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I've had a Direto XR for a year now, no experience with any other smart trainers. I've been looking here in this forum and on the internet about something, that I just can't seem to find an answer to: The resistance simulation seems way too high compared to reality.

In my training area, I have some short steep climbs with short sections of around 20%, which I can survive at a cadence of 50-60. In all e-cycling apps, that I've tried so far, I already had a hard time surviving climbs of 10% at a cadence of around 50 - unless the app I'm using offers a reduction of the simulated resistance. Since 10% with the Direto XR feel like 20% in reality, I usually choose 50% resistance level in any app that offers such an option, but not every app offers such an option.

What I've been wondering: Since people don't usually talk about this issue, I wonder if there could be something wrong with my device? Or does anyone know if it is by design that resistance is simulated twice as high as in reality? I've mentioned this to the vendor I've bought the Direto from, but they would say that resistance always feels a bit higher on smart trainers - but twice as high as in reality?!?

You should raise a ticket with Elite support so that they can work through this with you.

It's necessary to investigate further and to do some test.
Please contact the support, the guys there will help you:
https://support.elite-it.com/en/ticket

Andy - how did your problem work out?" I have it now too

Take the small cover off on the left. The one exposing the magnets and see if either of them has moved in the carrier and is dragging on the flywheel. For some reason the top one on mine had moved out and was being chewed by the flywheel. I undid the locking screw and rotated the adjuster to screw the magnet back into the cradle for the same gap as the bottom one then tightened the locking screw. Obviously with the magnets further away from the flywheel they offer less resistance. The strange thing is I checked mine over 6 weeks ago when I cleaned and lubricated the screw thread and everything was fine at 2 years and 15,000 miles of use. The locking screw was tight too. Don't worry about power accuracy as the resistance is applied on the far side of the axle after the optical torque sensor (power meter) has done it's measurements so will not be affected. If it was a magnet dragging on the flywheel then perform a spindown calibration as this will have changed. Let us know please.

johnstonnw wrote:Andy - how did your problem work out?" I have it now too

I went to my vendor and they said the resistance seemed normal to them. They also said that they use only 50% resistance as well and that this actually seems to be the intended default setting. 100% is only for people that want to train with increased resistance. It was basically confirmed by a reply in my Discord community, that people go with 50%, no matter which smart trainer they use.

So, I simply didn't know if this resistance thing was normal or not. I was asking to see which experience other people have, because I didn't have any other experience before and also no conversation about this with anyone that should have had that experience. Of course, as described by Roy and as seen on youtube, there might also be an actual issue due to wear and tear, but that doesn't apply to my device yet.