The Wahoo KICKR is probably the most anticipated trainer to hit the market in quite a while, if not one of the most anticipated sports technology products for endurance athletes to hit the market. But, how does it live up to the promises and fanfare? Well, I’ve spent the last two months using it week in and week out. Every aspect of this trainer I’ve poked at or dove into. Heck, I even took parts of it apart (with wire cutters!).
In doing so, I’ve got a pretty good grasp on how the unit works, as well as all the details inside and out. Because I want to be transparent about my reviews, once my evaluation period with the Wahoo KICKR has elapsed, I send it back to them in the Atlanta. Simple as that. Sorta like hiking in wilderness trails – leave only footprints.
Lastly, at the end of the day keep in mind I’m just like any other regular triathlete out there. I write these reviews because I’m inherently a curious person with a technology background (my day job), and thus I try and be as complete as I can. But, if I’ve missed something or if you spot something that doesn’t quite jive – just let me know and I’ll be happy to get it all sorted out. Also, because the technology world constantly changes, I try and go back and update these reviews as new features and functionality are added – or if bugs are fixed.
Unboxing:
First, let’s get this thing unboxed. Twice.
Here’s the outer shipping box that the KICKR comes in. If you buy your KICKR via the interwebs, it’ll likely come in this box.
Inside the heavy-duty cardboard box, you’ll find the KICKR’s inner box.
Thus, if you buy your KICKR at a local bike shop, you’ll likely find it looking more like this:
From there you’ll crack open the outer shell and find the protective cardboard inside. Mine held up pretty well given the travelling it did. It first flew from Taipei to Las Vegas via UPS. Then, I dragged it across the Vegas CES show floor to my hotel (no easy feat for those familiar with Vegas). After that, I took it from Vegas to Houston to Paris via commercial airliner (checked luggage). And then finally, I dragged it again through the subways of Paris to my apartment. I’d imagine it should hold up pretty well in a mini-van ride home from the bike shop.
Below the cardboard is the KICKR, fully packaged up in plastic.
After removing the KICKR, you’ll find another small box and a manual.
Inside the small box is the power block. It’s 100-240v, with a replaceable US cable on it. As I’ll discuss later, the power block itself works just fine in Europe.
Then we’ve got the quick start guide. Though, I highly doubt you’ll need it after this post.
Below is a plastic clip for disc brakes on mountain bikes, to keep them from potentially becoming engaged while riding the trainer.
Thus, with all the pieces taken out of the box, here’s what you’ve got. The trainer, the power cord, a small manual and warranty statement, and then the little plastic doohickey.
All good?
Good.
Let’s take a quick tour of the unit before we dive into it.
First up to note is that you’ll unfold the legs for riding, allowing you to store it in smaller spaces. There’s a handle on the back to pick it up – it says ‘Crank it up’ on it.
The legs that fold out have these all-metal clips on them. They feel strong and I don’t suspect they’ll break.
As I’ll discuss in more detail in the next section, the trainer includes a cassette, which is pre-mounted onto the flywheel. It also includes the training skewer.
Down below, you’ll see a small round knob, along with a blue metal lever. This allows you to control the height of the KICKR. This is of use for different tire sizes, so the rider isn’t so high off the ground (perfect for The Girl with her 650 wheels).
Finally, note on the backside of the unit, the large flywheel isn’t ‘open’ like some trainers, rather closed. The entire flywheel does rotate though, including where you see those silver arrows (it rotates in that direction).
With the high level overview complete, lets start getting detailed.
Weight/Size Comparisons:
When it comes to size, the unit is definitely the heftiest of the bunch…by far. As in, put that kid on a diet and take away the marshmallows! Yes folks, that’s pounds below:
46 pounds in total (about 21kg)!
To put that in perspective, the CompuTrainer weighed in at 22 pounds, and the Tacx Genius at 25 pounds, and the LeMond Revolution at 34 pounds.
Now, I don’t think the weight is really a bad thing. Yes, beastly, but not bad. It’s stable, and that’s one of my most important trainer aspects. I HATE wobbly trainers. The weight likely comes from the components. The thing is made out of steel for all major components. Which means that it will hopefully last a long time. Where it does pose a slight problem is for those folks that may take trainers with them while travelling. Most airlines have a 50-pound weight limit for checked luggage (without additional fees), and this just sorta barely slides in under that.
When people talk about the CompuTrainer, there’s one thing they always say: “It’s build like a rock”, which is immediately followed by “I’ve had mine for 10 years, and it still keeps on ticking”. I think from a materials standpoint, the KICKR is in the same ballpark. Of course, time will be the true test.
From an electronics standpoint, having Bluetooth 4.0 and ANT+ in there should make it relatively future proof for a while. You can still connect modern smart-phones with legacy Bluetooth headsets from years ago, and thus I don’t see backwards compatibility being an issue anytime in the next 6-10 years.
Lastly…one final thing to touch on.
LeMond Revolution Pro this is not. It’s funny, a lot of folks have made observations that the Wahoo KICKR is simply a rip-off of the LeMond Revolution Pro Trainer. To help understand why that isn’t the case, let’s run through the main differences.
A) The LeMond trainer is wind-based, thus wind provides resistance. The Wahoo KICKR is electronic. No wind is used, nor emitted.
B) The LeMond trainer does not have resistance control. The Wahoo KICKR does. In other words, you can’t control the LeMond, you can control the KICKR.
C) The LeMond trainer uses private-ANT to communicate between itself and the PowerPilot head unit. Thus no connecting your ANT+ head unit (i.e. Garmin Edge 500) to the LeMond. The KICKR uses open-ANT+, and provides speed and power (and thus distance).
D) The LeMond does not have Bluetooth Smart (or any Bluetooth in it). The Wahoo KICKR does.
E) The LeMond trainer has no API or development aspects to it for 3rd parties. The Wahoo KICKR does.
F) The LeMond trainer does not have an adjustable height. The Wahoo KICKR does. Same goes for adjustable legs.
The point here isn’t to just be a bulleted list of things the LeMond trainer doesn’t do. Instead, juts to be clear on differences. And certainly, there are things the Wahoo KICKR doesn’t do. For example:
A) The Wahoo KICKR is relatively normal from a loudness standpoint. The LeMond trainer is 100db. Not so quiet.
B) The Wahoo KICKR weighs 46 pounds and eat kittens for breakfast. The LeMond trainer weighs a fraction of that.
C) The Wahoo KICKR has a sorta-mostly-realistic road feel. The LeMond Revolution has a very realistic road feel.
As you can see, the KICKR is no more compatible to the LeMond Revolution Pro than a mountain bike is comparable to a road bike. Yes, they both vaguely look the same from a distance, but that’s about where it ends. If you wanted to add up the things that are similar, it’d look roughly like this:
A) Both trainers use a cassette to attach your bike to them.
B) Both trainers have three legs
C) Both trainers have a big round thing on them.
D) Uhh..both trainers attach bikes to them? Umm, end of list.
The LeMond Revolution was actually based on a Russian Physicist design that Greg LeMond worked with in the 1980’s. He adapted it as part of the Revolution Pro. Again, both trainers have their markets, but it’s important that if you’re comparing the two on looks alone, then you’re likely missing the forest from the trees.
Hardware Setup:
During the next few sections I’m going to walk through using the trainer on a day to day basis, and then after that I’ll dive into some of the 3rd party apps.
Attaching your bicycle to the trainer:
First up, is getting the unit attached to your bicycle. To do so, you’ll be removing your rear wheel. It has no action in this game. Instead, the KICKR comes with a rear cassette that replaces the cassette on your rear wheel. This has both benefits and annoyances. From a benefits side you remove issues around rolling resistance of the wheel itself, as well as wear and tear on the wheel. Trainers are notorious for chewing up wheels (quite literally, leaving fine black dust everywhere). The downside though is that you have to take off your rear wheel and put it back on. Some bikes are easy, and others are a bit of a pain in the butt (such as my P3C). If it were me, I’d probably have preferred not removing my wheel – but that’s just a personal preference.
Once you’ve got your wheel removed, you’re going to go ahead and place it on the skewer that’s provided with the KICKR. I find it easiest to remove the skewer entirely and then thread the skewer in once your bike is on the cassette.
After that’s complete, ensure you tighten up the skewer.
Done, you’re ready to ride.
Now, if you have a smaller bike (or one with a different wheel size), you can also adjust the height of the trainer down along the bottom:
For example, when The Girl rides her bikes, I’ll sometimes remember to adjust it so that it’s lower to the ground for her.
If you haven’t yet plugged the trainer in, be sure to do that. The cable that comes with it plugs into a standard American outlet. But, it’s 100-240v, which means it works anywhere in the world with a simple $1-2 adapter. That’s how I use it over here in France.
In fact, if you want to get all fancy, you can simply change out the actual cable from the power block to the wall. Again, a couple dollars.
Ok, and the power cable plugs into the trainer at the bottom, under it.
With that, let’s start using it.
Software Setup:
Wahoo Fitness provides the Wahoo Fitness App on the iPhone/iPad platform, which is their fitness application that connects to the trainer and records data. This is the same application that also works outdoors while cycling or running. And, the same application that connects to both ANT+ devices (with the ANT+ adapter), as well as Bluetooth Smart devices (for compatible devices). The applications records your workout, as well as exports the data to any number of formats (i.e. CSV/TCX/etc…) and services (Training Peaks, Nike+, Garmin Connect, Strava, etc…).
After downloading the free app, you’ll be brought here:
Next up is pairing to your KICKR trainer. To do this, we’ll dive into the settings. It’s here we can pair any number of devices – from the KICKR to heart rate straps, to speed and cadence sensors. Note that I created a separate ‘profile’ for the trainer. I do this so that I can disable the GPS on it, and then not mess up my running or outdoor cycling settings with GPS on.
At any rate, within settings we’ll have a list of sensors we can pair with:
We’ll click to add a sensor, and then add a power meter sensor:
Once we do this, it’ll start searching for the Bluetooth Smart power meter device profile. In the event you happen to have a Stages Power Meter nearby, note that it would pick it up as well – so just be aware of which one you pair to.
Once that’s done (and it’ll only take a second), you’ll want to pair any other sensors you have. I recommend picking up the Wahoo Blue SC, since at this time the KICKR doesn’t provide cadence information. The Blue SC does, and will then keep everything Bluetooth Smart.
And finally, pair up a heart rate monitor if you have one:
Next is a REALLY important item, especially if you have the Blue SC. You’ll want to change the speed data to pull the speed data back to the KICKR. Otherwise it’ll pull from the BlueSC, which won’t have any speed data since you won’t have a magnet flying past the magnet since your wheel is off the bike.
And, while you’re at it, ensure that the cadence is coming from the combo sensor, and not from the KICKR.
Finally, you’ll want to scroll down in all the data pages that are offered and ensure the KICKR Training Page is enabled:
There are numerous training pages available to you, below is a quick gallery of them. My only complaint though is that at the end of the day I’d really much rather just customize these myself – like on most devices. Pick and choose them. Sorta like how I can do on the RFLKT. Instead, they are pre-canned and I have to live with whatever I was given, and on the pages they were set. Note when it says ‘Tap to Toggle mode’, it means that you can tap the page to then alternate through variations of that data from Current data (instant), to previous and current laps and averages.
Ok, with all the data pages out of the way, let’s get into controlling the KICKR.
Resistance Control:
The KICKR has four user accessible control modes. Each one of these modes controls the trainer in slightly different ways. All of these modes are found when you enabled the KICKR control page, and are just sub-sections of that page.
Level Mode:
In this mode, the KICKR has a simplified resistance level bands. From 0 to 9. These are somewhat abstract, and simply levels that Wahoo has effectively christened. Just like your stationary bike at the gym has random levels on it, these are sorta random too. But, if you just want an easy option for remembering what setting you had it on last – this is it. I prefer the other options.
Resistance Mode:
This mode simply controls the resistance of the brank unit – on a scale from 0 to 100%, with 100% being ‘full stop’. If you’re thinking of incline, that’s later on in a different mode.
Erg Mode:
Erg mode is without question my favorite, and where I spend the vast majority of my time. It’s simple, and potentially brutal. In this mode you simply specify an exact wattage, and the unit holds it. No messing around here. Input wattage, trainer responds, you hurt. Rinse, repeat. It’s how I do most of my workouts – based on set wattages. You utilize the +/- buttons to increase the digits that make-up the watts. In general, I find the KICKR will adjust it within 1-2 seconds. Enough that it doesn’t stop-you dead if you go from 100w to 400w.
As you’re riding, the unit will show you the target power (what it’s putting out) above, and then the actual recorded power below.
Sim Mode:
Last is ‘Sim Mode’ – short for simulation. In this mode, it allows you to simulate different settings based on not only slope and wind speed, but also rolling resistance. First though, you’d define a slope (i.e. hill), and then you’d define the wind speed (i.e. pain).
Then, you click on the ‘Bike Type’ setting and you can define the exact Coefficient of Rolling Resistance and Drag Coefficient of your setup (primarily your wheels).
I haven’t played with this particular setting too much – but the potential is pretty impressive. There’s plenty of apps and data sources out there today that allows you to pull in and specify this information. Which would primarily serve to better simulate the impact of your tires (and body drag) – given that the KICKR doesn’t otherwise include any of those forces in its equations.
General Wahoo Fitness App Items:
After you’re done riding, you’ll want to save your workout. Note that you can press pause at any time to stop recording. Also note that incoming calls/texts do not impact the KICKR from recording, it’ll continue to do so in the background. At the end of the workout after you’ve pressed stop, you’ll get this screen:
Upon saving you’ll get some workout summary details. This includes overall averages, as well as lap averages. I don’t find the lap averages page terribly useful, primarily due to the lack of power information on there.
From there, if you click the little icon in the upper right corner, it’ll allow you to save it out to various destinations that you’ve pre-configured. In my case, I’ve setup the unit to share to Training Peaks and Garmin Connect. Additionally, I can e-mail the workout files. E-mailing is great because it includes the files in a slew of common formats, that virtually any application on the planet can accept.
If you haven’t setup sharing ahead of time, fear not, the workout is still saved locally and you can share it later. You can pre-configure these sharing options though with a number of services. Below are the current services.
With that, you’re data is transmitted off to the service and you’re good to go.
You can see how I often feel that the best application out there for use on the iPhone and flexibility of the data is actually the default Wahoo App. I’m one who just wants the data in the formats I want it in, and care little about putting it in yet another app’s online site. Thus, this allows me to get it to Training Peaks or Garmin Connect (my two main dumping grounds for files), and not worry about it.
Note that the application supports user profile settings such as setting up heart rate zones, power zones, weight, and audio cues as well. You can see some of the zones information in my various screenshots above.
Trainer Feel:
A lot of people ask about ‘feel’ when talking about trainers. I’m a horrible person to ask about that. Perhaps because with the exception of the LeMond Revolution Pro, most trainers for me fall into two categories: Feels fine, or feels sucky. The Wahoo KICKR falls into the ‘feels fine’ category. Admittedly, at the upper end of that. The LeMond revolution is the only trainer that I say ‘Yes, I FEEL that!’.
I train so much in erg-mode, that ‘feel’ isn’t really part of the equation. Rather, providing consistent resistance is of more importance to me. Which isn’t to say I don’t value feel at all. It’s just that I personally don’t rank it high on my list of important items in a trainer. Rather, I prefer accuracy, durability, interoperability, and anything else ending with the letter ‘y’. Touch-feely does not count.
But, others who have ridden KICKR that do rate feel higher, do like the feel more than most trainers…for what it’s worth.
Noise Levels:
Noise levels across trainers are a funny duck. There are many aspects that impact noise, from cassettes to trainer tires to room flooring (i.e. wood vs carpet), to trainer mats and so on. The most important non-environmental factor across trainers is actually speed. Not wattage. I can keep the wattage at a set amount, and simply vary my speed (via gearing or cadence) to change the volume
I previously had done a sound test back in early January, comparing the KICKR to both the LeMond Revolution as well as the Kinetic Road Machine. In that test I used a few different benchmarks, though keeping the gearing and speed levels the same – resistance was the one variable. I generally went from low speed to high speed and just let it be.
This time, I decided to approach it slightly differently. Instead of focusing as much on a high-end speed, I’d just focus on a very common threshold – 200 watts at 20MPH. I kept my gearing exactly the same across all three units (well, you’ll see I had to gear down one ring on the Kinetic because I was too fast).
I then increased the speed to 30MPH, and then to 50MPH on both the KICKR and the CompuTrainer. The sole purpose of this was merely to make it as loud as possible.
Thus, in effect I’ve given you noise levels at ‘normal’ (20MPH), not-so-normal-but-perhaps-occasional (30MPH), and outright silly (50MPH).
Here’s the new video montage:
And, for those that don’t care about video, here’s the simple table.
Trainer
20MPH (200w)
30MPH (200w)
50MPH (200w)
Wahoo KICKR
68.7db
83.5db
86.1db
RacerMate CompuTrainer
69.7db
82.4db
85.8db
Kinetic Road Machine
70.0db
82.6db
N/A
I didn’t include the LeMond Revolution Pro this time, because honestly it’s like bringing a bull into a china shop. I’ve well established it’s incredibly loud at every level, well beyond these other trainers. Not even in the same city, let alone ballpark. And just repeating how much louder it is than the other ones seems silly. You can watch my previous video here on it.
Calibration:
The KICKR supports a calibration spin down method, which enables you to account for any resistance in the system, and/or environmental or manufacturing variations. In order to initiate the spin down, from within the Wahoo Fitness app you’ll simply select the little wheel icon from the upper right corner. You can trigger this at any time during a workout (before starting, during, paused), though I’d recommend you pause the workout so you don’t have a random data blob in the middle that doesn’t match the rest of your workout.
When you do so, you’ll see the button for ‘Calibrate KICKR’ – which will give you instructions to perform the spin down. In short, you’ll be going up to 23MPH, and then coasting until you see a notification (10MPH).
You can see the system will wait until you’ve reached the correct speed:
Then, as you coast down from 23MPH to 10MPH, it’ll
Finally, spin-down complete!
No specific calibration value is outputted during calibration – just a good to go!
3rd party apps also have access to the calibration API’s. And the API’s for 3rd party apps also provide more detailed feedback on the above calibration method (result feedback). And in fact, they have two options. The first is the roll-down like above. Different apps have implemented that different ways. You’ll see for example in Trainer Road that the upper left corner will say ‘Calib Ready’ when it’s prepared for a calibration:
The second method that apps have available to them is a zero-offset. This test is done with the unit at a stand-still (no pedaling). Today, to my knowledge no 3rd party apps have yet taken advantage of this functionality – though it is there. You can see this available in a non-public toolset that Wahoo has for testing, which will give identical results for 3rd party apps.
I’d expect to see this added in an app like Golden Cheetah, which caters to users that may have more desire to tinker. Wahoo believes that the current roll-down method is very accurate, and is their preferred method. In my testing, I’d agree with that assessment. It’s easy and straight-forward.
January 2016 Update Note: In addition to the spin-down type calibration, Wahoo now also offers a physical calibration tool. This is essentially a weight that’s used to calibrate your KICKR if you believe it’s out of whack. You can either buy this tool from them, or you can contact their support desk and they’ll loan it to you (though I think there is sometimes a waiting list).
Firmware Updates:
The Wahoo KICKR can receive over the air firmware updates via Bluetooth Smart. When a new firmware update is available, the Wahoo App will notify you of the update, and then redirect you over to the Wahoo Utility app, which performs the actual update:
The updater will first download the software package from the internet, and then apply the update.
I find the process usually takes a few minutes to complete. So I often just leave it sitting on the flywheel to update. I figure that gives it the best connectivity to the communications pod a few inches away.
Once complete it’ll ask you to unplug the KICKR trainer and then reset any KICKR apps that you may have had open. Overall a very painless process that I’ve done numerous times over the last two months.
January 2016 Notes: In addition to the main production Wahoo firmware updates, you can also get Wahoo KICKR beta firmware updates (such as FE-C), which can sometimes add new features ahead of release. These beta updates may last months. To access the beta updates, you’ll need the Wahoo Utility app, and then you can follow the steps in this short movie clip to access the beta firmware menu.
Power Accuracy:
I’ve spent a LOT of time riding the KICKR over the past two months. Tons of time. And if there’s nothing else that’s impressive, it’s aspects of the accuracy component. Now, I say ‘aspects’ because there are actually two pieces I look at when I’m talking about resistance controlling trainers. The first is how quickly the unit controls the resistance, and how it responds to your output. Remember, the trainer is designed to hold a given wattage in most circumstances – either directly or indirectly. Meaning it’s holding a specific value such as watts, or it’s holding a grade. You want to ensure that if its holding a wattage, that it can do that even when I dramatically change my output.
Take for example the Tacx Genius. This trainer had a very slow response to my sudden changes in wattage. Sometimes 10-15 seconds if I made a sudden jump, before it would pull the resistance unit back in to what it was set out. The CompuTrainer on the other hand, very quick, it doesn’t let you get out of line.
I found the KICKR more in line with the CompuTrainer. It kept the wattage right on-par, despite any fluctuations on my part. And within 1-2 seconds it would adapt to any major shifts. Significant wattage changes saw roughly the same ramp. I saw slightly more ramp when I was talking major shifts. For example, during a TrainerRoad workout that went from 155w to 465w, it took about 4-5 seconds for it to ramp up. This isn’t really a bad thing per se, as it means you don’t have the brick-wall syndrome (where it feels like you’ve just smacked a brick-wall), and thus it allows your legs to adapt to the change.
The second piece is accuracy against other power meters. Anytime I test against other power meters, there’s an aspect of ‘Who’s right?’. And honestly, I’m not here to answer that. And thankfully, in this case, I don’t really think there’s a reason to try and answer that. To put it into perspective, see below:
The two Edge 800’s are paired to the Quarq and Stages PM, while the iPhone is controlling the KICKR. The big iPhone number (200w) is wattage set-point. The small iPhone number (199w) is my current instant-power. On the Edge 800’s you see my 10-second power as the upper number (200w and 206w respectively), and the number directly below that is the 30s average (199w and 205w respectively). Cadence is also displayed, based on those units internal power-meter provided cadence sensors.
With the latest KICKR firmware late last week, they’ve resolved any outstanding beta bugs I was seeing, and things are very stable now – from low speed to high speed, as well as coasting. Previous beta drops (again now solved) had some issues with coasting where it didn’t account for it, thus skewing some of my numbers from those workouts for any time I was coasting (which was pretty rarely).
Here’s a workout I completed on the latest firmware, and you can see just how solid it tracked against both the Quarq:
From a power meter variability standpoint, here’s how things tracked. First, in raw watts. What you see is that post-calibration (at about the 600 marker), things are right on top of each other. Generally within 10w of variability, but often within just a couple watts.
Now where you see differences is those five spikes – or quick accelerations I did. The reason for the differences isn’t actually dramatic differences in power readings. Instead, it’s just inherent lag between data sets albeit synchronized).
That said, here’s what things look like from a percentage standpoint (I cut it off at 60-80% so you’d get more action on the graph):
Again, you’ll see the big jumps during the accelerations just due to tracking. If you look at the point after the calibration, things get remarkably stable. This was mostly a 10-minute relatively steady-state effort. Post-accelerations you see a bit more variability. This is partially the result of just the way that the Quarq reports power back having more variability in it – like most all power meters out there today. For fun, I picked a completely random 15-20 second snip (I really just scrolled a bunch and just stopped and copied a chunk of data. What you see there is that the KICKR has much less variability between data points, and thus you’ll see that more stable line.
You’ll note that all three are within 2.3% of each other. In the above, I went ahead and included the Stages data that I was capturing as well. Just for perspective on data frequency. I have specifically not included it in the other graphs as I’m still working with them on the a follow-up review, and I don’t want this to become another Stages PM review. As I’ve said elsewhere, I’ll definitely post an update to that in the future. But I don’t have a timeframe for doing so.
On the KICKR front, obviously, because of a lack of rear-wheel, I cannot compare it with a PowerTap output – which would otherwise be on the rear wheel.
January 2016 Note: While my experience with the KICKR has been very solid on the accuracy front (on both my initial KICKR this review is based on, as well as the one I later purchased). However, some folks have seen power accuracy issues. It appears that early models (i.e. those in the first year), were very solid. Then somewhere along the way accuracy slipped. In early 2015, Wahoo added a person dedicated to accuracy testing of KICKR’s, as well as introduced a number of power accuracy improvements. These appear targeted at later-production KICKR’s that were having accuracy issues.
RFLKT Control:
At present, one cannot control the KICKR trainer using RFLKT. It is coming, but it’s just not there yet today. RFLKT today allows you to view information provided by your iPhone over a Bluetooth channel. Think of it as a remote display. 3rd party applications are being developed by various companies to take advantage of this. Effectively replacing a Garmin on your handlebars. Instead, app makes such as Strava would have connectivity to the RFLKT, and be able to display whatever they pleased on it.
You can and will however get data fields from KICKR presented to RFLKT. For example, I can pipe the wattage to the unit, and stop and start the training effort from the RFLKT.
Down the road, I’d like to see everything from being able to control wattage/resistance (basic) to starting a calibration routine. All this is relatively straightforward from a programming standpoint – it’s just a matter of where it stands on Wahoo’s internal development totem pole. And note that this would be controlled by either the Wahoo App, or another application (Wahoo or 3rd party). Meaning that the RFLKT wouldn’t directly control the Wahoo KICKR, but instead would pair to an phone or computer app, which in turn controls both. All of this control is done over Bluetooth Smart, as the current crop of RFLKT units do not have ANT+ within them.
ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart:
The KICKR is unique in that it’s the only trainer on the market today that is fully Bluetooth and ANT+ enabled. The unit contains the necessary hardware for communication to existing ANT+ devices (such as the Garmin Edge 500 or Forerunners), as well as Bluetooth Smart support for phone and tablet based devices.
Bluetooth Smart integration requires the use of a Bluetooth 4.0 device. Which means you have have an iPhone 4s or newer, or a 3rd generation iPad or newer. Additionally, at this stage the only Bluetooth Smart device support for these device profiles is on the Apple platform.
From the ANT+ side, the unit uses the ANT+ Bike Power Meter device profile to broadcast your current power and speed. This means it’s compatible with all current ANT+ power meter head units. For example, the Garmin FR310XT/FR910XT/Edge 500/Edge 510/Edge 705/Edge 800/Edge 810, all CycleOps Joule units and Joule GPS, Timex Global Trainer, Magellan Switch, and countless other apps. It will not at this time broadcast cadence though, so you’ll need to add an ANT+ cadence meter into the mix in order to get that on an ANT+ enabled device.
On the Bluetooth Smart side, it uses the standardized Bluetooth Smart Power Meter device profile to broadcast the same power and speed information. This means that it’s compatible with devices that support that device profile. At present, that’s only software apps, and no physical head units. The unit utilizes the same standard as the Kinetic inRide and Stages Power Meter, which are both based upon the agreed and ratified spec for Bluetooth Smart PM’s.
Finally, at this time (as of March 5th), Bluetooth Smart is currently the only way to control the resistance in the KICKR trainer. Meaning, you have to have a compatible Apple device (either phone/tablet/Mac) to control the unit. The next step is ANT+ control, which the Wahoo team is working away on. They expect it’ll be released to developers in the coming weeks (which I’ll talk about in a second).
At this point, support for Bluetooth Smart control on Windows simply isn’t on their radar. Instead, they’d leverage ANT+ support for that. On the Android side, Bluetooth Smart control will be coming, but it’s really in the hands of the handset manufactures right now, more than Wahoo (Wahoo is waiting on them). Samsung will be first, and HTC following that. The good news there is that the ANT+ support with a couple dollar OTG cable should largely get Android folks up and running quickly once the Wahoo ANT+ support is finalized.
Finally of note, is that CycleOps has committed to adding in the ANT+ Resistance Control spec to their trainers as well, as soon as it’s finalized by Wahoo Fitness. This is actually pretty significant, as in doing so it completely opens up their platform to the same level of 3rd party development that Wahoo will have (minus the Bluetooth Smart side for the moment). Further, I think it’ll hopefully pressure other companies to do the same (looking at you Tacx).
January 2016 Update: In 2015 many companies adopted the ANT+ FE-C standard for control of trainers from apps such as Zwift, TrainerRoad, and Kinomap (among many others). At this time, Wahoo is currently beta testing this for the KICKR & KICKR SNAP, which can be accessed via the beta firmware option (see the end of the Firmware Updates section above to access it.)
3rd Party Apps:
January 2016 Note: It’s really best to just see my trainer app guide (it’s massive), since everything posted below, while generally still correct, is rather outdated. Whereas my guide is huge and covers some 20 apps!
Perhaps the biggest single reason the KICKR is so different than other trainers is the open nature of it. Thus, I really wanted to dive into what some of the 3rd party apps are doing. Now, this section is a bit unique in that I’m not so much doing a deep-dive review on these apps. More just talking about what they do. Some of these apps are still in development, and some are complete (I’ll note which ones). And realistically, there’s a TON more apps in the pipeline by a lot of folks I’ve talked with. As these companies release apps I’ll add them in here. Sort of a gallery. Well, at least until there’s too many. Many of these companies are waiting for the ANT+ Resistance Control. In talking with Wahoo over the weekend, they hope to have this in developers hands in the next 1-2 weeks. After getting the units into your hands today, that’s their next big-ticket item to knock out.
Once that happens, it really opens the door to all of the PC apps, and apps that don’t have Bluetooth Smart in it. That’s because these apps can use the ANT+ USB adapter, as well as the existing Wahoo Fitness iPhone ANT+ adapter (for pre-iPhone 4s units).
But ultimately, I knew folks really wanted to hear what I had to say – so I wanted to go ahead get the review out the door, even if all the apps weren’t quite finished. As such, a huge thanks to all the developers below who I pestered endlessly to get me pre-release builds to be able to put this all together in time.
3rd Party Apps: Trainer Road:
TrainerRoad is one of the apps that is fully KICKR ready today (if you have a Mac, pending ANT+ support for Windows). In fact, it’s actually supported KICKR since all the way back in August at Eurobike. TrainerRoad is a subscription based app that’s available on Windows and PC’s (not on iPads/iPhones) that has a massive workout library and guides you through completing workouts with your data being recorded on the computer and then uploaded upon completion to a central web platform.
The first step that you’ll complete is to pair the computer to the KICKR. To do so you’ll simply click the ‘Pair’ button next to Wahoo KICKR, and it’ll find the trainer via Bluetooth Smart. This only takes a few seconds. Additionally, I’ve also paired in a Bluetooth Smart Heart Rate Strap as well as Bluetooth Smart Speed/Cadence sensor. TrainerRoad also lets you use existing ANT+ sensors you may have too. So if you have an ANT+ HR strap or sensor, you can mix and match with KICKR to get all your data.
TrainerRoad has a massive online workout database, and you can also create your own workouts for it as well. In my case, I just cracked open a quick workout and went to town.
TrainerRoad has the concept of target power – which is the power you should be attaining. In the case of KICKR, the software will automatically control the trainer to be that particular resistance/wattage. So in this case ,you can see that it’s currently set for 403w, and I’m achieving 404w. On the right side, you’ll see my heart rate (156bpm), and my cadence (83RPM). In the middle you’ve got my interval time, and time left in the interval.
Looking at the graphs, it’ll track that information as I go along throughout the workout.
Additionally, as you can see below, as I complete intervals it’ll automatically spit out summary information for each set. In this case my precision is at a bit of a disadvantage due to the slight ramp rate from 124w to 465w (in this case), thus it’s a bit lower than you’d probably have for a longer interval.
TrainerRoad has a pretty huge and loyal following, and is currently in their second season in the market.
About the only thing I’d love to see them integrate into this is support for RFLKT – primarily to control the workout resistance as required (and or pause/stop). Today you need access to a keyboard (or, to place your sweaty hands on your laptop/keyboard). This would seem to be a perfect use case for RFLKT.
The again, most every app I talk about here is a perfect use-case for RFLKT.
Note that TrainerRoad also supports videos like Sufferfest, which are synchronized to both the resistance and the video itself. I demo’d one of these in TrainerRoad as part of my Kinetic inRide Review, so you can check it out there.
3rd Party Apps: Kinomap:
Next up is Kinomap. Kinomap is different from the likes of TrainerRoad in that Kinomap’s focus is primarily on recreation of outdoor rides. They do this by providing a subscription service that includes unlimited use of a video library. That video library has GPS courses which are synchronized to it, which in turn control the KICKR trainer to feel like outdoors.
You’ll pair the Kinomap application to the KICKR, as well as any ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart sensors you have:
You can also specify resistance attributes as well as which format to show your speed/distance data in (such as MPH or KPH):
First up is picking out a course to ride.
There are courses on road, as well as off-road. Interestingly, because Kinomap can also be used for running and rowing, there are courses on water as well. I’d suggest you use the video filtering options to focus on cycling courses:
Once you’ve got the video selected you’ll ensure that your sensors are still paired:
At which point you’ll go ahead and start. Within the main Kinomap screen there are a few different views you can use. The video is pretty much always present, but the bottom half of the screen can be configured differently depending on whether you want to view a map, a dashboard of stats, or an elevation profile.
Once the video has started, you’ll be shown how far ahead or behind the video you are. As you can see in the above screenshot, you can select how the software reacts when you fall behind. It can stop and wait for you, or it can change the video rate.
Also of note is that the video can be seperately split out to an external display. You can see some of these options here.
To do so, you’ll need the little adapter if plugging into an HDMI source (like a TV). But this is ideal if you want to display things on a much bigger screen.
At the completion of your workout, you can upload your session details to a variety of sites, including Training Peaks.
If you’re most familiar with entertainment based suites like that of the CompuTrainer Real Course videos, or the Tacx videos, you’ll probably find yourself drawn to Kinomap. It’s a bit pricier than the other options, but the all-you-can-eat aspect of it is hugely appealing. The video quality is generally lower than the perfectly image-stabilized videos you’ll find by Tacx, but at the same price you’re not paying $30-$100US for each one.
Also note that you can indeed create your own videos with GPS data and upload them to the Kinomap service.
3rd Party Apps: iMobileIntervals
Next up is iMobileIntervals. This somewhat lesser known app joins the fray at a cheaper $5.99 – one-time purchase price. The app has long interfaced with Wahoo Fitness devices, and in fact was pretty much one of the very first apps to talk to the original Wahoo Fitness ANT+ adapter.
This app can be used to quickly and easy create and execute workouts with predefined interval times. Additionally, you can control the KICKR in a standard ERG mode as well (meaning, just control wattage on the fly). The first step is pairing to the KICKR trainer, which takes about one button press:
And just like that, you’re ready to begin.
When you first start out, you can load up previously saved workouts of your own, create a new workout, and pull one from a library of workouts.
The library can be sorted by category of workouts, as well as other attributes such as username. You can then publically save your workouts as well for others to use.
I went ahead and created my own workout. You can simply add warm-up and cool-down chunks, and then repeating intervals very quickly and easily.
As you can see from the timestamps, creating the below workout only took me about 1-2 minutes.
Once you’re done creating the workout, it’ll be time to complete the workout (it’ll save it for you as well). While executing the workout you can skip to different parts by simply using the music-style controls. This is useful (and unique) in the event you’re short on time and need to move into the next section. You can also specify a wattage offset in the event that you’re just not holding on anymore.
Last but not least, two items of note. First is that you can define and display TSS/NP/IF information within the app, and that you can pair to other ANT+ and Bluetooth Smart sensors. The app is interestingly enough the only app today to support the Wahoo RFLKT.
If you aren’t sure which apps you want to use with the KICKR today, the iMobileIntervals certainly is a good way to go – especially if you need an interim solution. Obviously, the graphics on it aren’t exactly the most visually stunning, but the functionality is there and works – which is what most folks are looking for. And for the price, it’s hard to beat.
3rd Party Apps: Golden Cheetah:
Next up is Golden Cheetah. Golden Cheetah is an opensource software suite primarily focused on cycling that has historically had its roots in the analytics side. A while back they added a training mode which enabled you to connect to and control some trainers (as well as get virtual power from other trainers with known power curves).
The latest beta builds of Golden Cheetah will shortly allow you to connect to and control the Wahoo KICKR. I got to play with some early previews of it, and will give you the quick rundown. At present, this will require a Mac, since ANT+ control isn’t there yet. But as soon as Wahoo releases ANT+ control, then the Golden Cheetah folks will add it in so that Windows users are also good to go.
First up is adding the Wahoo KICKR Trainer:
It’ll then go off and search for the trainer using the Bluetooth Smart within most recent Mac models. If you have an older Mac, you can simply pickup a $12 Bluetooth Smart USB adapter.
Once the device is found, you’ll go ahead and give it a name:
With the trainer added, we can start to control it.
Instead though, I’m going to create a workout. Golden Cheetah has two options here. The first is to pull workouts from the large online (and free) workout database ErgDB. The second is to simply create your own. In my case, I just created a quick demo one, that you can see below.
For this workout, I used predefined wattage steps – though I could have used % of FTP Wattage or gradient as well. Each chunk in the workout has a specific number of minutes assigned to it (which I supplied). As I’m building this, it’ll create a small graph of the workout as well.
These workouts can be saved locally, or published as well. If you save them locally, you can see how easy they are to edit:
Finally comes time to load up the workout, or to control the unit in a general resistance mode.
While controlling the unit your data will be displayed up on the top. In my case, my current KICKR power, my current KICKR speed, and distance information as well. Additionally, the app would normally display the assigned power level, and the steps within the workout would be overlaid onto the screen. I was running into a bit of a pre-beta bug, so it wasn’t showing up for me.
In addition to the raw data, I can also add in media files (such as movies) that can be display alongside my data – to make the trainer ride slightly more bearable. Once the workout has completed, it’s automatically saved into your workout history within Golden Cheetah. And from there you can easily export it out to numerous formats, or straight to services such as TrainingPeaks, Strava, RideWithGPS and more.
For many folks, the free Golden Cheetah may be the best bet if your looking for one-stop shopping around training and analysis all for the unbeatable price of…free.
3rd Party Apps: Strava Segments by Wahoo
Ok, this one isn’t exactly third party. It’s made by Wahoo. It’s just not released yet. And, there’s no specific timetable to release it. But, it’s cool enough that I wanted to give you a brief tour. I’ve previously shown off bits of it back at Eurobike and Interbike. But this time I had a bit more hands-on time with it.
The Segments app allows you to search out and load up any Strava Segment uploaded anywhere in the world. I simply enter in a city name and/or location, and then off I go.
By doing so, I’ll see the various segments available within that view. I can then zoom around the map (typical pinch/zoom) to look at a given segment. By doing so I’ll pull open the current Leaderboard for that segment, as well as a course profile. You’ll note it also has my best time listed (if I’ve raced that segment). Note that today even if you complete a segment on the KICKR, it’s not uploaded back into Strava. It’s purely separate on your own device.
I went ahead and I changed focus just down the road a few miles to my old neighborhood.
From there I found a suitable course that was short for the purposes of this demo:
The bonus was that it was downhill. :) The second bonus was that my next-door neighbor was on the leaderboard. And thus, I planned to beat him.
You can see prior to me riding the course, if I switch the leaderboard stats over to ‘KICKR Trainer’, it’s empty. Also note that ‘Best time’ is empty too.
