Hi!
I observe an issue with iOs app that keeps controlling resistance of my Kickr Bike even if no workout is running in the app. It feels like after a workout is done it stays connected to the bike for indefinite time and sets it to the mode and the resistance the workout ended with.
I have to close the app for the interference to stop.
Alex.
That’s right. The app keeps in touch with your device, even when the workout has been stopped, until the app is closed. The app tends to set the right resistance control so you can start your workout at any time.
Hi, Alex, Alex here, yes no one has mentioned any issue with this so far. Does this cause some type of problem?
Hi Gregorii and Alex,
This feature makes it hard to use the app with other apps like Zwift. I have to close the Trainer Day before I can ride ride in Zwift. I use a few other trainer app and none is doing that so I didn’t even look at this as a source of the issues for a quite a bit while. It took me “a few” ffs moments to figure it out. I even had a few longish rides and even one race (it stopped short after I started as perhaps coincidentally iOs put the app to sleep) in Zwift with constant power dropouts. I was blaming the bike for this.
I’m pretty sure on iOs nobody is ever closing any apps, am I right? You instead just send it to the background. it’s the same on Android to the great extent. It would be my expectation if the app is in the background and no workout is running right now it would release all BT connections including the HRM ones.
For devices like Kickr Bike and HRM pro that both accept 3 BT connections it’s just really annoying when you know about this, while for the devices that accept just one BT connection that can contribute to the connectivity issues the internet is full of. As you’d be opening all phones, tables etc in the proximity and closing the apps on each just to be able to connect the bike to Zwift/Rouvy etc.
I can’t imagine anyone would call this feature as a desirable one but would be happy if that can be made at least in to a toggle somewhere in settings.
This is a great app otherwise with great choice of workouts and plans.
Thank you,
Alex.
Thanks so much for the reply. It’s interesting no one else has complained. When you said it before I was thinking you were likely right that its a good idea. I guess we also had problems with reconnecting to devices in the past so we were probably trying to solve that problem as well. Let us look at this. I agree with you, especially since you say that no other apps do this 
Meaning I believe you. I never close apps either. But I also pretty much only use TD
You’re right, for single BT connection devices, if it still connected (somewhere else) it won’t connect to the current app. But for devices that has multiple BT connections, It can really throw you off wondering. Never did thought of that.
Having said that, even if the background app is still connected to the trainer and still using the last resistance, I would think that it would not be sending any NEW resistance to the trainer. Hence, wouldn’t Zwift be able to control the trainer by just sending it a new resistance number? There shouldn’t be any competing app sending multiple new resistance numbers to the trainer.
I don’t have a trainer that has multiple BT connections capability so I can’t test this out.
I’ve actually not seen any app that does do that. Which is why you’re right when you say:
I’m thinking a bit more and at least on iOS, when apps go into the background, they have literal seconds to determine what they want to do. iOS doesn’t allow “check 5min if user is still running the workout” (if in the background). What it can do is put a timer and possibly just trigger a local notification “you’re in the bcakground for 5min, do you still want the BT connection to be maintained”. This will still need you to open the app tho.
The other thing I’m thinking is, if user is currently running a workout, he stops and saves, then he changes to another app, (say FB and stays there for 5min and we disconnect all BT devices), when he comes back to the trainer app, the app has to reconnect to all the devices once again.
if in Zwift, i think you have to go thru the pairing screen again?
I wonder how other apps, like zwift behave when user goes into the background and turns on another app.
Good discussion and thinking about this.
Hi All,
Thank you for the feedback and the discussion.
I would need to correct myself a bit: I can’t prove if any other apps do release the BT connection when they are put in background or not. What I’m 100% sure though is that it’s only the Trainer Day app that still sends the mode and power targets to the trainer after the workout is done and even if the app is in the background.
I would say if the app would still keep the connection open but would stop (perhaps it can be configurable) sending the mode and power targets after the workout completion it would work for me perfectly!
I was too wondering why nobody mentioned this before and I’m pretty sure I was just lucky figuring it out because of me loving to do a free ride in Zwift post workout. It greatly helps with recovery and I’m doing it constantly. Wouldn’t I have this routine it would take me “years” to narrow it down. Plus with TrainerPeeks integration it’s so tempting to send all workouts to Zwift (though that makes Pretzelfesting harder)…
Alex.
