topic on this forum that offered some solutions for the auto pausing and so I am going to try getting a male to female 3’ long cable to put the ANT dongle closer to the trainer.

My question is this - will the longer cable also fix my cadence issue? Or should I also invest in a cadence/rpm device like the one Wahoo makes?

I seem to remember reading somewhere that some smart trainers have a hard time calculating cadence in the easier gears. Is this true or am I remembering incorrectly? If it is the case it would seem that a cadence counter is a necessary purchase.

Cheers and thank you in advance for any advice.

Also I completed a spin down calibration a few days prior using the TR software

If the Direto uses similar methods to how CycleOps does it, there will be issues of accuracy based on pedaling smoothness.

If you really want to track cadence, you are best to get a dedicated cadence meter.

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I’ve got the same trainer and generally don’t find I have any issues with cadence following the plans in ERG mode. The only times I do is when I drop below ~85w, but that’s usually as I complete a workout and and am into a warmdown.

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i have same trainer and don’t really have any issues.

i did initially have it auto-pausing but, like you, bought a 3m long USB extension and crucially, also turned off Bluetooth on the laptop as well. My HRM is ant+ as well so this causes no issues.

that sorted the drop out issue completely - not happened once since.

the real question is how you can cycle at 120 RPM… 110 is about the max I can manage and not for long.
I’m generally found it a good trainer although of course I have no reference point.

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Thank you I will get a cable and switch my Tickr to ANT vs. Bluetooth. As you can see the cadence (white line) started going crazy towards the end. That was when the trainer was auto pausing too.

Thanks for the advice.

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I also notice this issue with my Direto - when I’m pedaling with very light torque, my cadence sometimes jumps around. When pedaling at higher torque, I don’t have this issue.

I’m guessing this is due to the algorithm Elite uses to calculate cadence from power data. They likely do some kind of frequency analysis on the power data to determine cadence, and when the torque is very light, there may not be an obvious “primary frequency” identified.

It also may be affected by left/right imbalance, causing the identified primary frequency to be half of actual.

The solution to this is to use a separate cadence monitor. I don’t think it’s a BLE or ANT signal strength issue.

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Same here… have the Elite Direto for almost a year now. Never had dropouts of any kind… now having serious cadence issues… something is not right.


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Have you contacted elite support? I did with a different issue and they were very quick to come back to me.

On another note I always forget to calibrate mine - must do so tomorrow.

I agree @DaveWh that it is probably a torque issue related to the Elite algorithm.

I sidestepped the issue and went with a Wahoo RPM counter. I also got a 6’ (2m) long USB Male/Female cable. I switched my computer’s Bluetooth off and used ANT+ for the Wahoo Tickr. The combination of those three things fixed my drop out issues. Did a whole ride today (Godard) with zero (0) dropouts or signal fade-outs.

Thank you to everyone who commented and helped me troubleshoot this annoying issue.