I should probably note that this is an iPad app, and does require an iPad that supports Bluetooth Smart (3rd generation and above).
The course takes a few seconds to load up, and then it’s ready to go. Once you start pedaling you’ll get 10 seconds. This is fair since in this particular example most riders would be coming from down a hill, versus a dead stop.
Here you can see me about 12 seconds into this effort. My wattage and current stat information is displayed against the current leader, in real-time. Additionally, it has a small dot showing where he and I are.
Obviously, had I not run a half-marathon 90 minutes prior, I probably would have had slightly more success in this venture.
But my goal was ultimately accomplished, and I beat my neighbor by 5 seconds. Good enough for me!
You’ll note that the KICKR Trainer category for this particular segment now has my best time on it. On a day I’m more fresh I’ll come back and take care of this…
For an unreleased app that was thrown together at the last minute before Eurobike, the functionality is incredibly cool and pretty engrossing. Hopefully Wahoo and Strava can work through any of the remaining items and get it published up to the App Store. Awesome stuff.
My DIY iPad Stand:
In case you’re wondering where that iPad and iPhone stand came from I used throughout the review, it’s actually one I built. I posted about it a while back. The whole thing cost $30 and is quick and easy DIY.
It allows me to mount not only the iPad onto it, but also the iPhone and various cycling units as I need to.
The full parts list (only a few parts) is available below as well:
(Note: There are a slew of mic stands out there, I selected this one primarily because it had a heavy round base that wasn’t shaped like a tripod – but was still small. I figured the tripod style ones would be easy to trip over.)
(Note: There are a gazillion iPhone bike mounts, the one I selected is kinda bulky, but it gets the job done. You can probably pick something more elegant…but it’ll likely cost ya. Similarly, you can use any bike mount that floats your boat for other phone types.)
Buyer’s Guide:
Each year I release a trainer buyers guide, which outlines all of my recommendations by price category. Rather than re-type that here, I’d recommend you hit up that post for all the details. You’ll find it here, full of more detail than you can shake a stick at!
Pros and Cons:
With that, here’s the pros and cons, updated as of January 2016 (most other sections of this review haven’t been updated since then, though, largely still apply).
Pros:
– Open platform, others can develop against it (now some 20+ apps that work with it).
– Just works factor (never have to futz around with it)
– Supports both Bluetooth Smart and ANT+
– Noise levels are compatible to other trainers, lower in some cases
– Pricing is about $500 cheaper than CompuTrainer or TACX Neo
– Pretty cool apps already coming out and available for it
Cons:
– Must remove rear wheel from bike
– Pretty darn heavy
– Some functionality does require 3rd party apps that is typically included (i.e. workout creator)
– While extremely rare, wireless interference can be an issue
– Some users have seen accuracy issues on units (this seems limited to a range of older units, though not the oldest, nor the newest)
Summary:
There’s no question in my mind that the Wahoo KICKR trainer has completely changed the trainer landscape. Partly because of the hardware, but more importantly because of the ability for 3rd party companies to develop software for it. As you’ve seen above, companies and organizations are already doing so (with more than 20 supporting the KICKR as of January 2016) – and at price points significantly lower than the high-priced multi-hundred dollar software suites that the market is currently locked into.
As a platform without 3rd party software, the KICKR is still reasonably strong. Yes, it does lack the massive software suites like that of the Tacx TTS suite. But it also lacks that software price tag of that suite. I believe the ability for you to ride your trainer with any app you want is far stronger than being locked into a given platform (note that Tacx also now allows 3rd party control too).
While my experience with the KICKR has been generally quite good, there are a handful of users over the past few years that have struggled with power accuracy issues. Wahoo says they’ve doubled down on testing efforts for these, and it appears that newer units aren’t having the issues that some units as of a year or two ago did (early units didn’t have issues either). Which, is pretty much the only complaint you’ll find against the Wahoo KICKR (though, certainly a valid one if you’re struggling with accuracy issues).
Lastly, the KICKR does face competition from the TACX NEO trainer as a high-end unit. The main differences between those two are around sound (the KICKR is far louder), as well as some control pieces using ANT+ FE-C (the KICKR currently has that in beta, NEO is released/production). Check out my larger trainer recommendations guide though, for how to decide which trainer might be right for you.
Found This Post Useful? Support The Site!
Hopefully you found this review/post useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.
If you're shopping for the Wahoo Fitness KICKR V1/2013 or any other accessory items, please consider using the affiliate links below! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot.
Since the Wahoo Fitness KICKR V1/2013 is no longer sold, I recommend looking at Wahoo KICKR V5/2020:
The original trainer desk. They're awesome for stacking (more)
The original trainer desk. They're awesome for stacking up nutrition, phones, and extra things you need for that short or long trainer ride. It can hold a tablet up on edge too.
The headwind fan is one of those fans that's probably overpriced, but it's also just a really darn good fan. I know of nobody (including myself) that's bought one that's unhappy with it. Super strong and you can turn it on from your phone if you forget.
This is a super basic trainer mat, which is exactly what you'll see me use. All it does is stop sweat for getting places it shouldn't (it also helps with vibrations too).
I use Apple TV for Zwift the vast majority of the time, but also just for watching YouTube/Netflix/etc on the trainer. The Apple TV remote sucks though. This $8 case fixes that, it's a silicone strap that makes it easy to grab, but also has a strap to easily place on the edge of your handlebars. Boom! Note: Not compatible with 2021 Apple TV Edition.
Here's the thing, some people like front wheel blocks, some don't. I'm one of the ones that do. I like my front wheel to stay put and not aimlessly wiggle around. For $8, this solves that problem. Note some trainers do come with them. Also note, I use a riser block with *every* trainer.
I've got three of these $12 fans floating around the DCR Cave, and I frequently use them on rides. They work just fine. Sure, they're not as powerful as a Wahoo Headwind, but I could literally buy 20 of them for the same price.
This desk is both a knock-off of the original KICKR Desk, but yet also better than it. First, it's got wheel locks (so the darn thing stays put), and second, it has two water bottle holders (also useful for putting other things like remotes). I've been using it as my main trainer desk for a long time now and love it. Cheaper is better apparently. Note: Branding varies by country, exact same desk.
This is by far the best value in trainer desks, at only $59, but with most of the features of the higher end features. It's got multi-tier tablet slots, water bottle holders, non-stick surface, adjustable height and more. I'm loving it!
One of the most popular trainer fans out there, rivaling the Wahoo Headwind fan in strength but at a fraction of the price. It doesn't have smartphone/ANT+/Bluetooth integration, but it does have secondary outlets. I've been using it, and a similiar European version lately with great success (exact EU variant I use is automatically linked at left).
I've had this for years, and use it in places where I don't have a big screen or desk, but just an iPad or tablet on my road bike bars.
And of course – you can always sign-up to be a DCR Supporter! That gets you an ad-free DCR, access to the DCR Quarantine Corner video series packed with behind the scenes tidbits...and it also makes you awesome. And being awesome is what it’s all about!
Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!
Is the unit compatible with a campy cassette? Maybe not a large market in the US but it certainly is everywhere else. What about Dura Ace 9000 (11 speed). Certainly will trickle down to lower tier groups soon and the 11 speed freehub is backwards compatible (but not the other way around) so it makes sense to take care of that right away…
Chip at wahoo said that they have some “adapters” on the way, but not available yet. Not sure if that means a cassette with a different spacing or a freehub body. KICKR comes with a 10spd shimano cassette. Therefore you can do campy 9-10 by using a cassette with all loose campy spacers that fits the shimano spline. I have a Miche 9 spd cassette with campy spacers that works great on the KICKR.
First thanks for all the setup information, it took me about 45 mins to get riding on the KICKR.
I know very little about bike components myself , our local bike shop thought that my Campagnolo 11 25 would fit KICKR 11 25 Shimano cassette. I’m riding with no issues, maybe some has a different experience.
The spacing for Campy and Shimano is slightly different but if you are not experiencing issues with excessive chain noise or skipping then it sounds like you’re OK. We do offer a Campagnolo Freehub for the KICKR which will allow you to install a Campagnolo cassette (link to wahoofitness.com).
Pretty disappointed with the Segments app. The promise is there but most segments are pretty unrideable simply because the GPS data is inaccurate.
I gave ridden over 300 cols across Europe and none of them have gradients that jump around all the time – one second 0%, the next 8%. It’s completely unrealistic and nothing like riding the real thing.
Wahoo could fix this by building in a smoothing algorithm that would eliminate these false variations.
Until they do that however, the app will fail to live up to the promise/hype.
Sorry that you are disappointed, the quality of elevation is one of the main reason the app was delayed nearly 12 months. GPS and even online lookup databases have VERY poor elevation data.
Strava has corrected many of popular Segments using data from Altimeters (Garmin 800’s) and these segments are very good. Popular climbs over mile are really good and Strava is continuing to scan and update the elevation data. Strava now has the best elevation database on the internet.
We also use 2 different types of filters on the elevation data, but unfortunately, like many before us have found these algorithms not always to be perfect and mostly work well in mountain environments.
We are continuing to work on improving the data and future version should give some greater control over the filter parameters so they can be manually tweaked for different use cases.
Thanks for the excellent review. It is amazingly detailed and very useful in the decision making process. I tried to use the code DCR10TXS at checkout in the discount coupon field but it does not work.
Once again a fantastic review.
As a non Apple user I am especially interested in options of using the KICKR with Windows or Android.
It seems currently there is no such option, is that about right?
Do you plan on updating your review once such software becomes available?
Yes, I’ll definitely be updating as soon as I have beta versions of those apps (and am actually home to tes them out). I expect both will happen mid-later this month.
I have hardware to test everything current on the market.
got a email from wahoo the other day it reads as follows
Dear Wahooligan,
Greetings from your favorite KICKR fairy! Week after week I have had the pleasure of keeping you up-to-date on all the great news surrounding your forthcoming KICKR. Unfortunately sometimes even fairy magic can’t fix all the problems. During our final testing process we discovered that the spacer spec’d in the first run of KICKRs were the incorrect size; and on rare occasions can cause the freehub to bind. We have been working diligently to solve this issue and are having new spacers and freehubs manufactured and overnighted to us from our factory. That means come Monday morning yours truly, and the rest of the Wahoo team, will be dropping everything to head to our fulfillment center. We will be opening each and every KICKR box, replacing the necessary parts, and testing each unit. How’s that for some Wahooligan love?
Now for the good news! While open, your KICKR will also be getting a fresh firmware update so you’ve got the latest and greatest version when it arrives at your door. These two processes, unfortunately, will cause a slight delay in shipping. However, we’ve got the espresso machine primed and a killer playlist teed up…..we don’t plan on sleeping until the last KICKR is ready to ride!
We will be shipping KICKRs as they get updated and yours will ship based on your reservation spot. Some will be able to ship on March 4th as promised, but others will be delayed by a couple of days. When your KICKR is ready I’ll send you a link to a secure payment page so you can complete your order. Be sure to keep an eye on your email over the next few days. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
what are your thoughts on chain wear (i.e. the cassette and chain wear together)? Do you think I would have issues with the same chain effectively using two different cassettes and wearing unevenly across both of them? There’s nothing worse than a jumpy chain on a hill — I’d like to avoid that here in VT.
Chain stretch is a result of riding on a worn cogset. So if you keep your drivetrain clean and change cogsets before they wear too much, you can change between cogsets (and extend the life of your chain) without much trouble. Its worth noting that in the case of riding an ERG workout on the KICKR (meaning that the trainer sets the resistance dynamically to make you output X watts) it doesn’t matter to the trainer what gear you ride in, so you can easily end up doing much your riding at whatever resistance set by the trainer without changing gears, and therefore in the same cog all the time. You might wear out one cog well before the others this way. This can be fixed by making sure you ride in different gears.
Tangentially, one of the cool aspects of ERG mode is that you can easily simulate different “speeds” at a given intensity just by changing gears. Want a fast paceline or motorpace simulation? Just make an interval workout 3mins at zone 3 (tempo/subLT), 20 secs at zone 4b (super-LT) or zone 5, times whatever, ride it in the 53/12 et voila, KICKR will let you ride that speed, at the cadence you want, at the watts specified for you in those zones.
My understanding is opposite of Ransom. It’s the chain stretching that generally causes both cog and chain ring wear. So replacing your chain regularly greatly extends the life of the cogs/chain rings. I believe the chain is ultimately the week link in the drive train and should be replaced regularly. I get about 1.5k miles on a road bike and under 1k on my mountain bikes. Clearly the torque you put on it impacts this greatly.
So to answer the question, if you have a chain that is in good shape (not stretched) using multiple different cog sets shouldn’t be a problem.
Regardless, as Ransom noted, it is a good idea to vary the cog used especially when in ERG mode since the gearing doesn’t really matter. The kickr is going to adjust the resistance to match your cadence.
Thanks for your hard work Ray! I see 3:15AM on some of those screen grabs….
I’ll just post a couple clarifications about my iMobileIntervals app:
* Ray reviewed a beta build; KICKR support is not on the Apple App Store yet but will be submitted in a matter of a day or so.
* The app is supported by a free website (http://imobileintervals.com) where you can build your own time-based interval workouts with assigned Coggan intensity levels. Coupled with your Functional Threshold Power, the app converts these into a specific watts value under ERG control.
* On the website you can make your workouts public or create a group to share your workouts and training plans only among teammates or clients.
* The workouts pulled from the website include synthesized speech prompts for your intervals, so you can hear e.g. “30 seconds of left leg at cadence 90-100” or “3 minutes in zone VO-MAX” as you reach the next interval. The app will duck the volume from the integrated music player to present this.
* Ray shows creating an interval workout in the app, which is very easy, though he doesn’t assign an intensity level to the interval, which is what you need to do to have the app set the ERG watts for the interval.
* You can easily switch in or out of ERG control (vs. standard resistance levels) during a workout.
KICKR is awesome and iMi makes it really easy to do ERG workouts without any desktop computer!
Since version 3.0 iMobileIntervals supports creating workouts with specific watts values per interval,(like the classic Computrainer ERG file format) or percent of FTP (Computrainer MRC format). Users can create workouts that use ERG mode on iMobileIntervals.com or Garmin Connect. The website also has a convenient form for importing ERG or MRC files as iMobileIntervals workouts. Both iMobileIntervals and Garmin Connect have training calendars that you can use to schedule your daily workout right into the app.
The time has come. The Wahoo team has been working tirelessly to replace the spacer and freehub, and update the firmware, and your KICKR is now ready to ship! All we need from you is to click on the link below and enter your credit card information and you will become a proud owner of one of the world’s first KICKRs. Exciting, I know!
First off – great review Ray. It will be interesting to see how things develope in the next few months with the 3rd party stuff. im still looking for a google maps based ride creater that will also accept elevation/course profiles. Anyone want to make an app with me ? ;-)
Prob a dumb question but …Any idea if those of us that bought through clever will also be getting the spacer/firmware update ?
Thanks for the review. Was fairly confident that it was the way to go with your fairly in-depth discussion of your feelings in beta testing. After this I: a) found out about the Kickr from your site before ordering a Computrainer and b) followed your advice and am soon to be a very happy owner.
Keep up the great work and looking forward to reading future reviews.
No UK/EU date yet, finding people to sell the unit is the easy part, we are setting up service channels etc. We will let everyone know as soon as we have some dates.
Nothing on the previously ridden GPS routes yet. We will keep you posted.
Hey Ray,
Great review. My question is on the firmware updates. Is there any other way to update the Kickr if no iPhone/iPad is present? I personally don’t own either and wonder if I can ever update it unless Wahoo makes a Mac version of their software or supports updates through Ant+ down the road.
Also, is calibration really important? I mean is the Kickr going to be way off at one point?
We should have update via Bluetooth on the mac available soon, we really just need to write a little bit of the UI. We are also looking into support via ANT+.
The KICKR comes factory calibrated and should be nearly perfect out of the box, its a good idea to calibrate it after you transport it or after the first first weeks use. It is NOT something you need to do before each ride and it only take 20-30 seconds.
Is it now possible to update via Bluetooth on the mac ? I want to use my KICK with my trainer road but I guess I need to update the firmware first… cuz right now it’s not working well. It’s really annoying, you tell people that it’s fine using a KICKR with a mac using trainer road but nobody told me I needed an iphone or ipad to update it…
For the canadians reading this. When I contacted the vendor they said they would ship to Canada :)
I’m really tempted although the wife would probably kill me as I just brought home a KK road machine.
For those of us with an SRM and wanting cadence data, can we avoid adding a speed/cadence sensor and have the KICKR (or is it the app?) pick up cadence from our SRM?
Thanks – I do know that Trainer Road works well with the SRM, pulling the cadence data from the crank and avoiding the need for attaching a speed/cadence sensor. Looking forward to using this configuration with my KICKR, which just shipped today!
I have no idea how you manage to do all these great, detailed reviews, but I love that you do. Thanks.
It was nice that you included some upcoming apps and gave a (tentative) timeline for the ANT+ control.
Any inkling if Garmin might add control to the firmware of there watchs/cycling computers? I have a 910 and would love to be able to just use erg mode from the bars.
I’ll order one of these as soon as the ANT+ control is worked out
I’ve been talking to Garmin that units like the Edge 800/810 are ideal candidates to control the KICKR, similar to the Fox Mountain bike ‘app’ that they toyed with a year or so ago.
I have a low-confidence level they’ll do it though. But technically they could.
Ray-
Are you aware if they will be able to link trainers together in ERG mode for indoor group training?
I see the Ant+ / Bluetooth smart interface being a potential limitation here.
Thanks
Rob
Due to the 1:1 relationship restrictions on Bluetooth Smart, we’ll see multi-linking as part of the ANT+ spec. I’ve talked with Chip about this, and the ANT+ Resistance Control spec will actually allow two devices to control the trainer. For example, the ‘student’ in a trainer class, as well as the overall instructor.
I know that the PerfPro guys are looking to be the first in line for multi-user/same location KICKR control.
SRAM and Shimano chains, hubs, cogs, and rings can generally be interchanged. Only shifters (and maybe brakes) cannot. So yes, your SRAM chain and 10-speed rear derailleur are compatible with the default KICKR setup.
The KICKR freehub body is compatible with the new Shimano 11 speed cassettes. Just remove the stock 10-speed and install your 11-speed cassette and you’ll be good to go!
So you can really log and win Strava KOMs from the comfort of your own home? Freaky.
Might be harder than in real life- as mine are all with a tailwind. ;)
guess you can also change your crr and aero as well.
there’s really no reason to venture outside anymore.
I don’t think rides you do on your KICKR will post to Strava leaderboards. You have to actually ride the real life segment in the real world. What the Strava app allows you to do is “virtually race” a Strava segment. I believe that all of your KICKR rides can go to Strava the same way they can now – as stationary trainer rides.
The Skuga app will export a .gpx file that will post a KOM or leader board to a segment, but if you pull up the ride in Strava you will see that it is a Stationary Trainer ride. I had a KOM today show up in Strava and it shocked me.
Hi,
Thanks for letting us know. It should have been reported as Virtual Ride and not eligible for the KOM for sure. We will double check today and adjust accordingly.
I have a question regarding KICKR compatibility with older bikes. I’d like to leave KICKR setup all the time using an old steel lugged frame road bike which otherwise hasn’t seen much use in years. It’s old enough that the rear spacing is 126mm. Do you know if KICKR can handle this more narrow rear dimension? I’d guess it’s possible to stretch the rear and force fit it (or have someone cold set it permanently). Is it designed with some optional spacers so you can handle anything in the 126mm to 135mm range?
Since the unit is Electronically controlled, is it possible to do high power/ low rpm reps on the KICKR? With the LeMond, it floats at 75-95 RPM once the gear is rolling. I would like a unit that can stabilize below 60 or 40 RPM to mimic hill climbs and maximize big gear efforts.
Certainly. That’s the beauty of this trainer. KICKR in ERG mode demands a certain watts be produced, so if you set it to 300 watts, it will raise or lower the resistance to make you produce 300 watts. It doesn’t care what cadence you use, so pedal at the cadence you want. You might like to try an application like iMobileIntervals that will run interval workouts in ERG mode. Here’s an example of one such workout tailored to over-gear efforts in the lactate threshold zone: link to imobileintervals.com
Great review Ray!
I’m in Europe and ordered via Clever Training – so I’m hoping to have one of the first KICKRs on this side of the pond very soon – I can’t wait :-)
Its possible on Windows 8, but at this stage we haven’t even started any API for developers to use.
However, we are working on ANT+ control and this will allow it to work on Windows/Mac with a ANT+ dongle. PrefPro and Golden Cheetah are both working on this solution and should be available sooner rather than later.
As soon as the ANT+ WahooFitness api update drops, iMobileIntervals will update the app to do this. iMobileIntervals is an iPhone app, so you’ll need an iOS device, but no desktop machine is required.
Ray Your trainer reviews really helped me sort out what trainer would work best for me and what apps I could expect. Thanks for the great review of apps and KICKR! My KICKR ships today! Can’t wait to pair it with my iPhone 5, HR, SC and RFLKT and get to work! You do the testing most of us would like to do, if we had the time and access to all the various gear you review.
Clever training have taken an order from myself and im based in the uk. They have debited my card. I have since contacted them and they have confirmed they will be happy honour the delivery.
chris andrews
cheers for the info – will decide tonight re:order and final price
I think it’s price of kickr + delivery charge + 2.7% import duty + 20%VAT
any idea on delivery dates?
Your can get 10% of using the discount code. Will have to pay the VAT on top when it come to the UK anyway. All i know is ive been told second batch, i’m hoping it will be dispatched in the next few weeks. Just got to wait.
Yes. When asked, they promptly replied “We should have them in our warehouse by the middle of next week, shipped to customers by the end of the week.” End of the week is March 15th.
Just as a general FYI, I got the low-down on status from Clever.
20 KICKR’s were shipped to Clever from Wahoo on Friday, they hope to have them arrive on Wednesday and turned right back around again to readers the same day.
Then 40 more KICKR’s are expected 2 weeks following that. Subsequently, every two weeks following they will receive an additional 20 units.
Note that Clever Training is setup such that DCR readers get priority for KICKR’s (cool, huh?) – which means as long as you used the coupon code (or the link with the coupon code), you’re good.
Again – a huge thanks for your support of the site through DCR. I know folks may get their units a few days later than others, but I really do appreciate the support.
Absolutely incrdible review and website!!!
One of the nice features of the computrainer is its ability to have a multi-user power session all on one screen. I am new to the bike technology game and am looking to replace my fluid trainers at home. I love doing group power trainer sessions in the multi user format. Does the kickr (or any of the “new” generation trainers) allow this to occur? Thanks in advance.
Sounds like a couple company’s are working on solutions. The beauty of an open platform is that if there is a demand, there will be a product. There are numerous ways this could likely be implemented, from each trainer still having it’s own device (like phone) which then communicate with a central computer or all directly connecting to a single computer. So it’s only a matter of time.
Yup, just to expand a bit here. I talked to the Wahoo guys about this, and they see this as part of the ANT+ control piece coming online in the next few weeks. Once that’s done, I know folks such as the PerfPro guys are waiting with digital ink in hand to make this happen near-instantly on the KICKR.
So I think by the end of April you’ll see one or more pieces of software that can fill this void.
Will there be an issue with using the Wahoo with a bike that is normally a 9 speed SRAM cassette along with a 50/39/30 crank? Mainly concerned the chain will jump or not align properly for shifting purposes.
Kind of funny. Wahoo Fitness has all sorts of info on the device compatibility but nothing on drive train compatibility. I would expect it to work just fine but you’d probably need to get a 9 speed cog set and probably use a small spacer to have it properly line up with your current derailleur if you don’t want to make adjustments each time you put it on and take it off.
Well, I received the unit today and it is what I feared – skipping and jumping. There is no detailed manual, no useful info on the support site and support has yet to respond (since there is no phone number listed anywhere). I have one bike that has a 10 cog and one that has a 9. I would prefer to be using the 9 so need to figure out some way for it to work. Pretty annoyed with the lack of docs or ability to view anything in detail that would allow me to have more than a 45 lb mat weight.
I have also noticed that the info on the web site is severely lacking. But it also sounds like you had some unreasonable expectations. You are going to have exactly the same issues as if you tried to take someone else’s wheel and put it on your bike. 9 speed and 10 speed cog sets have different spacing, which leads to skipping. You need to install a 9 speed cog on the kickr for your 9 speed bike, which should be pretty trivial. Even if the cog set is compatible with your derailleur, you may still need to make minor adjustments to get it to align perfectly, in order to have it shift smoothly. This also is pretty easy once you learn how, and a good thing to understand in any case, because cables stretch which impacts this even on your regular wheel. Unfortunately most cyclists don’t understand these simple maintenance issues.
@ekutter – thank you for your comments. I will try to swap out the cassette. Admittedly you are correct, I have not done a lot of that, even though this does seem trivial. Without having experience, I fear breaking or wreaking it – which is why I wanted to see a maintenance manual and so on just to confirm there is nothing specific with the Wahoo that needs to be done (other than what would take place on a wheel).
I could give you more info in a week once I get mine, but it should be straight forward. Probably need a couple of tools to help remove the current one if it is like a standard wheel (google “swap cog set”). Maybe Ray could add a note to his review as I suspect a number of people will run into this. Shame on wahoo fitness for not including this. There are actually numerous advantages to this direct drive system over a traditional friction based trainer but you have stumbled onto one of the draw backs especially if you have multiple bikes.
@BBach, you asked the exact Q I was pondering.
I currently have all 9 speed groups (road and MTB) and am upgrading my RR bike to Shimano 9k (11 speed). Wish they would offer a cassette option…
I personally use a 9spd cassette on my KICKR, It works just like any other wheel would. For a while I didn’t even bother replacing the Cassette since i nearly always use ERG mode (no gear shifting required). It wasn’t until I wanted to use the simulation modes and shift gears that I swapped the cassette.
Can’t tell from the picture, but if the Kickr 10 speed cassette is all loose cogs, you can replace the spacers with 9 speed ones (possibly from an old worn out cassette- everyone keeps those, right?) and leave a gear off and you’ll be fine.
I’ve just set up my Kickr last night and have only had time (and physical ability — getting over hamstring pull) to do some pedaling. Very smooth without that rubbery feel of tire on trainer; not loud in my torture chamber at all. Unfortunately, I tried to find that erg power control setting in the biking prefs page in Wahoo fitness app on my ipod touch 5th gen — does not exist from what I can tell, so leads me to believe that power control via BT is not possible on this ipod. It pairs and can read the Kickr power sensor no problem. Can someone please corroborate this as well? Thanks in advance.
Thanks for the reply. I am able to pair the Kickr power sensor fine on the ipod touch (5th gen). In the workout settings (Biking Prefs), when I scroll all the way down the last entries I have are “Simple Power” and “Bike Power” but no KICKR option (like Ray’s pic above). I took screenshots, if you want me to send them to you just leave me your email. btw, I don’t necessarily want these comments to be Wahoo’s support site but also thought people might be interested in a cheap way to get erg control w/ ipod (instead of ipad/MacBook).
I’m good with information sharing here, assuming the goal/info benefits others. As Murray noted, if for some reason it crosses a line I haven’t yet defined, I’ll take action.
But, I think I’ve only ever deleted one or two comments on the blog (non-spam anyway), and that was purely for personal attacks.
Ok, ride #2 and I can’t seem to figure out what’s going on. The power output seems ok, I think. But the speed/distance is just off. I’m coming from riding a LeMond Revolution and I am very used to that power curve. It came really close to my outside ride metrics in terms of power and speed.
Tonight, I did a spin down test and then (during my warm up) tried SIM mode. I selected TT bike and started my warm up. It seemed as though there was very little resistance and before I knew it, I was spinning out my 50/11 at 130W. Que?! So then I switched to Level 0. It seemed like the power curve was pretty steep while geared at 50/21, but the speed indicated for the power that I was putting out was low. 22mph at 316W. Which would normally be around 24.5mph.
The only thing wrong that I can see is that you’re not using the LeMond Revolution any longer. That is usually the cause of poor indoor trainer performance.
“Perhaps because with the exception of the LeMond Revolution Pro, most trainers for me fall into two categories: Feels fine, or feels sucky. The Wahoo KICKR falls into the ‘feels fine’ category. Admittedly, at the upper end of that. The LeMond revolution is the only trainer that I say ‘Yes, I FEEL that!’.”
I have the same question Damon and no one seems to want to answer this. It’s kind of hard to fathom. Yet in ‘sim’ mode, the Wahoo app clearly has the drag factors (C and Crr) entered in a fixed way. Why can’t these be changed?
Sorry for not responding originally, didn’t see it until you posted today Sean.
We are planning on adding the capability to enter all the parameters around drag, but didn’t want to just throw something in. We want to make it intuitive and allow people to understand the parameters and be able to get the KICKR setup to accurately match your outdoor resistance curve. With air density, Coefficient of rolling resistance, coefficient of wind resistance and frontal area all involved it needs a bit of explaining. The compromise for getting the App launched was a few different default bike types. We’re working on some updates now with an eye to having a solid update ready for the fall trainer season.
Can I link to the KICKR to get speed only via ANT+?
The reason I ask is that I have a Quarq. I use the Quarq as my gold standard power meter because I can use it outside and use the information to race. Therefore, I want to pair my Garmin to my Quarq for power and my Garmin to the KCKR for speed. Then I can use my iPhone, iPad or Trainerroad to control the resistance on the KCKR.
As an FYI to others I am measuring about 10 watts different between my Quarq and KCKR; within the margin that I would expect. But enough different that I want to upload the information from my Quarq so I don’t have any inconsistency between power meters.
No, it’s currently being delivered via the ANT+ power profile, which is including the speed component (just like a PowerTap hub actually).
It’s funny though, your use case is something I had pondered, and also thought it would be nice if the unit were to broadcast a plain-jane ANT+ speed sensor stream.
Since you are looking at Interest, DCRainmaker, I will express mine to pass along.
I want to do this exact same thing with my SRM. I want to use my iPod/iPhone or Trainer Road to control the KICKR, but want to get power/cadence from my SRM and speed from the KICKR. In the Lemond Revolution, I hooked a speed sensor to the Lemond since it has a built in magnet in the *wheel*. I dont think KICKR has that and the opening between the wheel and the bar are too narrow to put a magnet on it.
In addition, I am finding ~15 watts difference in power between the SRM and the KICKR. As you do with the quarq, I use my SRM as my gold standard and consistency across all my workouts. I want to grab speed from the KICKR via ANT+ though.
The power curve is completely different as well – the SRM is much noisier than the kickr – as if the kickr is smoothing it in some way. FWIW, this is the same thing I found with the PowerBeam pro.
I can pair to TR and to the Wahoo app just fine, but can’t for KinoMap. I have the latest version, and try to pair to the Wahoo, but it just searches indefinitely. This is the case on iPhone, iPad, etc. Have you had any such problems?
If you’re having problems where Kinomap won’t connect, it’s likely because one of the other apps is still connected (even in background). To remedy, go and kill (as in, using the little ‘x’) any other running apps that would connect to the KICKR (such as the Wahoo Fitness or Wahoo Utility Apps), on any iPhones or iPads. That should do it. Failing that, go ahead and turn on/off Bluetooth on your iPhone(s).
Because Bluetooth Smart is 1:1 only, once one app on one device makes that KICKR connection, it blocks others.
I got caught by this all the time in my testing, mostly due to multiple Bluetooth Smart Devices (iPad/iPhone/Mac) all making connections that I’d forget about.
Picked my KICKR up from FedEx last night and thanks to your reviews Ray, had my bike on it in about 10 minutes. I thought it came with 9 spd so I put my 9 spd bike on and discovered all the skipping; then counted gears, took the 9 bike off and put my SRAM 10 bike on and it married up just fine to the Shimano 10 on the KICKR, no adjustment needed! Paired to Wahoo app ok (thanks again to your reviews) and then to Kinomap, where I finally discovered that I had to unpair it from the Wahoo and other apps before Kinomap could find the KICKR. With that done I took a Kinomap ride called “Prologue tour de Romandie Lausanne…” where I promptly got left in the dust. Then found a local ride on Kinomap and tried it. Worked great, I got off my bike sweat’n like a dog, feeling like I had been on the road for 45 min (at least as close as you can get in a living room with no wind and sun etc.).
All that said, I love my KICKR! I know a lot of you trainer hounds have used a variety of trainers, but I’ve tested a few and ridden some during bike fits, but hated all of them, so never bought one because I was afraid it would just gather dust in the corner. My KICKR issues have been with apps (from everybody) with poor or no instructions or poor functionality! Your reviews saved me tons of time setting up and pairing!!!!!!!! To me it feels 90% like a road ride minus weather. Sound is not too loud. Kind of stiff because you can’t lean from side to side for turns or standing up; but I like the solid base for a trainer, feels secure. Also noticed that standing up felt strange, because the trainer doesn’t move along with you as you accelerate. All in all the hardware is great, but all the apps need improved! Wish all the apps had a disconnect option for moving between apps!
Ray, Wahoo and all the app developers should hire you to do instruction videos on how to use their products! You’ve been a great help! THANKS!
When the snow flies, the rain pours and the wind rages, I’ll be on my KICKR!
I think you might see some more clarity in this day in the next day or two. I talked with Clever and the backlog may not be as bad as the e-mail implies (they were being safe while awaiting more information from Wahoo).
I placed my order January 24th. Still no word on when it will ship from Clever Training. That said, I think they are doing the best they can and respond to emails pretty quick.
They got in their first shipments from Wahoo last Thursday, and then were shipped out from there. Last I checked, the plan was to continue getting weekly shipments in from them.
I know if you e-mail Clever, they’ll be able to give you a pretty good estimate of exactly when. I’ll double-check with them on the 5-7 days though. Perhaps they just got a bigger than expected shipment this past week.
The 5-7 days is indeed accurate. A large shipment (what I’d classify as a crap-ton) of KICKR’s was in theory sent from Wahoo yesterday to them. They are pending a tracking number from Wahoo, but assuming it was sent out to Clever Training and arrives early next week, it’ll easily cover the units remaining on backorder, plus availability for new units.
To follow up – I swapped out the stock 10 cassette and put on a sram 9. It works perfectly. I have ridden it 3 times and it has been excellent. No issues with pairing and getting the app going. Very happy with it thus far.
I haven’t had a chance to really use my KICKR yet, but that will change in the coming days. While I fully expected to keep the KICKR indoors only and use a separate trainer (like a KK Road Machine) for use warming up before races, the KICKR is so compact, won’t chew up my expensive sew-ups and is so compact that I’m really thinking that I want to use it on the road as well. The ability to pre-create a warm-up routine and run it in ERG mode seems like a no-brainer!
So that that said, I understand that there may be plans for a battery or car adapter option. What is the status on that? And in the meantime, are there any third-party solutions for outdoor use?
Assuming it is a standard issue wall wart transformer, you can by 12V to 110V inverters that plug into a cigarette lighter at any Walmart or similar store.
The power output the converter is 12v 5A, so you need this cord link to radioshack.com
with this tip (type L, OD 5mm, ID 2.1MM) Can Wahoo Murray confirm that plug size? link to radioshack.com
And then you need an iPhone app that does interval ERG workouts for the KICKR, which is my app!
Thanks for that info. I figured the KICKR must draw a lot of current, so it does not surprise me that a heavy duty car adapter is needed.
While I imagine car batteries vary in terms of capacity, does anyone have a sense for how long on average one could run their KICKR without draining the battery?
I am a little confused though by the second piece that you linked to. It would seem that either the first piece would plug directly into the KICKR’s power brick or you would need something that plugs into the adapter and then provides a female “socket” for the KICKR’s power cable prongs to plug into.
Update/Edit: The below adapter was confirmed by a reader to NOT work with the KICKR. The plug is just a touch bit different.
I reached out to the Wahoo team on this. They ordered a $9 converter (link to amazon.com) that they believe MIGHT work off of Amazon to test, but I’d wait until I get confirmation from them that it actually works. If so, I’ll buy one as well and add some portions about it on the review.
Again, just hang tight until they’re 100% it does work (the model that they bought). I’d hate for folks to find out it doesn’t.
Just to add on Rays comments, We will confirm the quality of a few options and post some information on our website.
At 100% break, the KICKR uses about 5Amps, but most of the time you will be around the 2Amps area. (Car headlights use about 10Amps).
You car shouldn’t have any issue running the KICKR for many hours without issues, we are also looking at a couple small 12V lead acid battery options (about $20) that should be able to drive the KICKR for about 4-5hrs between charge.
The two radioshack items are a) a DC car power accessory with a place on the end for a tip that fits the actual electronics you are trying to power and b) that tip, which I’m thinking is type L, outer diameter 5mm, inner diameter 2.1mm, but I’m not entirely sure.
The brick that comes with the trainer converts AC to 12V DC, and as Murray notes the car supplies plenty of amps at 12V so there is no need to convert anything; you just need the right plug on the end of the cord.
Has anyone been successful in setting up the KICKR with an IPad 4? I spent the last 4 hours trying to replicate the setup here, but almost none of the screens or functions are showing. I can get the Wahoo Fitness App to recognize the unit and get speed, but that’s it. Support for the IPad seems to be non-existent on-line.
Thanks all for the support, I really appreciate it! And yup, I’m happy that Clever honored the initial price for everyone before Wahoo raised it. They’re good folks like that.
Ray – thanks for the coverage you’ve given this product, especially this review. I noted in the unboxing that you posted dimensions of the box – thanks for that.
Two questions:
1. Is there also a shipping weight you can provide? I understand the unit is 46 pounds, and can guess from there but am hoping there’s an actual number available. Every page I’ve come across doesn’t have these important pieces of info.
2. The dimensions you posted are height x width x depth right?
For the KICKR making its way diagonally across the country to me, UPS shows a shipping weight of 55 lbs. That may be accurate, or merely rounded up to the nearest five pounds.
I’m pretty similar to Neal. The shipping label on my exterior box shows 50 pounds. In my experience with shipping carriers and weights of this nature (I often ship servers), as long as you’re +/- a few pounds they’ll be fine (if you’re creating the UPS label).
Does iMobileIntervals allow creating a workout at a specific wattage as opposed to a Coogan’s levels? I do not have a Mac so cannot use TrainerRoad. Does the Wahoo app allow you to do this in Erg mode?
iMobileIntervals sets the ERG watts according to the Coggan zones only. If you only want to dial the trainer to an exact watts, you want to use the Wahoo app (which in comparison has no capability to run an interval workout and change the ERG watts in a timed manner).
If the ERG watts calculated by iMobileIntervals for a particular zone isn’t working for you, you can easily set an offset (+-50 watts in 10 watt increments) during your workout to adjust your effort.
Thanks for the information but that seems like a huge range. For example, L5 can be 106% to 120%, but repeated efforts at 106% to 108% for 2 plus minutes is doable but not at 118% to 120%.
I assume setting exact watts is possible in TrainerRoad, meaning I must wait for the Ant+ compatibility because I have a PC.
Are you the same Ransom that posted the Sufferfest workouts on iMobileIntervals? I was actually looking to use the Kickr specifically for those workouts. How well does the Coogan zones work as opposed to using a Computrainer where you can create an erg file with specific wattages?
Yes I am. I think the sufferfest workouts work well in a zone based workout compared to a specific %ftp. The key is that you can easily adjust an offset if is too hard or too easy.
