Hi,
I open this topic to all owners of Stages SB20 Bike.
In this topic all of the owners writhe the best settings, the best configurations, the best use of this bike, so together we can have the best configuration possible to make this bike work 110%.
I´m new with this bike, and I´m checking the best way to put this working good. So all your help is necessary for me and for future owners 
Let´s power this thing
I like it. I know @HighSpeed spent a lot of time with us getting slope mode working and generally getting the SB20 working well with our app. He found a lof tricks to improving his experience.
Today I did a test, what I noticed was a failure in the RPM, like every 2 or 3 seconds it went to zero and back, in ERG mode I think the reading is a little inconsistent. Then the reaction time when changing levels takes a good 10 seconds to reach the desired level
I have this RPM failure in Neo too so not just a SB20 problem but only affects a few trainers it seems.
I managed to solve this problem today, the bike has a way to configure itself, the same way has to be used in Zwift for example,
if not it doesn’t work properly either.
The correct SB20 connection settings for TrainerDay are similar to Zwift. Power and Cadence connected to “Left Crank”. Controllable connected to “Stages Bike”. With TrainerDay you just connect to both “Left Crank” and “Stages Bike”.
TrainerDay looks at the capabilities provided by each device and automatically determines how to use them. Much better than Zwift.
The latest TrainerDay version 2.5.0 controls SB20 extremely well. Just make sure you have the settings right.
Settings > PowerMatch: Off ← Very important
Settings > Other Options > Sim/Slope Mode: On
I use Erg Mode for recovery blocks up to 300W and other efforts longer than one minute. For everything else I use Slope mode. I do mostly HIIT workouts. Here’s an example. 15 minutes of warmup near FTP. Then 6 HIIT intervals @ 2-3X FTP. The SB20 does these workouts with no complaints - and lots of pain. I just love it.
As you can see from today’s workout summary, the SB20 tracks the planned workout very well. Sometimes Slope mode intervals have higher watts than planned - but that’s because I was pedalling faster. Unlike Erg mode, faster pedalling generates higher watts. Like it should!
Hi,
Today I’ve been doing some tests and I ran into some problems, I don’t know if I’m the one doing something wrong, but…
1 - I can’t pair more than 3 bluetooth devices, even though the Tablet pairs and finds them all available to be paired, the application cannot see them.
2 - Another question is,
it will be possible to record the data for each leg to analyze the balance between the two and export them to the file, better still there are some chances during an exercise to see this data, for those who come from an injury in one of the legs this was very interesting in order to regain the best possible balance.
3 - When I connect the 2 Left/Right power meters sometimes the watts match what is intended, other times they are half of the intended value, which requires selecting the “double single side power” option
See attached video to see the bluetooth problems
Hello to me this looks like your 11484 device is not available for connecting. I don’t think the problem has anything to do with 3-devices. My guess is this is some kind of stages bike configuration as to what power meters are available.
We have had others ask for L/R recording but so far I have avoided it and what people do is record with their Garmin or wahoo for deeper analysis and use our app for controlling the trainer. It’s probably better not to connect both L and R to our app.
This is a super interesting chat! I am also an SB20 rider and am excited to try the slope mode. What slope value should I start with on my above FTP intervals?
If we analyze well at the 5:20 minute and at the 6:05 minute both power meters are on (4994/11484) plus the Stage SB20 but when these 3 are on, the heart rate doesn’t turn on, just disable one of them and the of heart rate turn on, minute 6:17.
I did several tests and I can never have more than 3 connected at the same time, regardless of the type of sensors
Oh sorry I did not watch it closely enough obviously… I am on iOS and here you can see I can have 4, I am sure I can add more
So either this is Android issue or issue with your specific Android device it would seem. We will test Android devices and see if we can duplicate this issue.
Here is 4 devices connected to my motorolla Android. It would seem it is something to do with your tablet is my guess but hard to say at this point.
Sorry I see no one responded to you. Slope mode has a funny relationship to power just like outdoor slope to power. Generally people go harder up hill but it’s not a clear relationship as to how much harder. If it is 60-minutes at 5% they will output different power than 30-seconds at 5%. So really it depends on your goals and how much you want to shift. If you want to try to hit your target watts in slope mode it depends on your gearing so it’s a bit of trial and error. I would mostly play around with target slopes that are similar to outdoor slopes 2-8% range typically.
