As my Zwift sessions were getting longer and longer in preparation for Randonneurs Brevets in 2022, I began seriously considering getting a rocker plate. My main aim had nothing to do with a “more realistic” ride indoors, but with having a more comfortable one with less saddle pressure, as some tests seemed to demonstrate.
I laughed at the “friends” suggesting a DIY Rocker Plate, as the only DIY things I am able to perform are undisclosable publicly.
Following some exchanges with teammates and Eric, who is a rocker plate evangelist, I received the Lifeline Rocker Plate on January 17th, 2022. At that point I still did not know I was about to enter the fourth, fifth, or maybe sixth dimension. These can only be reached by taking the red pill or, as I learned, getting a rocker plate.
Editor’s note: the LifeLine Rocker Plate is sold by Wiggle. It is essentially identical to the KOM RPV1 Rocker Plate we reviewed last year, which is available on Amazon.
DIY Challenged Luciano Strikes Again
Don’t worry, they said, mounting the rocker plate is so simple, it takes max 5 minutes. Well, 5 minutes for a common mortal is equivalent to 2 hours for “Worthless Hands Luciano”. I will not detail the entire adventure but it was very far from “nothing can go wrong”. I’ll let your imagination work, knowing that it will be very far from the burlesque of what actually happened, no matter the creative effort you put into it. Hint: it seems inflating balls to similar PSI is a very challenging task for me.
In addition to being useless with my hands, I am utterly impatient. That is why I immediately started my first rocker plate Zwift session at 1:30am. Disastrous. I felt almost seasick, nothing was in its right place, I could not properly coordinate my movements and had the impression I was going to fall all the time.
The First Date With My Rocker Plate Did Not Go Well
At that point I was cursing Eric with the worst maledictions ever, ranging from “I hope from now on you always and only get the anvil powerup” to “I pledge you lose all your Zwift bikes”. I was THAT angry.
Editor’s note: the anvil powerup I can deal with. But all my Zwift bikes? I thought we were friends, Luciano!
I decided to interrupt the workout and go to bed to give it a night. However, I “discovered” that going to bed infuriated is highly counterproductive. Your brain begins a negative loop to finish fuming. There is no other outcome possible other than acknowledging you are not going to be able to sleep. Therefore it made absolutely no sense to stay in bed…
So my second Zwift rocker plate session started at 4am that same night (morning). It was now a matter of honor between the rocker plate and myself. I would not retreat.
This time I adopted a totally different approach: a very long Z1 spin running into a Z2 warmup to feel and understand the rocker plate dynamics and motion. I was psychoanalyzing my rocker plate, empathizing with it. Allowing an alignment and finally a common understanding of the situation took a while. But I became The Rocker Plate Whisperer.
From then it was a steady and short learning curve. In two days I no longer noticed or remembered I had a rocker plate, and the blisters and sore b**t I was experiencing after long sessions almost disappeared (I have also changed to Chris Horner Noxzema bib short moisturizing procedure and maybe that helped too).
Don’t Touch My FTP!
One of the fears I had before BRPE (Before Rocker Plate Era) was caused by some owners reporting a loss in FTP of close to 5% attributed to the rocker plate motion. Watts were mystically disappearing from their cleats to the smart trainer. That would have been inconceivable, an absolute no-go for me. I would rather lose an arm than 5% of my FTP. For real. In fact, I had already decided that if this happened, I would recycle the rocker plate plywood to feed my fireplace or the barbecue. Rocker plate barbequed steaks would have been a solid consolation prize and the perfect destination for any kind of object threatening my FTP.
During the first week, the workouts seemed more difficult: l felt I needed more effort to produce the same amount of watts compared to BRPE. I attributed it more to an adaptation to the rocker plate than to a real power loss.
My structured training plan had a 5-minute max power test the 24th of January 2022, just one week after the rocker plate arrived. I beat my all-time 5-minute personal record by 17 watts. From 406w to 423w. +4.2%. Hallelujah!
I have also used Assioma power meter pedals to compare with the smart trainer and the average power for the session was 0.2% difference (1 watt), meaning the same kind of differences I had before the rocker plate. We are safe. I can now enjoy my rocker plate without fearing a drop in my power output. It’s a wonderful life.
A 10k vEveresting Accompanied by Walter
The ultimate test for the rocker plate was my vEveresting attempt on January 29th. That’s another story which you can read here, however, from a rocker plate perspective there was a huge difference compared to my last year’s vEveresting attempt: a much more comfortable ride and substantially improved figures.
As it was clear it would be part of the family forever, it was time to give my rocker plate a name: Walter.
All in all, the experience is extremely positive. Only two weeks into the Rocker Plate Era I can say I would never go back to BRPE.
What About You?
Have you tried a rocker plate? What was your experience? Share below!
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