Schwinn IC4 & Bowflex C6 Settings and Calibration - doudar/SmartSpin2k GitHub Wiki

This guide applies to the Schwinn IC4, Schwinn IC8, and Bowflex C6. Schwinn and Bowflex offer other bikes built on this frame that offer additional features. These settings very likely apply on those bikes as well.

Use this guide as a starting point and adjust appropriately.

Descriptions of individual settings and how to access the page can be found here

  • Sim Mode Shift Amount - 1800-3600. This setting is personal preference and affects how big a jump you have in resistance between clicks of the shifter
  • Sim Mode Incline Multiplier - This setting affects how much you will feel the impact of hills in sim mode rides. For realism, 6x is a good value to start with. You will also want to increase the difficulty setting in Zwift to 100% since Zwift defaults to 50%. This setting in Zwift has a direct impact on how steep hills feel. Left at default, it will cut the effectiveness of the Sim Mode Incline Multiplier by half. Read more about it here.
  • Erg Mode Sensitivity - Set this to 5, see if it feels good based on the description in the settings guide.
  • Min Bike Brake Watts Lower values will allow a lower minimum resistance at 90rpm. If you set this too low, the knob will try to turn below zero - you want a setting that allows a minimum resistance of around 10 on this bike.
  • Power Correction Factor This setting can be found in the bluetooth scanner screen. These bikes over-report wattage by 30-35% and make you appear faster than you are while racing in zwift. As a relative measurement to assess your performance against your self, this is fine - it will still demonstrate progress in your strength as a rider. If you want to race competitively and have honest numbers, try to set this value to 0.65-0.7x and adjust from there.

My Schwinn IC4 Power is way off. What can I do?

You can “calibrate” your IC4 without a power meter by (after a warmup) doing a steady state ride at moderate intensity outside (on a real bike) on the flat for say 15 minutes to let your HR stabilize and then recording your average speed and HR.

Then put your average speed and bike information into http://bikecalculator.com/ to generate watts at that average HR from your outdoor ride.

Then (when rested and after warmup) ride your IC4, this time matching your HR as closely as possible to the ride you did outside. Adjust the watts (using the SS2K power correction factor) until they match the calculated as closely as possible.

It’s not as good as having a power meter but it should get your spin bike dialed in much closer!