I need to confirm with @Loovery but I am not sure why we would keep sending power targets after the workout is done. That sounds like a bug to me. I don’t need that as a setting as I don’t see any reason to do that. If we are doing that seems like a simple fix. I will let you know soon.
I tried the latest version of the app and it still does the same as above (keeps sending erg mode and power targets after the session is done), plus when I run it in ERG mode it dips the power by 10-20watts every ~20 seconds now. Here is the workout I did earlier today:
Trainer Day - Workout: VO2MAX_LONG #5
This is now completely unusable…
Hi sorry to hear, can you send a link to the completed activity? Sorry we were completely buried with other issues and you were the only one to report this issue so it was not prioritized yet. Now it seems very few users are having issues with our app so we can look at this issue of sending post workout ERG updates. I know I hear the ding some times after the workout stops so it might be similar issue.
Once I see your completed activity we can see what next steps can be to fixing that.
No worries, I’m just reporting the issue as the platform has great potential and if kinks are all ironed out would be beneficial for all.
The link is above but here it is again: Trainer Day - Workout: VO2MAX_LONG #5
The dips in the intervals above approx 200w are not mine, those are power drops sent by the app. It feels like that infamous clutch slip bug from some other bike. It also makes the Vo2max efforts way more strenuous than it’s needed. I’m sure no other app was controlling the bike concurrently. After I disconnected TD and turned Control on in Zwift it all returned to normal. While using TD Zwift was in free ride mode with Controlling off. No other training app was running.
That is actually a link to the workout, not the completed activity. Go to the activities tab and click on it and then copy the URL. Yes it actually works well for 90% of our customers but there are all these strange little issues that seem to affect a very small number of users, but when you are that user it feels differently.
In Zwift you want to disconnect the “controllable” or even free ride from Zwift will send updates as well. You could try running our app without zwift and you might not see these issues.
The more I think about this, it seems you are connected to Zwift with Ant+ and have controllable enabled, and when ending our app would like Zwift to just take control. Everything I have ever seen is people turn off controllable from Zwift in order to use TrainerRoad for example with Zwift. Same with other apps and Rouvy… If I can clearly duplicate your issue it will make it easier to try to understand what the problem is. In general there are very few trainers that have issues with our app controlling it, and it’s almost always some other device, app or wifi interference or something that does it.
And also when you end the session in our app, why not just quickly kill our app? I assume that solves your problem and then allows Zwift to take back control.
I hope this link is the correct one: Trainer Day
I can guarantee no other app was controlling the bike. Zwift was only connected to monitor the power but the controllable option was off. I regularly do this with other app (Xert) and have no issues. And it also worked fine in this sense until the latest version.
And also when you end the session in our app, why not just quickly kill our app? I assume that solves your problem and then allows Zwift to take back control.
That is what I’m doing now since I figured out what is causing the issue. But then I can also use alternatives where I don’t have to do that step when my mind tends to phase out and even simple things are getting challenging. Though this part is really minor in comparison to the ERG power drop outs.
Ok, yes I believe you. That’s crazy dropouts, can you do a simple test workout at low intensity that will do this? Do you happen to own any Android devices? If you could duplicate it there it would be much easier for us to fix it (if you worked with my developer for 30-60 minutes while riding)
I have a partner/investor with a kickr bike and he does not have this issue but when using TD he might not do any sustained harder intervals and he mostly uses Fulgaz not ERG mode…
I see the power drops on lower intervals too but I guess less intense?
I have Android. Should I try running the app/workout on an Android? I think even the lower recovery intervals had that issue it’s just the scale get to 1w or lower for those. I can also try some 120% Vo2Max intervals to see how it behaves.
Btw, I have a friend who also uses Kickr bike and I made him to try the TD app. He used it without Zwift or any other apps and he reports the same drop outs. Though he didn’t save the activity so I can’t share it.
If you have Android and can let me know that would be great. If we can duplicate it there it should be easy to fix it.
Check in which protocol the trainer connects. For me, on ANT+, it ripples a lot in contrast to BLE