Never saw this post until now.
SB20 Power Sources
There are two ways to get power data from the SB20:
The left crank is the source for power data. The SB20 bike relays power data it gets from the left crank.
Left crank is special: it also gets data from the right crank and sends combined L:R data with its power data updates.
You should try connecting only to the SB20 Bike for both bike control and power. If you start having problems like missing data, you should connect the SB20 Bike for bike control and your left crank for power.
Connection Restrictions
You need to track how you connect to devices (Ant+ or Bluetooth) and how many times.
In general, IOS and Android devices user Bluetooth. Bike computers, like Garmin, use Ant+. PCs and Mac use Bluetooth and occasionally Ant+ with a special dongle.
“Stages Bike SB20” allows up to two Bluetooth connections and any number of Ant+ connections.
Left Crank allows a single Bluetooth Connection and any number of Ant+ connections.
Internally - between SB20 and cranks - Stages use Ant+. There are options in the Stages Link app to use Bluetooth for this internal communication. Don’t do it! This option consumes precious Bluetooth connections. People mistaken believe Bluetooth is somehow better than Ant+. 99% of the time this statement is false. Bluetooth connections are strictly limited. Ant+ connections are not. Allow Ant+ to be used where you can.
so my wife has been using Trainerday for a while and has recently been complaining that the signal on the SB20 drops sometimes during her workout, forcing her to unplug/reconnect the bike to get going again. I’ve been dismissing her concerns but this week actually joined TD and had my first ride today and… signal dropout.
Some facts: bike itself is paired to TD as controllable and power and a HR monitor is paired as well. Running the app on M1 iPad Pro with the latest version of iOS (15.6 i believe). TD app is updated to latest version. As usual, before every workout I calibrate the PMs on the SB20 with the Stages app and then force close the app before starting my workout. I’m coming from Trainerroad and have used that pretty extensively over the past 2 years with zero signal dropouts. Also use Rouvy and have had zero signal dropouts with that platform, so I’m fairly convinced it’s a Trainerday issue.
My issue happened maybe 3/4 of the way through the workout after a 250 or so watt segment that then dropped to a planned 84 or so watts. I noticed that the power during the 84w segment was rather high (still 250w or so) so I slowed rpms down and that’s when i noticed that the “2” box in the top right corner for # of connected devices now was showing “1”. I was able to go there and see that only the HR was connected, not the bike. Unpaired and repaired the SB20 bike (again, not the l/r cranks) and after a couple of seconds was back in business. I’m sure my wife could do the same thing rather than getting off to unplug, but she’s not as familiar with how any of this works.
Anyway, happy to share any additional details as needed but I’d love to have this resolved. Cannot have signal dropouts from my first ride on the platform after literally none on any of the other platforms for a far longer length of use…
and again it happened today. zero resistance, just sitting there spinning the cranks with nothing registering for a good 2 min. beginning to think this app is…not good. are there any free alternatives on android or iOS (can use either) that i can load a specific workout file (say an MRC file) and have it control the bike in ERG mode?
I’ve been using TrainerDay on my Stages SB20 for well over a year now with no issues. I’m running it side loaded on a rooted Amazon Kindle Fire HD 10. While I’m performing a workout, I do need to turn off wifi just because the tablet is too gutless to multitask. But I’ve never had disconnects. Maybe it’s an issue with the way TD communicates with your particular iPad. Have you tried to run TrainerDay on your phone or another device and see? If it works from your phone I’d suggest posting a topic in the Bugs and Issues category. Alex has always been very responsive.
m1 ipad pro today and iphone 11 yesterday. next time i’ll try android via samsung s21 ultra. all i know is that this dropout thing ONLY happens in TD app. no issue with Trainer Road, Rouvy or Zwift for 2.5 years…
good suggestion on the bug forum. i’ll post there
Hi, sorry I totally missed responding to this. Did your wife give up on TD or did you get this working? I have one other user experiencing this. It seems like maybe it is an iOS issue. Would love to hear how your Android experience went.
