Originally Posted by
Brofessor
It's smart in the sense that it can quite accurately simulate power without dumping $$$ to a power meter on top of the $$ you spent on a trainer. If you already have a power meter, any dumb trainer or roller would do just fine. I disagree with you on Zwift being boring without a trainer that can adjust resistance. Personally, the most fun aspect of Zwift is racing, whether that's racing others or just yourself.
With the "smart" trainer/Zwift set, I was hoping to create an indoor ride platform that would alter the trainer's resistance based of the topography of the virtual ride selected. None of that involves a power meter. I've been using power meters for over a decade, first a hub based unit, later the Vector V1 S meter, and most recently the Assiamo Duo pedals, and having power data to correlate with my cardiovascular metrics is an invaluable tool for training purposes. But what I want to accomplish here is something that makes my indoor sessions more like a real ride, i.e., changes in the virtual terrain are simulated by increased/decreased resistance. I did not buy Kinetic's so called smart resistance unit just to duplicate data I already have access to. But it appears that's what I've done. With Zwift not controlling the trainer's resistance, I could have jolly well stuck with a dumb trainer resistance unit and the same deadly boring indoor sessions for a lot less money.