Wahoo Kick'r Help (PLEASE)

Kori Martini

Hi all,

I'll start this post by saying that I'm not the most tech-savvy person in the world, and I'm definitely no bike mechanic, so hold the laughter to a quiet roar when reading my questions. (Yes, I'm an engineer. But our specialities are vast, so thinking I'm great at bikes is like asking a dentist which glasses to get just because they're both "doctors".)

On to my issues (which are many at the moment)....

After many many years with the same Kurt Kinetic trainer, I decided to bite the bullet and get a Kick'r. Main reasons:

-I like the ability to switch between riding inside and outside with just popping off my rear wheel. I hated doing the whole tire change thing just to go from indoors to outdoors, and my PM was in my back wheel, so I couldn't just have a trainer specific wheel.

-I like the ability to sync pre-set workouts. I hate being tech savvy so I realize I have to spend some time figuring it all out. I haven't used trainer road, so I know I have a little learning curve ahead of me.

So I got one of these bad boys, and now I'm ready to go crazy trying to make it work. Problems I am having:

1. It's not riding smoothly at all. My drivetrain sounds like it wants to keep shifting?? No matter what gear I'm in. To save y'all time with potential answers, I've already confirmed that I have an 11-speed cassette and an 11-speed drivetrain to match. I have the spacer on the right way (99% sure I do at least).  I've heard people say that I should adjust my derailleur to the trainer. NO WAY. I hate adjusting derailleurs and this defeats the purpose of being able to swap easily between indoor and outdoor riding. And I would much rather have my derailleur tuned into my rear wheel, not my trainer. I realize I just need to find ONE gear that it rides smoothly in, but I can't even seem to do that. I feel like I'm going to damage my chain if I keep riding with all that popping/grinding/I-can't-find-a-gear sound.

2. High-pitched "whine". Is it supposed to make that noise?? I sound like a jet-plane trying to take off. It gets more high-pitched as the speed increases. Maybe I just have to get used to it??? I haven't heard any other reviews say that this is the case though. In fact, I hear how quiet it's supposed to be??

3. Bluetooth connectivity - even though it connected yesterday when I set it up, this morning the app on my iPhone detected the Kick'r but kept chugging away saying "connecting...." for like 25 minutes as I rode in the same gear waiting to "start" my workout. HOLY FRUSTRATING. It never fully connected. I tried two phones and my iPad. The app connected my Mio HRM just fine so I know my Bluetooth was working on the phone end.But the Kick'r never seemed to get it's act together. The speed and power kept saying "n/a" because the sensor was still "connecting". Even when full bars were showing??

 I've heard so many rave reviews about this thing, and I'm ready to pack it back up and buy a new Kinetic trainer. It's almost easier to change my rear tire a bunch of times then deal with all this.

 Before I try to get through to customer service, I figured I'd ask the team here, since I think y'all have more knowledge than they do sometimes. :-)

 Thanks for any help!!!

rlh2000

Kori, I don't have one but I looked into it, mostly because of the claim that it is quieter (live in 3rd floor apartment, my neighbors aren't very enthusiastic about 5am bike workouts) but then read/heard the sound comparison on DC Rainmaker's review. Scroll down to the video towards the end. Is that the sound you are hearing?

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/03/fitness-trainer-review.html

Kori Martini

Yup....that would be the noise. OK, so I just gotta adapt to that one. (Why is everyone raving about how quiet it is??)

Brad Marcus

@Kori- So my wife and I got a Kickr this past year too. We had been mostly sharing a Cycleops powerbeam pro prior and I took over that one while Heidi trained on the Kickr. She is NOT tech savvy when it comes to bike stuff, in fact she is the opposite of that. I did the setup, and it took a little playing around, but I got it working fairly easily. Lately, I have been using it myself to do exactly what you bought yours for, which is to do most of my rides outside, but ride on it occasionally. I too didn't want the hassle of swapping wheels, etc. It's worked fairly well for me in this regard. Although I can't help out with all your questions, I can offer a little guidance:

-Using the Kickr with TrainerRoad is HUGE! It makes it all easy and if it weren't for this, Heidi would definitely get lost. So, I'd keep up with that strategy.

-Riding smoothly: I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this, but if you are hearing rubbing, I wouldn't adjust derailleur or anything on your bike. The gearing on your wheel's cassette and the one on that comes on the Kickr are most likely different even though they are both 11 speed. I am guessing this is the culprit. For example, I get some rubbing in small gear on crank/big gear on cassette while on Kickr. I also have found that riding in 1 or 2 gears regardless of power seems to work best for me and I've shifted over to 3rd largest on the cassette (small gear up front), and mostly go with that. You should be able to find a gear that isn't rubbing (most should NOT be). If this isn't the case, I'd call Wahoo for support.

