Hmmm....so I'm not so alone...thanks. Up to now I've been taking the attitude that if my effort seems to match the expected and if my cadence matches what he is reading off the riders' machines, that I must be about right. Your responses make me think that I'm doing things right--thanks.

My DH uses a bike with a triple on the trainer and has found that he uses the middle chainring when ECT says "big gear" and the granny for the small chain ring. He's content with that, but I'm a tad bit more OCD-ish with new toys and wondered if the rest of the world was also compensating and how.

I have a old bike on the trainer with a 6 speed hub. At times I can run out of gears. I finally stopped to count teeth to see where my cassette mapped to a standard Shimano. For me my 15 is one up from the smallest (Bluestreak--the 15 gear is the one with 15 teeth--on a 9-speed cassette it will near the middle of the cassette, plus or minus one gear).

Thus, if I try the same mapping as DH of using the small chain ring and the right tooth count, I can run out of gears (and, of course, I always run out on the low end). Maybe it is best--this way I have to go by effort and cadence only and that could keep me from overdoing it.