Whether you’re racing, taking part in a group ride, testing your FTP or performing a workout, you want to be sure that the power data you’re getting from your smart trainer is accurate and comparable with other sessions you’ve done. One of the the key steps to achieving this is by calibrating your smart trainer before each ride.
Most smart trainers have their own spin-down calibration protocol which can normally be accessed and carried out using an accompanying app. This is always worth doing when first setting up your trainer, if you move it, change the set-up or every week or so. If you’ve got a wheel-on trainer it’s also essential that you check tyre pressure before every ride and ensure that it’s always the same.
Even if you’ve got a high end direct drive smart trainer, it still needs calibrating to ensure accurate power data. Temperature is the probably the biggest variable that needs accounting for and, in the same way you warm-up, so too does your trainer. To have confidence in your data, especially if your trainer is in a cold garage or shed, you need to do your warm-up and then perform a spin-down calibration.
The good news is that this is super easy to do in-game on Zwift so you don’t need to log-out to use your trainer’s own protocol or app.
Log-in and do your usual warm-up - for both you and your trainer, this should be at least 10 minutes.
Stop pedalling and hit A on your keyboard to go back to the Pairing Screen. If using iPad, iPhone or Apple TV, click on Menu and go to Pairing Screen from there.
Next to your Power Source, you’ll see a little spanner icon (see pic), click on this.
Follow the on-screen prompts and the whole process is done in well under a minute.
Quit the Pairing Screen, go back into game and Ride On confident that the numbers you’re seeing are accurate.
