Right now when I calibrate my Kickr using the TrainerRoad software, at the end of the calibration it doesn’t show the calibration value, it just asks if I want to keep the calibration. This isn’t really helpful, as I don’t know if something might have happened.
The optimal would be: TrainerRoad would log the calibration value (for any sensor - i.e., smart trainer, power meter - I calibrate), and flag if a current calibration value is “suspect”. Where “suspect” is a user settable % off of the average calibration value for the sensor.
For example
My Power Meter “suspect” value is +/50%
The “calibration” value for my Quarq power meter averages 7
I do a calibration and the calibration shows up as 14, then TrainerRoad should flag this as “Suspect”, and ask if I want to “keep the value”, “re-calibrate”, or “keep existing calibration”
Additionally, I should be able to see a history of all calibration values by sensor. This would be helpful in tracking if potentially something is going wrong. That is, if I see this value drifting over time, that might be a warning that my sensor (e.g., smart trainer) is starting to have issue
It is important to note that the offset value does not need to be the same every time for the calibration to be successful. As long as the calibration goes through, your power meter was successfully calibrated; there are no suspect calibrations.
The offset value can change in response to a variety of environmental factors, most notably temperature. If you are dealing with varying temperatures (change in season, indoor/outdoor, etc) then you would see different offset values upon calibration, but that does not affect the validity of the calibration itself.
By tracking and recording offset values in this manner, it would likely lead to misinformation and confusion when the reality is, you really only need to know if the calibration was successful or not .
Maybe I’m in a weird situation: I have a dedicated trainer bike with a power meter, so the reasons that would cause calibration value drift over large values don’t really apply. So if the calibration (zero-offset) value changes significantly, then something is off. For example: the last 4 times I calibrated my power meter (Quarq Riken) the value has been 7 every time.
Also, if what you say is true, why when I calibrate my Kickr does the pop-up ask me if I want to keep the calibration? If the calibration is “always” correct, then should the pop-up simply say something like “You’ve successfully calibrated your Kickr”.
Maybe not calibration logging but monitoring the differences when using power match. I have Power meters on two bike I use on the trainer and thought something was up with one of them. By monitoring trainer power separately and doing back to back workouts on each bike I was able to see the issue and raise it with the manufacturer.
Be great to think TR was monitoring the differences in power match and keeping a bit of history so it could spot unusual behaviour and flag.
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