As far as trainer simulation goes, it never made sense to me until I tried it up the radio tower. I mean how can it not effect your speed or watts of you're reducing it to half the grade?
So, I did the radio tower climb back to back, and after climbing up the mountain first. Set at 100 percent my cadence will drop down to 55 ish, 250-300 watts. It's a *****, but it should be with a 36/26. Dialed the setting back to 50 percent and I was able to hold my cadence 75-80 (sometimes a bit better) and even shift up on lesser grades. Same wattage 250-300 but I was over a minute slower. Now, was this because it was my second time up the tower, or was it because I could drop watts closer to the 250 without worrying about getting "stuck" and having to stop?