Gradient feel setting

Open the settings in MyWhoosh and you will find a slider labeled Gradient Feel. It sits at 50% by default, and almost nobody changes it, because almost nobody understands it. Those who do change it are often doing so for the wrong reasons.

This article will explain exactly what the slider does, what it does not do, and how you should think about setting it for your own riding. There are no shortcuts here: we will work through the concept properly, because that is the only way it makes sense.

If you are coming from Zwift or another platform, you may know this setting as Trainer Difficulty. It is the same concept under a different name. MyWhoosh's "Gradient Feel" is actually the more accurate label, and by the end of this article you will understand why.

Where to change it

In the main menu navigate to Settings > Equipment and it is the very first slider: Gradient Feel.

What is actually happening when you ride a virtual hill

When you ride uphill in MyWhoosh, the app calculates your speed based on your power output, your weight, your bike's weight, and the gradient of the road you are on. This physics model runs independently of anything your physical trainer is doing. If you push 250 watts up a 6% grade, MyWhoosh determines how fast your avatar moves. Full stop.

Separately, MyWhoosh also sends a gradient signal to your smart trainer. The trainer reads this signal and adjusts its internal resistance brake to simulate what climbing that gradient should feel like under your feet. This is where Gradient Feel comes in.

The slider acts as a multiplier on the gradient signal sent to the trainer. If the virtual road is at 8% and your Gradient Feel is set to 50%, MyWhoosh tells the trainer to simulate a 4% gradient instead. At 100%, it sends the full 8%. At 0%, it sends nothing at all and the trainer sits at flat road resistance regardless of the terrain on screen.

Here is what that looks like for a 10% virtual climb:

The crucial point is that in all five cases above, your avatar on screen is moving at exactly the same speed for the same power output. The gradient felt by your legs changes. The gradient experienced by your avatar does not.

The gear problem: why this matters more than you think

When a real climb gets steeper, you shift down. You move to an easier gear to maintain a workable cadence. This is true on the road and it is true on a smart trainer. The difference is that on a smart trainer, if the resistance barely changes, you do not need to shift at all.

At 0% Gradient Feel, you could ride the steepest climb in MyWhoosh in your biggest gear without the trainer ever fighting back. You would still have to push the required watts to keep your avatar moving at the speed shown on screen, but you could do it spinning at 110 rpm in a huge gear rather than grinding at 60 rpm in a small one.

At 100% Gradient Feel, a steep climb forces you to shift down, just as it would outdoors. The resistance increases, your current gear becomes harder to turn, and you have to find a smaller gear or accept a drop in cadence.

This is why the setting is really about how the required effort is spread across your cadence and gear range, not about whether the effort is hard or easy in total.

A worked example with real numbers

Let us follow two riders who are identical in every way: same weight (75 kg), same FTP, same bike setup in MyWhoosh. Both are climbing the same 6% grade. Both are pushing 220 watts. Their avatars are side by side on screen, moving at exactly the same speed.

Rider A has Gradient Feel at 0%. Their trainer simulates a flat. They are spinning comfortably at 95 rpm in a large gear. The 220 watts feels like a moderate effort on a flat road, because to their legs, it is a flat road.

Rider B has Gradient Feel at 100%. Their trainer is simulating a true 6% gradient. They have shifted into a smaller gear. They are pushing at around 72 rpm, working against real resistance. The 220 watts feels like climbing, because their legs are actually climbing.

Both riders reach the top of the climb at the same time. Neither gained an advantage. The physics model does not care what their trainers were doing. But their physical experiences were entirely different.

So why does 50% exist as the default?

The 50% default is a practical compromise chosen for good reasons.

Trainer hardware limits. A mid-range trainer might be able to simulate a gradient of up to 8% or 10% before it runs out of resistance. Some routes in MyWhoosh have gradients that exceed this. If you set Gradient Feel to 100% and ride a 15% ramp, your trainer may hit its ceiling and can no longer increase resistance further, even though the gradient on screen keeps rising. At 50%, the same 15% ramp only asks the trainer to simulate 7.5%, which is within the capability of almost any smart trainer on the market.

Rider weight. Heavier riders feel more resistance on climbs at the same wattage, simply because of how physics works. A rider at 95 kg will feel a 6% grade more intensely than a 65 kg rider producing the same power. The 50% default gives heavier riders more room in their gear range before running out of sprocket.

Resistance variability. At 100%, resistance changes happen fast. Every small undulation in the road sends a signal to the trainer to adjust. On rolling terrain this creates a constantly shifting resistance that many riders find disruptive and exhausting. The 50% default smooths this out considerably.

Common myths, cleared up

Where it makes no difference: ERG mode

One important exception to everything above: in ERG mode (structured workouts), Gradient Feel does nothing at all. When ERG is active, the trainer ignores gradient signals entirely and instead holds your resistance at whatever level is needed to hit the target watts. The slider becomes irrelevant.

This means if you primarily use MyWhoosh for structured training sessions, you never need to think about this setting. Gradient Feel only applies during free rides, races, and group events where the trainer is responding to the virtual terrain rather than a power target.

Does it affect how variable your effort is?

Yes, and this is worth understanding. Variability index (VI) is a measure of how uneven your power output is over a ride. A VI of 1.00 means perfectly even power. Higher numbers mean more spikes and dips.

At higher Gradient Feel settings, resistance changes are more dramatic. You accelerate into a downhill section and your legs suddenly have less to push against. You hit a steep ramp and the trainer clamps down quickly. Unless you are very practiced at managing this with sharp, proactive shifting, your power output will fluctuate more.

Higher VI is generally less efficient. Physiologically, interval-style efforts cost more energy than smooth constant efforts at the same average power. This is why some experienced riders deliberately keep Gradient Feel moderate even for climber-heavy routes: not because they want an easier ride, but because they want a more metabolically efficient one.

For training purposes, higher Gradient Feel can be valuable. It trains your ability to shift quickly, maintain cadence across changing gradients, and tolerate the kind of uneven efforts you will encounter on real roads outdoors.

What about trainer hardware limits?

Every smart trainer has a maximum gradient it can physically simulate, and this is not just a number on the spec sheet. It depends on your weight, the flywheel speed you are carrying, and how hot the trainer has been running.

At Gradient Feel 100%, a 20% gradient sends a signal asking your trainer to simulate 20%. If your trainer caps out at 10%, it will apply maximum resistance from 10% upward. Your avatar still slows down correctly on screen (the physics model calculates independently), but your legs cannot feel the difference above the hardware ceiling.

At Gradient Feel 50%, the same 20% gradient only asks the trainer to simulate 10%, which is right at the comfortable limit for most mid-range trainers. This is one of the strongest practical arguments for the 50% default.

Overworking a trainer on sustained steep climbs can also cause overheating in some models, particularly older wheel-on designs. If your trainer drops resistance unexpectedly on long climbs, reducing Gradient Feel is one of the first things worth trying.

Practical recommendations

There is no single correct setting. Here is how to think about it depending on your situation.