I built an ERG file importer on the imobileintervals site and used that to import the sufferfest erg workouts. This has no doubt resulted in some slight changes to the workouts, as the importer analyzes the absolute watts compared to the use’s ftp, or uses the %ftp in the file to assign a zone.
Meanwhile, when you run the imported workout on the KICKR, the app assigns the midpoint watts for the zone as the ERG watts. If the original %ftp is at the edge of the zone, the iMobileIntervals version will have shifted it to the middle.
iMobileIntervals uses the 4a/4b zones for LT and super-LT, which are quite narrow, so that shouldn’t get too messed up. But you are right to point to L5 as the most problematic. There is a big difference between a 106% L5 and a 114% L5, which is what you get for L5 in my app.
On the plus side, you get more info than you would with just straight % ftp. The app will display the power range for L5 as the target watts: e.g. 297 – 336, but the ERG mode will make you make 113% = 316. And if you want to do 306 or 296 instead, you just scroll the erg offset picker wheel one or two clicks.
I just took a look through the sufferfest mrc files, and I note that about half the workouts have L5 all at 114%, but the other half bounce around between 108, 114 and 118%. So This might stand for a bit of a change in the way the app works. Specifically, I think I can add another database field for the %ftp for imported ERG files that can drive the trainer at a non-zone-centered value. This’ll need an app update, but one is coming soon, with some other interesting changes.
The thing I’m about to work on now is fetching structured workouts from Garmin Connect directly to the app. They use a %ftp system there, so the above issue needs to be dealt with for that as well.
BTW if anyone has ERG or MRC files that they want to use with the KICKR, the ERG file importer is available to any logged-in iMobileIntervals user, on the website: link to imobileintervals.com
One other note about zone-based erg workouts on the KICKR with iMobileIntervals: for zones 6 (sub maximal) and 7 (maximal) there is no max percent, so we can’t take an average and use that. instead, iMobileIntervals shifts into fixed resistance mode in those zones, allowing you to change gears if you want more or less resistance at the effort. Also, in the settings there is a place to specify the resistance levels in these two zones. (likewise, zone 1 is set to resistance level 0, so that you can ride at whatever wattage you want).
To update this thread with the latest info, the app now supports exact watts per interval (like Computrainer ERG) or % of FTP (Computrainer MRC) in addition to now having a form to import ERG and MRC files, and support for Garmin Connect workouts with ERG mode and the Garmin Connect calendar.
Got my KICKR from the local bike shop yesterday. My first impressions were pretty frustrating. With my iPhone 5, the power numbers kept dropping out. Thought I must be getting interference. It would lose connection for a few seconds ever few seconds. Couldn’t even keep a connection long enough to calibrate. I was using the WF app. I shut down my phone, restarted it, and everything worked like a charm. After proper calibration of the KICKR and my SRM, power numbers were within 1% at 200 and 250 watts but when the KICKR was set to 150watts, my SRM was showing 139. I think the KICKR also does some smoothing as it didn’t jump around nearly as much as my SRM numbers.
This might be the fatal flaw with blue tooth smart, and Ray touched on it in the review. BT is 1-to-1. If you have two apps or devices trying to connect at the same time, you likely get unpredictable results. I ran into this with a BT HR strap. This is really a problem with BT and its implementation. At least on the phone, there doesn’t seem to be any way to know what app has control, if any. There needs to be a way for the current app to take control.
Looking forward to seeing how the ANT+ installation deals with this. It doesn’t make sense to have two apps trying to control it at the same time. one set in ERG mode at 150 watts, the other app set at 250 watts. Who wins? It does make a ton of sense to have multiple apps/devices reading the data at the same time. I want my Edge to be able to pick up the power and speed numbers but leave the control to my phone.
KICKR arrived today and mechanically it is just a beast. In 2013 you just don’t see many things with this type of build quality. Have been setting it up to work with my 24 year old Marinoni road bike. In theory putting a 4.5mm spacer (available at the LBS) behind the 7spd cassette is all that’s required to make it work (along with some derailleur adjustment). It’s actually very easy to spread the 126mm steel frame to fit the KICKR in the 130mm configuration. Fitting a new chain for the changed gearing (the Marinoni is fitted with a Dura-ace freewheel so couldn’t use the same gears). Now just waiting for Golden Cheetah to release the build which supports KICKR as I don’t have any recent iOS devices available.
Speaking of Golden Cheatah (and other thord party apps), has Wahoo released the resistance API to the third party developers yet for those of us with Windows and ANT+ devices? I haven’t even taken my KICKR out of the box and have kidded about it being a door stopper, but now I’m seriously thinking of selling it as I cannot have a $1k piece of kit just laying around. Third party app support was supposed to be a key selling point of the KICKR. I hope they live up to the hype and get their API act together ASAP.
I just received my KICKR trainer and have tested it on a few rides. I have not experienced the same level of power accuracy that you have. I am comparing my KICKR power to my SRM. The differences are significant and the KICKR consistently measures much high power levels than the SRM. I calibrated them both at start and mid-ride. Mine has the latest and greatest firmware.
For example, on the last ride I did, the SRM recorded 197 NP and the KICK 209 NP ad the SRM recored 194 AP and KICKR 207 AP. If you look at every Lap, similar inconsistencies are shown. This part bums me out. I was hoping to use this to control my workouts in ERG mode (my own custom + trainer road) but with those huge differences, it will have me training in the wrong zones.
How do you know your SRM is accurate? This is on of the biggest problems with power and accuracy. It is very hard to know which is correct. My SRM and Kickr were nearly identical at 200 and 250 watts but off by about 12 watts at 150. More important than accuracy is consistency. Wonder if there is a way to specify a power curve, or at least an offset that would allow you to have the kickr numbers adjusted to match the SRM. There would also be a slight difference, probably 2 to 5 watts, from the crank measurement to the rear cog measurement but that would make what you are seeing even worse. They all say they are accurate within a certain percent but I bet if you used 10 different devices from the same manufacturer you would see way more than that in variation, especially after they have been out in the field for a while.
I agree that consistency is more important than accuracy and if it was a consistent difference, a simple offset would solve the problem. I have not done enough riding on it to know if it is consistent.
I will say that I have tested my PowerTap to my SRM on numerous occasions and the differences are negligible. I dont have a problem using either set and I dont worry about consistency between them.
It doesnt actually matter if the SRM is *right* or the KICKR is right since for me the SRM is my gold standard. I have 2-3 years of data using my SRM so I have consistent views across all workouts. Mixing KICKR watts in there would invalidate my data.
But, again, if consistent, a simple offset functionality would work just fine for me.
If the kickr itself doesn’t provide a fixed offset or curve option, it could very easily be implemented in software where the full interface is through the computer or phone. Sounds like a feature that could differentiate software packages. Wouldn’t help much if you are using your Garmin to log the data, though.
So lets say you are riding your bike with the SRM on the KICKR, can see the SRM watts showing 250 on the srm headunit, but the KICKR reporting 240 on the iPhone app. Providing you want to ride the values on the SRM, with an ERG workout using values normal to your FTP on the SRM, in ERG mode, the KICKR is going to be asking you to make 10 more watts than you want to. What you want to do is offset the ERG values being sent to the KICKR by -10.
In the current version of iMobileIntervals (link to imobileintervals.com) I have implemented an offset feature which allows you to offset the erg watts being sent to the KICKR (as provided by an interval workout). You can click the picker wheel to -10 and if the ERG file value is 240, it will send 230 to the KICKR and in the case above your SRM will show 240.
This feature is really for adjusting your day-to-day effort in an ERG workout, e.g. if you are fatigued. Its also uses 10 watt increments, though I can easily change this to, say, 5 watt steps.
However, it will be easy to implement a setting to permanently offset the erg value sent to the KICKR, and also add a switch to prefer powermeter watts for display and recorded data. Right now iMi shows and saves your KICKR watts to the tcx file, not your powermeter watts. I’ll make these changes for the next version.
Does that sound like it would resolve most of the problems with the watts descrepancy? It doesn’t solve the power curve difference (i.e. different difference at 150 watts vs 250 watts) but you would want to set the offset at the most critical spot (i.e. at lactate threshold).
It sounds like that would work for me. I will have to try it.
Actually, it is a +10 watts or so that I will need. In your example, the KICKR would be showing that I am doing 250 watts but my SRM will show that I am doing 235-240 watts.
I have done the spin down test on the KICKR several times – once at the start and a couple time after it warmed after 20 or 30 minutes.
I havent tried your app yet because I thought I read somewhere that it only can be based on Coggin Power ranges and that is not what I use — I use specific watt ranges for almost all my interval workouts – that is just the way I do it. So, I target a specific set of watts for specific intervals – not % of FTP ranges.
I didnt want to pay for the app and then found out I couldnt do it.
It’s a tuff area, power meters are REALLY hard to compare, just ask Ray.
We believe the KICKR is very accurate and more importantly, very consistent. We have tested it with precision dynamometers over a range of temperatures.
We understand that people have large amounts of data with existing power meters that they class as their gold standard. I don’t think its a argument on what one is more correct, we think they are both correct, in their own way.
Crank based power meters are always going to be very erratic, its why most people use a 4 second average. KICKR’s power is very smooth, this is mostly natural smoothing from the design of the system.
Personally, I keep track of two FTP values, one for indoors and one outdoors. I’ve always found that they are different even when I was using the same PowerTap meter. Lots of environmental and metal differences that effect your peak performance.
Trainerroad can connect to both your SRM and KICKR, this allows your to still record and compare your SRM power. If you find the KICKR is always a few percent lower, you just need to bump up the % target so you are hitting the desired values with your SRM.
We have also discussed the ability to feed the external power values directly into the KICKR control system (via ANT+) that will allow it to adjust the resistance so the external power meter matches your target power. We will keep you posted on our direction.
KICKR erg mode fits so well with the interval training via iPhone that iMi makes possible– I’m trying to do whatever I can to make the app work will with athletes’ existing ways of doing things. To that end I have an erg file importer on the site, that will convert the erg file into intervals, and in doing so it does two things:
1) it looks at your ftp in your website account and figures out what Coggan zone the watts or ftp percent in the erg file is
2) it saves the ftp percent for that interval.
Item #2 is something I just put in this week. The Appstore version of the app currently sends an ERG watts to the KICKR that is the median value for the Coggan zone. My current dev version of the app changes this for workouts that have been created from an ERG file import. If the workout contains an ERG ftp percentage value, it will use that instead.
I’m going to take this two steps further: I’m going to add the ability to edit this erg watts field directly on the website, so that one can make a specific ftp value for the interval, and I’m going to add a setting in the workout to change from ftp percentage to absolute watts, just like in ERG files.
This is probably a good time to ask around for beta testers. Anyone who has used ERG files in the past and wants to keep using them with the KICKR, email me at ransom@ransomweaver.com and I’ll set you up with a beta version that has all these attributes.
Does anyone elses Kickr make an intermittent scratching noise that increases as the speed increases? This is different than the whining sound that the trainer makes. It sounds almost as if something is rubbing inside the flywheel housing.
Anyone else hearing anything other than the whine. I do not hear it on DC Rainmaker’s video.
Hi Sonny
Yes my KICKR is doing that now. First I thought it was my bike making the scratching, popping noise but after 3 trips to the bike shop I figured it’s coming from the trainer flywheel or belt wheel.
Did u get support on it yet? I’m awaiting to hear back from Wahoo Fitness now.
Hi Ray
Do you need to use the Wahoo Fitness app to use the Kickr?
I did a calibration via a Ipad mini with the wahoo fitness utility spindown time 15.236 temp 15.5 offset 0
then i turned off the bluetooth from the Ipad.
I have tried to use as a stand alone unit with PerfPro and TrainerRoad (non bluetooth) and the resistance ramped in 10 seconds to the point I could not turn the crank.
Then I tried to use the Wahoo Fitness app to control the unit (computer off)
Level 0-9 (cant turn the crank in about 10 seconds; watts = 5 to 0
Resistance i can only turn the crank < 30% any higher i can not turn the crank) ; watts = 100 and less
Erg can only turn the cranks 100w or less ; any more than 100 watts and i cant turn the cranks (standing on peddels)
did not try sim
Think Trainer Road only works with Bluetooth 4.0 on Mac with Lion and more recent at this point. If you email customer support they will send you a link to a version which supports the KICKR. Plan on giving Trainer Road on Mac a try tomorrow. ANT+ support can’t come soon enough as my access to the hardware/software which works with KICKR right now is very limited.
Trainer road only currently supports KICKR via BT4.0 on a Mac. ANT+ will follow in the next few weeks.
Sounds like you are having some unusual issues with your KICKR resistance. I suggest that you contact Wahoo (support.wahoofitness.com) and someone will be able to troubleshoot the issue with you.
Looks like a great product for someone who trains indoors.
Will this pair seamlessly with a Garmin Edge 500 and a Garmin speed/cadence sensor as well. Resistance cannot be controlled from the Edge as of now but the device will be able to read all the data from a workout, right?
Speed is an issue I understand since there is going to be no wheel magnet. And resistance of the Kickr will need to be controlled from an iphone or iPad?
The KICKR conforms to the standard ANT+ Power profile, much like any other wheel based power meter. You will get Speed and Power via ANT+ on your Garmin. If you want cadence, you will need to use a Cadence (or Speed and Cadence) sensor.
Like you said, you will need a device to control the resistance. At this time, thats a iOS device or Mac with BT4.0. The the next few weeks we will release ANT+ control, this will open the resistance control up to any Mac or Windows machine with a ANT+ dongle.
“The the next few weeks we will release ANT+ control, this will open the resistance control up to any Mac or Windows machine with a ANT+ dongle.”
Few weeks? So much for end of month. I’ll be training outside soon. Anyone want to buy an unopened KICKR? I’ll buy one next off-season when the software catches up the to hardware.
Sorry you can’t hold out, we released the firmware and updated API to developers at the end of last week, for some the update is only minor and shouldn’t take long. Others will require a bit more development. We are all working around the clock to bring software updates to everyone as quick as we can.
Tom
Unable to send you a message on Slow twitch (although I got yours). Can you share ur email ID? Sorry Ray but had no choice other than posting here.
What should we expect as an ETA for the Strava segments app? Seems like a dev version is available that Ray is using. I’d really like to ride a few key segments for some upcoming races, and it’s darn cold here in New England.
We have had a few issues with the quality of elevation data that has made me feel uncomfortable in releasing the app. The problem is that a lot of the segments on Strava have elevation data from GPS devices that provide poor elevation data (eg iPhone).
For example, the local climb here in Brisbane is between 4-8% grade, it never drops bellow 3-4% the entire climb, but if you look at the segment elevation on Strava it has sections that are negative 10%.
We have been discussing this issue with Strava for nearly 12 months and they have already started correctly elevation data from crowd sourcing the elevation from quality barometer products (eg. Garmin Edge 800).
I wouldn’t like to lock in a release date yet, but it is something we are excited to get completed and we have already decided to remove a couple features so we can get the first version out ASAP. Realistically, its going to be at least 6 weeks before we would have a app released in the app store, but I might put a call out sooner for some beta testers.
Murray, I’d be more than happy to do some beta work for you on that. No issues putting up with some bugs on my side. I’m racing AmZof in about 8 weeks, and would love to get some quality time with the course sooner than later.
Anybody out there who has no workout clock in kickr control mode in the Wahoo fitness app? I show no clock in level, resistance, erg or sim. Thus, I have to toggle back and forth during a workout to control power and see workout time.
Running most recent app version on iPhone 4S, have deleted and reinstalled app twice. No change. Also been back and forth with wahoo support to no avail. Anybody else have this / have ideas? Maybe ill just hit up i mobile intervals…Thanks….
3.5inch devices (iPhone 4/4S) don’t have a workout time on the KICKR page, only the iPhone 5 version does.
The 3.5″ screen is really tight for space. I will see if we can tweak it a little to fit in time. I personally just flick between Basic Power and KICKR, otherwise you miss out on HR as well.
Thanks for the reply. It seems not everybody at wahoo is aware that the 4s doesn’t have the workout time on the control page. Glad you cleared it up…was starting to think I was crazy. Would love if you can tweak it to fit, but I’ll live either way. Love the kickr!!
Tried ordering on Clever Training but that didn’t go we’ll. big screw up with the order and credit card meant I got charged 4 times for the transaction and am still trying to get that reversed.
Is there anywhere else you would recommend ordering from?
I’m from India and will be in the IS till end May so am looking for delivery before then.
Thanks
Arvind
First up, thanks for the support. Sorry for the tangle. Typically if international folks order online and try to send to a different country than their credit card, Clever will manually validate the order first. This is done for fraud reasons, and is pretty much the standard within the US for any online orders.
Has it been more than a day? If so, I’ll get in touch with the Clever folks and double-check.
Thanks Ray.
Yes its been 2 days now. Although the charge hasn’t appeared on my card, my credit limit is blocked completely primarily due to the quadruple amount!
That hubdock looks very cool, though I’m curious about hub stiffness and even if it really is a better mousetrap, it would have to displace existing wheels. It would definitely make sense as an OEM wheel, particularly on less expensive bikes where the rider isn’t as worried about performance, swapping wheels, etc.
With that said, I find it ridiculously easy to get my bike in and out of the KICKR – I find it faster even than my old Kurt Kinetic trainer, since you eliminate the step of tightening the drum against the tire. And the fact that tires don’t get chewed up is a VERY nice bonus! I actually had a training wheel/tire that I used with the Kurt and that of course just added more time. This IMHO is simply not an area in need of improvement – it’s already an A+ as-is.
Yes, I agree the KICKR is great as is, but the HubDock would be great for racing and wheel changes or quicker repairs of ‘drive wheel’ flats – my bike is a FWD MBB recumbent.
If the HubDock works as well as it seems and requires little to no modification so I can use it on my Cruzbike Vendetta, then I would like to see it work on the KICKR too.
If I had a bike with a HubDock with a 9 speed cassette and my Vendetta with its 10 speed cassette I wouldn’t have to change the cassette on the KICKR if it had a ‘HubDock’ option…
I have to agree this solution has limited appeal. It always amazes me how many of my friends are afraid to change their back wheel. A trainer like the KICKR is great because it forces them to actually do it, and get proficient at it. It really isn’t that hard! This includes friends from back of the pack age grouper to podium Ironman finishers. I don’t need another complexity on the bike that will certainly add weight and increase maintenance, while not really providing much benefit.
Not to sidetrack this too much further, I suspect that would depend on whether or not you have dropouts that go down, or back. In the case of my TT bike, they are rear-exiting, which means the whole thing is a bit more finicky than a non-rear existing unit (ones that just drop straight down).
The unit weighs the same as most hubs.
Now, one thing I didn’t notice previously was the price. Holy crap-balls, $379? I was thinking sub-$90. Definitely not worth $379 for me. Yikes.
Yep, the price is too high and also part of the reason why the Cinelli BiValent hub failed to catch on from the 60s. I think they need to cut the price at least in half to get any market traction.
I’m done commenting about the HubDock. Mostly wanted to get it on Ray’s radar in case he had an opportunity to explore one since he writes the best reviews on the net and I think it is a good idea if they can get the cost down.
Got my tracking number for my KICKR today so hopefully my Vendetta and KICKR will both arrive at about the same time so I can get back to some serious training.
The HubDock looks pretty cool. They are way off on funding the project though – I mean, less than $6k raised out of a $47k raise with 6 weeks to go. Honestly, I love the idea though. It just needs to be bought by someone better capitalized to make this a new standard. Maybe Zipp? Mavic?
I’m not sure that it would make sense for Wahoo to support HubDock though – at least not yet. Seems to me they need to focus on building out the third party ecosystem of software before worrying about another hardware change to accommodate 100 early adopters of the HubDock.
Have been trying KICKR using Golden Cheetah v3 development build. Still trying to figure things out, but feel at this time I need to test the KICKR itself to make sure the basic functionality is working by using the Wahoo app. I don’t have an iOS device current enough to run their software, but can possibly borrow someones iPad which is about a year old and I’m guessing 1 version back (still with classic connector-sorry don’t know Apple’s model numbering scheme). Will the Wahoo software run on the iPad assuming it has BT Smart?
Does anyone feel like Trainer Road does not adjust resistance enough? I did a work out last night and I needed to bring my cadence up to 120 to get to 270 watts. I’d greatly prefer to be at a 90 with more resistance.
I’m having the opposite problem. Even if I dial the target power way down to 60 watts or less, resistance stays really high. I may be a weenie, but I’m not THAT much of a weenie. Along with this, the flywheel seems to be running on the hot side, which is probably consistent with the amount of resistance I’m experiencing. What are others’ experiences with the flywheel and its housing heating up? What is normal?
I also noticed that there is no calibrate button on TR, as shown in their (TR) video on using the KICKR.
Other info: I’m using TR on a 2011 MacBook Pro recently updated to Mountain Lion, with an Iogear GBU521 Bluetooth adapter.
Neal- Within TR do you get the ‘Calib Ready’ button that I note in the review? And when you do get it, do you let it coast all the way down (zero pedaling)?
For me, I just let it go from 23MPH to absolute zero. Technically it only needs till about 11MPH, but since I’m usually calibrating other PM’s too, it makes it easy.
No, I don’t get the ‘Calib Ready’ button. I’m experiencing the same issue that Mike reported up in reply #145. I just tried a TR workout and resistance ramps up really fast, to the point where pedaling is impossible, even though power never exceeds 30 watts. Given the resistance, I don’t think it’s possible to get up to speed to the point were the Calib Ready button shows up.
Mike noted that he didn’t have Bluetooth 4.0, so it may be that my BT 4.0 isn’t working properly. I’ll try troubleshooting from that angle.
Doesn’t sound like you have it setup correctly. Make sure you have the latest beta (1.4.0 right now) and that it is paired as a KICKR under the electronic trainers. Once in ERG mode, the watts should be the same regardless of your cadence. From your description it sounds like its in Level mode (default), this basically works like a regular trainer.
Neal,
Drop us a line at Wahoo Support, Megan or Brad will be able to trouble shoot for you.
Sorry to clog up this area with yet more when will this be available internationally but it’d be great to have some clarity on this.
Additionally its probably worth adding to the cons list, given Clever Training aren’t shipping outside the US now (not sure if this is pressure from Wahoo or a cost decision). Wahoo aren’t either (obviously). So I guess I am KICKRless, very disappointed as was wanting to keep my cycling form post clocks change next week here (Sydney). The way people drive here its not really safe to ride at night, and weekend riding isn’t really enough.
We are working really hard to get KICKR around the world. Shipping is the easy part, its getting service centres and warranty setup. As you can imagine, its not really possible to ship a KICKR back and forth from the USA if something goes wrong.
We are really pushing for availability in Europe and since I live in Brisbane, I am also driving really hard to get a Distributor setup in Australia. Ideally we would love to be setup in Oz before winter, but we still don’t have any final deals in place.
We promise, as soon as we know we will let EVERYONE know on FB, Twitter and Via Ray’s blog.
Tried the KICKR today using the Wahoo app on a borrowed iPad. Most everything seemed to work just fine. Tried all the modes except simulation as the iPad was only on a very short term loan. ERG mode is awesome, but you really want to kick it in while you’ve got some cadence going.
Did find one bug in the spin-down test. If you’ve paired the Blue SC as a method of getting cadence, the app doesn’t see the KICKR reported speed. Don’t believe the app lets you setup the Blue SC as a cadence only sensor. Once it’s unpaired, the spin down test works as expected.
Forgot to mention that the Viiiiva HR strap also worked just fine with the Wahoo app. I’ve tried the Viiiiva in an Android based ANT+ environment, and it also worked like a champ.
Within the app, you can specify cadence and speed separately. I show it up above, but here’s the exact screenshot where you choose where each one comes from: link to dcrainmaker.com
Don’t worry, I’ve gotten tangled in that setting a few times myself. It’s a useful setting, I just sometimes forget to set it correctly when I’m swapping between inside/outside modes.
Were you able to get TrainerRoad to work on a Mac? I’m having absolutely no luck going that route and don’t have access to an iOS device. Also, how does your KICKR behave if you try riding it plugged in, but with no app controlling it? On mine the resistance starts at nil, but ramps up quickly to the point where I have to stand on the pedals. If I stop, within 10 seconds I can repeat the process. It behaves the same in TrainerRoad. If someone can confirm this is normal with it plugged in but with no apps controlling it, I’ll go in search of an iPad. I’m waiting on Wahoo Support to get back to me, but I’m not holding my breath.
Haven’t noticed that behavior on my unit. I’ll check it out tomorrow. Haven’t given Trainer Road a try yet. It’s on my list for the weekend. Was initially focused on trying out the Golden Cheetah 3 dev build, but haven’t gotten GC to work in a useful way yet. Given it’s open source SW, gotta figure people don’t get a chance to work on it like its a commercial enterprise so fully expect solid support to take a while. Once it’s there, GC training module should provide a good way to use KICKR as you can easily build your own custom workouts with an included wizard (which appear to generate simple text files in an easy to decipher format so it would be easy to build one up with a text editor as well).
The inconclusive results from trying GC was the reason I felt a need to test the KICKR hardware using the Wahoo app. Had to eliminate the possibility of an issue with the KICKR itself. If you’re questioning if your KICKR is OK, the Wahoo app will do that. I re-read the Wahoo utility part of this review just to better understand how to get the app setup as I have little experience with iOS.
With regard to the app itself… I have no plans to buy an iOS device just to run the Wahoo app as I expect we’ll see rapid support on numerous platforms once ANT+ is baked into the various apps out there. The Wahoo app is really designed for the iPhone and looks underwhelming on the large iPad display presenting an iPhone sized window in the middle. Wahoo would benefit from making a tablet app when you see the plethora of displays you can swipe between or display alternatives you can change within a single screen. All that data needs more visual real estate. Thought the UI for changing training modes was a bit out of place. Seems to only be visible on one screen at the end of many alternative screens you can display. Overall the app seems OK and gets the job done.
Larry – regarding the Wahoo Fitness app on an iPad. There is a button labeled, I belive, 2x that will expand the app display to fill the whole iPad screen. When you do this with some apps, the image doesn’t scale well and the 2x version looks unsharp and jaggy, but this is not the case with the Wahoo app. It scales well and is much easier to use in 2x mode.
Les,
Thanks for the info. I saw the 2x button and gave it a try, but was really after just seeing more info on the screen. Not being an iOS person, thought the apps would scale like Android apps when going to a bigger screen, but apparently Apple stuff doesn’t work that way and probably don’t have to due to the tighter control Apple has on their ecosystem. On Android you just don’t get a blown-up version of the phone app, but one where you actually see more information being presented. Developers probably write that way because the Android ecosystem encompasses many devices with differing resolutions. This is both a pro, but also a con as it makes supporting devices on Android a bunch harder than iOS. App response to differing size screens vary, and the best actually do a complete redesign of the UI when installed on a tablet, but even lesser “phone” apps don’t feel like a tiny app in the middle of the screen.
Ray and others
Do you have any suggestion/recommendation for capturing video, GPS location data and accurate elevation for use in Strava and Kinomap; for KICKR use.
I’m using an iPhone 5 now, but looking for something more accurate for creating virtual rides and Strava segment.
For the most part, Kinomap recommends the Contour GPS. I have a Contour GPS, and I’m not terribly impressed by it. I prefer to simply use a GoPro and then meld together the GPS file from a device like a Garmin/etc…. As long as you start and stop them at the same moment (starting at the same moment is more important than stopping), then you’re golden.
I must be super human. Finally got my Kickr, set it up via ant+ for read only mode and I’m outputting 2000+ watts without much trouble. This is obviously flawed as I doubt I can output that much at my peak. I’m hoping I can borrow a friends iPhone with bluetooth 4 and calibrate it (or Wahoo releases the ant+ control soon)and that’s the fix. I will say, this thing is rock solid as you said and it feels very smooth to ride compared to my fluid trainer, but it’s unfortunate that I can’t get an accurate power reading. So much for finding out what my FTP is.
Just to add, I borrowed an iPhone 5. Got it to connect to the Kickr, but no readouts whatsoever. Couldn’t control the kickr at all so couldn’t calibrate it. No speed or watts readout and erg or resistance mode didn’t do anything. Waiting to hear from Wahoo support, but I have a feeling this one is going to have to go in for some repairs.
My Kickr is also in need of repairs. I’m hoping it’s an update to the firmware and not a problem with the power meter strain gauge.
My problem, in a nutshell, are that the power readings from Kickr are not power readings. They are a straight multiple of measured speed. As a result, the apps/app modes that rely on power readings for sending resistance levels back to the Kickr don’t work. In the Wahoo Fitness app, that is primarily erg mode. In simulation mode with 0% slope, 0 wind resistance, power readings are probably one-third what they should be. The levels mode is essentially a variant of the simulation mode. Resistance mode works best in terms of being able to actually get an actual workout in. As I detail below, it still doesn’t produce meaningful numbers.
The following is part of what I sent to Wahoo Support. I’m using the Wahoo Fitness app on an iPad mini. I get similar behavior using TrainerRoad.
I spent 34 minutes trying various modes. I also did a spindown calibration after 15 minutes. After the calibration, Kickr still produced inconsistent power readings. For example, in resistance mode, when I reduce the resistance from, say, 40% to 25%, pedaling gets easier, yet Kickr’s power reading increases. Looking at the data in Garmin Connect, the thing that struck me is that power and speed are highly correlated — their charts looked almost identical, with the exception of power drops when I ease up on pedaling. Keep in mind that for a given level of perceived effort on my part I can increase speed by merely reducing resistance and shifting into higher gears (even then perceived effort falls). The result is speed increases and the power reading from Kickr also increases.
So, I got back on the Kickr, and did one minute at the following resistance levels: 30%, 35%, 40%, 25%, 20%, 15%, 10%, and 5%. Then I exported the data to Garmin and pulled the speed (in MPH) and power readings at the 30 second mark for each minute.
The intercept wasn’t significantly different from zero, so setting it equal to zero, I got Power = 3.1114 Speed; R-squared = 0.9999.
Again, I tried to keep perceived effort constant, though effort was actually less at the lower resistance levels, when power readings were higher.
So, my Kickr is NOT sending power. It is sending a multiple of speed, regardless of the actual resistance at those speeds. This hardly qualifies as a power meter. It also explains why the modes that are power based just don’t work.
I’m hoping this is a firmware problem. The nearly perfect linear correlation between power and speed indicates that might be the case.
Also, when I run the Kickr plugged in, but with not controlling app, it does not behave like other resistance trainers. Resistance ramps up incredibly fast, and as speed drops, so does the power reading. I have my touring bike on the Kickr, and after 15 seconds, I’m in the granny gear, standing on the pedals. This seems to also indicate that the Kickr is feeding a multiple of the speed back as power.
Wahoo Fitness (Brad) was able to trouble-shoot this back to a bad computer board. My Kickr wasn’t getting the signal from the power meter strain gauge. The Wahoo Utility app proved useful in diagnosing the problem. In any case, Wahoo is getting me set up with a fix.
I purchased off clevertraining, thanks for the coupon!
So far I love the kickr but I’m not enthralled by the software.
What I want is this: to be able to plan a workout – ie 8x 4 minute intervals @ 380w (not coggan levels, I want to choose the exact wattage), with 90 seconds rest between each @ 100w. I want the software to ramp resistance from 100 to 380 over 5 seconds so it’s not impossible to turn the cranks at the start of the interval.
I would have thought that sort of functionality would be most people’s #1 priority. It’s why I bought the kickr. I can’t see any way of doing this outside of trainer road (I want to use my ipad to control the kickr and trainer road doesn’t support that).
iMobileIntervals in beta can do this (specific wattage, not derived from Coggan), using workouts you build on the website or import from an erg file. Also I’ve just hooked up the ability to import Garmin Connect structured workouts, and you can create this kind of specific wattage workout there as well.
The app doesn’t ramp the power over 5 seconds, its more like 1-2 seconds, but Ive been doing some of the Sufferfest workouts that we feature on the iMobileIntervals.com website, which have some submaximal intervals that for me are ~ 360 watts for 2+ minutes, and I don’t find it a problem to get it turning over.
Got my Kickr via Clevertraining… all seems well and was pretty easy (my wife will be happy with no more tire residue). I am using with Trainer Road in simple ANT mode. My only available mac laptop is too old to handle Mountain Lion. Anyone know of a hack to enable BT 4.0 with a dongle on OS X 10.6?
Like lots of others, with much anticipation I got my KICKr via Clevertraining, looked amazing out of the box – as others have already said it is built to last.
Unfortunately since then it has been a massive disappointment. I can connect to both the iPad 4 and iPhone 5 and change the resistance using the Wahoo Fitness app but neither speed or power is registered when I ride (come up as “na” on the display) and Erg and Level mode have no effect on resistance.
I emailed Wahoo support 4 days ago and apart from a short message saying they would try and sort it I have heard nothing since. Now thinking about sending it back..
On the left side of the Kickr, on the top, you will find a plastic cap. If you remove that you will find a circuit board and two groups of wires. Each group of wires has a connector. Check to see if one of those connectors has come loose in shipping. That might explain the lack of speed or power data. I suspect that if you resolve that issue then your other ERG/Level issue will resolve itself. I had a similar issue, except mine involved something amiss with the circuit board. I had speed and power readings, but the Kickr’s circuit board wasn’t getting a reading from the flywheel, so it had the wrong offset value for making resistance adjustments.
If you do get power and speed readings, but still have the other issue, Wahoo will want you to use their Utility app to calibrate the Kickr. That app will give you an offset reading. If it’s zero, you have a problem similar to mine. Record that reading, along with the serial number of your Kickr, and email that to Wahoo Support. They can compare that to what it read at the factory, and it may help to narrow down the source of the problem. I think in the future, these issues will be able to be resolved by simply swapping out the circuit board, which is a lot easier than shipping a Kickr back for repairs.
Many thanks Neal, I appreciate your input. More interaction with Brad and it does indeed look like a problem with the electronics in the top cap, Brad has been helpful in sorting this out and they are now sending me a new one.
Wahoo! I received my KICKR this week after coming back from a tri training camp in Lanzarote. I’m guessing it’s one of the first in Europe, so thanks for the excellent review Ray and the heads up on Clever Training.
Here I was, thinking I was going to have to quit my job and join Sir Bradley on La Tour, kicking out 600+ Watts at a nice steady 122bpm… then I realised I needed to calibrate the KICKR. Doh!
Back on the day job since I’m pushing half that value and my quads are letting me know. The trainer feels great, really well made and very stable. The Wahoo Fitness and iMobileinterval apps have linked up instantly using my iPhone 5 and now I’m looking forward to getting stuck into training.
What I’m looking to do is set up a virtual Ironman Austria course so that I can ‘ride’ the route prior to the 30th June… Is there anything out there at present that will allow me to do this?
Not at present, it’s a bit of a gap in terms of functionality. In talking with the Kinomap guys, they are looking at offering a ‘videoless’ option to basically import in a GPS/GPX file from the course (those are easy to find, or failing that, make), and then have it control that without the video.
Honestly though, I think there’s a clear market for a simple app that just takes any known GPS/GPX file and controls the resistance according to the corrected elevation curve (I say corrected, because it resolves issues with bad GPS elevation data).
GPX/GPS import is something I played with in the Segments app and I just haven’t been happy with the results. The quality of elevation data is just not good enough.
I have been playing around with a bunch of different ways to correct the data with not much luck.
I think Strava has resolved the issue of Segments by aggregating all the good elevation data from many Garmin 800’s, but this doesn’t really help for generic GPS/GPX import.
In some cases its OK, but most cases it sucks. The major problem is alot of people want to do Climb, climbs tend to have switch-backs with large drop-offs that even the “corrected” elevation data looks really really bad.
For Example, the local climb in Brisbane is between 3-6% grade, although if you look at the “corrected” data it ranges from -10% to 26%…. and this climb doesn’t even have sharp switch-backs.
As always, Thanks for the incredible useful review/s Rainmaker…beyond insightful always.
Just placed my Kickr order with Clever training, thank you both for the discount!
When I move my KICKR around between workouts I hear a dinging sound, like something inside the housing is hitting the flywheel or something else. Is that normal?
Hmm…I don’t think so. One thing that may help is to pop the little plastic cap off the top of the portion that the flywheel is attached to, peer down in there with a flashlight and see if anything bonks around (metallic) when you wiggle the trainer.
Perhaps Murray or one of the Wahoo guys might have some ideas.
Yeah doesn’t sounds very normal to me. If you can get a video or some audio of the sound it would be great. Probably best to just email it directly to our support so one of the mechanical guys can get back to you. Im just a lonely software guy :-)
Update for those looking to use their trainer outdoors or otherwise away from an AC wall socket:
Don’t buy the car power adapter listed above from Amazon. I ignored the admonishment from Ray and Wahoo that the Amazon-linked adapter *might* work and went ahead and ordered one. Visually at first glance, it looks like it should plug into the KICKR just fine, but it’s just a *tiny* bit small in diameter (it’s a female connector) and won’t interface with the KICKR’s male connector. So save your money and hopefully we will soon find a car adapter that will do the job.
Thanks for the update/check. Actually odd now that I think of it, I never received my plug order…hmm odd. At any rate, I’ll update/edit that note/comment above and circle back to the Wahoo guys and see if they’ve had a chance to test anything out.
I received my kickr from Clever Training and notice that the back of the flywheel can rotate
a few degre and I was wondering if yours do the same thing. I wrote to wahoo and never got an answer so hope to have some feedback here.
We have a 24-48hr delay on some of support tickets at the moment but let me know if you still haven’t heard from anyone, its likely it got escalated to one of our mechanical engineers to respond.
Just wanted to share a comment on the KICKR used with Kinomap: you currently need to launch at least once the “Wahoo Utility” app and connect it to the KICKR. This step is required to create a Bluetooth ID for the KICKR in your iPad/iPhone so that the discovery can be successful in Kinomap Trainer.
I got a note that the PerfPro folks that they have implemented it into a beta version of PerfPro that they passed back to Wahoo to chew on. Once that’s complete, they’ll be making their beta public.
Wahoo engineering sent this message about the dinging I hear when moving my KICKER around. FYI my KICKR works fine.
“This is just the strain gauge lever arm tapping against the backstop and creating a sort of pinging noise. That is completely normal and nothing to be concerned about!
So, I’ve used the kickr just about every other day and worked fine in erg mode when using iphone 5. i signed up fort the Trainerroad and aside from having to use the beta version in order to find the kicker, I find that it keeps dropping the signal where the power just zeros out. i have my macbook pro right infront of my handlebars. So figure that’s probably 3.5 to 4feet from the kickr. I purchased mine on the 2nd of April. Would that have shipped with the latest firmware updates on it? I used the wahoo utility app and connected to the kickr but had no notification that it needed any kind of firmware update. i understand that it should pull up on the screen but i wasn’t sure how long the app has to be open before the message shows up on the screen. I did an hour and half workout last night and the signal between the kickr and MBP was dropped easily 20 times. I had to stop pedaling for and let the trainer stop before starting again and then the it pick the signal back up. Am I doing something wrong? I didn’t think that 3.5 to 4 feet is too far from the kicker. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Make sure your phone isn’t still connected. Turn it off just to be safe to test it out. I had similar issues just using the phone. Suspect it was apps running in the background trying to connect.
