Virtual Gear Shifting

With the virtual gear shifting, cadence on the bike ergometer no longer translates directly into a target speed - instead, the selected gear determines a power that ErControl sends to the ergometer, similar to a real bicycle gearshift, where a higher gear demands more force at the same cadence. Toggle on/off with Numpad 0 (see Keyboard shortcuts during training); has no effect with a heart rate or power profile, since the profile already dictates the power there.

Power per Gear

Each gear has a fixed power at 0% gradient:

Power(gear) = base power + (gear − 1) × step

Gear 1 therefore always equals exactly the base power, and every gear above or below it differs by exactly one step. You set both values under Settings (Ergometer tab, Gear Shifting group) or directly during a running training via the settings panel (gear icon at the top right, see Training window) - the defaults are 75 watts base power and 25 watts step.

Going uphill, a gradient surcharge is added, weighted by the reality factor (10-100%, default 40%): at 0% gradient the surcharge is always 0, and it grows with a steeper gradient - by the same amount for every gear, so the power gap between two neighboring gears stays exactly the step at any gradient. Going downhill, the surcharge is dropped entirely - the full power of the gear at 0% gradient always applies.

As everywhere in ErControl, the power actually sent is rounded and clamped to the power range of the connected training device.

Coasting

As with a real bicycle gearshift, coasting kicks in as soon as you stop pedaling (cadence 0) or go faster than the configured maximum speed (20-120 km/h, default 70 km/h): ErControl then sends no more power, and speed follows solely from rolling resistance, air resistance and gradient. The display highlights the coasting state in orange while the bike is actually rolling; it does not appear once speed is 0. At the end of a profile (finish reached or profile duration elapsed) the speed stops immediately when cadence is 0 instead of coasting on. The Stop key (see Keyboard shortcuts during training) lets you force the speed to 0 at any time, for example to trigger the recovery pulse measurement in the middle of a coasting descent.

Shifting

With Numpad + and Numpad - (see Keyboard shortcuts during training) you shift one gear up or down. There is neither a fixed number of gears nor a separate setting for gears below gear 1: how far you can shift up or down is determined anew at every gradient by whether the power required for it still lies within the power range of the connected training device - depending on gradient, that may reach below gear 1 (0, -1, …) or beyond the previously usual highest gear, and can shift while riding as the gradient changes. Every training session starts in gear 1.

A change takes effect immediately - the new target power appears right away in the value bar, without waiting for the next one-second tick.

You can also enable automatic gear shifting (Numpad 9), which shifts down automatically when an upper watt limit is exceeded and up automatically when it drops below a lower limit - see Settings or Training window.

Power Increase Dampened

An increase in target power (for example when leaving coasting or shifting up) is ramped gently, at most 80 watts per second, so resistance doesn’t jump abruptly. A decrease in power, on the other hand, always takes effect immediately.

Display in the Value Bar

While virtual gear shifting is active, the value bar shows the still-unthrottled target power in place of the watt unit below the power value, for example → 180 W - so you can see where the ramp is heading, without taking up extra space.

Speed

As without gear shifting, the displayed speed follows solely from the power actually sent: on the bike it eases into it rather than jumping instantly, and coasting uses pure rolling physics with no power input. The cross-trainer has no coasting concept and no inertia - cadence 0 simply means standing still there, otherwise speed follows power directly.