-I do not have a whining on mine (except my own whine when I'm doing vo2 intervals I know the sound, since I've had it on other trainers that I've used and I will say that the Kickr is the quietest and smoothest one I've used. That is strange and I'd call cust support on that one for sure.

-Bluetooth: We have had an occasional snag with the Bluetooth connectivity. More often than not this is not the case. However, we have found that the best remedy is to simply unplug the Kickr, wait 5 seconds or so, and plug back in. Then, it picks up the connection right away. If you are not picking up Bluetooth, then you will get NO power readings which defeats the whole purpose, so make sure you address this. Now that I think about it, this happened more at the onset and I don't remember the last time it occurred.

-Finally, It has taken me a bit of practice to figure out how to get the best training ride using this trainer since its different than my cycleops (which also adjusts power automatically). The biggest obstacle I've had is the difference in power readings between my Quarq and what the Kickr shows. My power reading are MUCH higher on the Kickr vs Quarq, and since I use my Quarq outside, I try to using the readings that it shows while on the trainer. In order to do this, I simply adjust the % of power in my workouts through TrainerRoad until I get to my desired watts shown on my head unit which reads my Quarq. This isn't perfect, but would be the case with any 2 power meters I guess.

All in all, I think the technology is very good and we are actually considering buying a 2nd one.... Good luck and hope this helped!

crhurd

Very interested to see how this develops. I am getting close to pulling the trigger on a Kick'r too. I really like the no tire swap, swap bikes and have power on both road and tri bike on a trainer. I also have a 2012 Trek Speed Concept that has issues with a regular trainer and the frame. KK fixed the issue, my CycleOps requires spacers (hardware store) to fix the issue. Syracuse winters and my dislike of cars combine to result in significant pain cave drainer time.

Dino Sarti said Kick'r is the way to go, so I took that as gospel.

Tom Glynn

I've had my Kickr for about a year and really like it.  I don't seem to mind the noise it makes.  I wouldn't call it quiet, but it's not that loud in my opinion.

I follow along the Google wattage forum and there have been some issues with the Kickr.  Wahoo used to claim you really never needed to do a spin down calibration after you first set it up but due to a barrage of complaints, they have backed down.  I'd do a spin down on a regular basis.

There are also complaints that the power numbers are off significantly.  I tend to adjust the intensity of a particular workout based on past performance so it's not that critical to me that power is perfect.  Just beware though that there may be large discrepancies between your outdoor power meter and the Kickr so don't set racing goal numbers on Kickr data.

Google wattage link: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/wattage/EBajNKd9TlQ

TrainerRoad has just released something called PowerMatch.  I haven't used it. If you have another power meter with the Kickr (it has to be crank or pedal based because you take the back wheel off) then TR compares data from both and makes adjustments. From TR "Nate from TrainerRoad here.  The offset only lives inside of TrainerRoad.  Nothing get's applied within the kickr. Here's how it works if you're using PowerMatch.  We take a rolling average of your power meter output and your target kickr power.  We monitor for any difference.  So if your power meter is 5 watts below your Kickr we add 5 watts to the erg target on the kickr.  We then take a new average. We also throw away any power spikes and we start over if the target power changes more than 5 watts (a new interval)."

I use the Kickr with TrainerRoad and add in Sufferfest videos where I can.  It's awesome.

jfields74

I've had my Kickr for about 8 months now and love it.  Using it with Trainer Road is a real plus also.   Mine has a slight whine but I think it's much less noise than my older trainer.  You might want to get the app for your phone and update the firmware on the kickr.  Also check out this article of see if any of these apply to you and your kickr as far as the chain skipping goes.  

http://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles/204281834-Why-is-my-chain-skipping-and-popping-

MattAaronson

Sorry, no help here. I feel like the only person who hated the Kickr but I did hate it and returned it. I wrote a post on this winter in the forums here.

Al Truscott

Kori, sounds like the two big issues you currently have are funky Bluetooth connection to mobile device, and mismatch between your rear derailleur and the Kickr's cassette. On the BT, I avoid that by using my laptop with an ANT+ dongle, and communicate via ANT+ protocol. The times I've used my iPad with BT, I haven't had issues. On the cassette, again, no help here, I have no problems with that. I assume you have the same drivetrain (Shimano/SRAM vs Campy) on the bike as on the Kickr. Maybe your bike is a little out of tune to begin with?

BTW, it's good to know you are back on the bike after getting crushed out on the road earlier this month. I hope the healing is going according to plan?