Just ordered a KICKR, heart rate monitor, and cadence sensor through CleverTraining through your link and coupon code to say thanks for your amazing work. Keep us up to date on software for the KICKR, I’m really looking forward to multiplayer options.
Question:
-Will I be able to use my garmin SC sensor to transmit cadence info to Trainerroad or the Wahoo App (using bluetooth dongle + ant+ dongle on my mac) I’m not concerned with speed but need to know if I have to buy the wahoo cadence sensor as well. I realize that I probably won’t be able to see the cadence if I’m using the wahoo app because the SC sensor doesn’t have bluetooth.
Yes, as noted you can use the Garmin GSC-10 to transmit over ANT+ and both the Wahoo App (using the ANT+ dongle on iPhone/iPad/iPod) or TrainerRoad (using the ANT+ stick), seamlessly blending them together.
I ran some tests against my P2M and what i’ve seen was not overly impressive. There seems to be a drift lasting “forever” after the initial 7-10min warmup phase. That’s also reflected by my HR which constantly decreases when doing longer sessions at steady watts. e.g. 2h in erg mode.
P2M was manually calibrated 3 times (calibration values in brackets). Resistence was set to 220W from 2-30min, 300W from 32-33 and 180W from 34-40.
Does the KICKR have an integrated temperature sensor which would allow to implement some sort of temperature compensation (like the p2m does) in future software updates?
Interesting. I actually spent a lot of time looking at temperature drift. Mostly because I had access to an app to tell me what the reported temperature was inside the KICKR and how that was impacting the calibration and accuracy. I didn’t see temperature drift beyond that initial 10-15ish minute period (typical of most PM’s).
I continue to have a negative cardiac drift on almost every trainer session i do (e.g. link to app.strava.com: HR drifts from ~132 to ~125 within 90mins despite a recalibration in between)
According to wahoo there is a temperature sensor in the KICKR, but it’s not used for any type of temperature compensation by the current firmware and there is no developer working on a solution. :-((
We do have several features we are looking at getting into the next firmware. Temperature compensation wasn’t high on the list because we haven’t seen it as an issue in our testing. Please get with Brad(support.wahoofitness.com) if you haven’t already. If yours is drifting with temperature, we can use you as a beta tester for the temperature compensation.
Thanks. I’m already in contact with him and on his list. Just wanted to update my comment from April that Temp Drift is (or can be) an issue with the KICKR.
1) Any idea if a Rohloff-equipped bike will work with this trainer? My bike does have a Rohloff tensioner…obviously not a derailleur but will take up chain slack in the same way.
2) Any idea if it will work with a front wheel drive recumbent such as a Cruzbike?
I’ll send these same questions to Wahoo but thought I would ask here…might be someone else wondering the same.
I have a KICKR and a Cruzbike Vendetta that I am currently assembling.
I’ve checked the Vendetta fit on the KICKR and it fits fine but because of the way the front triangle works on the Vendetta you have to remove the skewer each time.
I thought the skewer on the Vendetta was going to be longer than the one on the KICKR and have to use the bike’s skewer on the KICKR but they are the same length.
Additionally, the KICKR sits underneath the front end of the Vendetta (or other compatible Cruzbike) because of the MBB FWD orientation of the design.
The Cruzbike Quest with the SRAM Dual Drive doesn’t really work because of the dual drive although you may be able to put it on the KICKR but you wouldn’t have the 3 IGH gears and of course the KICKR 10-speed cassette would need to be replaced with a 9-speed.
The earlier Quests prior to the Dual Drive would work better, but again you would need a matching cassette on the KICKR.
Hi, does anyone have an update on when there will be a windows compatible ANT+ solution available – would love to be able to use Trainerroad but can’t justify buying a mac to be able to do so!
Also, any idea when there will be a solution where we can build our own course profile – build a route for future races etc. using data off the net? Being an expat living in Canada would love to be able to replicate old rides back in the UK – even if its not 100% accurate.
Both of these are touched on above but there’s no new updates.
PerfPro has it in beta today, though not publically available based on my understanding. Wahoo tweeted out yesterday that they were close to releasing the next firmware update which will then enable PerfPro to open up that beyond the closed beta.
TrainerRoad and others have the code as well (and have for almost a month now), but I’m not clear where they sit as far as incorporating it.
Has anyone that orderd a kickr from Clever Training last week (4/15 or so) gotten a shipping notice yet? I’m impatient after dropping a grand on a new toy…
It looks like it’s currently backordered until today, however, that may have been different when you ordered. I’ll poke and see what’s up. Thanks for the support!
I ordered on the 17th and haven’t heard anything. I tried to call today but they were already closed. Hopefully I’ll get a hold of them tomorrow and I’ll let you know what I find out.
I gave Clever Training a call and they said that they are expecting a new shipment from Wahoo in the next few days. They expect to start shipping out the next round next week.
Another question that came up on slowtwitch – will the USB dongle that comes with the fitbit one work or do I need to use the iogear dongle to control the kickr on a mac without built in bluetooth 4?
Any word on a updated list of Apps for the Kickr mine should be here Saturday and I really want to try the Strava app. After looking over the current app options the Kickr really slacks in the real life videos. Kinomap looks good but only if someones ridden the course and how would you ride a whole Ironman course and record it? Your iphone wont hold that much data. A simple google maps app would be great! Tacx and Computrainer have figured it out something tells me the brains at Wahoo should to. Also a muilt unit app would be very helpful for coach’s and indoor cycle classes. I really would like to stop using the computrainers for our class and switch them out with Kickrs but with the current apps its not possible. Wahoo please help me to retire these dinosaurs.
Hi IronmanRordog,
Just wanted to precise 2 things about Kinomap:
– I’ve just checked and there is a part of an IronMan in New Orleans, another in France’s Aix. And there are some triathlons too like the one posted earlier this week in the Sillicon Valley. You can use any camera like a GoPro along with any GPS file to record and upload your video.
– There’s a multiplayer mode in Kinomap that lets you “play” a video with up to 4 people (current limitation due to the Game Center), you can even voice chat with each other.
Hope that helps.
I saw this but it would be nice if you could just load up a previous workout .GPX or .TCX file. I am not so worried about the video but more with the elevation and grade.
I have been wanting the same thing as IronmanRordog. Simply being able to use GPX or TCX files would be great. At the end of the day, that does what is needed, enables me to reuse MY routes which most times, I do not care about the video of. Not to mention it opens up the use of many other routes where video is not available. To me this is a no brainer.
I would be thrilled if someone released an way to use the tcx or fit files, as you described, alongside a google streetview or map. Videos are cool, but the streetview data exists already for virtually every place I’d want to ride, and I’m getting it would be cheaper to code and maintain.
Have a read up the comments and I explain some of the issues with loading raw GPS files and issues we had with the Strava app.
We started full time work back on Segments this week, hopefully we shouldn’t take long to update it to use some new API from Strava that gives use access to great elevation data for most of the segments. I will keep everyone posted on here with its progress. Otherwise, follow us on twitter and I will post updates there as well.
I saw that the KICKR was designed to have the front wheel on the ground, but I’m thinking about buying a riser block like you’re using in the pictures. Would you recommend using one? Would it be much different without it?
I’ve got both of the CycleOps ones (that have multiple height levels), as well as the cheaper Minora one (re-branded as many others). They all work just fine.
Just received my Kickr. I have had a few challenges with it that I have emailed to Wahoo for advice. 1) I didn’t receive the 135 spacer 2) The wheel that the casset is attached to is slightly hitting the plastic cover that is partly covering it??? its really annoying. 3) it keeps asking me if I want to update the firmware and each time I do its fails on me. I then need to unplug everything and try again with no success. I had a workaround by doing the update with my Ipad instead of my iphone5. Seems like its working better now with connectivity to my Iphone 5 now that the update is done. Really no cadence with out cadence meter??? That has been a big disappointment and it doesn’t seem to be a very good app selection at the current time. I haven’t given up yet on it as I just got it but I need to say things are not starting out so good compared to computrainer and Taxc but then again they also had there challenges when I first got them. I will do a update to be fair to Wahoo after a few rides.
I think the spacer goes from 130 to 135 if you just flip it and put it in the other way. I didn’t have to do it on mine so I could be wrong.
I haven’t checked to see if the wheel on mine is touching the plastic.
I had the same issue of it asking me if I want to update over and over again. It never showed that it was updating and then all of the sudden it stopped asking me so I’m not sure if it updated or not.
I’m using the Wahoo Blue cadence sensor. I don’t think the KICKR can do cadence because it really doesn’t know what your crank arm is doing.
Tomorrow I’m getting a bluetooth 4 adapter for my mac so I can run trainer road so I hope it works. Other than that the apps are disappointing at this point but they’ll get better.
Anyone else having power issues after the most recent firmware update this week?
My Kickr was performing within 0 to 7 watts of my Quarq (made an excel spreadsheet to track variation). After this week’s firmware update, my Kickr is now off by 40+ watts.
For example, a steady 5 minutes at 215 watts set on the Kickr showed an average of 213 watts on the Kickr and 171 watts on the Quarq. Using the exact same Quarq and same Kickr before the firmware update, the 5 minute power variation was 3, 0 and 5 at roughly an average of 238 watts for the 5 minutes. Now the Kickr is off by 42 watts.
Submitted a ticket to Wahoo but want to know if anyone else is having this issue. Since it worked before, I am assuming that this is a firmware/software issue.
DC (comment #197) When you use your GoPro camera to capture video and another device to capture GPS info (I understand the simultaneous starting concept), how do you handle pauses, like for a stoplights or traffic or long trains? I’d like to edit that type of thing out before uploading to Kinomap for virtual rides on my KICKR. Can you edit the video and GPS data so they stay in sync? I’m trying to build a virtual ride library for use when I can’t get outside.
Hi Dave 1929 (and Ray).
You actually don’t need to start GPS and video recording at the same time: Kinomap uploader handles an offset that you can define (currently on PC but really that’s a matter of days now before we, finally, have a universal version working on PC, Mac and even Linux). So what you should typically do is to start GPS recording before so that you’re sure to get a GPS fix and even just record the whole day in a single GPS file: then use this file and add the video file to the timeline. You just need to find something in the video that you’ll see also on the map, like a crossroads, paintings on the road, etc.
The video can be trimmed at the beginning or end but should not be edited in the middle: otherwise the one frame sync system won’t work for the whole video.
But that’s not a real problem because if there are stoplights and you continue pedalling, the video will speed up or catch you up.
Hope that helps.
Just as a general FYI for those reading along via comment notifications on KICKR, both PerfPro and Peripedal have announced and made available ANT+ compatibility for controlling KICKR this week (from a Windows machine). Details for KICKR compatibility on each below:
Have you compared Quarq power balance from a previous ride to one on the KICKR in ERG mode?
I’m curious if it will bring one closer to pedaling 50/50..
No, my Quarq (old school) doesn’t have power balance. Though, remember Erg mode is just providing resistance – same as any other trainer that has controllable resistance.
Yes, but the resistance varies to keep power even as your cadence goes up or down. In theory cadence will drop slightly when the weaker leg is out front.
Superb article. Made startup very easy. After setup, I noticed a problem where if my Kickr trainer is unplugged, I can spin the pedals freely; however, if I plug it in, the pedals will spin freely for 2-3 revolutions and then become so hard that I can’t continue. If I wait for a few seconds, it will free up and repeat the above after 2-3 more cycles. I have paired it to my iPhone 4S and have updated the Wahoo Fitness App. In Level mode, the setting is zero. Changing to any of the other modes, all set to zero, there is no difference. What am I missing?
After a couple of e-mails, I discovered that initial recognition of the Kickr must be done through the Utility app, because it turns off all resistance. This in turn will allow you to perform the spindown calibration. Finally, the Wahoo Fitness app or the Kinomap app can be used.
It looks like it’s currently backordered until today, however, that may have been different when you ordered. I’ll poke and see what’s up. Thanks for the support!
Well I have my Kickr for over a week and support is slow as Molasses in January. I am not getting a correct speed on the Kickr. I have followed supports advice to look at the cap next to the fly wheel and take a picture and send it to them, so wait 24 hours and then another question and so on and so on. Hey WAHOO have you ever heard of a telephone!!!! One question every 24 hours is ridiculous. Anyway I still have no idea why no correct speed, I can’t calibrate because the fastest Kickr shows is around 7mph. So pack it up and send it back??? I hate having a 1000 dollar doorstop.
I agree with Jerry regarding the speed of support – which frankly (the speed) is understandable when it is all via email. Email only is also unacceptable and I think it should be called out as a major issue in any review, including this one. It would be lessened if they (Wahoo) provided any form of live help, like online chat or something.
What I find unacceptable (as do others I know that have purchased the Kickr) as a customer is having no live support (voice, chat, anything) for a product that costs north of $1000 US. For most of their product which are low cost, or even their scale – this is not really an issue. For an expensive and more complicated product most customers feel better knowing they can speak to a real person if needed. I have personally cautioned people who are considering the Kickr because they should be aware of the slowness and to make sure they are comfortable with not being able to have someone that you can work through issues with live.
Starting support with email or submitting a ticket is fine and makes sense; that vets issues that need more support vs people who immediately call, rather than reading the manual. Once it is obvious that a call would save everyone time, or the issue is real, it is horribly anti-customer to have no option available. Using Jerry’s post above as an example, why not provide a means of speaking with someone after asking for the picture? It can be as simple as send me a photo (as he described) along with some times available to speak and a phone number. Once submitted, the support person confirms the date/ time to speak. Having an issue that takes a duration of 5 days to resolve, for what could have taken less than 5 minutes is not acceptable and not even good business.
Keep in mind, the email only support applies to orders submitted, meaning if an error is made with an order (incorrect item(s) shipped, overcharged etc) you need to do it via email rather than just a quick call.
Like I said, even if a support number is not provided to the general public – having a mechanism in place for providing live support would not only make for happier customers, but also make the product seem like less of a risk. Personally, I find it a bit unnerving to purchase a $1000 product and have no ability to “speak” with anyone if needed, other than via email. We customers paid you money, the least you could do is support your product in a way that is most efficient and effective.
Doesn’t help that the damn thing is still in beta, with all the hardware bugs people are reporting, what I still don’t understand is why they didn’t just include regular 3.0bt and a usb port it’s a powered trainer, just feels like they had their minds set on building something that only works well with apple products.
For those of you considering a Kickr, echo Jerry’s comment that support is exceptionally poor. Opened a service request on Thursday at 10:07 AM about buggy firmware. It’s now Tuesday at 4:25 PM and I have absolutely no response. I truly hope that Wahoo Fitness does not make the mistake of irritating its early adopters.
Sorry for the slow response lately. We haven’t rolled support over to dedicated customer service people, instead we are letting Brad who is one of the engineers behind the KICKR manage support. This helps us stay on top of issues and solve problems as quick as possible since the product is new. We just ordered a some headphones so we can take calls with our Zendesk customer support system. Brad’s been giving out his cell number when things are really tricky. I’m going to jump in and help Brad get caught up and Megan and Cris are also getting up to speed. We appreciate your patience, we want to make sure your experience with KICKR is awesome.
Finally unboxed my Kickr (been sitting in the garage for 2 weeks) and hooked the bike up. I bought PerfStudio which is supposed to control the Kickr through ANT+ (requires 2 ANT sticks). It will read the power meter fine, but won’t add it as a trainer. Perf Studio recommends the latest firmware for the Kickr, but it seems I need an iSomething to be able to update the firmware. Bit of a catch-22. Any ideas?
Also, a bit odd there are 0 hits at Wahoo for “firmware update.”
So to update all and to be fare to Wahoo everything seems to be working fine once I got the update from a Ipad. It took a few days for Wahoo to get back to me and they offered to help me fix the plastic cover issue but its very minor and will fix its self on its own after a few rides with the plastic getting worn down. Now all we need are more apps to play with. I am going to try the perfprostudio.com aoftware next. So far I have been impressed with the iphone app and the trainer. I would replace my tacx and computrainer with a Wahoo Kickr and the future is very bright!
One annoyance that I’ve found when using Kinomap is that changes in elevation seem to cause a disproportional change in resistance on the Kickr trainer. Going from 2.5% to 4.5% will almost stop the trainer.
Hey Brad @ Wahoo is there any way to add usb the the trainer, are there any diagnostic connections I could make use of? What about letting it work over regular BlueTooth, BTLE on a device that you plug into a wall doesn’t really serve any real purpose. any way to add a wifi module?
It appears to be it’s presently back ordered till today, nevertheless, that will could have been different once you ordered. I’ll stick and find out what’s way up. Many thanks to the service!
This is an ant + dongle link to amazon.com your still going to need access to an iphone 4s iphone 5 curent get ipod touch or ipad to upgrade the kicker firmware to allow ant control
Ray please tell clever training to lose the popup or they’re going to lose a customer.
I’ve just put together a detailed post on how the KICKR works with ANT+ on all the ANT+ compatible apps that support it today. As well as what it means for the rest of the industry. Enjoy!
Hey folks, I have been in email contact with Brad and Megan i.e. Kickr support. First I have to say that they went all in and are sending a return authorization to send mine back. I think that is the best recourse right now. I don’t know what is wrong and I don’t really care I just want it to work!
i have not heard anywhere else but here that you should recognize the Kickr with Wahoo utility first??? Is this true. Can anyone from Wahoo confirm this?
Thanks
Jerry
You should connect the KICKR to the Wahoo Utility first for 3 reasons:
1. Ensure you have the latest firmware
2. Register the device so we have all the contact details.
3. Work around a bug with Kinomap pairing. KICKR’s will only pair in kinomap if they have been paired in the Wahoo Utility or the Wahoo Fitness app first.
Thanks Murray, although I am not using Kinomap I will use the utility to connect first!
I do appreciate this site as a quasi support area. It really helps as instructions are a little sparse.
Thanks
Jerry
I have had a very positive experience so far with my Kickr — I ordered through CleverTraining (thanks for the discount Ray!).
I am currently using my iPhone5 with the Ant+ Key (for my Garmin HR and Cadence). My first few rides I just used the Wahoo Fitness app in the erg mode to get used to it. I attempted the Trainer Road app, however, my Mac is in my office and the sensors can’t read that far…and I sure don’t want to lug my bike and a 50 lb. trainer back and forth!
I next tried, and have been using since, the KinoMap app. I have my bike set up in the living room (although the wife isn’t too pleased) and I have the iPhone “beam” the signal to the AppleTV so I can watch it all on the big screen! The KinoMap app is optimized for the AppleTV and it makes it nice and pretty on the screen.
I have so far been very pleased with the Kickr and look forward to more apps and software to utilize. This has made indoor riding something I look forward to now!
I just received my KICKR and Wahoo Key yesterday from Clever Trainer also using Ray’s discount. I haven’t opened it yet, hoping to test it out Sunday. My question to you Brian is when using the key, I assume you bought the adapter. Did you have any problems? I was playing the key last night and I have one adapter with a cord that I got off of ebay, but it seem not to work. I just wanted to check before spending $30 on the official adapter.
Thanks,
Jeff
I second the question about when Strava segments will release. I like Kinomap, but I’d really like to have Strava segments also. There is only one Kinomap ride in my several state area, but lots of Strava segments all over my riding area.
Any idea if an app exists that provides functionality like the Computrainer, where I can create a course, ride it and then compete against my previous saved efforts?
Hi
Need help!!
Just unboxed my Aussie Kickr and I’m not convinced its working as it should!
Basically, unless I’m in resistance mode, the resistance maxes out within 2-3 seconds in all other modes.
Level 0 is the same as Level 9. 000 is the same as 400 in erg and so on.
I’m controlling it via a new iPad Mini with BlueTooth4, cadence and HR via ANT, using the Wahoo app. Using MobileIntervals gives me the same result.
It’s as per outbofvthe box, except it wanted to do a software update, so I let it.
Any thoughts??
Cheers
RSD
I’m sure our support team can help you out! Shoot them a support request and they will get things straightened out for you. In the mean time I might suggest checking out this support topic: link to support.wahoofitness.com
My KICKR arrived today (thanks Wahoo Australia). It arrived just as I got back from a heavy swim and was tired. I couldn’t even lift the box! This things looks like a beast!
sorry guys, not unwilling, we still don’t have a solid date. We’ve had a hard time getting the first production lot ready. Production samples are on the way to us now. If all goes well we should have units in 3-4 more weeks.
Seems the easiest thing to do for Campy folks is just to respace the Shimano cassette that comes with the KICKR.
Campy spacers are readily available, or you can use ones from a worn out cassette you already have. link to amazon.com
@bob I appreciate the advice, but I prefer to keep my chain happy by using campy cassettes. I know this will work for some folks, but I far prefer to address the issue at the hub thanks again!
No sure what it has to do with the chain- all Campy and Shimano chains are interchangeable within the number of speeds. Campy and Shimano cassettes have the same exact pitch.
Very, very, very disappointed to see the pricing of the KICKR that has just been released to the EU. When it was released for $1000 I thought awesome, and even when it went to $1100 I thought still great, but to be released at €1100 this immediately is a no no. Why oh why does everything always have to be the same number in £ as it is in $ when there is +-1.6 ratio between the two. The KICKR here should be costing me about £600-700 not £1050. I have literally been checking the website weekly for the last 2-3 months to see when EU distribution was available.
If anyone from Wahoo is reading this forum, please take note of what was a guaranteed customer who has been waiting like a little child for christmas since I first read about this product only to be bitterly disappointed :(
Rab
I agree, there is no way that I will pay that sort of money for the Kickr. I was waiting for it to be released in Europe too. Now, instead I’ll buy a second hand computrainer or powerbeam pro. They’ve missed a big opportunity to corner the market…
Don’t forget that stated prices in the US never include sales tax. My Kickr was $1,200 with sales tax and would have been closer to $1,300 with VAT rates.
We appreciate the comments and are always listening! Sonny hit on one major point which is that the advertised US pricing doesn’t include tax. That, combined with the additional duties and taxes were what led to the current pricing. Trust us, we wish we could sell the KICKR for £600!
Ray – noticed in your July 1 ‘Brick-Taper’ review that you’re still on the Kickr, which I take as a good sign. Wondering about any niggles / issues that may have developed in the past four months of use? I’m presently on a Computrainer, which works well, but is a hassle to set up. Thx!
No issues for me. I returned the loaner unit and went out and got my own. The Girl and I swap back and forth with her trainer rides one night and mine the next. I still use the CompuTrainer as well, merely because sometimes she’s on the KICKR or if I’m too lazy to take her bike off of it.
I need to calibrate the KICKR as the zero offset is out and the brake locks up after 3-6 pedal strokes.
I don’t have the ‘Calibrate’ button in Wahoo Fitness (as shown above) when I hit the wheel and I need to use ANT so Wahoo Utility via Bluetooth is out.
Attention KICKR lovers! the latest release of iMobileIntervals link to itunes.apple.com has support for ANT+ control of the KICKR.
iMobileIntervals is an interval training and general purpose cycling/running iPhone app. Some more new features:
Garmin Connect structured workout support
Garmin Connect calendar support
Cadence TV workout support
So: you may now build interval workouts on Garmin Connect, access them by the day on your Garmin Connect calendar right in the iMobileIntervals app, load them to the app and run them with or without voice prompts for the intervals, control the KICKR automatically per interval in erg mode (a la Computrainer) then automatically or manually communicate the activity back to Garmin Connect (or iMobileIntervals.com, TrainingPeaks, or your desktop via DropBox).
Also, the imobileintervals.com website has an ERG/MRC importer, so its a breeze to use your old Computrainer workouts on the KICKR (workouts with distance and ramp intervals not supported).
Correct, but the announcement only allows supported Windows Phones to then allow developers to leverage it. From there, apps would have to support the KICKR. I don’t see Wahoo doing that soon unfortunately (though they are more than welcome to correct me), I suspect we’d see them focus on Android first.
But, other apps certainly could. And, we could potentially see it branch out to things like Windows RT apps as well.
My kickr and 4iiii HRM were shipped out by Clever Training today their local time. I hope I got no issue with the kickr as the others here and no shipping issues as well.
Clever Training people, they’re wonderful. Originally I ordered CycleOps PB Pro, but I asked for a change with the HRM without having to pay additional $8 after 10% discount. I know it’s only $8, but no hassle for me to re-order as they just modified the items.
Also thanks to Ray for conveying my message to them during last weekend.
Hi, I love your app.
I can’t wait for it to have more features, at least to have a gradient-based (or course only mode in perfpro studio, link to perfprostudio.com), so that we could import a gpx or tcx file for example and ride the course while imobileintervals control the kickr resistance based on the gradient.
The difficulty maybe is in getting the gradient data from google map or openstreetmap or any other map source.
If you don’t have this feature in your future plan yet, please add it.
If you have it there already, i hope to see the feature soon.
This looks like a decent product and I would like to try one. However, I am a bit disappointed by the pricing. I have seen them for as little as $900 USD in the USA, but in Australia I cannot find any for less than $1200 USD.
Does Wahoo actually have customer support? I had a few questions I was hoping to get answered prior to purchasing, it has been over a week and I sent three emails, as there is no phone number and to date not a single response. This only tells me if there is a warranty issue, you would be sh@t out luck and at $1,100 that is not even remotely cool
Sorry you are having trouble reaching us. Did you email support at WahooFitness.com? I’ll double check when I get to office but pretty sure we are responding pretty quick. Murray was out on vacation last week and Brad is out this week, so we’re running a little lean.
Thanks,
Chip
Ray,
You know of any 3rd party ANT keys to be used with the KICKR that has the lightning connector so you can connect to a iPad mini or iPhone 5? From the review I believe I understand the only thing I don’t have is cadence unless I get the BlueSC. I really don’t want to switch between my Garmin set and the Wahoo each weekend, so I am hoping for a 3rd party or Wahoo comes out with one soon.
Thanks,
Jeff
PS I have ordered the KICKR from Clever Training
No one has a lightning to ANT+ key as they have not yet been approved to be used.
You can use the 30pin ANT+ key with the Apple lightning / 30 pin adapter. Make sure you use the official adapter, some cheap ones on amazon and eBay won’t work.
Our last WahooFitness app had lots of improvements for voice over and it’s now in a good state.
We haven’t looked directly at the utility app, but it should be OK, I will add it to my list to check and confirm everything works well for our next release.
Do we have to do spindown calibration only in wahoo utility / fitness app, or we need to do for each software that we’re doing to use such as trainerroad, imobileaintervals (if it has one), perfpro ?
The calibration is stored on the KICKR, so no need to calibrate in each app. If you calibrate every 2-4 weeks or every time you move it where the KICKR gets knocked around a bit (like a car trip) you should be good to Crank it Up :-)
Thanks Murray.
Just preparing myself so that I’m ready when the kickr arrives at my doorstep.
Wahoo kickr to do:
1. buy power cable or universal plug
2. plug in power & upgrade firmware
3. get quick start & follow link to wahoofitness.com or the guide provided in the box
4. spindown calibration
5. try out: sim mode, resistance mode, manual mode, erg mode (using wahoofitness, trainerroad, perfpro, imobileintervals)
6. ftp test with Kickr
7. Enjoy life.
1. The KICKR will come with a US, AU, or EU plug based on the purchase location. If you need something difference you are best buying a new cord. Sometimes referred to a “Kettle” cord, its the same used in nearly all PC tower units. IEC 60320 C13 is the offical name. link to en.wikipedia.org
2. Yep. You will need a BT 4.0 device (new iOS device)
3. Yep, just pair it up in the Wahoo Utility and you can also do step 4.
5. Give it test run in the Wahoo Fitness app, you can quickly test each mode and see what each of the option do.
6. FTP Test – Either you can use our app (use the lap feature) or TrainerRoad/PerfPro are great for running FTP tests. Personally, I love the Sufferest Rubber Glove test.
Review this article I did not see anything about a riser. Do you need a front wheel raiser or is that included? Does Wahoo have or plan on coming out with a storage/travel bag for the KICKR?
You don’t need a riser, the KICKR is adjustable for different size bikes, although some people still prefer to use one.
We have a hard case designed and can be made to order directly through the supplier. Not that cheap, so it was best to let the customer buy direct. You can email aupport and ask for Brad to send you details.
Yay, got the kickr today and tried it. Got to collect it from DHL warehouse as this is Saturday, and can’t wait till Monday. My viiii HR strap will arrive on Monday too, but I can’t wait till Monday for that. All using Ray’s code in clevertraining.
Awesome feel. A bit noisy, but comparable to other trainer or roller. Tried it using wahoofitness and trainerroad.
Question though: how do i set up my 910xt to read the speed info from kickr? I used my powermeter crank as power source, but no speed source yet. A bit confused.
Thanks
I don’t think the 910 will support connecting to two power meters at once. The KICKR is a power meter that transmits power and speed. The powermeter crank is transmitting as a power meter with power and cadence. Not sure if Trainer Road supports using two power meters and selecting certain data from each. We are looking at allowing the KICKR to read from 3rd party power meters and retransmit, so you could get power/speed/cadence all from the KICKR. We’re focusing on getting the Segments App out first though.
Chip is there any way to convert the BTLE to regular BT with a firmware update? With android 4.3 now supporting BTLE how long till you have an app out for it?
BT and BTLE are very different technologies, it would require changing the hardware. BTLE gives us the flexibility to manage all the communications and avoids all the bugs and hassles of BT Classic that made it virtually impossible to use for a custom device like the KICKR. BT is great for dedicated purposes that are well supported by devices like BT headsets and speakers. Trying to use classic BT for something like the KICKR where we need to manage the connection and what we communicate is possible but different on every device that supports BT.
Now that Android released official support for BTLE(3 years after Apple) we should be able to provide a working solution. Keep in mind that the only device that it works with is the Nexus 7. None of the current phones have announced when they will provide updates to 4.3. It will probably be a bit more of a wait. Hopefully we’ll be ready with software by the time the more popular phones are actually capable. We’ve been working on it for years…
If you use the iMobileIntervals app you can connect both your crank powermeter and the KICKR, get speed from the KICKR, cadence from the crank, and power (displayed and recorded) from whichever you choose. Also, there is a global offset watts for the KICKR so if you find that the KICKR and your powermeter register a different watts you can offset the KICKR so that when it is set to an ERG watts its adusted up or down so that your crank powermeter registers the ERG watts (e.g. you want 300 watts on your power meter, but when your powermeter registers 300, the KICKR says 305, so you adjust the KICKR down 5 watts).
Thanks Guys. In near ideal world, we could select what data from which source (e.g.: cadence from crank, speed from kickr, power from crank, etc.). I think it’s very close now.
So, I will try imobileintervals tomorrow, and perfpro the next day.
I like to use this priority list as the head unit: 910xt, wahoofitness app, imobileinterval, trainerroad, perfpro.
If I could have more than one (usually max 3), I like to compare the result among them, which usually very close. (Just imagining myself being Ray reviewing all those gadget and apps).
And yes, I usually watch movie or cycling video and set the volume high enough so that the trainer noise can be ignored.
Consider this scenario:
– using TrainerRoad/Perfpro/iMobileInterval to control Kickr using anyone of their workout
– using wahoofitness as a head unit to record data, additional to data recorded by other applications (I use another phone or ipad if I use imobileintervals)
If I turn on the “Control your KICKR power trainer”, will it affect the control by those 3 app ?
If I turn off the screen, does it mean wahoofitness app does not have any control on KICKR and only act as a head unit?
I’ve read through all of the comments and am still confused over the control part. For example, I have a Garmin 500 that I use to see the Garmin heart rate monitor and cadence sensor I have on the bike already. I know that the Kickr then broadcasts the ANT+ power profile that the Garmin can also read and record. From reading the Wahoo site, if there is no other control, it will default to level 2 and operate independent of any control.
With that set up, can I then control the Kickr with an iPad/iPhone over the bluetooth network (utilizing both the ANT+ and bluetooth signals at the same time)? The ANT+ profile would be used just for sending to the Garmin, and the bluetooth to receive control signals from the iPad/iPhone. I am trying to avoid having to go buy blue tooth accessories (heart rate and cadence) or ANT+ keys as I am very happy with the Garmin accessories.
Correct, the ANT+ and Bluetooth can be used at the same time. You could capture and record all your data on the Garmin and just use the Bluetooth for control.
If you are using a PC/Mac with ANT+ stick for control as well, this will still work. The KICKR will always broacast the ANT+ Power profile that you can capture with your Garmin.
Just got my KICKR. Started set up. Pairing via. Bluetooth to Iphone 5 no problem and it downloaded latest firmware. Using both Wahoo Utility and Wahoo Fitness and attempting to calibrate but no speed or power data being transmitted, hence impossible to calibrate as trainer thinks it is not moving. Paired it via ANT+ (as power meter) to my Garmin and again it paired no problem but no data being sent. Anybody got any idea on the problem? Without knowing more I would think the unit is dead and not reading or sending any data either on BT or ANT+. Really want this thing to work!
Check that the top cap is installed correctly. This is located on the top of the main diagonal steel support tube. If the plastic cap isn’t setting completely down on the frame, the speed sensor may not be able to read the speed disc. If this doesn’t fix your problem, shoot me an email at brad@wahoofitness.com
I found out the problem is with the sensor in the top cap. If I push the cap closer to the target disc (black and white disc on fly wheel) then I get speed and power readings. I am working with Brad from Wahoo to fix this issue.
The KICKR can handle the power from your sprints but, like most stationary trainers, will hold your bike completely vertical. We don’t recommend full on standing sprints on the KICKR, simply because of the stresses that are transferred to your bike frame.
Hi! Sorry if this has been addressed, but I was wondering: Is there any point in getting a trainer this advanced if you already have a direct force power meter installed on your bike? Would it give me anything above and beyond what a quarq + $400 trainer could provide? Thanks!
In my opinion, one of the biggest differences between the setup you mentioned and the KICKR is that the KICKR gives you complete control over the resistance of the trainer and can simulate a real road ride. Also, Erg mode keeps you honest in your intervals and makes interval training far easier. When you set the power to 245 watts, it will automatically adjust and hold you there regardless of your speed.
A couple other big things that come to mind are the wheel off design and high inertia flywheel that you can’t get with a typical $400 trainer!
Being able to vary your cadence is a huge point in using erg mode. Doesn’t matter how fast the drive train is going the trainer keeps it within -/+ 5 watts of the setting.
Quite the opposite actually! Regardless of your cadence or gear ratio, the KICKR will adjust to maintain the power output you have selected. This means you can be riding at 95 Watts to warm up, then set the KICKR to 270 Watts and it will adjust to that set point as you continue to pedal. If you then try to speed up or slow down, the KICKR will still hold 270 Watts until you adjust the settings.
One other huge advantage to the KICKR is that we have an open API. This allows anyone to develop software or Apps to control the KICKR and is the reason programs such as Trainer Road, Kinomap Trainer, iMobileIntervals, Perf Pro Studios and more work with the KICKR.
Its funny, but this is an area that I have even found some cycling industry professionals not grasping. The trainer doesn’t care what gear or cadence you are using. it will adjust, dynamically, the resistance so that you are generating the required watts. Want to train climbing at 300 watts? Shift to the 39/25 and pedal 60rpm. Want to simulate motorpace/race pack riding at 300 watts? Shift to the 53/12 and pedal 90rpm.
And you can design workouts, e.g. with our app, made of intervals with visual/audio commands to change cadence while sending the interval-specific ERG value to the trainer.
This is a whole different world from just running a powermeter on a traditional trainer.
Yes, possibly unclear from comments above, but since version 3.0 iMobileIntervals does this, when using workouts created on the imobileintervals.com website or Garmin Connect.
They are scheduled to ship from our factory to us on August 14th. We should be able to ship them to customers starting as soon as we get them in hand likely around the 20th of August. We originally thought we could use off the shelf units, but ended up having to custom design and manufacture them so it took much longer than anticipated. If you’d like one email support at wahoofitnes dot com and they will make sure and get you on the list. We’re launching a new website in the next couple weeks, so they might not get online right away.
Can somebody from Wahoo please describe the upcoming option for all of us with Campy drivetrain.
I have seen many comments about a “adapter” and I also noticed it is delayed to mid august. People talk about something that is sourced from Slowtwitch.
What about a tecnical description for the upcoming option for the Campy community.
The upcoming option is a Campy Freehub that will replace the Shimano Freehub that comes with the KICKR. It will make the KICKR into a true Campy KICKR. Brad will make some instructions and videos to show how to install it before we start shipping. If you are comfortable swapping out a cassette you should be able to swap it yourself, otherwise you might want to take it to a shop or ask the shop you buy it from to swap it for you when you buy it.
This is great news for Campy people! I would like to order a KICKR with that option as soon as possible (Europe). Any way I can order a KICKR now with the option included, or do I have to wait until you have released this option.
We’ll update here and a few other places when they arrive at the warehouse. I’d recommend you wait until they hit our warehouse next week before ordering, so they can go out together.
Just to clarify, the Campy freehub is sold separately from the KICKR and does not include the cassette itself. It’s a simple installation that only requires a 17mm wrench and Campy cassette lock ring tool. If you don’t already have these tools, your local bike shop definitely will! We will release instructions on our website for installing the Campy freehub once it becomes available.
DC
I have a GoPro Hero 3 that I’ve recorded some rides with and want to upload them to Kinomap for use with my KICKR. Kinmap support has been really good about trying to help me, but I just can’t get the process right to convert and upload the files to Kinomaps. Would you mind sharing your process for uploading GoPro files to Kinomap and what file format and specs you use? I’m trying to upload 3 and 4 files (1920×1080) to make one long ride. My GPS data is from an iPhone five using MapMyRide.
Segments is now LIVE and on SALE for all the early KICKR owners.
Segments by Wahoo Fitness allows you to ride Strava segments indoors on your KICKR Power Trainer!
A Segment is Strava’s term for a specific section of a road, climb or trail. You can create segments from your rides at Strava.com
This app is a fun and effective way to go head to head against the King or Queen of the Mountain, your friends, or simply compete against your own personal record. Whether it is your favourite neighbourhood dash or a classic alpine ascent on the other side of the world, Segments and KICKR bring the full Strava experience into your home.
I’ve been experiencing some ‘slippage’ on the belt on my Kickr- usually when fly wheel is quite warm and pushing reasonable wattage (400-450w). It’s hard to determine exactly what’s going on but it seems the belt is slipping where it drives the flywheel assembly. It feels like it is stripping gears and sort of rackets along with the pedal stroke- effectively providing no resistance. Anyone else have this?
Can you check in with our support portal(support.wahoofitness.com) It sounds like your belt is loose for some reason. Brad can help you with instructions on how to get the tension just right and hopefully figure out what caused it to loosen up in the first place!
I’ve had my Wahoo KICKR for about a month now and I love it. Yesterday I noticed some skipping with the cassette and the chain. Any thoughts on what might be causing that?
There are a few possibilities as to what could be causing the skipping. We have a fairly comprehensive support topic on this issue, you can check it out here: link to support.wahoofitness.com
If you’re still having issues, get a ticket started with support and we will help straighten things out for you!
I just received the Wahoo Kickr (Thanks Ray for the 10% discount) and the setup went flawless :). All though, I am having issues getting a good signal via Ant+ to my PC when using Trainer Road. It seems to pair the Wahoo, but I get a bad/poor signal which doesn’t let me utilize the ERG function. I’m using Garmin’s Ant+ USB stick. Anyone suggestions?
