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Wattbike Woes

Have now owned an Atom for three weeks. I mainly use Trainerroad with some occasional Zwifting. This is an honest appraisal of the trainer.

The issues raised in the comments of the road.cc review are all issues I recognise. The Atom struggles with large jumps in resistance so that when it goes up say 120w it will over compensate and the resistance climbs higher which slows your Cadence which then creates more resistance. It sorts itself out eventually but it's a pain (sometimes literally). Conversely big drops in resistance cause your Cadence to ramp up again leading to an oscillation where you end up trying to maintain the power and more often spinning out the gear.

Zwifting is not a pleasant experience generally with ridiculous ramps in resistance when the gradient rises and no idea what gear you are in unless you run the Wattbike hub app concurrently.

The hoods offer little feedback when pressing the buttons and if you take them off the shifters look pretty cheap and not very robust.

Want to do an FTP test? You have to do one in ERG mode on Trainerroad (and Zwift) and then increase or decrease resistance using the app, you can't 'freestyle' the testing phase. This alone is an insane state of affairs! FTP tests are best efforts by nature so if you are using ERG then that must surely affect the test.

Finally the overall build quality is good but the bars (which are an odd circumference and are therefore at this stage not swappable) can drop when rocked so intervals requiring standing can cause the bars to drop unless you tighten them insanely tight. Also, it makes no sense to have to use Allen keys to move the saddle and bars forward and backward, as this seems to fly in the face of using the Atom for multiple users. It's not hard to use the Allen keys although I do wonder how long it will be before the one on the saddle rail shears off.

Overall, for £1500 this is a massive disappointment. Support from Wattbike is slow and cursory at best. When I discussed the above with them I received an email basically telling me that this is all normal and the Wattbike is operating as designed. So basically it's been designed to do only steady state intervals provided there's a long ramp into and out of the interval.

Selling the idea at home of this device was challenging but the other half went for it on the basis of the simplicity of use as opposed to the Tacx Ironman we had before. We are both contemplating sending the Atom back and going back to the Tacx.

I don't want Wattbike to fail with the Atom but it's so far off the mark with how normal people use it that I can't in all honesty recommend it to anyone unless you really only want a workhorse trainer and even then there are so many other better options than the Atom.

2o2m

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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9 comments

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50kcommute | 6 years ago
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2nd hand wattbike off eBay or a proper smart trainer seems like the alternatives - WBA just seems like it's trading on a brand, rather than being a decent bit of kit in the armoury...thx for the feedback!

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fixation80 | 6 years ago
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I love my Cateye C1000, consistent readings tell me I'm not at all very fit. Bike fitted with heart rate monitor and wired cateye speed and cadence computer, with assistance a FTP can be carried out. Power may not match dedicated power meters but is so consistent that fitness can be reliably tracked. Reliability is ace. I confess to be an eighty year old stick in the mud!enlightened 

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2old2mould | 6 years ago
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Thanks for all the comments.

Well, it's confirmed, the Atom is officially sh*t for FTP tests on Trainerroad.

The TR FTP test goes from Erg mode to resistance for the big efforts which of course the Atom can't cope with so you have to immediately dive into the settings on TR and reset back to ERG mode. Then you have to use TR to increase the ERG resistance up or down a percent as required. After all that the Atom then struggles with maintaining an even resistance in the cool down. It can't cope with light cadence very well.

My other half is absolutely fuming. Mind you, the anger was put to good use as she smashed her previous FTP (using a Tacx Genius and a Powertap G3).

It beggars belief that Wattbike have released the Atom like this. It's sluggish on intervals, sh*t for testing and not much use for Zwift.

Calling Wattbike in the morning.

2o2m

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2old2mould | 6 years ago
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Thanks for all the comments.

Well, it's confirmed, the Atom is officially sh*t for FTP tests on Trainerroad.

The TR FTP test goes from Erg mode to resistance for the big efforts which of course the Atom can't cope with so you have to immediately dive into the settings on TR and reset back to ERG mode. Then you have to use TR to increase the ERG resistance up or down a percent as required. After all that the Atom then struggles with maintaining an even resistance in the cool down. It can't cope with light cadence very well.

My other half is absolutely fuming. Mind you, the anger was put to good use as she smashed her previous FTP (using a Tacx Genius and a Powertap G3).

It beggars belief that Wattbike have released the Atom like this. It's sluggish on intervals, sh*t for testing and not much use for Zwift.

Calling Wattbike in the morning.

2o2m

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Gasman Jim | 6 years ago
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Sad to hear this, but not surprised.

Following a few disappointments with various bits of sports tech / cycling components I now never ever buy the first generation of any of these products until I've seen some real users reviews 6 months or more after the product is released.

Bought a 3rd generation Kickr in October - it's absolutely ace! Return the Watt bike and buy a Kickr.

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CXR94Di2 | 6 years ago
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A mate has an Atom, he has had some of the problems you highlighted. You can use the resistance setting in Zwift around 20% which helps with the experience a little.

I've owned a Kickr over 3 years and love it, it works on every platform perfectly. More of a guess purchase, with no regrets other than its an expensive piece of kit- worth it though.

Alot of my other friends use the Tacx Neo and having trialled one recently I can understand why it's so popular.

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2old2mould | 6 years ago
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My wife is doing her FTP test on the WBA tonight and I'm actually dreading it as I know it's not going to be a straightforward experience and that grief will be directed at yours truly.

I'm contemplating a Tacx Neo or KICKR.

Let's see how tonight goes...

 

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HLaB | 6 years ago
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I never interrogated him but one of my mates sen the Atom back as he said it was terrible for intervals  7

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fukawitribe | 6 years ago
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FTP in 'manual' ERG mode, seriously ? One of my brothers has an Atom on order, the sheer amount and consistency of negative feedback on its performance is beginning to worry me on his behalf...

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