How old is your Garmin ANT+ USB Stick? I’ve seen some issues with older USB sticks.
How far is your PC away from the KICKR? Maybe try an USB extension cable to move the ANT+ stick away from the PC interference (wifi/bluetooth etc).
I’ve also seen interference with some HDMI cables.
I would suggest playing around disabling wifi, bluetooth and changing the USB port. Unfortunately its not an exact science and you might need to just experiment a little.
My Garmin stick was just purchased with it’s intended purpose to be be used with the Wahoo. It’s the small version versus the larger stick.
I have a 16 ft. USB extension cable to get the stick further away from my computer and closer to the Wahoo. I’m debating on purchasing the Suunto Movestick Mini, but it looks identical to what I currently have. Do you think it would be worth a try?
Have you tried without the extension. 16ft is VERY long for a USB cable and could be the source of the issue.
I normally use a small, 1-2 ft cable just enough to get it away from the computer. ANT+ should have a good 10-15m range, especially indoors, it just normally interference from the PC.
I personally love the Suunto USB stick due to its size, but its basically the same inside so neither is better.
Since the last posted comment I’ve been using my MacPro and things are definitely better with connection signal. All though, I”m still having something weird happen during every ride with Trainer Road. Intermittently during my session I’ll receive a “Set mode failed, searching” and I lose connection. From here I’ll need to refresh the system and pause my workout, very annoying during a hard interval. I haven’t noticed any pattern of why this would happen, but I never had any issues with the Power Beam by Cycleops. The signal between the Wahoo and the computer is typically good or excellent when this happens.
Just as a heads up Alan, TrainerRoad just posted (like two minutes ago) an update addressing address dropouts with the KICKR and TR: link to facebook.com
About the ANT+ USB stick, since the KICKR can only be configured via ANT+, it would be nice to include an USB stick with the trainer. As an example this is what Garmin does with Vector.
There is a new USB stick that is cheap (well, compared to current 50€ Garmin stick), that is only available from link to digikey.com, as far as I know.
Have you guys at Wahoo tested strain and deformation on bikes at different power. See the german Tour test: link to tour-magazin.de
The german test shows deformation/strain for 100-1000 watt in comparison between trainer (with roller) and road. They measured with strain gauges placed at different points at the frames. But these test are for trainers with rollers, so these are probably useless for the Kickr. The result is interesting. Use on roller trainers give less strain compared to road! So, the common advice to avoid sprints for roller trainers seem to be wrong, according to the german tests.
Any comments on this? (I have already seen Wahoo recommendation to avoid Sprint.)
I’ve seen some of their tests in the past, and have always left both a bit confused and with more questions. For example – in this case – how did they determine if the strain was bad? Strain is normal, is this strain beyond limits?
(Note: Google Translation may be missing key things that make it more difficult to understand).
Not easy for me either as my normal language is swedish :) But I give it a try. They measured bending is on right chain stay (BK), deflection of seat tube (BS) and torsion of tube? (TU). They measured with “”strain gauges”, applied in these measure-points. They recorded frame deformation at these points, with different load (100-1000 watt).
The deformation was not permanent, even on sprints. So, the frame wasn´t damaged. Their (not mine) conclusion is that the elastic deformation is bigger when you ride on road compared to roller trainer!
My question is. What about deformation when you use a KICKR. Have Wahoo made any measurements on this? The load on a bikes frame is for sure not the same as with a normal roller trainer. Hopefully the KICKR flexes when you ride it, in order to decrease the load on the frame. I will order a KICKR soon, but I´m not sure if I should mount my most expensive bike on it…
We have not done any specific tests on frame stresses. I would expect test results for “wheel on” trainers would be applicable to the KICKR, since we clamp the frame in a similar manner. I can understand how road stresses could be equal to or even greater than trainer stresses in a sprinting situation. If you envision on an outdoor ride leaning your bike hard to one side, applying full pedal force on the high side while pulling it back to the other side with your upper body, the stresses on the frame are substantial. That scenario likely creates a stress situation on the frame that is higher than you would see on a trainer. We don’t recommend sprints, because in the unlikely event you were to damage the frame most bicycle manufacturers will not honor their frame warranty. I would suggest using common sense on an indoor all out effort, avoid driving the frame side to side with your upper body since the KICKR is going to restrain it from moving in this direction.
Can people from Yahoo clarify on delivery for Europe. Last week there was selectable option (on the Wahoo site) for European delivery. According to this forum units have been delivered to Europe. Today I got the following answer from Wahoo support. It must be a mistake?
Best regards
Mats
“Unfortunately we are unable to ship the Wahoo Kickr to any international addresses.
Wahoo added a European processing/shipping center a few months back. Thus, they ship from their European distributors to Europeans. But non-European companies need to restrict sales to the their own locales.
I Just got my kickr set up. i did a spin down.. but every time there is significant resistance the kickr clicks when i pedal? any help appreciated… at lower resistance its fine.
Not sure how clicking could be related to the Segments app but send us a email at WahooFitness support and we would love to help you out with any issue with the KICKR or the segments software.
just wondering what is the best way to get it in Alaska? Also i have mountain bike with 3X8 speed cassette. Is the combination good for using Kickr at home for Casual riding?
If you’d like to support the site, Clever Training will ship it for free there, and you’ll get 10% off your cart using the DCR coupon code up above. Enjoy!
The 3×8 drive train on your bike will work great for riding on the KICKR but it will require you to change out the stock 10-speed cassette for an 8-speed cassette. After that, you will be good to go!
KICKR does not work with the Cycleops Virtual Training software. The industry is in the middle of a big change and while I have no knowledge on Cycleops plans, the industry as a whole is moving to standardise trainer communications, so the future looks good.
I had sent the same question to Virtual training team (not cycleops, as they use the software from virtual training). The reply was that the support for Kickr will be coming soon, but no date.
Hi
I have read the wahoo review and it sounds awesome but does and my mate has the cycleops
power beam do u have any preference ? is one better than the other or is it personal preference?
As it stands today, I prefer the KICKR, because of the open platform and the fact that it has BOTH BLE and ANT+. Down the road, if the PowerBeam adopts the various platforms, then I’m likely to make it either/or.
Because it adds the ability to ‘force’ you to stay at a given wattage, and that precise wattage. So if you do 10 intervals at 250w, on the LeMond you’ve gotta play with speed/gearing/cadence to get it right on. With the CompuTrainer/Kickr/etc… you can choose any cadence/speed you’d like and you’ll have it hold that 250w, and no matter how much you falter, it’s going to keep on holding that 250w.
Thanks DC – but isn’t it better ‘race’ training to be required to manage speed/gearing/cadence to achieve the required watt level? Isn’t the forced watt artificial?
Perhaps strength is strength. I presume it’s also better because you can probably be more aggressive on your interval watt levels
There’s two areas of training – one is pure strength adaptation. So, in this case it’s the fact that the trainer (be it KICKR, CompuTrainer or whomever) is holding the power and like it or not you’re going to be doing it at a prescribed interval.
This is useful in that you can make very precise workouts and thus in effect control your recovery time as well.
On the flip side – learning how to push outside is just as important. For me, I can actually throw down much higher wattages on a trainer than outside during a TT (typically). I do much better climbing however, and typically hit my highest numbers (per zone) while climbing.
I’m somewhat dead in the water with the Stages app until Wahoo figures out what’s going on with the iPad 2 and ANT key configuration. In the mean time, I’ve been trying to use Kinomap. I don’t know what routes you’ve been riding, but I find it borderline unusable. Most routes have terrible elevation dropouts, so going up Alpe d’Huez, I’m climbing and then descending at -10% for 45 seconds where it’s clear that’s just an elevation error. Chicago triathlon is basically pancake flat, but the course has 10% grade kicks on Kinomap. Any suggestions on Kinomap courses that are somewhat rideable? Any resources you’re familiar with that would rate the kinomap courses? Figuring it out yourself seems like a terrible n=1 waste. Thanks!
I’m in the same boat with Kinomap — I really enjoyed it at first with the ability to AirPlay to the TV however, the constant elevation issues made it “borderline unusable” to me as well (the last time I rode the Chicago Tri also was the final straw!).
I’ve found that TrainerRoad is awesome! I just put my iPod in, have something on the TV to look at and ride whatever workout I pull up that day. I have not tried to add in the videos yet but I’m sure that makes it even better.
Now, with the addition of the Wahoo Segments app for the iPad, I have a hard time choosing sometime between TrainerRoad or Segments! The segments I have ridden with the latest update have not had any of the elevation issues that Kinomap has. It isn’t perfect, however it feels as if it is very smoothed out.
So I would recommend trying those two and I’m sure you will forget about Kinomap!
Hi Mike, Brian,
I understand your frustration on this aspect: elevation inaccuracy due to GPS devices, especially in the mountain (Canyon effect) is a real challenge. But we’re working hard on it and will have a fix soon, thanks to some experience we got in the last months.
In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to select videos that have a corrected elevation profile line that does not include this kind of drops: the ones in which you don’t see too many green/orange/red changes actually.
Thanks.
Laurent
Laurent, I’d really appreciate if you could look into adding a filter ability, so that we could look at only the rides that have elevation correction applied. Searching manually for these rides is very time consuming, when I’d really like to just go for a ride. Thanks for participating in the discussion!
The Garmin Speed/Cadence sensor is an ANT+ sensor so as long as you have an ANT+ key for your iDevice or an ANT+ USB stick for your computer, it will work just fine!
The only thing holding me back from purchasing the Wahoo Kickr is the lack of head unit/android control. I have a mac and an Android phone, and like you said DC I would rather not have to use my sweaty hands on my mac to control the workout. How far out is the Android app or the RFLKT head unit? My last trainer broke so I’m stepping up to a watt trainer, the PowerBeam Pro might beat out the Kickr because everything is available now.
Any info?
We are really close to an android App that works with the KICKR. You will need an android device that supports BT4.0 and has Android 4.3 on it. We’re hoping to release a beta by next week.
Does the Wahoo Fitness KICKR Trainer work without being plugged in to a power supply? I am just wondering if it is possible to use it to warm up at the roadside prior to a race.
The KICKR does need to be plugged in to create resistance. If you’re near the pits you can pretty easily run it off a standard power converter in your car!
just ordered a Kickr for switzerland (over apple store) and looking forward trying it out!!
I have 1 question concerning connectivity: does the kickr send the data (power and speed and as far as i understood no cadence) simultaneously via ANT+ and bluetooth 4.0? meaning: can i, at the same time during a workout, get the data on my garmin 500 (via ant+) as well as on my iphone 5 (via bluetooth 4.0)?
thanks in advance for help!
Great detailed review, I purchased a Kickr because of this review but starting to regret my purchase. It’s day 2 of the product not registering correct speed or any power over 25 watts. I’ve been in contact with support but a sense of urgency doesn’t seem to be top priority for them and quality of the internals may not be as good as I expected for something costing $1,100. I’ll wait and see how this turns out but SUPER frustrating to spend this kind of money and basically get a paper weight out of the box. I may regret getting rid of my computrainer for the Kickr.
Really sorry you are having trouble! Brad was in and out of the office today recording videos, so may not have gotten back to you right away. If there is something wrong with your KICKR we’ll get it taken care of ASAP. I just wrote you back with my cell number and email and some more things to try in the support ticket. We’ll get it sorted.
All due respect, your reply is great for Brian, but there’s a constant theme throughout this thread. Folks email your customer service, get nowhere, finally get frustrated, post here, and then hear an excuse about why things are behind. I’ve been waiting for weeks to find out about why Segments isn’t working on an iPad 2 with ANT key when other KICKR apps are, with no response. It’s more than frustrating to feel like Wahoo only deals with customer issues when they are public.
My suggestion to you is that you guys have developed a great product, and have customers who will cut you some slack, since you’re small and ‘up-and-coming’. But that isn’t going to last forever. Wahoo needs to make a serious investment in their customer support before they’re ready to handle the expectations behind launching an $1100 product.
There is always room for improvement and we are constantly tweaking how we do things to get the best support for our customers. I get the emails here immediately when somebody posts a comment and generally when somebody pops on here, something has broken down in the system and we take it seriously.
I looked up your issue and it looks like Murray promised to look into the issue you had with your iPad 2 and Segments a few weeks ago and neglected to get back to you. I apologize for that. It ended up with Murray because we weren’t able to reproduce the problem you were having and he wrote Segments. Using the ANT key with Segments has been very reliable for me. Murray remembered having an issue once, but hasn’t been able to reproduce it. I’ll ask Murray to review it again and get back to you ASAP. Sorry for the delay. If you ever don’t hear back from us, following up directly to support does work almost as well.
Could someone let me know why/how the Kickr is cheaper on the Apple Store than on the Wahoo website for Europe.
I tried to make an order on the website and it was not successful due to an issue with the internet payment via Ogone. Decided to have a look here to see if someone had a similar problem. I saw by chance that someone ordered it via the Apple Store and therefore I checked. Surprise: it would save me 130€… which is always nice.
I hope that the unit I get will work properly because it looks like a lot of guys on the web aren’t fully happy about it (Wattage, apps,… but I also think it’s only a few percentage of owners who decide to react about it while the majority is happy). But I must admit that I’m a bit reluctant while willing to purchase… so fingers crossed !
Anyway Ray, thanks for the good review and from now on, I’ll buy things on amazon through your website for sure ;o)
Very quick question. The trainer is controlled via the iphone – is that using wi fi, 3 G or either of the two? Want to check if I have to be connected to broadband to do this? Does anyone experience drop outs when doing this. Just read that its only the iphone 4s and later models to control the wattage – is this correct?
cheers
An internet or wifi connection is not necessary for using the KICKR. It can be controlled using either ANT+ or Bluetooth 4.0. The iPhone 4s and newer all have built in Bluetooth 4.0 so they are my preferred devices for controlling the KICKR. However, with the addition of the Wahoo Key, you can use ANT+ to control the KICKR from your older iPhone or iPad but will still require a Bluetooth 4.0 device to update the firmware. You can also use a Mac or PC with ANT+ USB stick to control the KICKR. Check with the various software developers for which computers are compatible (Trainerroad, PerfPro Studio, PeriPedal, etc).
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Hi Ray,
Is the unit compatible with a campy cassette? Maybe not a large market in the US but it certainly is everywhere else. What about Dura Ace 9000 (11 speed). Certainly will trickle down to lower tier groups soon and the 11 speed freehub is backwards compatible (but not the other way around) so it makes sense to take care of that right away…
Chip at wahoo said that they have some “adapters” on the way, but not available yet. Not sure if that means a cassette with a different spacing or a freehub body. KICKR comes with a 10spd shimano cassette. Therefore you can do campy 9-10 by using a cassette with all loose campy spacers that fits the shimano spline. I have a Miche 9 spd cassette with campy spacers that works great on the KICKR.
First thanks for all the setup information, it took me about 45 mins to get riding on the KICKR.
I know very little about bike components myself , our local bike shop thought that my Campagnolo 11 25 would fit KICKR 11 25 Shimano cassette. I’m riding with no issues, maybe some has a different experience.
Hey Dave,
The spacing for Campy and Shimano is slightly different but if you are not experiencing issues with excessive chain noise or skipping then it sounds like you’re OK. We do offer a Campagnolo Freehub for the KICKR which will allow you to install a Campagnolo cassette (link to wahoofitness.com).
Pretty disappointed with the Segments app. The promise is there but most segments are pretty unrideable simply because the GPS data is inaccurate.
I gave ridden over 300 cols across Europe and none of them have gradients that jump around all the time – one second 0%, the next 8%. It’s completely unrealistic and nothing like riding the real thing.
Wahoo could fix this by building in a smoothing algorithm that would eliminate these false variations.
Until they do that however, the app will fail to live up to the promise/hype.
Michael P,
Sorry that you are disappointed, the quality of elevation is one of the main reason the app was delayed nearly 12 months. GPS and even online lookup databases have VERY poor elevation data.
Strava has corrected many of popular Segments using data from Altimeters (Garmin 800’s) and these segments are very good. Popular climbs over mile are really good and Strava is continuing to scan and update the elevation data. Strava now has the best elevation database on the internet.
We also use 2 different types of filters on the elevation data, but unfortunately, like many before us have found these algorithms not always to be perfect and mostly work well in mountain environments.
We are continuing to work on improving the data and future version should give some greater control over the filter parameters so they can be manually tweaked for different use cases.
Thanks
Murray
Thanks for the excellent review. It is amazingly detailed and very useful in the decision making process. I tried to use the code DCR10TXS at checkout in the discount coupon field but it does not work.
So to use the Kickr with trainer road? i need a bluetooth dongle? or will the ANT+ Garmin USB stick work?
For TrainerRoad:
If on a Mac: Then you’re good to go (as long as Mac is semi-recent), otherwise $12
If on a PC: You’ll need to wait likely at least a few weeks for the ANT+ control via the Garmin USB stick
I’d add to the Cons section that it’s not available for international orders at the moment.
Once again a fantastic review.
As a non Apple user I am especially interested in options of using the KICKR with Windows or Android.
It seems currently there is no such option, is that about right?
Do you plan on updating your review once such software becomes available?
Yes, I’ll definitely be updating as soon as I have beta versions of those apps (and am actually home to tes them out). I expect both will happen mid-later this month.
I have hardware to test everything current on the market.
Is the 4 of March still the shipping date?
Yes, my understanding is initial orders went out last evening. Or at worst this morning (haven’t talked to them since yesterday).
got a email from wahoo the other day it reads as follows
Dear Wahooligan,
Greetings from your favorite KICKR fairy! Week after week I have had the pleasure of keeping you up-to-date on all the great news surrounding your forthcoming KICKR. Unfortunately sometimes even fairy magic can’t fix all the problems. During our final testing process we discovered that the spacer spec’d in the first run of KICKRs were the incorrect size; and on rare occasions can cause the freehub to bind. We have been working diligently to solve this issue and are having new spacers and freehubs manufactured and overnighted to us from our factory. That means come Monday morning yours truly, and the rest of the Wahoo team, will be dropping everything to head to our fulfillment center. We will be opening each and every KICKR box, replacing the necessary parts, and testing each unit. How’s that for some Wahooligan love?
Now for the good news! While open, your KICKR will also be getting a fresh firmware update so you’ve got the latest and greatest version when it arrives at your door. These two processes, unfortunately, will cause a slight delay in shipping. However, we’ve got the espresso machine primed and a killer playlist teed up…..we don’t plan on sleeping until the last KICKR is ready to ride!
We will be shipping KICKRs as they get updated and yours will ship based on your reservation spot. Some will be able to ship on March 4th as promised, but others will be delayed by a couple of days. When your KICKR is ready I’ll send you a link to a secure payment page so you can complete your order. Be sure to keep an eye on your email over the next few days. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Thanks and I’ll keep you updated!
looks like the computrainer is going on craigslist in 1 or 2 days
what are your thoughts on chain wear (i.e. the cassette and chain wear together)? Do you think I would have issues with the same chain effectively using two different cassettes and wearing unevenly across both of them? There’s nothing worse than a jumpy chain on a hill — I’d like to avoid that here in VT.
thanks!
Chain stretch is a result of riding on a worn cogset. So if you keep your drivetrain clean and change cogsets before they wear too much, you can change between cogsets (and extend the life of your chain) without much trouble. Its worth noting that in the case of riding an ERG workout on the KICKR (meaning that the trainer sets the resistance dynamically to make you output X watts) it doesn’t matter to the trainer what gear you ride in, so you can easily end up doing much your riding at whatever resistance set by the trainer without changing gears, and therefore in the same cog all the time. You might wear out one cog well before the others this way. This can be fixed by making sure you ride in different gears.
Tangentially, one of the cool aspects of ERG mode is that you can easily simulate different “speeds” at a given intensity just by changing gears. Want a fast paceline or motorpace simulation? Just make an interval workout 3mins at zone 3 (tempo/subLT), 20 secs at zone 4b (super-LT) or zone 5, times whatever, ride it in the 53/12 et voila, KICKR will let you ride that speed, at the cadence you want, at the watts specified for you in those zones.
My understanding is opposite of Ransom. It’s the chain stretching that generally causes both cog and chain ring wear. So replacing your chain regularly greatly extends the life of the cogs/chain rings. I believe the chain is ultimately the week link in the drive train and should be replaced regularly. I get about 1.5k miles on a road bike and under 1k on my mountain bikes. Clearly the torque you put on it impacts this greatly.
So to answer the question, if you have a chain that is in good shape (not stretched) using multiple different cog sets shouldn’t be a problem.
Regardless, as Ransom noted, it is a good idea to vary the cog used especially when in ERG mode since the gearing doesn’t really matter. The kickr is going to adjust the resistance to match your cadence.
thanks for the input guys. I’ll seriously consider changing my chain more often then I do.
Thanks for your hard work Ray! I see 3:15AM on some of those screen grabs….
I’ll just post a couple clarifications about my iMobileIntervals app:
* Ray reviewed a beta build; KICKR support is not on the Apple App Store yet but will be submitted in a matter of a day or so.
* The app is supported by a free website (http://imobileintervals.com) where you can build your own time-based interval workouts with assigned Coggan intensity levels. Coupled with your Functional Threshold Power, the app converts these into a specific watts value under ERG control.
* On the website you can make your workouts public or create a group to share your workouts and training plans only among teammates or clients.
* The workouts pulled from the website include synthesized speech prompts for your intervals, so you can hear e.g. “30 seconds of left leg at cadence 90-100” or “3 minutes in zone VO-MAX” as you reach the next interval. The app will duck the volume from the integrated music player to present this.
* Ray shows creating an interval workout in the app, which is very easy, though he doesn’t assign an intensity level to the interval, which is what you need to do to have the app set the ERG watts for the interval.
* You can easily switch in or out of ERG control (vs. standard resistance levels) during a workout.
KICKR is awesome and iMi makes it really easy to do ERG workouts without any desktop computer!
UPDATE: iMobileIntervals is on the AppStore with KICKR support, March 11.
iMobileIntervals: link to itunes.apple.com
Since version 3.0 iMobileIntervals supports creating workouts with specific watts values per interval,(like the classic Computrainer ERG file format) or percent of FTP (Computrainer MRC format). Users can create workouts that use ERG mode on iMobileIntervals.com or Garmin Connect. The website also has a convenient form for importing ERG or MRC files as iMobileIntervals workouts. Both iMobileIntervals and Garmin Connect have training calendars that you can use to schedule your daily workout right into the app.
It’s on my way…
Dear KICKR owner,
The time has come. The Wahoo team has been working tirelessly to replace the spacer and freehub, and update the firmware, and your KICKR is now ready to ship! All we need from you is to click on the link below and enter your credit card information and you will become a proud owner of one of the world’s first KICKRs. Exciting, I know!
Thanks for another comprehensive review.
What a great looking training platform. I will sell my Bushido and replace it with a KICKR.
First off – great review Ray. It will be interesting to see how things develope in the next few months with the 3rd party stuff. im still looking for a google maps based ride creater that will also accept elevation/course profiles. Anyone want to make an app with me ? ;-)
Prob a dumb question but …Any idea if those of us that bought through clever will also be getting the spacer/firmware update ?
Thanks for the review. Was fairly confident that it was the way to go with your fairly in-depth discussion of your feelings in beta testing. After this I: a) found out about the Kickr from your site before ordering a Computrainer and b) followed your advice and am soon to be a very happy owner.
Keep up the great work and looking forward to reading future reviews.
Check the paragraph above “Day to Day use”. You say “Lemond KICKR”
Great review – very informative as usual. Does anyone know when this will be available in the UK/Europe?
Is the “Resistance Mode” more similar to the %incline mode on the Powerbeam or more similar to the resistance curve on the Kinetic Road Machine?
Level Mode = 0 through 9. Basically 10 different grades using default settings. Much like a regular fluid trainer.
Resistance mode = 0-100% break, directly controls the power applied to the electronic break
Simulation Mode = % incline but also includes options to set wind and road resistance along with rider weight to better simulate the incline.
Erg Mode = Set the desired power output. Will remain the same power regarding of gear or speed.
Hope that helps.
What simulated incline (%) does the kickr go up to?
Up to 2000W watts. I was doing some short 20% climbs never tried more, since 20% was already super hard.
Good review, not as emotive as the Tacx genius review. No Android version, shameful :p
personally I find the Kinomaps very disappointing, small and poor quality.
I don’t think there is a product called “LeMond KICKR” yet. ;)
Thanks for the review Ray, I’ve been looking forward to reading your opinion since I first heard about this.
2 questions however:
i) UK/Europe availability – do you know when?
ii) Apart from the unreleased Strava app, is there any way to ride previously ridden GPS routes [i.e past rides in the alps etc?]
Grame,
No UK/EU date yet, finding people to sell the unit is the easy part, we are setting up service channels etc. We will let everyone know as soon as we have some dates.
Nothing on the previously ridden GPS routes yet. We will keep you posted.
Thanks
Hey Ray,
Great review. My question is on the firmware updates. Is there any other way to update the Kickr if no iPhone/iPad is present? I personally don’t own either and wonder if I can ever update it unless Wahoo makes a Mac version of their software or supports updates through Ant+ down the road.
Also, is calibration really important? I mean is the Kickr going to be way off at one point?
Thanks!
Greg,
We should have update via Bluetooth on the mac available soon, we really just need to write a little bit of the UI. We are also looking into support via ANT+.
The KICKR comes factory calibrated and should be nearly perfect out of the box, its a good idea to calibrate it after you transport it or after the first first weeks use. It is NOT something you need to do before each ride and it only take 20-30 seconds.
Thanks
Is it now possible to update via Bluetooth on the mac ? I want to use my KICK with my trainer road but I guess I need to update the firmware first… cuz right now it’s not working well. It’s really annoying, you tell people that it’s fine using a KICKR with a mac using trainer road but nobody told me I needed an iphone or ipad to update it…
Thanks
For the canadians reading this. When I contacted the vendor they said they would ship to Canada :)
I’m really tempted although the wife would probably kill me as I just brought home a KK road machine.
just give her the KK
For those of us with an SRM and wanting cadence data, can we avoid adding a speed/cadence sensor and have the KICKR (or is it the app?) pick up cadence from our SRM?
The WahooFitness app doesn’t currently support this configuration and its not currently high on the list.
TrainerRoad are working on support, if you have a SRM and KICKR paired, it will take the Power and Cadence from the SRM but still control the KICKR.
iMobileIntervals is coded to use the crank powermeter cadence and the KICKR power for display and recorded data.
Thanks – I do know that Trainer Road works well with the SRM, pulling the cadence data from the crank and avoiding the need for attaching a speed/cadence sensor. Looking forward to using this configuration with my KICKR, which just shipped today!
I have no idea how you manage to do all these great, detailed reviews, but I love that you do. Thanks.
It was nice that you included some upcoming apps and gave a (tentative) timeline for the ANT+ control.
Any inkling if Garmin might add control to the firmware of there watchs/cycling computers? I have a 910 and would love to be able to just use erg mode from the bars.
I’ll order one of these as soon as the ANT+ control is worked out
I’ve been talking to Garmin that units like the Edge 800/810 are ideal candidates to control the KICKR, similar to the Fox Mountain bike ‘app’ that they toyed with a year or so ago.
I have a low-confidence level they’ll do it though. But technically they could.
Link is broken on Clever Training to order it!
Eek, looks like an issue with the links. Here’s a direct link, and then you can use DCR10BTF upon checkin: link to clevertraining.com
Ok, this should be all corrected now. Sorry for the trouble, and thanks for the support!
Ray-
Are you aware if they will be able to link trainers together in ERG mode for indoor group training?
I see the Ant+ / Bluetooth smart interface being a potential limitation here.
Thanks
Rob
Due to the 1:1 relationship restrictions on Bluetooth Smart, we’ll see multi-linking as part of the ANT+ spec. I’ve talked with Chip about this, and the ANT+ Resistance Control spec will actually allow two devices to control the trainer. For example, the ‘student’ in a trainer class, as well as the overall instructor.
I know that the PerfPro guys are looking to be the first in line for multi-user/same location KICKR control.
HI Ray super and detail review. You are definetly a great help and you know what you are talking about.
Can you please let me know if the KICKR is compatible with SRAM. It’s not clear for me that the cassette fit. Or what can I do to make it fit ?
Thanks
JO
SRAM and Shimano chains, hubs, cogs, and rings can generally be interchanged. Only shifters (and maybe brakes) cannot. So yes, your SRAM chain and 10-speed rear derailleur are compatible with the default KICKR setup.
Tks Carlton for response
What about 11 gears Sram?
Hi Luis,
The KICKR freehub body is compatible with the new Shimano 11 speed cassettes. Just remove the stock 10-speed and install your 11-speed cassette and you’ll be good to go!
So you can really log and win Strava KOMs from the comfort of your own home? Freaky.
Might be harder than in real life- as mine are all with a tailwind. ;)
guess you can also change your crr and aero as well.
there’s really no reason to venture outside anymore.
I don’t think rides you do on your KICKR will post to Strava leaderboards. You have to actually ride the real life segment in the real world. What the Strava app allows you to do is “virtually race” a Strava segment. I believe that all of your KICKR rides can go to Strava the same way they can now – as stationary trainer rides.
Correct. While the GPS is visible in-app, we will not allow it to be exported. Rides will be posted to Strava as trainer workouts.
We will maintain our own leader boards for KICKR efforts.
Murray
The Skuga app will export a .gpx file that will post a KOM or leader board to a segment, but if you pull up the ride in Strava you will see that it is a Stationary Trainer ride. I had a KOM today show up in Strava and it shocked me.
Hi,
Thanks for letting us know. It should have been reported as Virtual Ride and not eligible for the KOM for sure. We will double check today and adjust accordingly.
Thanks for the great review as always.
I have a question regarding KICKR compatibility with older bikes. I’d like to leave KICKR setup all the time using an old steel lugged frame road bike which otherwise hasn’t seen much use in years. It’s old enough that the rear spacing is 126mm. Do you know if KICKR can handle this more narrow rear dimension? I’d guess it’s possible to stretch the rear and force fit it (or have someone cold set it permanently). Is it designed with some optional spacers so you can handle anything in the 126mm to 135mm range?
Since the unit is Electronically controlled, is it possible to do high power/ low rpm reps on the KICKR? With the LeMond, it floats at 75-95 RPM once the gear is rolling. I would like a unit that can stabilize below 60 or 40 RPM to mimic hill climbs and maximize big gear efforts.
Certainly. That’s the beauty of this trainer. KICKR in ERG mode demands a certain watts be produced, so if you set it to 300 watts, it will raise or lower the resistance to make you produce 300 watts. It doesn’t care what cadence you use, so pedal at the cadence you want. You might like to try an application like iMobileIntervals that will run interval workouts in ERG mode. Here’s an example of one such workout tailored to over-gear efforts in the lactate threshold zone: link to imobileintervals.com
Great review Ray!
I’m in Europe and ordered via Clever Training – so I’m hoping to have one of the first KICKRs on this side of the pond very soon – I can’t wait :-)
Received mine today! This thing is heavy! Preparing to do my first workout on it!
Will this work with windows via bluetooth 4.0 dongle?
Its possible on Windows 8, but at this stage we haven’t even started any API for developers to use.
However, we are working on ANT+ control and this will allow it to work on Windows/Mac with a ANT+ dongle. PrefPro and Golden Cheetah are both working on this solution and should be available sooner rather than later.
Thanks
As soon as the ANT+ WahooFitness api update drops, iMobileIntervals will update the app to do this. iMobileIntervals is an iPhone app, so you’ll need an iOS device, but no desktop machine is required.
drgav2005
How did you order?
Just had a message from Clever Training saying they won’t ship to the UK
Ray Your trainer reviews really helped me sort out what trainer would work best for me and what apps I could expect. Thanks for the great review of apps and KICKR! My KICKR ships today! Can’t wait to pair it with my iPhone 5, HR, SC and RFLKT and get to work! You do the testing most of us would like to do, if we had the time and access to all the various gear you review.
Clever training have taken an order from myself and im based in the uk. They have debited my card. I have since contacted them and they have confirmed they will be happy honour the delivery.
chris andrews
cheers for the info – will decide tonight re:order and final price
I think it’s price of kickr + delivery charge + 2.7% import duty + 20%VAT
any idea on delivery dates?
Your can get 10% of using the discount code. Will have to pay the VAT on top when it come to the UK anyway. All i know is ive been told second batch, i’m hoping it will be dispatched in the next few weeks. Just got to wait.
Has anyone heard anything from clever training about their kickr?
Yes. When asked, they promptly replied “We should have them in our warehouse by the middle of next week, shipped to customers by the end of the week.” End of the week is March 15th.
Just as a general FYI, I got the low-down on status from Clever.
20 KICKR’s were shipped to Clever from Wahoo on Friday, they hope to have them arrive on Wednesday and turned right back around again to readers the same day.
Then 40 more KICKR’s are expected 2 weeks following that. Subsequently, every two weeks following they will receive an additional 20 units.
Note that Clever Training is setup such that DCR readers get priority for KICKR’s (cool, huh?) – which means as long as you used the coupon code (or the link with the coupon code), you’re good.
Again – a huge thanks for your support of the site through DCR. I know folks may get their units a few days later than others, but I really do appreciate the support.
Absolutely incrdible review and website!!!
One of the nice features of the computrainer is its ability to have a multi-user power session all on one screen. I am new to the bike technology game and am looking to replace my fluid trainers at home. I love doing group power trainer sessions in the multi user format. Does the kickr (or any of the “new” generation trainers) allow this to occur? Thanks in advance.
Sounds like a couple company’s are working on solutions. The beauty of an open platform is that if there is a demand, there will be a product. There are numerous ways this could likely be implemented, from each trainer still having it’s own device (like phone) which then communicate with a central computer or all directly connecting to a single computer. So it’s only a matter of time.
Yup, just to expand a bit here. I talked to the Wahoo guys about this, and they see this as part of the ANT+ control piece coming online in the next few weeks. Once that’s done, I know folks such as the PerfPro guys are waiting with digital ink in hand to make this happen near-instantly on the KICKR.
So I think by the end of April you’ll see one or more pieces of software that can fill this void.
Will there be an issue with using the Wahoo with a bike that is normally a 9 speed SRAM cassette along with a 50/39/30 crank? Mainly concerned the chain will jump or not align properly for shifting purposes.
Kind of funny. Wahoo Fitness has all sorts of info on the device compatibility but nothing on drive train compatibility. I would expect it to work just fine but you’d probably need to get a 9 speed cog set and probably use a small spacer to have it properly line up with your current derailleur if you don’t want to make adjustments each time you put it on and take it off.
Hi DC. Great review, thanks! How do you find the “feel” of the Kickr relative to Computrainer?
best regards,
Roger
Well, I received the unit today and it is what I feared – skipping and jumping. There is no detailed manual, no useful info on the support site and support has yet to respond (since there is no phone number listed anywhere). I have one bike that has a 10 cog and one that has a 9. I would prefer to be using the 9 so need to figure out some way for it to work. Pretty annoyed with the lack of docs or ability to view anything in detail that would allow me to have more than a 45 lb mat weight.
I have also noticed that the info on the web site is severely lacking. But it also sounds like you had some unreasonable expectations. You are going to have exactly the same issues as if you tried to take someone else’s wheel and put it on your bike. 9 speed and 10 speed cog sets have different spacing, which leads to skipping. You need to install a 9 speed cog on the kickr for your 9 speed bike, which should be pretty trivial. Even if the cog set is compatible with your derailleur, you may still need to make minor adjustments to get it to align perfectly, in order to have it shift smoothly. This also is pretty easy once you learn how, and a good thing to understand in any case, because cables stretch which impacts this even on your regular wheel. Unfortunately most cyclists don’t understand these simple maintenance issues.
@ekutter – thank you for your comments. I will try to swap out the cassette. Admittedly you are correct, I have not done a lot of that, even though this does seem trivial. Without having experience, I fear breaking or wreaking it – which is why I wanted to see a maintenance manual and so on just to confirm there is nothing specific with the Wahoo that needs to be done (other than what would take place on a wheel).
I could give you more info in a week once I get mine, but it should be straight forward. Probably need a couple of tools to help remove the current one if it is like a standard wheel (google “swap cog set”). Maybe Ray could add a note to his review as I suspect a number of people will run into this. Shame on wahoo fitness for not including this. There are actually numerous advantages to this direct drive system over a traditional friction based trainer but you have stumbled onto one of the draw backs especially if you have multiple bikes.
@BBach, you asked the exact Q I was pondering.
I currently have all 9 speed groups (road and MTB) and am upgrading my RR bike to Shimano 9k (11 speed). Wish they would offer a cassette option…
Hey,
I personally use a 9spd cassette on my KICKR, It works just like any other wheel would. For a while I didn’t even bother replacing the Cassette since i nearly always use ERG mode (no gear shifting required). It wasn’t until I wanted to use the simulation modes and shift gears that I swapped the cassette.
I hope that helps.
Murray
Can’t tell from the picture, but if the Kickr 10 speed cassette is all loose cogs, you can replace the spacers with 9 speed ones (possibly from an old worn out cassette- everyone keeps those, right?) and leave a gear off and you’ll be fine.
For those who have received the Kickr, what are your initial impressions?
I’ve just set up my Kickr last night and have only had time (and physical ability — getting over hamstring pull) to do some pedaling. Very smooth without that rubbery feel of tire on trainer; not loud in my torture chamber at all. Unfortunately, I tried to find that erg power control setting in the biking prefs page in Wahoo fitness app on my ipod touch 5th gen — does not exist from what I can tell, so leads me to believe that power control via BT is not possible on this ipod. It pairs and can read the Kickr power sensor no problem. Can someone please corroborate this as well? Thanks in advance.
If you can pair the KICKR over BT, then you should be good to go.
It sounds like you might not have the KICKR page turned on, In the workout settings scroll all the way to the bottom and check that it is switched on.
Thanks
@wahoo murray,
Thanks for the reply. I am able to pair the Kickr power sensor fine on the ipod touch (5th gen). In the workout settings (Biking Prefs), when I scroll all the way down the last entries I have are “Simple Power” and “Bike Power” but no KICKR option (like Ray’s pic above). I took screenshots, if you want me to send them to you just leave me your email. btw, I don’t necessarily want these comments to be Wahoo’s support site but also thought people might be interested in a cheap way to get erg control w/ ipod (instead of ipad/MacBook).
Hi KT,
Ray can delete anything that he thinks shouldn’t be here. Feel free to buzz us on our support site as well.
Sounds like you might not have the latest app installed, we released v3.1 last week that should include the KICKR workout screen.
Wow, just downloaded the app last night, but you are right there was an update when I just checked. KICKR option is there and working! Thanks!
I’m good with information sharing here, assuming the goal/info benefits others. As Murray noted, if for some reason it crosses a line I haven’t yet defined, I’ll take action.
But, I think I’ve only ever deleted one or two comments on the blog (non-spam anyway), and that was purely for personal attacks.
Ok, ride #2 and I can’t seem to figure out what’s going on. The power output seems ok, I think. But the speed/distance is just off. I’m coming from riding a LeMond Revolution and I am very used to that power curve. It came really close to my outside ride metrics in terms of power and speed.
Tonight, I did a spin down test and then (during my warm up) tried SIM mode. I selected TT bike and started my warm up. It seemed as though there was very little resistance and before I knew it, I was spinning out my 50/11 at 130W. Que?! So then I switched to Level 0. It seemed like the power curve was pretty steep while geared at 50/21, but the speed indicated for the power that I was putting out was low. 22mph at 316W. Which would normally be around 24.5mph.
What am I doing wrong?
The only thing wrong that I can see is that you’re not using the LeMond Revolution any longer. That is usually the cause of poor indoor trainer performance.
“Perhaps because with the exception of the LeMond Revolution Pro, most trainers for me fall into two categories: Feels fine, or feels sucky. The Wahoo KICKR falls into the ‘feels fine’ category. Admittedly, at the upper end of that. The LeMond revolution is the only trainer that I say ‘Yes, I FEEL that!’.”
I have the same question Damon and no one seems to want to answer this. It’s kind of hard to fathom. Yet in ‘sim’ mode, the Wahoo app clearly has the drag factors (C and Crr) entered in a fixed way. Why can’t these be changed?
Sorry for not responding originally, didn’t see it until you posted today Sean.
We are planning on adding the capability to enter all the parameters around drag, but didn’t want to just throw something in. We want to make it intuitive and allow people to understand the parameters and be able to get the KICKR setup to accurately match your outdoor resistance curve. With air density, Coefficient of rolling resistance, coefficient of wind resistance and frontal area all involved it needs a bit of explaining. The compromise for getting the App launched was a few different default bike types. We’re working on some updates now with an eye to having a solid update ready for the fall trainer season.
thanks,
Chip
Can I link to the KICKR to get speed only via ANT+?
The reason I ask is that I have a Quarq. I use the Quarq as my gold standard power meter because I can use it outside and use the information to race. Therefore, I want to pair my Garmin to my Quarq for power and my Garmin to the KCKR for speed. Then I can use my iPhone, iPad or Trainerroad to control the resistance on the KCKR.
As an FYI to others I am measuring about 10 watts different between my Quarq and KCKR; within the margin that I would expect. But enough different that I want to upload the information from my Quarq so I don’t have any inconsistency between power meters.
No, it’s currently being delivered via the ANT+ power profile, which is including the speed component (just like a PowerTap hub actually).
It’s funny though, your use case is something I had pondered, and also thought it would be nice if the unit were to broadcast a plain-jane ANT+ speed sensor stream.
Since you are looking at Interest, DCRainmaker, I will express mine to pass along.
I want to do this exact same thing with my SRM. I want to use my iPod/iPhone or Trainer Road to control the KICKR, but want to get power/cadence from my SRM and speed from the KICKR. In the Lemond Revolution, I hooked a speed sensor to the Lemond since it has a built in magnet in the *wheel*. I dont think KICKR has that and the opening between the wheel and the bar are too narrow to put a magnet on it.
In addition, I am finding ~15 watts difference in power between the SRM and the KICKR. As you do with the quarq, I use my SRM as my gold standard and consistency across all my workouts. I want to grab speed from the KICKR via ANT+ though.
The power curve is completely different as well – the SRM is much noisier than the kickr – as if the kickr is smoothing it in some way. FWIW, this is the same thing I found with the PowerBeam pro.
I can pair to TR and to the Wahoo app just fine, but can’t for KinoMap. I have the latest version, and try to pair to the Wahoo, but it just searches indefinitely. This is the case on iPhone, iPad, etc. Have you had any such problems?
Hi E-
If you’re having problems where Kinomap won’t connect, it’s likely because one of the other apps is still connected (even in background). To remedy, go and kill (as in, using the little ‘x’) any other running apps that would connect to the KICKR (such as the Wahoo Fitness or Wahoo Utility Apps), on any iPhones or iPads. That should do it. Failing that, go ahead and turn on/off Bluetooth on your iPhone(s).
Because Bluetooth Smart is 1:1 only, once one app on one device makes that KICKR connection, it blocks others.
I got caught by this all the time in my testing, mostly due to multiple Bluetooth Smart Devices (iPad/iPhone/Mac) all making connections that I’d forget about.
Hope this helps!
Picked my KICKR up from FedEx last night and thanks to your reviews Ray, had my bike on it in about 10 minutes. I thought it came with 9 spd so I put my 9 spd bike on and discovered all the skipping; then counted gears, took the 9 bike off and put my SRAM 10 bike on and it married up just fine to the Shimano 10 on the KICKR, no adjustment needed! Paired to Wahoo app ok (thanks again to your reviews) and then to Kinomap, where I finally discovered that I had to unpair it from the Wahoo and other apps before Kinomap could find the KICKR. With that done I took a Kinomap ride called “Prologue tour de Romandie Lausanne…” where I promptly got left in the dust. Then found a local ride on Kinomap and tried it. Worked great, I got off my bike sweat’n like a dog, feeling like I had been on the road for 45 min (at least as close as you can get in a living room with no wind and sun etc.).
All that said, I love my KICKR! I know a lot of you trainer hounds have used a variety of trainers, but I’ve tested a few and ridden some during bike fits, but hated all of them, so never bought one because I was afraid it would just gather dust in the corner. My KICKR issues have been with apps (from everybody) with poor or no instructions or poor functionality! Your reviews saved me tons of time setting up and pairing!!!!!!!! To me it feels 90% like a road ride minus weather. Sound is not too loud. Kind of stiff because you can’t lean from side to side for turns or standing up; but I like the solid base for a trainer, feels secure. Also noticed that standing up felt strange, because the trainer doesn’t move along with you as you accelerate. All in all the hardware is great, but all the apps need improved! Wish all the apps had a disconnect option for moving between apps!
Ray, Wahoo and all the app developers should hire you to do instruction videos on how to use their products! You’ve been a great help! THANKS!
When the snow flies, the rain pours and the wind rages, I’ll be on my KICKR!
Dave
@Dave 1929 You are lucky to already have your KICKR ! When did you place your order ?
When I placed my order (March 5) on Clever Training, availability was March 15
Payment is collected same day.
Today I received this email from Clever…
I don’t foresee being able to fulfill March orders until almost May.
Kind Regards,
Zackary
I think you might see some more clarity in this day in the next day or two. I talked with Clever and the backlog may not be as bad as the e-mail implies (they were being safe while awaiting more information from Wahoo).
I placed my order January 24th. Still no word on when it will ship from Clever Training. That said, I think they are doing the best they can and respond to emails pretty quick.
@Rainmaker
Any news from Clever ?
On web site it is now “Ships in 5-7 business days”
Hi Stephane-
They got in their first shipments from Wahoo last Thursday, and then were shipped out from there. Last I checked, the plan was to continue getting weekly shipments in from them.
I know if you e-mail Clever, they’ll be able to give you a pretty good estimate of exactly when. I’ll double-check with them on the 5-7 days though. Perhaps they just got a bigger than expected shipment this past week.
Thanks for the support!
Ok, chatted with the Clever Training folks.
The 5-7 days is indeed accurate. A large shipment (what I’d classify as a crap-ton) of KICKR’s was in theory sent from Wahoo yesterday to them. They are pending a tracking number from Wahoo, but assuming it was sent out to Clever Training and arrives early next week, it’ll easily cover the units remaining on backorder, plus availability for new units.
Thanks for your support all!
To follow up – I swapped out the stock 10 cassette and put on a sram 9. It works perfectly. I have ridden it 3 times and it has been excellent. No issues with pairing and getting the app going. Very happy with it thus far.
I haven’t had a chance to really use my KICKR yet, but that will change in the coming days. While I fully expected to keep the KICKR indoors only and use a separate trainer (like a KK Road Machine) for use warming up before races, the KICKR is so compact, won’t chew up my expensive sew-ups and is so compact that I’m really thinking that I want to use it on the road as well. The ability to pre-create a warm-up routine and run it in ERG mode seems like a no-brainer!
So that that said, I understand that there may be plans for a battery or car adapter option. What is the status on that? And in the meantime, are there any third-party solutions for outdoor use?
Assuming it is a standard issue wall wart transformer, you can by 12V to 110V inverters that plug into a cigarette lighter at any Walmart or similar store.
KICKR + your car:
The power output the converter is 12v 5A, so you need this cord
link to radioshack.com
with this tip (type L, OD 5mm, ID 2.1MM) Can Wahoo Murray confirm that plug size?
link to radioshack.com
And then you need an iPhone app that does interval ERG workouts for the KICKR, which is my app!
iMobileIntervals: link to itunes.apple.com
Ransom,
Thanks for that info. I figured the KICKR must draw a lot of current, so it does not surprise me that a heavy duty car adapter is needed.
While I imagine car batteries vary in terms of capacity, does anyone have a sense for how long on average one could run their KICKR without draining the battery?
I am a little confused though by the second piece that you linked to. It would seem that either the first piece would plug directly into the KICKR’s power brick or you would need something that plugs into the adapter and then provides a female “socket” for the KICKR’s power cable prongs to plug into.
Update/Edit: The below adapter was confirmed by a reader to NOT work with the KICKR. The plug is just a touch bit different.
I reached out to the Wahoo team on this. They ordered a $9 converter (link to amazon.com) that they believe MIGHT work off of Amazon to test, but I’d wait until I get confirmation from them that it actually works. If so, I’ll buy one as well and add some portions about it on the review.
Again, just hang tight until they’re 100% it does work (the model that they bought). I’d hate for folks to find out it doesn’t.
Just to add on Rays comments, We will confirm the quality of a few options and post some information on our website.
At 100% break, the KICKR uses about 5Amps, but most of the time you will be around the 2Amps area. (Car headlights use about 10Amps).
You car shouldn’t have any issue running the KICKR for many hours without issues, we are also looking at a couple small 12V lead acid battery options (about $20) that should be able to drive the KICKR for about 4-5hrs between charge.
I will post a link here when its available.
The two radioshack items are a) a DC car power accessory with a place on the end for a tip that fits the actual electronics you are trying to power and b) that tip, which I’m thinking is type L, outer diameter 5mm, inner diameter 2.1mm, but I’m not entirely sure.
The brick that comes with the trainer converts AC to 12V DC, and as Murray notes the car supplies plenty of amps at 12V so there is no need to convert anything; you just need the right plug on the end of the cord.
Murray, have you been able to post any additional info on running the Kickr off a battery, as indicated in your prior post?
Thank.
Disregard, i found the later posts.
Has anyone been successful in setting up the KICKR with an IPad 4? I spent the last 4 hours trying to replicate the setup here, but almost none of the screens or functions are showing. I can get the Wahoo Fitness App to recognize the unit and get speed, but that’s it. Support for the IPad seems to be non-existent on-line.
Yes, I had no problem at all using it with my iPad 4
My appologies to Wahoo for complaining about their support documentation; I found the app support and it is helpful!
KICKR shipped yesterday from Clever! Should be here on Thursday. Can’t wait.
When did you place your order ?
Jan 17th. They also honored the $999.00 (-10%) price as listed at the time. Good folks & I’m glad our orders help support this site.
Thanks all for the support, I really appreciate it! And yup, I’m happy that Clever honored the initial price for everyone before Wahoo raised it. They’re good folks like that.
Any thoughts on Kinomap vs the cycleops offering?
Any update on the ANT+ control
I haven’t heard anything this week on it.
Ray – thanks for the coverage you’ve given this product, especially this review. I noted in the unboxing that you posted dimensions of the box – thanks for that.
Two questions:
1. Is there also a shipping weight you can provide? I understand the unit is 46 pounds, and can guess from there but am hoping there’s an actual number available. Every page I’ve come across doesn’t have these important pieces of info.
2. The dimensions you posted are height x width x depth right?
For the KICKR making its way diagonally across the country to me, UPS shows a shipping weight of 55 lbs. That may be accurate, or merely rounded up to the nearest five pounds.
I’m pretty similar to Neal. The shipping label on my exterior box shows 50 pounds. In my experience with shipping carriers and weights of this nature (I often ship servers), as long as you’re +/- a few pounds they’ll be fine (if you’re creating the UPS label).
And correct, dimensions are HxWxD.
Does iMobileIntervals allow creating a workout at a specific wattage as opposed to a Coogan’s levels? I do not have a Mac so cannot use TrainerRoad. Does the Wahoo app allow you to do this in Erg mode?
iMobileIntervals sets the ERG watts according to the Coggan zones only. If you only want to dial the trainer to an exact watts, you want to use the Wahoo app (which in comparison has no capability to run an interval workout and change the ERG watts in a timed manner).
If the ERG watts calculated by iMobileIntervals for a particular zone isn’t working for you, you can easily set an offset (+-50 watts in 10 watt increments) during your workout to adjust your effort.
Thanks for the information but that seems like a huge range. For example, L5 can be 106% to 120%, but repeated efforts at 106% to 108% for 2 plus minutes is doable but not at 118% to 120%.
I assume setting exact watts is possible in TrainerRoad, meaning I must wait for the Ant+ compatibility because I have a PC.
Are you the same Ransom that posted the Sufferfest workouts on iMobileIntervals? I was actually looking to use the Kickr specifically for those workouts. How well does the Coogan zones work as opposed to using a Computrainer where you can create an erg file with specific wattages?
Yes I am. I think the sufferfest workouts work well in a zone based workout compared to a specific %ftp. The key is that you can easily adjust an offset if is too hard or too easy.
I built an ERG file importer on the imobileintervals site and used that to import the sufferfest erg workouts. This has no doubt resulted in some slight changes to the workouts, as the importer analyzes the absolute watts compared to the use’s ftp, or uses the %ftp in the file to assign a zone.
Meanwhile, when you run the imported workout on the KICKR, the app assigns the midpoint watts for the zone as the ERG watts. If the original %ftp is at the edge of the zone, the iMobileIntervals version will have shifted it to the middle.
iMobileIntervals uses the 4a/4b zones for LT and super-LT, which are quite narrow, so that shouldn’t get too messed up. But you are right to point to L5 as the most problematic. There is a big difference between a 106% L5 and a 114% L5, which is what you get for L5 in my app.
On the plus side, you get more info than you would with just straight % ftp. The app will display the power range for L5 as the target watts: e.g. 297 – 336, but the ERG mode will make you make 113% = 316. And if you want to do 306 or 296 instead, you just scroll the erg offset picker wheel one or two clicks.
I just took a look through the sufferfest mrc files, and I note that about half the workouts have L5 all at 114%, but the other half bounce around between 108, 114 and 118%. So This might stand for a bit of a change in the way the app works. Specifically, I think I can add another database field for the %ftp for imported ERG files that can drive the trainer at a non-zone-centered value. This’ll need an app update, but one is coming soon, with some other interesting changes.
The thing I’m about to work on now is fetching structured workouts from Garmin Connect directly to the app. They use a %ftp system there, so the above issue needs to be dealt with for that as well.
BTW if anyone has ERG or MRC files that they want to use with the KICKR, the ERG file importer is available to any logged-in iMobileIntervals user, on the website: link to imobileintervals.com
One other note about zone-based erg workouts on the KICKR with iMobileIntervals: for zones 6 (sub maximal) and 7 (maximal) there is no max percent, so we can’t take an average and use that. instead, iMobileIntervals shifts into fixed resistance mode in those zones, allowing you to change gears if you want more or less resistance at the effort. Also, in the settings there is a place to specify the resistance levels in these two zones. (likewise, zone 1 is set to resistance level 0, so that you can ride at whatever wattage you want).
To update this thread with the latest info, the app now supports exact watts per interval (like Computrainer ERG) or % of FTP (Computrainer MRC) in addition to now having a form to import ERG and MRC files, and support for Garmin Connect workouts with ERG mode and the Garmin Connect calendar.
Got my KICKR from the local bike shop yesterday. My first impressions were pretty frustrating. With my iPhone 5, the power numbers kept dropping out. Thought I must be getting interference. It would lose connection for a few seconds ever few seconds. Couldn’t even keep a connection long enough to calibrate. I was using the WF app. I shut down my phone, restarted it, and everything worked like a charm. After proper calibration of the KICKR and my SRM, power numbers were within 1% at 200 and 250 watts but when the KICKR was set to 150watts, my SRM was showing 139. I think the KICKR also does some smoothing as it didn’t jump around nearly as much as my SRM numbers.
This might be the fatal flaw with blue tooth smart, and Ray touched on it in the review. BT is 1-to-1. If you have two apps or devices trying to connect at the same time, you likely get unpredictable results. I ran into this with a BT HR strap. This is really a problem with BT and its implementation. At least on the phone, there doesn’t seem to be any way to know what app has control, if any. There needs to be a way for the current app to take control.
Looking forward to seeing how the ANT+ installation deals with this. It doesn’t make sense to have two apps trying to control it at the same time. one set in ERG mode at 150 watts, the other app set at 250 watts. Who wins? It does make a ton of sense to have multiple apps/devices reading the data at the same time. I want my Edge to be able to pick up the power and speed numbers but leave the control to my phone.
KICKR arrived today and mechanically it is just a beast. In 2013 you just don’t see many things with this type of build quality. Have been setting it up to work with my 24 year old Marinoni road bike. In theory putting a 4.5mm spacer (available at the LBS) behind the 7spd cassette is all that’s required to make it work (along with some derailleur adjustment). It’s actually very easy to spread the 126mm steel frame to fit the KICKR in the 130mm configuration. Fitting a new chain for the changed gearing (the Marinoni is fitted with a Dura-ace freewheel so couldn’t use the same gears). Now just waiting for Golden Cheetah to release the build which supports KICKR as I don’t have any recent iOS devices available.
Speaking of Golden Cheatah (and other thord party apps), has Wahoo released the resistance API to the third party developers yet for those of us with Windows and ANT+ devices? I haven’t even taken my KICKR out of the box and have kidded about it being a door stopper, but now I’m seriously thinking of selling it as I cannot have a $1k piece of kit just laying around. Third party app support was supposed to be a key selling point of the KICKR. I hope they live up to the hype and get their API act together ASAP.
They were aiming for towards the end of this month.
I just received my KICKR trainer and have tested it on a few rides. I have not experienced the same level of power accuracy that you have. I am comparing my KICKR power to my SRM. The differences are significant and the KICKR consistently measures much high power levels than the SRM. I calibrated them both at start and mid-ride. Mine has the latest and greatest firmware.
For example, on the last ride I did, the SRM recorded 197 NP and the KICK 209 NP ad the SRM recored 194 AP and KICKR 207 AP. If you look at every Lap, similar inconsistencies are shown. This part bums me out. I was hoping to use this to control my workouts in ERG mode (my own custom + trainer road) but with those huge differences, it will have me training in the wrong zones.
How do you know your SRM is accurate? This is on of the biggest problems with power and accuracy. It is very hard to know which is correct. My SRM and Kickr were nearly identical at 200 and 250 watts but off by about 12 watts at 150. More important than accuracy is consistency. Wonder if there is a way to specify a power curve, or at least an offset that would allow you to have the kickr numbers adjusted to match the SRM. There would also be a slight difference, probably 2 to 5 watts, from the crank measurement to the rear cog measurement but that would make what you are seeing even worse. They all say they are accurate within a certain percent but I bet if you used 10 different devices from the same manufacturer you would see way more than that in variation, especially after they have been out in the field for a while.
I agree that consistency is more important than accuracy and if it was a consistent difference, a simple offset would solve the problem. I have not done enough riding on it to know if it is consistent.
I will say that I have tested my PowerTap to my SRM on numerous occasions and the differences are negligible. I dont have a problem using either set and I dont worry about consistency between them.
It doesnt actually matter if the SRM is *right* or the KICKR is right since for me the SRM is my gold standard. I have 2-3 years of data using my SRM so I have consistent views across all workouts. Mixing KICKR watts in there would invalidate my data.
But, again, if consistent, a simple offset functionality would work just fine for me.
If the kickr itself doesn’t provide a fixed offset or curve option, it could very easily be implemented in software where the full interface is through the computer or phone. Sounds like a feature that could differentiate software packages. Wouldn’t help much if you are using your Garmin to log the data, though.
So lets say you are riding your bike with the SRM on the KICKR, can see the SRM watts showing 250 on the srm headunit, but the KICKR reporting 240 on the iPhone app. Providing you want to ride the values on the SRM, with an ERG workout using values normal to your FTP on the SRM, in ERG mode, the KICKR is going to be asking you to make 10 more watts than you want to. What you want to do is offset the ERG values being sent to the KICKR by -10.
In the current version of iMobileIntervals (link to imobileintervals.com) I have implemented an offset feature which allows you to offset the erg watts being sent to the KICKR (as provided by an interval workout). You can click the picker wheel to -10 and if the ERG file value is 240, it will send 230 to the KICKR and in the case above your SRM will show 240.
This feature is really for adjusting your day-to-day effort in an ERG workout, e.g. if you are fatigued. Its also uses 10 watt increments, though I can easily change this to, say, 5 watt steps.
However, it will be easy to implement a setting to permanently offset the erg value sent to the KICKR, and also add a switch to prefer powermeter watts for display and recorded data. Right now iMi shows and saves your KICKR watts to the tcx file, not your powermeter watts. I’ll make these changes for the next version.
Does that sound like it would resolve most of the problems with the watts descrepancy? It doesn’t solve the power curve difference (i.e. different difference at 150 watts vs 250 watts) but you would want to set the offset at the most critical spot (i.e. at lactate threshold).
Also, did you do the spin-down calibration for the KICKR? That should be performed infrequently, but after you set up or move the unit.
It sounds like that would work for me. I will have to try it.
Actually, it is a +10 watts or so that I will need. In your example, the KICKR would be showing that I am doing 250 watts but my SRM will show that I am doing 235-240 watts.
I have done the spin down test on the KICKR several times – once at the start and a couple time after it warmed after 20 or 30 minutes.
I havent tried your app yet because I thought I read somewhere that it only can be based on Coggin Power ranges and that is not what I use — I use specific watt ranges for almost all my interval workouts – that is just the way I do it. So, I target a specific set of watts for specific intervals – not % of FTP ranges.
I didnt want to pay for the app and then found out I couldnt do it.
The great benefits of open source. The users ask for something, and developers respond. Awesome!
Hey,
It’s a tuff area, power meters are REALLY hard to compare, just ask Ray.
We believe the KICKR is very accurate and more importantly, very consistent. We have tested it with precision dynamometers over a range of temperatures.
We understand that people have large amounts of data with existing power meters that they class as their gold standard. I don’t think its a argument on what one is more correct, we think they are both correct, in their own way.
Crank based power meters are always going to be very erratic, its why most people use a 4 second average. KICKR’s power is very smooth, this is mostly natural smoothing from the design of the system.
Personally, I keep track of two FTP values, one for indoors and one outdoors. I’ve always found that they are different even when I was using the same PowerTap meter. Lots of environmental and metal differences that effect your peak performance.
Trainerroad can connect to both your SRM and KICKR, this allows your to still record and compare your SRM power. If you find the KICKR is always a few percent lower, you just need to bump up the % target so you are hitting the desired values with your SRM.
We have also discussed the ability to feed the external power values directly into the KICKR control system (via ANT+) that will allow it to adjust the resistance so the external power meter matches your target power. We will keep you posted on our direction.
Hope that answers some of you questions
Murray
KICKR erg mode fits so well with the interval training via iPhone that iMi makes possible– I’m trying to do whatever I can to make the app work will with athletes’ existing ways of doing things. To that end I have an erg file importer on the site, that will convert the erg file into intervals, and in doing so it does two things:
1) it looks at your ftp in your website account and figures out what Coggan zone the watts or ftp percent in the erg file is
2) it saves the ftp percent for that interval.
Item #2 is something I just put in this week. The Appstore version of the app currently sends an ERG watts to the KICKR that is the median value for the Coggan zone. My current dev version of the app changes this for workouts that have been created from an ERG file import. If the workout contains an ERG ftp percentage value, it will use that instead.
I’m going to take this two steps further: I’m going to add the ability to edit this erg watts field directly on the website, so that one can make a specific ftp value for the interval, and I’m going to add a setting in the workout to change from ftp percentage to absolute watts, just like in ERG files.
This is probably a good time to ask around for beta testers. Anyone who has used ERG files in the past and wants to keep using them with the KICKR, email me at ransom@ransomweaver.com and I’ll set you up with a beta version that has all these attributes.
I will send email. I am slightly confused on how I would do specific wattages given I dont have an ERQ file to start with.
Does anyone elses Kickr make an intermittent scratching noise that increases as the speed increases? This is different than the whining sound that the trainer makes. It sounds almost as if something is rubbing inside the flywheel housing.
Anyone else hearing anything other than the whine. I do not hear it on DC Rainmaker’s video.
Definitely not normal. Please contact us via support.wahoofitness.com and someone can troubleshoot where the noise is coming from.
Hi Sonny
Yes my KICKR is doing that now. First I thought it was my bike making the scratching, popping noise but after 3 trips to the bike shop I figured it’s coming from the trainer flywheel or belt wheel.
Did u get support on it yet? I’m awaiting to hear back from Wahoo Fitness now.
Hi Ray
Do you need to use the Wahoo Fitness app to use the Kickr?
I did a calibration via a Ipad mini with the wahoo fitness utility spindown time 15.236 temp 15.5 offset 0
then i turned off the bluetooth from the Ipad.
I have tried to use as a stand alone unit with PerfPro and TrainerRoad (non bluetooth) and the resistance ramped in 10 seconds to the point I could not turn the crank.
Then I tried to use the Wahoo Fitness app to control the unit (computer off)
Level 0-9 (cant turn the crank in about 10 seconds; watts = 5 to 0
Resistance i can only turn the crank < 30% any higher i can not turn the crank) ; watts = 100 and less
Erg can only turn the cranks 100w or less ; any more than 100 watts and i cant turn the cranks (standing on peddels)
did not try sim
I am doing something wrong?
Thanks
Mike
Think Trainer Road only works with Bluetooth 4.0 on Mac with Lion and more recent at this point. If you email customer support they will send you a link to a version which supports the KICKR. Plan on giving Trainer Road on Mac a try tomorrow. ANT+ support can’t come soon enough as my access to the hardware/software which works with KICKR right now is very limited.
Mike,
Trainer road only currently supports KICKR via BT4.0 on a Mac. ANT+ will follow in the next few weeks.
Sounds like you are having some unusual issues with your KICKR resistance. I suggest that you contact Wahoo (support.wahoofitness.com) and someone will be able to troubleshoot the issue with you.
Thanks for another fabulous review!
Looks like a great product for someone who trains indoors.
Will this pair seamlessly with a Garmin Edge 500 and a Garmin speed/cadence sensor as well. Resistance cannot be controlled from the Edge as of now but the device will be able to read all the data from a workout, right?
Speed is an issue I understand since there is going to be no wheel magnet. And resistance of the Kickr will need to be controlled from an iphone or iPad?
Thanks
Arvind,
The KICKR conforms to the standard ANT+ Power profile, much like any other wheel based power meter. You will get Speed and Power via ANT+ on your Garmin. If you want cadence, you will need to use a Cadence (or Speed and Cadence) sensor.
Like you said, you will need a device to control the resistance. At this time, thats a iOS device or Mac with BT4.0. The the next few weeks we will release ANT+ control, this will open the resistance control up to any Mac or Windows machine with a ANT+ dongle.
“The the next few weeks we will release ANT+ control, this will open the resistance control up to any Mac or Windows machine with a ANT+ dongle.”
Few weeks? So much for end of month. I’ll be training outside soon. Anyone want to buy an unopened KICKR? I’ll buy one next off-season when the software catches up the to hardware.
Sorry you can’t hold out, we released the firmware and updated API to developers at the end of last week, for some the update is only minor and shouldn’t take long. Others will require a bit more development. We are all working around the clock to bring software updates to everyone as quick as we can.
multisport, I’ll buy it!!
got my Kickr on Thurday and put in a few rides. Hardware is great and overall experience is way better than the fluid trainer I was using.
We just need the software to catch up. Trainer road is great. Kinomap not so much.
OK, Roger W. Contact me on slowtwitch under same user ID. I really don’t want to be clogging up Ray’s board here (sorry Ray).
Tom
Unable to send you a message on Slow twitch (although I got yours). Can you share ur email ID? Sorry Ray but had no choice other than posting here.
tom@resilliance.com
Any update on whether that Amazon car lighter power converter works? Looking forward to bringing my KICKR to upcoming races for warming up!
What should we expect as an ETA for the Strava segments app? Seems like a dev version is available that Ray is using. I’d really like to ride a few key segments for some upcoming races, and it’s darn cold here in New England.
Hi Mike,
We have had a few issues with the quality of elevation data that has made me feel uncomfortable in releasing the app. The problem is that a lot of the segments on Strava have elevation data from GPS devices that provide poor elevation data (eg iPhone).
For example, the local climb here in Brisbane is between 4-8% grade, it never drops bellow 3-4% the entire climb, but if you look at the segment elevation on Strava it has sections that are negative 10%.
We have been discussing this issue with Strava for nearly 12 months and they have already started correctly elevation data from crowd sourcing the elevation from quality barometer products (eg. Garmin Edge 800).
I wouldn’t like to lock in a release date yet, but it is something we are excited to get completed and we have already decided to remove a couple features so we can get the first version out ASAP. Realistically, its going to be at least 6 weeks before we would have a app released in the app store, but I might put a call out sooner for some beta testers.
Murray
Murray, I’d be more than happy to do some beta work for you on that. No issues putting up with some bugs on my side. I’m racing AmZof in about 8 weeks, and would love to get some quality time with the course sooner than later.
Anybody out there who has no workout clock in kickr control mode in the Wahoo fitness app? I show no clock in level, resistance, erg or sim. Thus, I have to toggle back and forth during a workout to control power and see workout time.
Running most recent app version on iPhone 4S, have deleted and reinstalled app twice. No change. Also been back and forth with wahoo support to no avail. Anybody else have this / have ideas? Maybe ill just hit up i mobile intervals…Thanks….
Hi Tanner,
3.5inch devices (iPhone 4/4S) don’t have a workout time on the KICKR page, only the iPhone 5 version does.
The 3.5″ screen is really tight for space. I will see if we can tweak it a little to fit in time. I personally just flick between Basic Power and KICKR, otherwise you miss out on HR as well.
Murray
Wahoo Murray,
Thanks for the reply. It seems not everybody at wahoo is aware that the 4s doesn’t have the workout time on the control page. Glad you cleared it up…was starting to think I was crazy. Would love if you can tweak it to fit, but I’ll live either way. Love the kickr!!
Tried ordering on Clever Training but that didn’t go we’ll. big screw up with the order and credit card meant I got charged 4 times for the transaction and am still trying to get that reversed.
Is there anywhere else you would recommend ordering from?
I’m from India and will be in the IS till end May so am looking for delivery before then.
Thanks
Arvind
Sorry- I meant in the *US*
Hi Arvind-
First up, thanks for the support. Sorry for the tangle. Typically if international folks order online and try to send to a different country than their credit card, Clever will manually validate the order first. This is done for fraud reasons, and is pretty much the standard within the US for any online orders.
Has it been more than a day? If so, I’ll get in touch with the Clever folks and double-check.
Thanks!
Thanks Ray.
Yes its been 2 days now. Although the charge hasn’t appeared on my card, my credit limit is blocked completely primarily due to the quadruple amount!
Thanks again.
No problem, I’ll shoot over an e-mail.
Hi Ray,
I ordered a KICKR through Clever Training, thanks for the discount.
Do you see a way for the KICKR to accommodate this HubDock Kickstarter project (Wahoo, please chime in too)?
link to kickstarter.com
If the KICKR could be modified at low cost to support the HubDock, this would make the KICKR even easier to use…
Thanks,
-Eric
Thanks Eric for the support!
I’ll defer to Murray on that. I’d love for it to work with it, as if so, I’ll probably ‘back’ the HubDock. I had wondered the same thing this weekend.
That hubdock looks very cool, though I’m curious about hub stiffness and even if it really is a better mousetrap, it would have to displace existing wheels. It would definitely make sense as an OEM wheel, particularly on less expensive bikes where the rider isn’t as worried about performance, swapping wheels, etc.
With that said, I find it ridiculously easy to get my bike in and out of the KICKR – I find it faster even than my old Kurt Kinetic trainer, since you eliminate the step of tightening the drum against the tire. And the fact that tires don’t get chewed up is a VERY nice bonus! I actually had a training wheel/tire that I used with the Kurt and that of course just added more time. This IMHO is simply not an area in need of improvement – it’s already an A+ as-is.
Robert,
Yes, I agree the KICKR is great as is, but the HubDock would be great for racing and wheel changes or quicker repairs of ‘drive wheel’ flats – my bike is a FWD MBB recumbent.
If the HubDock works as well as it seems and requires little to no modification so I can use it on my Cruzbike Vendetta, then I would like to see it work on the KICKR too.
If I had a bike with a HubDock with a 9 speed cassette and my Vendetta with its 10 speed cassette I wouldn’t have to change the cassette on the KICKR if it had a ‘HubDock’ option…
I have to agree this solution has limited appeal. It always amazes me how many of my friends are afraid to change their back wheel. A trainer like the KICKR is great because it forces them to actually do it, and get proficient at it. It really isn’t that hard! This includes friends from back of the pack age grouper to podium Ironman finishers. I don’t need another complexity on the bike that will certainly add weight and increase maintenance, while not really providing much benefit.
Not to sidetrack this too much further, I suspect that would depend on whether or not you have dropouts that go down, or back. In the case of my TT bike, they are rear-exiting, which means the whole thing is a bit more finicky than a non-rear existing unit (ones that just drop straight down).
The unit weighs the same as most hubs.
Now, one thing I didn’t notice previously was the price. Holy crap-balls, $379? I was thinking sub-$90. Definitely not worth $379 for me. Yikes.
Yep, the price is too high and also part of the reason why the Cinelli BiValent hub failed to catch on from the 60s. I think they need to cut the price at least in half to get any market traction.
link to classicrendezvous.com
I’m done commenting about the HubDock. Mostly wanted to get it on Ray’s radar in case he had an opportunity to explore one since he writes the best reviews on the net and I think it is a good idea if they can get the cost down.
Got my tracking number for my KICKR today so hopefully my Vendetta and KICKR will both arrive at about the same time so I can get back to some serious training.
The HubDock looks pretty cool. They are way off on funding the project though – I mean, less than $6k raised out of a $47k raise with 6 weeks to go. Honestly, I love the idea though. It just needs to be bought by someone better capitalized to make this a new standard. Maybe Zipp? Mavic?
I’m not sure that it would make sense for Wahoo to support HubDock though – at least not yet. Seems to me they need to focus on building out the third party ecosystem of software before worrying about another hardware change to accommodate 100 early adopters of the HubDock.
Have been trying KICKR using Golden Cheetah v3 development build. Still trying to figure things out, but feel at this time I need to test the KICKR itself to make sure the basic functionality is working by using the Wahoo app. I don’t have an iOS device current enough to run their software, but can possibly borrow someones iPad which is about a year old and I’m guessing 1 version back (still with classic connector-sorry don’t know Apple’s model numbering scheme). Will the Wahoo software run on the iPad assuming it has BT Smart?
Yes, no problem as long as it has Bluetooth 4.0 (BT Smart). The version you’re speaking of with the classic connector and BT4 is what I use.
Does anyone feel like Trainer Road does not adjust resistance enough? I did a work out last night and I needed to bring my cadence up to 120 to get to 270 watts. I’d greatly prefer to be at a 90 with more resistance.
I’m having the opposite problem. Even if I dial the target power way down to 60 watts or less, resistance stays really high. I may be a weenie, but I’m not THAT much of a weenie. Along with this, the flywheel seems to be running on the hot side, which is probably consistent with the amount of resistance I’m experiencing. What are others’ experiences with the flywheel and its housing heating up? What is normal?
I also noticed that there is no calibrate button on TR, as shown in their (TR) video on using the KICKR.
Other info: I’m using TR on a 2011 MacBook Pro recently updated to Mountain Lion, with an Iogear GBU521 Bluetooth adapter.
Neal- Within TR do you get the ‘Calib Ready’ button that I note in the review? And when you do get it, do you let it coast all the way down (zero pedaling)?
For me, I just let it go from 23MPH to absolute zero. Technically it only needs till about 11MPH, but since I’m usually calibrating other PM’s too, it makes it easy.
Photo I’m referring to: link to dcrainmaker.com
Ray,
No, I don’t get the ‘Calib Ready’ button. I’m experiencing the same issue that Mike reported up in reply #145. I just tried a TR workout and resistance ramps up really fast, to the point where pedaling is impossible, even though power never exceeds 30 watts. Given the resistance, I don’t think it’s possible to get up to speed to the point were the Calib Ready button shows up.
Mike noted that he didn’t have Bluetooth 4.0, so it may be that my BT 4.0 isn’t working properly. I’ll try troubleshooting from that angle.
Neal
Neal,
Do you have it set up as a power meter or electronic trainer?
Jared,
Doesn’t sound like you have it setup correctly. Make sure you have the latest beta (1.4.0 right now) and that it is paired as a KICKR under the electronic trainers. Once in ERG mode, the watts should be the same regardless of your cadence. From your description it sounds like its in Level mode (default), this basically works like a regular trainer.
Neal,
Drop us a line at Wahoo Support, Megan or Brad will be able to trouble shoot for you.
Thanks
Sorry to clog up this area with yet more when will this be available internationally but it’d be great to have some clarity on this.
Additionally its probably worth adding to the cons list, given Clever Training aren’t shipping outside the US now (not sure if this is pressure from Wahoo or a cost decision). Wahoo aren’t either (obviously). So I guess I am KICKRless, very disappointed as was wanting to keep my cycling form post clocks change next week here (Sydney). The way people drive here its not really safe to ride at night, and weekend riding isn’t really enough.
Hi Emlyn,
We are working really hard to get KICKR around the world. Shipping is the easy part, its getting service centres and warranty setup. As you can imagine, its not really possible to ship a KICKR back and forth from the USA if something goes wrong.
We are really pushing for availability in Europe and since I live in Brisbane, I am also driving really hard to get a Distributor setup in Australia. Ideally we would love to be setup in Oz before winter, but we still don’t have any final deals in place.
We promise, as soon as we know we will let EVERYONE know on FB, Twitter and Via Ray’s blog.
I feel I should point out Australian pre orders have opened, since my previous comment on lack of global availability.
Unfortunately at 30% more than Clever, but that’s this dumb market for you I guess.
Tried the KICKR today using the Wahoo app on a borrowed iPad. Most everything seemed to work just fine. Tried all the modes except simulation as the iPad was only on a very short term loan. ERG mode is awesome, but you really want to kick it in while you’ve got some cadence going.
Did find one bug in the spin-down test. If you’ve paired the Blue SC as a method of getting cadence, the app doesn’t see the KICKR reported speed. Don’t believe the app lets you setup the Blue SC as a cadence only sensor. Once it’s unpaired, the spin down test works as expected.
Forgot to mention that the Viiiiva HR strap also worked just fine with the Wahoo app. I’ve tried the Viiiiva in an Android based ANT+ environment, and it also worked like a champ.
Glad you were able to get it cooking.
Within the app, you can specify cadence and speed separately. I show it up above, but here’s the exact screenshot where you choose where each one comes from: link to dcrainmaker.com
Don’t worry, I’ve gotten tangled in that setting a few times myself. It’s a useful setting, I just sometimes forget to set it correctly when I’m swapping between inside/outside modes.
Larry,
Were you able to get TrainerRoad to work on a Mac? I’m having absolutely no luck going that route and don’t have access to an iOS device. Also, how does your KICKR behave if you try riding it plugged in, but with no app controlling it? On mine the resistance starts at nil, but ramps up quickly to the point where I have to stand on the pedals. If I stop, within 10 seconds I can repeat the process. It behaves the same in TrainerRoad. If someone can confirm this is normal with it plugged in but with no apps controlling it, I’ll go in search of an iPad. I’m waiting on Wahoo Support to get back to me, but I’m not holding my breath.
Neal
Neal,
Haven’t noticed that behavior on my unit. I’ll check it out tomorrow. Haven’t given Trainer Road a try yet. It’s on my list for the weekend. Was initially focused on trying out the Golden Cheetah 3 dev build, but haven’t gotten GC to work in a useful way yet. Given it’s open source SW, gotta figure people don’t get a chance to work on it like its a commercial enterprise so fully expect solid support to take a while. Once it’s there, GC training module should provide a good way to use KICKR as you can easily build your own custom workouts with an included wizard (which appear to generate simple text files in an easy to decipher format so it would be easy to build one up with a text editor as well).
The inconclusive results from trying GC was the reason I felt a need to test the KICKR hardware using the Wahoo app. Had to eliminate the possibility of an issue with the KICKR itself. If you’re questioning if your KICKR is OK, the Wahoo app will do that. I re-read the Wahoo utility part of this review just to better understand how to get the app setup as I have little experience with iOS.
With regard to the app itself… I have no plans to buy an iOS device just to run the Wahoo app as I expect we’ll see rapid support on numerous platforms once ANT+ is baked into the various apps out there. The Wahoo app is really designed for the iPhone and looks underwhelming on the large iPad display presenting an iPhone sized window in the middle. Wahoo would benefit from making a tablet app when you see the plethora of displays you can swipe between or display alternatives you can change within a single screen. All that data needs more visual real estate. Thought the UI for changing training modes was a bit out of place. Seems to only be visible on one screen at the end of many alternative screens you can display. Overall the app seems OK and gets the job done.
Larry – regarding the Wahoo Fitness app on an iPad. There is a button labeled, I belive, 2x that will expand the app display to fill the whole iPad screen. When you do this with some apps, the image doesn’t scale well and the 2x version looks unsharp and jaggy, but this is not the case with the Wahoo app. It scales well and is much easier to use in 2x mode.
Les,
Thanks for the info. I saw the 2x button and gave it a try, but was really after just seeing more info on the screen. Not being an iOS person, thought the apps would scale like Android apps when going to a bigger screen, but apparently Apple stuff doesn’t work that way and probably don’t have to due to the tighter control Apple has on their ecosystem. On Android you just don’t get a blown-up version of the phone app, but one where you actually see more information being presented. Developers probably write that way because the Android ecosystem encompasses many devices with differing resolutions. This is both a pro, but also a con as it makes supporting devices on Android a bunch harder than iOS. App response to differing size screens vary, and the best actually do a complete redesign of the UI when installed on a tablet, but even lesser “phone” apps don’t feel like a tiny app in the middle of the screen.
Ray and others
Do you have any suggestion/recommendation for capturing video, GPS location data and accurate elevation for use in Strava and Kinomap; for KICKR use.
I’m using an iPhone 5 now, but looking for something more accurate for creating virtual rides and Strava segment.
For the most part, Kinomap recommends the Contour GPS. I have a Contour GPS, and I’m not terribly impressed by it. I prefer to simply use a GoPro and then meld together the GPS file from a device like a Garmin/etc…. As long as you start and stop them at the same moment (starting at the same moment is more important than stopping), then you’re golden.
I must be super human. Finally got my Kickr, set it up via ant+ for read only mode and I’m outputting 2000+ watts without much trouble. This is obviously flawed as I doubt I can output that much at my peak. I’m hoping I can borrow a friends iPhone with bluetooth 4 and calibrate it (or Wahoo releases the ant+ control soon)and that’s the fix. I will say, this thing is rock solid as you said and it feels very smooth to ride compared to my fluid trainer, but it’s unfortunate that I can’t get an accurate power reading. So much for finding out what my FTP is.
Just to add, I borrowed an iPhone 5. Got it to connect to the Kickr, but no readouts whatsoever. Couldn’t control the kickr at all so couldn’t calibrate it. No speed or watts readout and erg or resistance mode didn’t do anything. Waiting to hear from Wahoo support, but I have a feeling this one is going to have to go in for some repairs.
My Kickr is also in need of repairs. I’m hoping it’s an update to the firmware and not a problem with the power meter strain gauge.
My problem, in a nutshell, are that the power readings from Kickr are not power readings. They are a straight multiple of measured speed. As a result, the apps/app modes that rely on power readings for sending resistance levels back to the Kickr don’t work. In the Wahoo Fitness app, that is primarily erg mode. In simulation mode with 0% slope, 0 wind resistance, power readings are probably one-third what they should be. The levels mode is essentially a variant of the simulation mode. Resistance mode works best in terms of being able to actually get an actual workout in. As I detail below, it still doesn’t produce meaningful numbers.
The following is part of what I sent to Wahoo Support. I’m using the Wahoo Fitness app on an iPad mini. I get similar behavior using TrainerRoad.
I spent 34 minutes trying various modes. I also did a spindown calibration after 15 minutes. After the calibration, Kickr still produced inconsistent power readings. For example, in resistance mode, when I reduce the resistance from, say, 40% to 25%, pedaling gets easier, yet Kickr’s power reading increases. Looking at the data in Garmin Connect, the thing that struck me is that power and speed are highly correlated — their charts looked almost identical, with the exception of power drops when I ease up on pedaling. Keep in mind that for a given level of perceived effort on my part I can increase speed by merely reducing resistance and shifting into higher gears (even then perceived effort falls). The result is speed increases and the power reading from Kickr also increases.
So, I got back on the Kickr, and did one minute at the following resistance levels: 30%, 35%, 40%, 25%, 20%, 15%, 10%, and 5%. Then I exported the data to Garmin and pulled the speed (in MPH) and power readings at the 30 second mark for each minute.
Here’s what I got (resistance level, speed, power):
30 13.5 42
35 11.6 36
40 9.3 29
25 17.1 53
20 20.7 64
15 24.9 78
10 30.6 95
5 35.3 110
This is a nearly perfect linear relationship:
Power = -0.1346 + 3.337 Speed
The R-squared value was 0.99991
The intercept wasn’t significantly different from zero, so setting it equal to zero, I got Power = 3.1114 Speed; R-squared = 0.9999.
Again, I tried to keep perceived effort constant, though effort was actually less at the lower resistance levels, when power readings were higher.
So, my Kickr is NOT sending power. It is sending a multiple of speed, regardless of the actual resistance at those speeds. This hardly qualifies as a power meter. It also explains why the modes that are power based just don’t work.
I’m hoping this is a firmware problem. The nearly perfect linear correlation between power and speed indicates that might be the case.
Also, when I run the Kickr plugged in, but with not controlling app, it does not behave like other resistance trainers. Resistance ramps up incredibly fast, and as speed drops, so does the power reading. I have my touring bike on the Kickr, and after 15 seconds, I’m in the granny gear, standing on the pedals. This seems to also indicate that the Kickr is feeding a multiple of the speed back as power.
Any ideas, Ray or others?
Wahoo Fitness (Brad) was able to trouble-shoot this back to a bad computer board. My Kickr wasn’t getting the signal from the power meter strain gauge. The Wahoo Utility app proved useful in diagnosing the problem. In any case, Wahoo is getting me set up with a fix.
Thanks for the great review. Placed my order with Clever Training last night for it. Hopefully it’s not too long of a wait.
Thanks for the support on Clever, I appreciate it!
What’s does the kickr use to control resistance?
Here’s a link to an explanation of how it works, with some photos of the innards of the flywheel:
link to bikerumor.com
I purchased off clevertraining, thanks for the coupon!
So far I love the kickr but I’m not enthralled by the software.
What I want is this: to be able to plan a workout – ie 8x 4 minute intervals @ 380w (not coggan levels, I want to choose the exact wattage), with 90 seconds rest between each @ 100w. I want the software to ramp resistance from 100 to 380 over 5 seconds so it’s not impossible to turn the cranks at the start of the interval.
I would have thought that sort of functionality would be most people’s #1 priority. It’s why I bought the kickr. I can’t see any way of doing this outside of trainer road (I want to use my ipad to control the kickr and trainer road doesn’t support that).
Any ideas on other solutions?
iMobileIntervals in beta can do this (specific wattage, not derived from Coggan), using workouts you build on the website or import from an erg file. Also I’ve just hooked up the ability to import Garmin Connect structured workouts, and you can create this kind of specific wattage workout there as well.
The app doesn’t ramp the power over 5 seconds, its more like 1-2 seconds, but Ive been doing some of the Sufferfest workouts that we feature on the iMobileIntervals.com website, which have some submaximal intervals that for me are ~ 360 watts for 2+ minutes, and I don’t find it a problem to get it turning over.
If you want to try the beta, email me at ransom@ransomweaver.com
I want to be able to tie this into audiosurf so badly.
Ray — any word on the availability of a Campy adapter? Both of my bikes are 11sp Campagnolo.
Same question! I’m not 11 speed, but Campagnolo (campy) 10 speed. What’s the story morning glory?
Got my Kickr via Clevertraining… all seems well and was pretty easy (my wife will be happy with no more tire residue). I am using with Trainer Road in simple ANT mode. My only available mac laptop is too old to handle Mountain Lion. Anyone know of a hack to enable BT 4.0 with a dongle on OS X 10.6?
Like lots of others, with much anticipation I got my KICKr via Clevertraining, looked amazing out of the box – as others have already said it is built to last.
Unfortunately since then it has been a massive disappointment. I can connect to both the iPad 4 and iPhone 5 and change the resistance using the Wahoo Fitness app but neither speed or power is registered when I ride (come up as “na” on the display) and Erg and Level mode have no effect on resistance.
I emailed Wahoo support 4 days ago and apart from a short message saying they would try and sort it I have heard nothing since. Now thinking about sending it back..
Nic,
On the left side of the Kickr, on the top, you will find a plastic cap. If you remove that you will find a circuit board and two groups of wires. Each group of wires has a connector. Check to see if one of those connectors has come loose in shipping. That might explain the lack of speed or power data. I suspect that if you resolve that issue then your other ERG/Level issue will resolve itself. I had a similar issue, except mine involved something amiss with the circuit board. I had speed and power readings, but the Kickr’s circuit board wasn’t getting a reading from the flywheel, so it had the wrong offset value for making resistance adjustments.
If you do get power and speed readings, but still have the other issue, Wahoo will want you to use their Utility app to calibrate the Kickr. That app will give you an offset reading. If it’s zero, you have a problem similar to mine. Record that reading, along with the serial number of your Kickr, and email that to Wahoo Support. They can compare that to what it read at the factory, and it may help to narrow down the source of the problem. I think in the future, these issues will be able to be resolved by simply swapping out the circuit board, which is a lot easier than shipping a Kickr back for repairs.
Many thanks Neal, I appreciate your input. More interaction with Brad and it does indeed look like a problem with the electronics in the top cap, Brad has been helpful in sorting this out and they are now sending me a new one.
Wahoo! I received my KICKR this week after coming back from a tri training camp in Lanzarote. I’m guessing it’s one of the first in Europe, so thanks for the excellent review Ray and the heads up on Clever Training.
Here I was, thinking I was going to have to quit my job and join Sir Bradley on La Tour, kicking out 600+ Watts at a nice steady 122bpm… then I realised I needed to calibrate the KICKR. Doh!
Back on the day job since I’m pushing half that value and my quads are letting me know. The trainer feels great, really well made and very stable. The Wahoo Fitness and iMobileinterval apps have linked up instantly using my iPhone 5 and now I’m looking forward to getting stuck into training.
What I’m looking to do is set up a virtual Ironman Austria course so that I can ‘ride’ the route prior to the 30th June… Is there anything out there at present that will allow me to do this?
Brilliant site Ray – keep up the excellent work!
Not at present, it’s a bit of a gap in terms of functionality. In talking with the Kinomap guys, they are looking at offering a ‘videoless’ option to basically import in a GPS/GPX file from the course (those are easy to find, or failing that, make), and then have it control that without the video.
Honestly though, I think there’s a clear market for a simple app that just takes any known GPS/GPX file and controls the resistance according to the corrected elevation curve (I say corrected, because it resolves issues with bad GPS elevation data).
GPX/GPS import is something I played with in the Segments app and I just haven’t been happy with the results. The quality of elevation data is just not good enough.
I have been playing around with a bunch of different ways to correct the data with not much luck.
I think Strava has resolved the issue of Segments by aggregating all the good elevation data from many Garmin 800’s, but this doesn’t really help for generic GPS/GPX import.
So what ends up happening when you use usgs elevation data to correct the route?
In some cases its OK, but most cases it sucks. The major problem is alot of people want to do Climb, climbs tend to have switch-backs with large drop-offs that even the “corrected” elevation data looks really really bad.
For Example, the local climb in Brisbane is between 3-6% grade, although if you look at the “corrected” data it ranges from -10% to 26%…. and this climb doesn’t even have sharp switch-backs.
As always, Thanks for the incredible useful review/s Rainmaker…beyond insightful always.
Just placed my Kickr order with Clever training, thank you both for the discount!
Thanks Gabe, and thanks for the support!
When I move my KICKR around between workouts I hear a dinging sound, like something inside the housing is hitting the flywheel or something else. Is that normal?
Hmm…I don’t think so. One thing that may help is to pop the little plastic cap off the top of the portion that the flywheel is attached to, peer down in there with a flashlight and see if anything bonks around (metallic) when you wiggle the trainer.
Perhaps Murray or one of the Wahoo guys might have some ideas.
Hey Dave,
Yeah doesn’t sounds very normal to me. If you can get a video or some audio of the sound it would be great. Probably best to just email it directly to our support so one of the mechanical guys can get back to you. Im just a lonely software guy :-)
Update for those looking to use their trainer outdoors or otherwise away from an AC wall socket:
Don’t buy the car power adapter listed above from Amazon. I ignored the admonishment from Ray and Wahoo that the Amazon-linked adapter *might* work and went ahead and ordered one. Visually at first glance, it looks like it should plug into the KICKR just fine, but it’s just a *tiny* bit small in diameter (it’s a female connector) and won’t interface with the KICKR’s male connector. So save your money and hopefully we will soon find a car adapter that will do the job.
Thanks for the update/check. Actually odd now that I think of it, I never received my plug order…hmm odd. At any rate, I’ll update/edit that note/comment above and circle back to the Wahoo guys and see if they’ve had a chance to test anything out.
Hi Ray
I received my kickr from Clever Training and notice that the back of the flywheel can rotate
a few degre and I was wondering if yours do the same thing. I wrote to wahoo and never got an answer so hope to have some feedback here.
You mean left to right, or? Just trying to understand which way it’s rotating (obviously, the flywheel on the whole rotates).
Hey Stef,
Did you get your issue sorted?
We have a 24-48hr delay on some of support tickets at the moment but let me know if you still haven’t heard from anyone, its likely it got escalated to one of our mechanical engineers to respond.
Murray
It’s the back plate that moves from left to right. I know that the flywheel is suppose to move but is the back plate suppose to?
Just wanted to share a comment on the KICKR used with Kinomap: you currently need to launch at least once the “Wahoo Utility” app and connect it to the KICKR. This step is required to create a Bluetooth ID for the KICKR in your iPad/iPhone so that the discovery can be successful in Kinomap Trainer.
Mine arrived today, but haven;t opened the box. I’m wondering how the ANT+ control is coming- any beta software out there to try?
I got a note that the PerfPro folks that they have implemented it into a beta version of PerfPro that they passed back to Wahoo to chew on. Once that’s complete, they’ll be making their beta public.
Wahoo engineering sent this message about the dinging I hear when moving my KICKER around. FYI my KICKR works fine.
“This is just the strain gauge lever arm tapping against the backstop and creating a sort of pinging noise. That is completely normal and nothing to be concerned about!
Best regards,
Brad”
So, I’ve used the kickr just about every other day and worked fine in erg mode when using iphone 5. i signed up fort the Trainerroad and aside from having to use the beta version in order to find the kicker, I find that it keeps dropping the signal where the power just zeros out. i have my macbook pro right infront of my handlebars. So figure that’s probably 3.5 to 4feet from the kickr. I purchased mine on the 2nd of April. Would that have shipped with the latest firmware updates on it? I used the wahoo utility app and connected to the kickr but had no notification that it needed any kind of firmware update. i understand that it should pull up on the screen but i wasn’t sure how long the app has to be open before the message shows up on the screen. I did an hour and half workout last night and the signal between the kickr and MBP was dropped easily 20 times. I had to stop pedaling for and let the trainer stop before starting again and then the it pick the signal back up. Am I doing something wrong? I didn’t think that 3.5 to 4 feet is too far from the kicker. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
Ed
Make sure your phone isn’t still connected. Turn it off just to be safe to test it out. I had similar issues just using the phone. Suspect it was apps running in the background trying to connect.
Just ordered a KICKR, heart rate monitor, and cadence sensor through CleverTraining through your link and coupon code to say thanks for your amazing work. Keep us up to date on software for the KICKR, I’m really looking forward to multiplayer options.
Thanks for the support!
I ordered a KICKR too via Clever Training.
Question:
-Will I be able to use my garmin SC sensor to transmit cadence info to Trainerroad or the Wahoo App (using bluetooth dongle + ant+ dongle on my mac) I’m not concerned with speed but need to know if I have to buy the wahoo cadence sensor as well. I realize that I probably won’t be able to see the cadence if I’m using the wahoo app because the SC sensor doesn’t have bluetooth.
Yeah the garmin will work.
Take a look at link to 4iiii.com
This Heart Rate Monitor pair with your SC and convert it into bluetooth
Yes, as noted you can use the Garmin GSC-10 to transmit over ANT+ and both the Wahoo App (using the ANT+ dongle on iPhone/iPad/iPod) or TrainerRoad (using the ANT+ stick), seamlessly blending them together.
Has anyone looked at the temp drift of the KICKR?
I ran some tests against my P2M and what i’ve seen was not overly impressive. There seems to be a drift lasting “forever” after the initial 7-10min warmup phase. That’s also reflected by my HR which constantly decreases when doing longer sessions at steady watts. e.g. 2h in erg mode.
Graph from a 40min test session: link to jpansy.files.wordpress.com
P2M was manually calibrated 3 times (calibration values in brackets). Resistence was set to 220W from 2-30min, 300W from 32-33 and 180W from 34-40.
Does the KICKR have an integrated temperature sensor which would allow to implement some sort of temperature compensation (like the p2m does) in future software updates?
Full Blog Post (in German. Sorry.): link to blog.jpansy.at
Interesting. I actually spent a lot of time looking at temperature drift. Mostly because I had access to an app to tell me what the reported temperature was inside the KICKR and how that was impacting the calibration and accuracy. I didn’t see temperature drift beyond that initial 10-15ish minute period (typical of most PM’s).
It does indeed have a temperature sensor in it.
I continue to have a negative cardiac drift on almost every trainer session i do (e.g. link to app.strava.com: HR drifts from ~132 to ~125 within 90mins despite a recalibration in between)
According to wahoo there is a temperature sensor in the KICKR, but it’s not used for any type of temperature compensation by the current firmware and there is no developer working on a solution. :-((
Hi Jürgen,
We do have several features we are looking at getting into the next firmware. Temperature compensation wasn’t high on the list because we haven’t seen it as an issue in our testing. Please get with Brad(support.wahoofitness.com) if you haven’t already. If yours is drifting with temperature, we can use you as a beta tester for the temperature compensation.
thanks,
Chip
Thanks. I’m already in contact with him and on his list. Just wanted to update my comment from April that Temp Drift is (or can be) an issue with the KICKR.
Great review as normal. I have two questions:
1) Any idea if a Rohloff-equipped bike will work with this trainer? My bike does have a Rohloff tensioner…obviously not a derailleur but will take up chain slack in the same way.
2) Any idea if it will work with a front wheel drive recumbent such as a Cruzbike?
I’ll send these same questions to Wahoo but thought I would ask here…might be someone else wondering the same.
Thanks.
I have a KICKR and a Cruzbike Vendetta that I am currently assembling.
I’ve checked the Vendetta fit on the KICKR and it fits fine but because of the way the front triangle works on the Vendetta you have to remove the skewer each time.
I thought the skewer on the Vendetta was going to be longer than the one on the KICKR and have to use the bike’s skewer on the KICKR but they are the same length.
Additionally, the KICKR sits underneath the front end of the Vendetta (or other compatible Cruzbike) because of the MBB FWD orientation of the design.
The Cruzbike Quest with the SRAM Dual Drive doesn’t really work because of the dual drive although you may be able to put it on the KICKR but you wouldn’t have the 3 IGH gears and of course the KICKR 10-speed cassette would need to be replaced with a 9-speed.
The earlier Quests prior to the Dual Drive would work better, but again you would need a matching cassette on the KICKR.
Eric,
Crazy stuff. Would love to see some photos of you Cruzbike setup. Email them over to murray+dcrainmaker@wahoofitness.com or post a link here.
I’ve enquired about the Rohloff hub, Im not sure if it could work.
Hi Murray,
You can see some photos of the Cruzbike Vendetta on the Wahoo KICKR at my post on the Cruzbike.com forum Will Vendetta work on the Wahoo KICKR Trainer?
I’m still assembling the Vendetta but you can see how the bike is mounted on the KICKR.
-Eric
Hi, does anyone have an update on when there will be a windows compatible ANT+ solution available – would love to be able to use Trainerroad but can’t justify buying a mac to be able to do so!
Also, any idea when there will be a solution where we can build our own course profile – build a route for future races etc. using data off the net? Being an expat living in Canada would love to be able to replicate old rides back in the UK – even if its not 100% accurate.
Both of these are touched on above but there’s no new updates.
Thanks.
PerfPro has it in beta today, though not publically available based on my understanding. Wahoo tweeted out yesterday that they were close to releasing the next firmware update which will then enable PerfPro to open up that beyond the closed beta.
TrainerRoad and others have the code as well (and have for almost a month now), but I’m not clear where they sit as far as incorporating it.
Has anyone that orderd a kickr from Clever Training last week (4/15 or so) gotten a shipping notice yet? I’m impatient after dropping a grand on a new toy…
It looks like it’s currently backordered until today, however, that may have been different when you ordered. I’ll poke and see what’s up. Thanks for the support!
I ordered on the 17th and haven’t heard anything. I tried to call today but they were already closed. Hopefully I’ll get a hold of them tomorrow and I’ll let you know what I find out.
I gave Clever Training a call and they said that they are expecting a new shipment from Wahoo in the next few days. They expect to start shipping out the next round next week.
Very polite and helpful too, by the way.
Thanks to both of you for offering to help!
Thanks Scott, I called and got their answering machine so I’m glad you were able to get some info.
Another question that came up on slowtwitch – will the USB dongle that comes with the fitbit one work or do I need to use the iogear dongle to control the kickr on a mac without built in bluetooth 4?
Hmm, I’ll try it tomorrow. Ping me if I forget!
Heard from Clever Training that they received their shipment today and will be sending out KICKR’s as soon as possible.
Thanks for checking Josh. Fingers crossed that it’s here before the weekend!
Any word on a updated list of Apps for the Kickr mine should be here Saturday and I really want to try the Strava app. After looking over the current app options the Kickr really slacks in the real life videos. Kinomap looks good but only if someones ridden the course and how would you ride a whole Ironman course and record it? Your iphone wont hold that much data. A simple google maps app would be great! Tacx and Computrainer have figured it out something tells me the brains at Wahoo should to. Also a muilt unit app would be very helpful for coach’s and indoor cycle classes. I really would like to stop using the computrainers for our class and switch them out with Kickrs but with the current apps its not possible. Wahoo please help me to retire these dinosaurs.
Hi IronmanRordog,
Just wanted to precise 2 things about Kinomap:
– I’ve just checked and there is a part of an IronMan in New Orleans, another in France’s Aix. And there are some triathlons too like the one posted earlier this week in the Sillicon Valley. You can use any camera like a GoPro along with any GPS file to record and upload your video.
– There’s a multiplayer mode in Kinomap that lets you “play” a video with up to 4 people (current limitation due to the Game Center), you can even voice chat with each other.
Hope that helps.
I saw this but it would be nice if you could just load up a previous workout .GPX or .TCX file. I am not so worried about the video but more with the elevation and grade.
I have been wanting the same thing as IronmanRordog. Simply being able to use GPX or TCX files would be great. At the end of the day, that does what is needed, enables me to reuse MY routes which most times, I do not care about the video of. Not to mention it opens up the use of many other routes where video is not available. To me this is a no brainer.
I would be thrilled if someone released an way to use the tcx or fit files, as you described, alongside a google streetview or map. Videos are cool, but the streetview data exists already for virtually every place I’d want to ride, and I’m getting it would be cheaper to code and maintain.
Hey, thanks for the feedback.
Have a read up the comments and I explain some of the issues with loading raw GPS files and issues we had with the Strava app.
We started full time work back on Segments this week, hopefully we shouldn’t take long to update it to use some new API from Strava that gives use access to great elevation data for most of the segments. I will keep everyone posted on here with its progress. Otherwise, follow us on twitter and I will post updates there as well.
Thanks
Does anyone else have speed registering higher than expected per given watts in Erg mode? Any suggestions?
I saw that the KICKR was designed to have the front wheel on the ground, but I’m thinking about buying a riser block like you’re using in the pictures. Would you recommend using one? Would it be much different without it?
I prefer one, not so much for the riser aspect, but really more just so the front wheel doesn’t slide around at all. I use a couple different ones.
Here’s a slew of different ones to look at: link to amazon.com
I’ve got both of the CycleOps ones (that have multiple height levels), as well as the cheaper Minora one (re-branded as many others). They all work just fine.
Just received my Kickr. I have had a few challenges with it that I have emailed to Wahoo for advice. 1) I didn’t receive the 135 spacer 2) The wheel that the casset is attached to is slightly hitting the plastic cover that is partly covering it??? its really annoying. 3) it keeps asking me if I want to update the firmware and each time I do its fails on me. I then need to unplug everything and try again with no success. I had a workaround by doing the update with my Ipad instead of my iphone5. Seems like its working better now with connectivity to my Iphone 5 now that the update is done. Really no cadence with out cadence meter??? That has been a big disappointment and it doesn’t seem to be a very good app selection at the current time. I haven’t given up yet on it as I just got it but I need to say things are not starting out so good compared to computrainer and Taxc but then again they also had there challenges when I first got them. I will do a update to be fair to Wahoo after a few rides.
I think the spacer goes from 130 to 135 if you just flip it and put it in the other way. I didn’t have to do it on mine so I could be wrong.
I haven’t checked to see if the wheel on mine is touching the plastic.
I had the same issue of it asking me if I want to update over and over again. It never showed that it was updating and then all of the sudden it stopped asking me so I’m not sure if it updated or not.
I’m using the Wahoo Blue cadence sensor. I don’t think the KICKR can do cadence because it really doesn’t know what your crank arm is doing.
Tomorrow I’m getting a bluetooth 4 adapter for my mac so I can run trainer road so I hope it works. Other than that the apps are disappointing at this point but they’ll get better.
I had the same problem with the plastic cover. I loosened the screws in the outer cover a bit and reduced the rub substantially.
Anyone else having power issues after the most recent firmware update this week?
My Kickr was performing within 0 to 7 watts of my Quarq (made an excel spreadsheet to track variation). After this week’s firmware update, my Kickr is now off by 40+ watts.
For example, a steady 5 minutes at 215 watts set on the Kickr showed an average of 213 watts on the Kickr and 171 watts on the Quarq. Using the exact same Quarq and same Kickr before the firmware update, the 5 minute power variation was 3, 0 and 5 at roughly an average of 238 watts for the 5 minutes. Now the Kickr is off by 42 watts.
Submitted a ticket to Wahoo but want to know if anyone else is having this issue. Since it worked before, I am assuming that this is a firmware/software issue.
DC (comment #197) When you use your GoPro camera to capture video and another device to capture GPS info (I understand the simultaneous starting concept), how do you handle pauses, like for a stoplights or traffic or long trains? I’d like to edit that type of thing out before uploading to Kinomap for virtual rides on my KICKR. Can you edit the video and GPS data so they stay in sync? I’m trying to build a virtual ride library for use when I can’t get outside.
Hi Dave 1929 (and Ray).
You actually don’t need to start GPS and video recording at the same time: Kinomap uploader handles an offset that you can define (currently on PC but really that’s a matter of days now before we, finally, have a universal version working on PC, Mac and even Linux). So what you should typically do is to start GPS recording before so that you’re sure to get a GPS fix and even just record the whole day in a single GPS file: then use this file and add the video file to the timeline. You just need to find something in the video that you’ll see also on the map, like a crossroads, paintings on the road, etc.
The video can be trimmed at the beginning or end but should not be edited in the middle: otherwise the one frame sync system won’t work for the whole video.
But that’s not a real problem because if there are stoplights and you continue pedalling, the video will speed up or catch you up.
Hope that helps.
Just as a general FYI for those reading along via comment notifications on KICKR, both PerfPro and Peripedal have announced and made available ANT+ compatibility for controlling KICKR this week (from a Windows machine). Details for KICKR compatibility on each below:
PerfPro: link to perfprostudio.com
Peripedal: link to peripedal.com
Great news. Just checked out PerfPro seems like a great option for what I need. Can’t wait to see the future of the Kickr!
Have you compared Quarq power balance from a previous ride to one on the KICKR in ERG mode?
I’m curious if it will bring one closer to pedaling 50/50..
No, my Quarq (old school) doesn’t have power balance. Though, remember Erg mode is just providing resistance – same as any other trainer that has controllable resistance.
Yes, but the resistance varies to keep power even as your cadence goes up or down. In theory cadence will drop slightly when the weaker leg is out front.
Cadence and power will drop when that leg is out front, so in erg mode if the trainer is fast enough it should atleast try and compensate
Superb article. Made startup very easy. After setup, I noticed a problem where if my Kickr trainer is unplugged, I can spin the pedals freely; however, if I plug it in, the pedals will spin freely for 2-3 revolutions and then become so hard that I can’t continue. If I wait for a few seconds, it will free up and repeat the above after 2-3 more cycles. I have paired it to my iPhone 4S and have updated the Wahoo Fitness App. In Level mode, the setting is zero. Changing to any of the other modes, all set to zero, there is no difference. What am I missing?
After a couple of e-mails, I discovered that initial recognition of the Kickr must be done through the Utility app, because it turns off all resistance. This in turn will allow you to perform the spindown calibration. Finally, the Wahoo Fitness app or the Kinomap app can be used.
It looks like it’s currently backordered until today, however, that may have been different when you ordered. I’ll poke and see what’s up. Thanks for the support!
Well I have my Kickr for over a week and support is slow as Molasses in January. I am not getting a correct speed on the Kickr. I have followed supports advice to look at the cap next to the fly wheel and take a picture and send it to them, so wait 24 hours and then another question and so on and so on. Hey WAHOO have you ever heard of a telephone!!!! One question every 24 hours is ridiculous. Anyway I still have no idea why no correct speed, I can’t calibrate because the fastest Kickr shows is around 7mph. So pack it up and send it back??? I hate having a 1000 dollar doorstop.
I agree with Jerry regarding the speed of support – which frankly (the speed) is understandable when it is all via email. Email only is also unacceptable and I think it should be called out as a major issue in any review, including this one. It would be lessened if they (Wahoo) provided any form of live help, like online chat or something.
What I find unacceptable (as do others I know that have purchased the Kickr) as a customer is having no live support (voice, chat, anything) for a product that costs north of $1000 US. For most of their product which are low cost, or even their scale – this is not really an issue. For an expensive and more complicated product most customers feel better knowing they can speak to a real person if needed. I have personally cautioned people who are considering the Kickr because they should be aware of the slowness and to make sure they are comfortable with not being able to have someone that you can work through issues with live.
Starting support with email or submitting a ticket is fine and makes sense; that vets issues that need more support vs people who immediately call, rather than reading the manual. Once it is obvious that a call would save everyone time, or the issue is real, it is horribly anti-customer to have no option available. Using Jerry’s post above as an example, why not provide a means of speaking with someone after asking for the picture? It can be as simple as send me a photo (as he described) along with some times available to speak and a phone number. Once submitted, the support person confirms the date/ time to speak. Having an issue that takes a duration of 5 days to resolve, for what could have taken less than 5 minutes is not acceptable and not even good business.
Keep in mind, the email only support applies to orders submitted, meaning if an error is made with an order (incorrect item(s) shipped, overcharged etc) you need to do it via email rather than just a quick call.
Like I said, even if a support number is not provided to the general public – having a mechanism in place for providing live support would not only make for happier customers, but also make the product seem like less of a risk. Personally, I find it a bit unnerving to purchase a $1000 product and have no ability to “speak” with anyone if needed, other than via email. We customers paid you money, the least you could do is support your product in a way that is most efficient and effective.
Doesn’t help that the damn thing is still in beta, with all the hardware bugs people are reporting, what I still don’t understand is why they didn’t just include regular 3.0bt and a usb port it’s a powered trainer, just feels like they had their minds set on building something that only works well with apple products.
For those of you considering a Kickr, echo Jerry’s comment that support is exceptionally poor. Opened a service request on Thursday at 10:07 AM about buggy firmware. It’s now Tuesday at 4:25 PM and I have absolutely no response. I truly hope that Wahoo Fitness does not make the mistake of irritating its early adopters.
Hi Guys,
Sorry for the slow response lately. We haven’t rolled support over to dedicated customer service people, instead we are letting Brad who is one of the engineers behind the KICKR manage support. This helps us stay on top of issues and solve problems as quick as possible since the product is new. We just ordered a some headphones so we can take calls with our Zendesk customer support system. Brad’s been giving out his cell number when things are really tricky. I’m going to jump in and help Brad get caught up and Megan and Cris are also getting up to speed. We appreciate your patience, we want to make sure your experience with KICKR is awesome.
thanks,
Chip from Wahoo
Finally unboxed my Kickr (been sitting in the garage for 2 weeks) and hooked the bike up. I bought PerfStudio which is supposed to control the Kickr through ANT+ (requires 2 ANT sticks). It will read the power meter fine, but won’t add it as a trainer. Perf Studio recommends the latest firmware for the Kickr, but it seems I need an iSomething to be able to update the firmware. Bit of a catch-22. Any ideas?
Also, a bit odd there are 0 hits at Wahoo for “firmware update.”
Oh- good news is I just rode it anyway without erg control and it was super easy to maintain a consistent wattage.
Correct. You will need to update the firmware using a iSomething before you can use it with PerfPro. Do you have a friend with a iPod/iPhone or iPad?
PerfPro also just updated the software so KICKR works with a single ANT+ stick.
So to update all and to be fare to Wahoo everything seems to be working fine once I got the update from a Ipad. It took a few days for Wahoo to get back to me and they offered to help me fix the plastic cover issue but its very minor and will fix its self on its own after a few rides with the plastic getting worn down. Now all we need are more apps to play with. I am going to try the perfprostudio.com aoftware next. So far I have been impressed with the iphone app and the trainer. I would replace my tacx and computrainer with a Wahoo Kickr and the future is very bright!
One annoyance that I’ve found when using Kinomap is that changes in elevation seem to cause a disproportional change in resistance on the Kickr trainer. Going from 2.5% to 4.5% will almost stop the trainer.
Hey Brad @ Wahoo is there any way to add usb the the trainer, are there any diagnostic connections I could make use of? What about letting it work over regular BlueTooth, BTLE on a device that you plug into a wall doesn’t really serve any real purpose. any way to add a wifi module?
It appears to be it’s presently back ordered till today, nevertheless, that will could have been different once you ordered. I’ll stick and find out what’s way up. Many thanks to the service!
ok ray
what is a dongel
and where would i get one for my hp laptop
can’t justify a ipad to the wife
after buying a kickr
This is an ant + dongle link to amazon.com your still going to need access to an iphone 4s iphone 5 curent get ipod touch or ipad to upgrade the kicker firmware to allow ant control
Ray please tell clever training to lose the popup or they’re going to lose a customer.
Charles (and others)-
I’ve just put together a detailed post on how the KICKR works with ANT+ on all the ANT+ compatible apps that support it today. As well as what it means for the rest of the industry. Enjoy!
Here: link to dcrainmaker.com
Hey folks, I have been in email contact with Brad and Megan i.e. Kickr support. First I have to say that they went all in and are sending a return authorization to send mine back. I think that is the best recourse right now. I don’t know what is wrong and I don’t really care I just want it to work!
i have not heard anywhere else but here that you should recognize the Kickr with Wahoo utility first??? Is this true. Can anyone from Wahoo confirm this?
Thanks
Jerry
Jerry,
You should connect the KICKR to the Wahoo Utility first for 3 reasons:
1. Ensure you have the latest firmware
2. Register the device so we have all the contact details.
3. Work around a bug with Kinomap pairing. KICKR’s will only pair in kinomap if they have been paired in the Wahoo Utility or the Wahoo Fitness app first.
Murray
Thanks Murray, although I am not using Kinomap I will use the utility to connect first!
I do appreciate this site as a quasi support area. It really helps as instructions are a little sparse.
Thanks
Jerry
I have had a very positive experience so far with my Kickr — I ordered through CleverTraining (thanks for the discount Ray!).
I am currently using my iPhone5 with the Ant+ Key (for my Garmin HR and Cadence). My first few rides I just used the Wahoo Fitness app in the erg mode to get used to it. I attempted the Trainer Road app, however, my Mac is in my office and the sensors can’t read that far…and I sure don’t want to lug my bike and a 50 lb. trainer back and forth!
I next tried, and have been using since, the KinoMap app. I have my bike set up in the living room (although the wife isn’t too pleased) and I have the iPhone “beam” the signal to the AppleTV so I can watch it all on the big screen! The KinoMap app is optimized for the AppleTV and it makes it nice and pretty on the screen.
I have so far been very pleased with the Kickr and look forward to more apps and software to utilize. This has made indoor riding something I look forward to now!
Thanks Brian for supporting the site, I appreciate it!
I just received my KICKR and Wahoo Key yesterday from Clever Trainer also using Ray’s discount. I haven’t opened it yet, hoping to test it out Sunday. My question to you Brian is when using the key, I assume you bought the adapter. Did you have any problems? I was playing the key last night and I have one adapter with a cord that I got off of ebay, but it seem not to work. I just wanted to check before spending $30 on the official adapter.
Thanks,
Jeff
I got my replacement Kickr over the weekend and it worked perfectly. Thanks Jerry Halcomb
Although TrainerRoad and KinoMap have been great so far (not sure which one I like better!), is there any update or ETA on the Strava integration?
I second the question about when Strava segments will release. I like Kinomap, but I’d really like to have Strava segments also. There is only one Kinomap ride in my several state area, but lots of Strava segments all over my riding area.
Wahoo Murray commented back a few weeks on it up above: link to dcrainmaker.com
Though, no update since then. Murray?
Any idea if an app exists that provides functionality like the Computrainer, where I can create a course, ride it and then compete against my previous saved efforts?
Hi
Need help!!
Just unboxed my Aussie Kickr and I’m not convinced its working as it should!
Basically, unless I’m in resistance mode, the resistance maxes out within 2-3 seconds in all other modes.
Level 0 is the same as Level 9. 000 is the same as 400 in erg and so on.
I’m controlling it via a new iPad Mini with BlueTooth4, cadence and HR via ANT, using the Wahoo app. Using MobileIntervals gives me the same result.
It’s as per outbofvthe box, except it wanted to do a software update, so I let it.
Any thoughts??
Cheers
RSD
Hi RobinD,
I’m sure our support team can help you out! Shoot them a support request and they will get things straightened out for you. In the mean time I might suggest checking out this support topic: link to support.wahoofitness.com
Best regards,
Brad
My KICKR arrived today (thanks Wahoo Australia). It arrived just as I got back from a heavy swim and was tired. I couldn’t even lift the box! This things looks like a beast!
Campagnolo freehub adapter – is it available??? if so, where i do not see it posted anywhere.
thanks in advance.
@spytech…they seem unwilling to answer this question…on Facebook, here, or directly through their site.
sorry guys, not unwilling, we still don’t have a solid date. We’ve had a hard time getting the first production lot ready. Production samples are on the way to us now. If all goes well we should have units in 3-4 more weeks.
@Chip: Thanks for a response! Much appreciated!
Seems the easiest thing to do for Campy folks is just to respace the Shimano cassette that comes with the KICKR.
Campy spacers are readily available, or you can use ones from a worn out cassette you already have.
link to amazon.com
@bob I appreciate the advice, but I prefer to keep my chain happy by using campy cassettes. I know this will work for some folks, but I far prefer to address the issue at the hub thanks again!
No sure what it has to do with the chain- all Campy and Shimano chains are interchangeable within the number of speeds. Campy and Shimano cassettes have the same exact pitch.
Anyway, best of luck
Very, very, very disappointed to see the pricing of the KICKR that has just been released to the EU. When it was released for $1000 I thought awesome, and even when it went to $1100 I thought still great, but to be released at €1100 this immediately is a no no. Why oh why does everything always have to be the same number in £ as it is in $ when there is +-1.6 ratio between the two. The KICKR here should be costing me about £600-700 not £1050. I have literally been checking the website weekly for the last 2-3 months to see when EU distribution was available.
If anyone from Wahoo is reading this forum, please take note of what was a guaranteed customer who has been waiting like a little child for christmas since I first read about this product only to be bitterly disappointed :(
Rab
I agree, there is no way that I will pay that sort of money for the Kickr. I was waiting for it to be released in Europe too. Now, instead I’ll buy a second hand computrainer or powerbeam pro. They’ve missed a big opportunity to corner the market…
Don’t forget that stated prices in the US never include sales tax. My Kickr was $1,200 with sales tax and would have been closer to $1,300 with VAT rates.
Hey Rab,
We appreciate the comments and are always listening! Sonny hit on one major point which is that the advertised US pricing doesn’t include tax. That, combined with the additional duties and taxes were what led to the current pricing. Trust us, we wish we could sell the KICKR for £600!
Best regards,
Wahoo Brad
Ray – noticed in your July 1 ‘Brick-Taper’ review that you’re still on the Kickr, which I take as a good sign. Wondering about any niggles / issues that may have developed in the past four months of use? I’m presently on a Computrainer, which works well, but is a hassle to set up. Thx!
No issues for me. I returned the loaner unit and went out and got my own. The Girl and I swap back and forth with her trainer rides one night and mine the next. I still use the CompuTrainer as well, merely because sometimes she’s on the KICKR or if I’m too lazy to take her bike off of it.
I need to calibrate the KICKR as the zero offset is out and the brake locks up after 3-6 pedal strokes.
I don’t have the ‘Calibrate’ button in Wahoo Fitness (as shown above) when I hit the wheel and I need to use ANT so Wahoo Utility via Bluetooth is out.
Any thoughts suggestions on resolving this?
Hey Chris,
Seems you found a bug. Send us a email murray _at_ wahoofitness and I will help you out.
Murray
Attention KICKR lovers! the latest release of iMobileIntervals link to itunes.apple.com has support for ANT+ control of the KICKR.
iMobileIntervals is an interval training and general purpose cycling/running iPhone app. Some more new features:
Garmin Connect structured workout support
Garmin Connect calendar support
Cadence TV workout support
So: you may now build interval workouts on Garmin Connect, access them by the day on your Garmin Connect calendar right in the iMobileIntervals app, load them to the app and run them with or without voice prompts for the intervals, control the KICKR automatically per interval in erg mode (a la Computrainer) then automatically or manually communicate the activity back to Garmin Connect (or iMobileIntervals.com, TrainingPeaks, or your desktop via DropBox).
Also, the imobileintervals.com website has an ERG/MRC importer, so its a breeze to use your old Computrainer workouts on the KICKR (workouts with distance and ramp intervals not supported).
Just ordered my KICKR through Cleaver Training. Can’t wait to get it! Also thanks for the through review as well as the 10% discount code.
Thanks for the support Michael, I appreciate it!
If am understanding things correctly, this looks promising for Nokia Windows Phones (as relates to the KICKR), right? link to reviews.cnet.com
Correct, but the announcement only allows supported Windows Phones to then allow developers to leverage it. From there, apps would have to support the KICKR. I don’t see Wahoo doing that soon unfortunately (though they are more than welcome to correct me), I suspect we’d see them focus on Android first.
But, other apps certainly could. And, we could potentially see it branch out to things like Windows RT apps as well.
My kickr and 4iiii HRM were shipped out by Clever Training today their local time. I hope I got no issue with the kickr as the others here and no shipping issues as well.
Clever Training people, they’re wonderful. Originally I ordered CycleOps PB Pro, but I asked for a change with the HRM without having to pay additional $8 after 10% discount. I know it’s only $8, but no hassle for me to re-order as they just modified the items.
Also thanks to Ray for conveying my message to them during last weekend.
For imobileintervals:
Hi, I love your app.
I can’t wait for it to have more features, at least to have a gradient-based (or course only mode in perfpro studio, link to perfprostudio.com), so that we could import a gpx or tcx file for example and ride the course while imobileintervals control the kickr resistance based on the gradient.
The difficulty maybe is in getting the gradient data from google map or openstreetmap or any other map source.
If you don’t have this feature in your future plan yet, please add it.
If you have it there already, i hope to see the feature soon.
Thanks
-wawan-
This looks like a decent product and I would like to try one. However, I am a bit disappointed by the pricing. I have seen them for as little as $900 USD in the USA, but in Australia I cannot find any for less than $1200 USD.
Does Wahoo actually have customer support? I had a few questions I was hoping to get answered prior to purchasing, it has been over a week and I sent three emails, as there is no phone number and to date not a single response. This only tells me if there is a warranty issue, you would be sh@t out luck and at $1,100 that is not even remotely cool
Hey Jeff,
Sorry you are having trouble reaching us. Did you email support at WahooFitness.com? I’ll double check when I get to office but pretty sure we are responding pretty quick. Murray was out on vacation last week and Brad is out this week, so we’re running a little lean.
Thanks,
Chip
Thank you for replying to my email Chip
Ray,
You know of any 3rd party ANT keys to be used with the KICKR that has the lightning connector so you can connect to a iPad mini or iPhone 5? From the review I believe I understand the only thing I don’t have is cadence unless I get the BlueSC. I really don’t want to switch between my Garmin set and the Wahoo each weekend, so I am hoping for a 3rd party or Wahoo comes out with one soon.
Thanks,
Jeff
PS I have ordered the KICKR from Clever Training
Jeff,
No one has a lightning to ANT+ key as they have not yet been approved to be used.
You can use the 30pin ANT+ key with the Apple lightning / 30 pin adapter. Make sure you use the official adapter, some cheap ones on amazon and eBay won’t work.
Murray
Thanks Murray. I have an iPad 2 so I ordered the key also to use it. I will have all features now correct?
Maybe someone herein can answer… Will the Wahoo utilities and apps work with VoiceOver?
Hi Kelly,
Our last WahooFitness app had lots of improvements for voice over and it’s now in a good state.
We haven’t looked directly at the utility app, but it should be OK, I will add it to my list to check and confirm everything works well for our next release.
Regards
Murray
Do we have to do spindown calibration only in wahoo utility / fitness app, or we need to do for each software that we’re doing to use such as trainerroad, imobileaintervals (if it has one), perfpro ?
Thanks
The calibration is stored on the KICKR, so no need to calibrate in each app. If you calibrate every 2-4 weeks or every time you move it where the KICKR gets knocked around a bit (like a car trip) you should be good to Crank it Up :-)
Thanks Murray.
Just preparing myself so that I’m ready when the kickr arrives at my doorstep.
Wahoo kickr to do:
1. buy power cable or universal plug
2. plug in power & upgrade firmware
3. get quick start & follow
link to wahoofitness.com or the guide provided in the box
4. spindown calibration
5. try out: sim mode, resistance mode, manual mode, erg mode (using wahoofitness, trainerroad, perfpro, imobileintervals)
6. ftp test with Kickr
7. Enjoy life.
LoL
1. The KICKR will come with a US, AU, or EU plug based on the purchase location. If you need something difference you are best buying a new cord. Sometimes referred to a “Kettle” cord, its the same used in nearly all PC tower units. IEC 60320 C13 is the offical name. link to en.wikipedia.org
2. Yep. You will need a BT 4.0 device (new iOS device)
3. Yep, just pair it up in the Wahoo Utility and you can also do step 4.
5. Give it test run in the Wahoo Fitness app, you can quickly test each mode and see what each of the option do.
6. FTP Test – Either you can use our app (use the lap feature) or TrainerRoad/PerfPro are great for running FTP tests. Personally, I love the Sufferest Rubber Glove test.
Review this article I did not see anything about a riser. Do you need a front wheel raiser or is that included? Does Wahoo have or plan on coming out with a storage/travel bag for the KICKR?
Jeff,
You don’t need a riser, the KICKR is adjustable for different size bikes, although some people still prefer to use one.
We have a hard case designed and can be made to order directly through the supplier. Not that cheap, so it was best to let the customer buy direct. You can email aupport and ask for Brad to send you details.
Or just email me, murray _ at wahoofitness.com and I can get the details sent.
Yay, got the kickr today and tried it. Got to collect it from DHL warehouse as this is Saturday, and can’t wait till Monday. My viiii HR strap will arrive on Monday too, but I can’t wait till Monday for that. All using Ray’s code in clevertraining.
Awesome feel. A bit noisy, but comparable to other trainer or roller. Tried it using wahoofitness and trainerroad.
Question though: how do i set up my 910xt to read the speed info from kickr? I used my powermeter crank as power source, but no speed source yet. A bit confused.
Thanks
I don’t think the 910 will support connecting to two power meters at once. The KICKR is a power meter that transmits power and speed. The powermeter crank is transmitting as a power meter with power and cadence. Not sure if Trainer Road supports using two power meters and selecting certain data from each. We are looking at allowing the KICKR to read from 3rd party power meters and retransmit, so you could get power/speed/cadence all from the KICKR. We’re focusing on getting the Segments App out first though.
thanks,
Chip@wahoo
You should set up a fan in front of you to keep cool, i find my fans are louder than the trainer.
Chip is correct, the FR910XT only supports a single power-meter class device paired to it concurrently.
I know of no consumer devices (non-phone apps) that record two power meters concurrently, or allow you to pick and choose which data you want.
Chip is there any way to convert the BTLE to regular BT with a firmware update? With android 4.3 now supporting BTLE how long till you have an app out for it?
BT and BTLE are very different technologies, it would require changing the hardware. BTLE gives us the flexibility to manage all the communications and avoids all the bugs and hassles of BT Classic that made it virtually impossible to use for a custom device like the KICKR. BT is great for dedicated purposes that are well supported by devices like BT headsets and speakers. Trying to use classic BT for something like the KICKR where we need to manage the connection and what we communicate is possible but different on every device that supports BT.
Now that Android released official support for BTLE(3 years after Apple) we should be able to provide a working solution. Keep in mind that the only device that it works with is the Nexus 7. None of the current phones have announced when they will provide updates to 4.3. It will probably be a bit more of a wait. Hopefully we’ll be ready with software by the time the more popular phones are actually capable. We’ve been working on it for years…
Chip@wahoo
If you use the iMobileIntervals app you can connect both your crank powermeter and the KICKR, get speed from the KICKR, cadence from the crank, and power (displayed and recorded) from whichever you choose. Also, there is a global offset watts for the KICKR so if you find that the KICKR and your powermeter register a different watts you can offset the KICKR so that when it is set to an ERG watts its adusted up or down so that your crank powermeter registers the ERG watts (e.g. you want 300 watts on your power meter, but when your powermeter registers 300, the KICKR says 305, so you adjust the KICKR down 5 watts).
Thanks Guys. In near ideal world, we could select what data from which source (e.g.: cadence from crank, speed from kickr, power from crank, etc.). I think it’s very close now.
So, I will try imobileintervals tomorrow, and perfpro the next day.
I like to use this priority list as the head unit: 910xt, wahoofitness app, imobileinterval, trainerroad, perfpro.
If I could have more than one (usually max 3), I like to compare the result among them, which usually very close. (Just imagining myself being Ray reviewing all those gadget and apps).
And yes, I usually watch movie or cycling video and set the volume high enough so that the trainer noise can be ignored.
Question to Wahoo:
Consider this scenario:
– using TrainerRoad/Perfpro/iMobileInterval to control Kickr using anyone of their workout
– using wahoofitness as a head unit to record data, additional to data recorded by other applications (I use another phone or ipad if I use imobileintervals)
If I turn on the “Control your KICKR power trainer”, will it affect the control by those 3 app ?
If I turn off the screen, does it mean wahoofitness app does not have any control on KICKR and only act as a head unit?
Thanks
I’ve read through all of the comments and am still confused over the control part. For example, I have a Garmin 500 that I use to see the Garmin heart rate monitor and cadence sensor I have on the bike already. I know that the Kickr then broadcasts the ANT+ power profile that the Garmin can also read and record. From reading the Wahoo site, if there is no other control, it will default to level 2 and operate independent of any control.
With that set up, can I then control the Kickr with an iPad/iPhone over the bluetooth network (utilizing both the ANT+ and bluetooth signals at the same time)? The ANT+ profile would be used just for sending to the Garmin, and the bluetooth to receive control signals from the iPad/iPhone. I am trying to avoid having to go buy blue tooth accessories (heart rate and cadence) or ANT+ keys as I am very happy with the Garmin accessories.
Hi Michael,
Correct, the ANT+ and Bluetooth can be used at the same time. You could capture and record all your data on the Garmin and just use the Bluetooth for control.
If you are using a PC/Mac with ANT+ stick for control as well, this will still work. The KICKR will always broacast the ANT+ Power profile that you can capture with your Garmin.
Just got my KICKR. Started set up. Pairing via. Bluetooth to Iphone 5 no problem and it downloaded latest firmware. Using both Wahoo Utility and Wahoo Fitness and attempting to calibrate but no speed or power data being transmitted, hence impossible to calibrate as trainer thinks it is not moving. Paired it via ANT+ (as power meter) to my Garmin and again it paired no problem but no data being sent. Anybody got any idea on the problem? Without knowing more I would think the unit is dead and not reading or sending any data either on BT or ANT+. Really want this thing to work!
Hey Paul,
Check that the top cap is installed correctly. This is located on the top of the main diagonal steel support tube. If the plastic cap isn’t setting completely down on the frame, the speed sensor may not be able to read the speed disc. If this doesn’t fix your problem, shoot me an email at brad@wahoofitness.com
Brad this did not work. The top cap was very secure and sitting properly on the support tube, besides it is not sending power or speed data.
Paul, did you check on the setting within your iPhone/iPad? It took me a few minutes to get the speed and the cadence working and at the together.
I found out the problem is with the sensor in the top cap. If I push the cap closer to the target disc (black and white disc on fly wheel) then I get speed and power readings. I am working with Brad from Wahoo to fix this issue.
Is the KICKR good for doing sprints (using simulation mode)?
Hi Manlio,
The KICKR can handle the power from your sprints but, like most stationary trainers, will hold your bike completely vertical. We don’t recommend full on standing sprints on the KICKR, simply because of the stresses that are transferred to your bike frame.
Hi! Sorry if this has been addressed, but I was wondering: Is there any point in getting a trainer this advanced if you already have a direct force power meter installed on your bike? Would it give me anything above and beyond what a quarq + $400 trainer could provide? Thanks!
-Logan
Hey Logan,
In my opinion, one of the biggest differences between the setup you mentioned and the KICKR is that the KICKR gives you complete control over the resistance of the trainer and can simulate a real road ride. Also, Erg mode keeps you honest in your intervals and makes interval training far easier. When you set the power to 245 watts, it will automatically adjust and hold you there regardless of your speed.
A couple other big things that come to mind are the wheel off design and high inertia flywheel that you can’t get with a typical $400 trainer!
Interesting. Thanks for the response. When in erg do you just have to hold a pre-specified cadence?
Being able to vary your cadence is a huge point in using erg mode. Doesn’t matter how fast the drive train is going the trainer keeps it within -/+ 5 watts of the setting.
Quite the opposite actually! Regardless of your cadence or gear ratio, the KICKR will adjust to maintain the power output you have selected. This means you can be riding at 95 Watts to warm up, then set the KICKR to 270 Watts and it will adjust to that set point as you continue to pedal. If you then try to speed up or slow down, the KICKR will still hold 270 Watts until you adjust the settings.
One other huge advantage to the KICKR is that we have an open API. This allows anyone to develop software or Apps to control the KICKR and is the reason programs such as Trainer Road, Kinomap Trainer, iMobileIntervals, Perf Pro Studios and more work with the KICKR.
Its funny, but this is an area that I have even found some cycling industry professionals not grasping. The trainer doesn’t care what gear or cadence you are using. it will adjust, dynamically, the resistance so that you are generating the required watts. Want to train climbing at 300 watts? Shift to the 39/25 and pedal 60rpm. Want to simulate motorpace/race pack riding at 300 watts? Shift to the 53/12 and pedal 90rpm.
And you can design workouts, e.g. with our app, made of intervals with visual/audio commands to change cadence while sending the interval-specific ERG value to the trainer.
This is a whole different world from just running a powermeter on a traditional trainer.
Is there a Mac or iPhone/iPad program like TrainerRoad, that doesn’t use “% of ftp” but “watt” in stead of to create a trainingssession?
Kind regards Michael
imobileintervals.com
Yes, possibly unclear from comments above, but since version 3.0 iMobileIntervals does this, when using workouts created on the imobileintervals.com website or Garmin Connect.
Wahoo Fitness tweeted this morning that the Strava Segments are a few days away!!! Ray, have you gotten a sneak peek recently?
Ya know…I get around.
Any idea about when it will be possible to get a Campy freehub?
Steen
They are scheduled to ship from our factory to us on August 14th. We should be able to ship them to customers starting as soon as we get them in hand likely around the 20th of August. We originally thought we could use off the shelf units, but ended up having to custom design and manufacture them so it took much longer than anticipated. If you’d like one email support at wahoofitnes dot com and they will make sure and get you on the list. We’re launching a new website in the next couple weeks, so they might not get online right away.
Chip@wahoo
Can somebody from Wahoo please describe the upcoming option for all of us with Campy drivetrain.
I have seen many comments about a “adapter” and I also noticed it is delayed to mid august. People talk about something that is sourced from Slowtwitch.
What about a tecnical description for the upcoming option for the Campy community.
The upcoming option is a Campy Freehub that will replace the Shimano Freehub that comes with the KICKR. It will make the KICKR into a true Campy KICKR. Brad will make some instructions and videos to show how to install it before we start shipping. If you are comfortable swapping out a cassette you should be able to swap it yourself, otherwise you might want to take it to a shop or ask the shop you buy it from to swap it for you when you buy it.
Thanks Chip!
This is great news for Campy people! I would like to order a KICKR with that option as soon as possible (Europe). Any way I can order a KICKR now with the option included, or do I have to wait until you have released this option.
Kind regards,
Mats
Hi Mats,
We’ll update here and a few other places when they arrive at the warehouse. I’d recommend you wait until they hit our warehouse next week before ordering, so they can go out together.
thanks,
Chip
Hi Mats,
Just to clarify, the Campy freehub is sold separately from the KICKR and does not include the cassette itself. It’s a simple installation that only requires a 17mm wrench and Campy cassette lock ring tool. If you don’t already have these tools, your local bike shop definitely will! We will release instructions on our website for installing the Campy freehub once it becomes available.
Best regards,
Brad
DC
I have a GoPro Hero 3 that I’ve recorded some rides with and want to upload them to Kinomap for use with my KICKR. Kinmap support has been really good about trying to help me, but I just can’t get the process right to convert and upload the files to Kinomaps. Would you mind sharing your process for uploading GoPro files to Kinomap and what file format and specs you use? I’m trying to upload 3 and 4 files (1920×1080) to make one long ride. My GPS data is from an iPhone five using MapMyRide.
Segments is now LIVE and on SALE for all the early KICKR owners.
Segments by Wahoo Fitness allows you to ride Strava segments indoors on your KICKR Power Trainer!
A Segment is Strava’s term for a specific section of a road, climb or trail. You can create segments from your rides at Strava.com
This app is a fun and effective way to go head to head against the King or Queen of the Mountain, your friends, or simply compete against your own personal record. Whether it is your favourite neighbourhood dash or a classic alpine ascent on the other side of the world, Segments and KICKR bring the full Strava experience into your home.
link to itunes.apple.com
I’ve been experiencing some ‘slippage’ on the belt on my Kickr- usually when fly wheel is quite warm and pushing reasonable wattage (400-450w). It’s hard to determine exactly what’s going on but it seems the belt is slipping where it drives the flywheel assembly. It feels like it is stripping gears and sort of rackets along with the pedal stroke- effectively providing no resistance. Anyone else have this?
Hi Ben,
Can you check in with our support portal(support.wahoofitness.com) It sounds like your belt is loose for some reason. Brad can help you with instructions on how to get the tension just right and hopefully figure out what caused it to loosen up in the first place!
thanks,
Chip
Thanks Chip- Brad has got me back on board. Simple matter of adjusting two hex screws. Video attached for others.
link to dropbox.com
Ben
I’ve had my Wahoo KICKR for about a month now and I love it. Yesterday I noticed some skipping with the cassette and the chain. Any thoughts on what might be causing that?
Hi Michael,
There are a few possibilities as to what could be causing the skipping. We have a fairly comprehensive support topic on this issue, you can check it out here: link to support.wahoofitness.com
If you’re still having issues, get a ticket started with support and we will help straighten things out for you!
Hi,
I just received the Wahoo Kickr (Thanks Ray for the 10% discount) and the setup went flawless :). All though, I am having issues getting a good signal via Ant+ to my PC when using Trainer Road. It seems to pair the Wahoo, but I get a bad/poor signal which doesn’t let me utilize the ERG function. I’m using Garmin’s Ant+ USB stick. Anyone suggestions?
Hi Alan,
How old is your Garmin ANT+ USB Stick? I’ve seen some issues with older USB sticks.
How far is your PC away from the KICKR? Maybe try an USB extension cable to move the ANT+ stick away from the PC interference (wifi/bluetooth etc).
I’ve also seen interference with some HDMI cables.
I would suggest playing around disabling wifi, bluetooth and changing the USB port. Unfortunately its not an exact science and you might need to just experiment a little.
Murray
HI Murray,
My Garmin stick was just purchased with it’s intended purpose to be be used with the Wahoo. It’s the small version versus the larger stick.
I have a 16 ft. USB extension cable to get the stick further away from my computer and closer to the Wahoo. I’m debating on purchasing the Suunto Movestick Mini, but it looks identical to what I currently have. Do you think it would be worth a try?
Hi Alan,
Have you tried without the extension. 16ft is VERY long for a USB cable and could be the source of the issue.
I normally use a small, 1-2 ft cable just enough to get it away from the computer. ANT+ should have a good 10-15m range, especially indoors, it just normally interference from the PC.
I personally love the Suunto USB stick due to its size, but its basically the same inside so neither is better.
Murray
Hi Murray,
Since the last posted comment I’ve been using my MacPro and things are definitely better with connection signal. All though, I”m still having something weird happen during every ride with Trainer Road. Intermittently during my session I’ll receive a “Set mode failed, searching” and I lose connection. From here I’ll need to refresh the system and pause my workout, very annoying during a hard interval. I haven’t noticed any pattern of why this would happen, but I never had any issues with the Power Beam by Cycleops. The signal between the Wahoo and the computer is typically good or excellent when this happens.
Any help would be appreciated.
Alan
Just as a heads up Alan, TrainerRoad just posted (like two minutes ago) an update addressing address dropouts with the KICKR and TR: link to facebook.com
Thanks Ray! I was really hoping for an update of sort to resolve the issue. Also, thanks for the support and the 10% discount through Clever Training!
About the ANT+ USB stick, since the KICKR can only be configured via ANT+, it would be nice to include an USB stick with the trainer. As an example this is what Garmin does with Vector.
There is a new USB stick that is cheap (well, compared to current 50€ Garmin stick), that is only available from
link to digikey.com, as far as I know.
Have you guys at Wahoo tested strain and deformation on bikes at different power. See the german Tour test:
link to tour-magazin.de
The german test shows deformation/strain for 100-1000 watt in comparison between trainer (with roller) and road. They measured with strain gauges placed at different points at the frames. But these test are for trainers with rollers, so these are probably useless for the Kickr. The result is interesting. Use on roller trainers give less strain compared to road! So, the common advice to avoid sprints for roller trainers seem to be wrong, according to the german tests.
Any comments on this? (I have already seen Wahoo recommendation to avoid Sprint.)
Best regards
Mats
I’ve seen some of their tests in the past, and have always left both a bit confused and with more questions. For example – in this case – how did they determine if the strain was bad? Strain is normal, is this strain beyond limits?
(Note: Google Translation may be missing key things that make it more difficult to understand).
Not easy for me either as my normal language is swedish :) But I give it a try. They measured bending is on right chain stay (BK), deflection of seat tube (BS) and torsion of tube? (TU). They measured with “”strain gauges”, applied in these measure-points. They recorded frame deformation at these points, with different load (100-1000 watt).
The deformation was not permanent, even on sprints. So, the frame wasn´t damaged. Their (not mine) conclusion is that the elastic deformation is bigger when you ride on road compared to roller trainer!
My question is. What about deformation when you use a KICKR. Have Wahoo made any measurements on this? The load on a bikes frame is for sure not the same as with a normal roller trainer. Hopefully the KICKR flexes when you ride it, in order to decrease the load on the frame. I will order a KICKR soon, but I´m not sure if I should mount my most expensive bike on it…
Any comments from KICKR users on this?
Mats
Hi Mats,
We have not done any specific tests on frame stresses. I would expect test results for “wheel on” trainers would be applicable to the KICKR, since we clamp the frame in a similar manner. I can understand how road stresses could be equal to or even greater than trainer stresses in a sprinting situation. If you envision on an outdoor ride leaning your bike hard to one side, applying full pedal force on the high side while pulling it back to the other side with your upper body, the stresses on the frame are substantial. That scenario likely creates a stress situation on the frame that is higher than you would see on a trainer. We don’t recommend sprints, because in the unlikely event you were to damage the frame most bicycle manufacturers will not honor their frame warranty. I would suggest using common sense on an indoor all out effort, avoid driving the frame side to side with your upper body since the KICKR is going to restrain it from moving in this direction.
thanks,
Chip from Wahoo
Can people from Yahoo clarify on delivery for Europe. Last week there was selectable option (on the Wahoo site) for European delivery. According to this forum units have been delivered to Europe. Today I got the following answer from Wahoo support. It must be a mistake?
Best regards
Mats
“Unfortunately we are unable to ship the Wahoo Kickr to any international addresses.
Kind Regards,
Mariah”
Wahoo added a European processing/shipping center a few months back. Thus, they ship from their European distributors to Europeans. But non-European companies need to restrict sales to the their own locales.
See my comment above. The answer was from Clever Training, not Wahoo. I mixed the answers :) SORRY!
Actually, I’m waiting for some answers regarding european delivery,service and customs.
Mats
Yeah, Clever (a US company), isn’t permitted to ship the KICKR to Europe. Initially they did, but are no longer permitted to.
I Just got my kickr set up. i did a spin down.. but every time there is significant resistance the kickr clicks when i pedal? any help appreciated… at lower resistance its fine.
Never mind it’s related to the strava segments app. I’m glad I paid 15 bux for something that doesn’t work.
Hey Arron,
Not sure how clicking could be related to the Segments app but send us a email at WahooFitness support and we would love to help you out with any issue with the KICKR or the segments software.
Murray
Hi,
just wondering what is the best way to get it in Alaska? Also i have mountain bike with 3X8 speed cassette. Is the combination good for using Kickr at home for Casual riding?
If you’d like to support the site, Clever Training will ship it for free there, and you’ll get 10% off your cart using the DCR coupon code up above. Enjoy!
Hi AB,
The 3×8 drive train on your bike will work great for riding on the KICKR but it will require you to change out the stock 10-speed cassette for an 8-speed cassette. After that, you will be good to go!
I am wondering about compatibility with the Cycleops virtual training software.
I have posted on the virtual training review comment threat hoping that Cycleops would comment.
Wahoo Brad, what do you know?
Thanks,
Rick
Rick,
KICKR does not work with the Cycleops Virtual Training software. The industry is in the middle of a big change and while I have no knowledge on Cycleops plans, the industry as a whole is moving to standardise trainer communications, so the future looks good.
Murray
I had sent the same question to Virtual training team (not cycleops, as they use the software from virtual training). The reply was that the support for Kickr will be coming soon, but no date.
Hi
I have read the wahoo review and it sounds awesome but does and my mate has the cycleops
power beam do u have any preference ? is one better than the other or is it personal preference?
As it stands today, I prefer the KICKR, because of the open platform and the fact that it has BOTH BLE and ANT+. Down the road, if the PowerBeam adopts the various platforms, then I’m likely to make it either/or.
I think the KICKR is 1000000x better ;-)
Hi DC,
I’m curious why ERG mode is regarded so highly?
What does it add in addition to a training set-up of Lemond Revolution + TrainerRoad (virtual power)?
Cheers
Etq
PS great review!
Because it adds the ability to ‘force’ you to stay at a given wattage, and that precise wattage. So if you do 10 intervals at 250w, on the LeMond you’ve gotta play with speed/gearing/cadence to get it right on. With the CompuTrainer/Kickr/etc… you can choose any cadence/speed you’d like and you’ll have it hold that 250w, and no matter how much you falter, it’s going to keep on holding that 250w.
Thanks DC – but isn’t it better ‘race’ training to be required to manage speed/gearing/cadence to achieve the required watt level? Isn’t the forced watt artificial?
Perhaps strength is strength. I presume it’s also better because you can probably be more aggressive on your interval watt levels
It’s a bit of both honestly.
There’s two areas of training – one is pure strength adaptation. So, in this case it’s the fact that the trainer (be it KICKR, CompuTrainer or whomever) is holding the power and like it or not you’re going to be doing it at a prescribed interval.
This is useful in that you can make very precise workouts and thus in effect control your recovery time as well.
On the flip side – learning how to push outside is just as important. For me, I can actually throw down much higher wattages on a trainer than outside during a TT (typically). I do much better climbing however, and typically hit my highest numbers (per zone) while climbing.
So it’s a bit of both.
I’m somewhat dead in the water with the Stages app until Wahoo figures out what’s going on with the iPad 2 and ANT key configuration. In the mean time, I’ve been trying to use Kinomap. I don’t know what routes you’ve been riding, but I find it borderline unusable. Most routes have terrible elevation dropouts, so going up Alpe d’Huez, I’m climbing and then descending at -10% for 45 seconds where it’s clear that’s just an elevation error. Chicago triathlon is basically pancake flat, but the course has 10% grade kicks on Kinomap. Any suggestions on Kinomap courses that are somewhat rideable? Any resources you’re familiar with that would rate the kinomap courses? Figuring it out yourself seems like a terrible n=1 waste. Thanks!
Mike,
I’m in the same boat with Kinomap — I really enjoyed it at first with the ability to AirPlay to the TV however, the constant elevation issues made it “borderline unusable” to me as well (the last time I rode the Chicago Tri also was the final straw!).
I’ve found that TrainerRoad is awesome! I just put my iPod in, have something on the TV to look at and ride whatever workout I pull up that day. I have not tried to add in the videos yet but I’m sure that makes it even better.
Now, with the addition of the Wahoo Segments app for the iPad, I have a hard time choosing sometime between TrainerRoad or Segments! The segments I have ridden with the latest update have not had any of the elevation issues that Kinomap has. It isn’t perfect, however it feels as if it is very smoothed out.
So I would recommend trying those two and I’m sure you will forget about Kinomap!
Brian
Hi Mike, Brian,
I understand your frustration on this aspect: elevation inaccuracy due to GPS devices, especially in the mountain (Canyon effect) is a real challenge. But we’re working hard on it and will have a fix soon, thanks to some experience we got in the last months.
In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to select videos that have a corrected elevation profile line that does not include this kind of drops: the ones in which you don’t see too many green/orange/red changes actually.
Thanks.
Laurent
Laurent, I’d really appreciate if you could look into adding a filter ability, so that we could look at only the rides that have elevation correction applied. Searching manually for these rides is very time consuming, when I’d really like to just go for a ride. Thanks for participating in the discussion!
Will the garmin speed/cadence sensor work with this or do I have to go with the wahoo sensor? Thx.!
Hey Tim,
The Garmin Speed/Cadence sensor is an ANT+ sensor so as long as you have an ANT+ key for your iDevice or an ANT+ USB stick for your computer, it will work just fine!
The only thing holding me back from purchasing the Wahoo Kickr is the lack of head unit/android control. I have a mac and an Android phone, and like you said DC I would rather not have to use my sweaty hands on my mac to control the workout. How far out is the Android app or the RFLKT head unit? My last trainer broke so I’m stepping up to a watt trainer, the PowerBeam Pro might beat out the Kickr because everything is available now.
Any info?
Jesse
Hi Jesse,
We are really close to an android App that works with the KICKR. You will need an android device that supports BT4.0 and has Android 4.3 on it. We’re hoping to release a beta by next week.
thanks,
Chip
Does the Wahoo Fitness KICKR Trainer work without being plugged in to a power supply? I am just wondering if it is possible to use it to warm up at the roadside prior to a race.
Hi Jonathan,
The KICKR does need to be plugged in to create resistance. If you’re near the pits you can pretty easily run it off a standard power converter in your car!
What’s the wattage range of the trainer, is there belt slippage at higher power outputs 1400w plus?
Cheers El
It’s 2,000w. The belt is grooved, so there wouldn’t be any slippage.
hi all
just ordered a Kickr for switzerland (over apple store) and looking forward trying it out!!
I have 1 question concerning connectivity: does the kickr send the data (power and speed and as far as i understood no cadence) simultaneously via ANT+ and bluetooth 4.0? meaning: can i, at the same time during a workout, get the data on my garmin 500 (via ant+) as well as on my iphone 5 (via bluetooth 4.0)?
thanks in advance for help!
Hi Daniele,
You are correct! Both ANT+ and Bluetooth 4.0 will transmit speed and power at the same time.
Great detailed review, I purchased a Kickr because of this review but starting to regret my purchase. It’s day 2 of the product not registering correct speed or any power over 25 watts. I’ve been in contact with support but a sense of urgency doesn’t seem to be top priority for them and quality of the internals may not be as good as I expected for something costing $1,100. I’ll wait and see how this turns out but SUPER frustrating to spend this kind of money and basically get a paper weight out of the box. I may regret getting rid of my computrainer for the Kickr.
Hi Bryan,
Really sorry you are having trouble! Brad was in and out of the office today recording videos, so may not have gotten back to you right away. If there is something wrong with your KICKR we’ll get it taken care of ASAP. I just wrote you back with my cell number and email and some more things to try in the support ticket. We’ll get it sorted.
thanks,
Chip
Chip,
All due respect, your reply is great for Brian, but there’s a constant theme throughout this thread. Folks email your customer service, get nowhere, finally get frustrated, post here, and then hear an excuse about why things are behind. I’ve been waiting for weeks to find out about why Segments isn’t working on an iPad 2 with ANT key when other KICKR apps are, with no response. It’s more than frustrating to feel like Wahoo only deals with customer issues when they are public.
My suggestion to you is that you guys have developed a great product, and have customers who will cut you some slack, since you’re small and ‘up-and-coming’. But that isn’t going to last forever. Wahoo needs to make a serious investment in their customer support before they’re ready to handle the expectations behind launching an $1100 product.
An extremely dissapointed yours.
Mike
Hi Mike,
There is always room for improvement and we are constantly tweaking how we do things to get the best support for our customers. I get the emails here immediately when somebody posts a comment and generally when somebody pops on here, something has broken down in the system and we take it seriously.
I looked up your issue and it looks like Murray promised to look into the issue you had with your iPad 2 and Segments a few weeks ago and neglected to get back to you. I apologize for that. It ended up with Murray because we weren’t able to reproduce the problem you were having and he wrote Segments. Using the ANT key with Segments has been very reliable for me. Murray remembered having an issue once, but hasn’t been able to reproduce it. I’ll ask Murray to review it again and get back to you ASAP. Sorry for the delay. If you ever don’t hear back from us, following up directly to support does work almost as well.
thanks,
Chip
Hello,
Could someone let me know why/how the Kickr is cheaper on the Apple Store than on the Wahoo website for Europe.
I tried to make an order on the website and it was not successful due to an issue with the internet payment via Ogone. Decided to have a look here to see if someone had a similar problem. I saw by chance that someone ordered it via the Apple Store and therefore I checked. Surprise: it would save me 130€… which is always nice.
I hope that the unit I get will work properly because it looks like a lot of guys on the web aren’t fully happy about it (Wattage, apps,… but I also think it’s only a few percentage of owners who decide to react about it while the majority is happy). But I must admit that I’m a bit reluctant while willing to purchase… so fingers crossed !
Anyway Ray, thanks for the good review and from now on, I’ll buy things on amazon through your website for sure ;o)
Bought on European wahoo some weeks ago. Apple Store in Sweden sell it 10% cheeper. Thank you for that wahoo! Unbelievable
Very quick question. The trainer is controlled via the iphone – is that using wi fi, 3 G or either of the two? Want to check if I have to be connected to broadband to do this? Does anyone experience drop outs when doing this. Just read that its only the iphone 4s and later models to control the wattage – is this correct?
cheers
Hi Earl,
An internet or wifi connection is not necessary for using the KICKR. It can be controlled using either ANT+ or Bluetooth 4.0. The iPhone 4s and newer all have built in Bluetooth 4.0 so they are my preferred devices for controlling the KICKR. However, with the addition of the Wahoo Key, you can use ANT+ to control the KICKR from your older iPhone or iPad but will still require a Bluetooth 4.0 device to update the firmware. You can also use a Mac or PC with ANT+ USB stick to control the KICKR. Check with the various software developers for which computers are compatible (Trainerroad, PerfPro Studio, PeriPedal, etc).
Cheers,
Brad
Any specific reasons why it is not possible to update the firmware via ANT?
Thanks Manlio