Trainer Upgrade: Wahoo KICKR — Sergeant Red Beard

Eagle eyed readers will remember that I initially bought an Elite Suito trainer for my foray into the world of Zwift. Initially I liked that trainer and assumed it was going to serve me well for years to come. My thought process behind buying that particular trainer was that it had most everything I wanted out of a trainer. It was a smart trainer, adjusted resistance automatically, thru axle compatible, and direct drive. It was also cost effective enough that if I didn’t like Zwift I would feel like I didn’t waste too terribly much money.

While it worked very well in the beginning, it started to develop a near constant creak that was driving me more nuts then I already am, so I returned it. I briefly considered getting another of the same model or something in a similar price range like the Wahoo KICKR Core, Tacx Flux S, or Kinetic R1. Thing is the one I really wanted all along was the Wahoo KICKR; and seeing how I really enjoy Zwift the purchase now seemed worth it.

So I bit the bullet, purchased the trainer and it arrived on my doorstep last Tuesday.

The next step was to unbox it and set it up. The trainer comes with a Sun Ringle 11-28 cassette pre-installed, which I had to pull off since my Ocoee Baseline runs a 11-34 gravel cassette. Adapters to run thru-axles come in the box, so I pulled off the QR and put on the end caps for 12x142. Everything else was pretty straight forward, just push out the legs, adjust the feet for level, move the slider for your wheel size, and plug it in.

One of the small things that shows Wahoo was paying attention was the included disc brake insert. I thought this was a great idea and totally geeked out on it once I figured out what it was.

Next was downloading the Wahoo Fitness App and connecting the trainer and sensors. The KICKR includes a Wahoo RPM Cadence Sensor in the box. I had previously bought a Wahoo TICKR Heart Rate Sensor as I was unhappy with my Apple Watch constantly dropping the signal mid-ride. I connected both of those, then moved to the trainer. The KICKR was in need of a firmware update, so I happily obliged running the updates being the computer geek that I am.

Once it was updated it was time to mount the bike. Not much of a change here, pretty straight forward.

My first impressions were good. It was much smaller then the Elite Suito, but also a few pounds heavier which added to the stability. Ergonomics wise I was surprised to find out that I didn’t need a riser block on the front wheel to get the bike level. Moving it around was much more confidence inspiring because it wasn’t covered in layers of plastic and everything was much more compact.

It was when I threw my leg over the bike and started riding that the difference in quality started to become more apparent. It was obviously quieter without the creaking, but the hum of the flywheel was quieter as well. Rhythmic in a way that the Suito never was. It was also incredibly smooth and the stability was much better. It never sat well with me how much the Suito moved around under me despite my many attempts to adjust the feet.

What really stood out the most to me was the nuance of resistance adjustment when using Zwift. The Suito always felt like it had preset resistance levels for each grade change. There was little subtlety and it always felt like it didn’t really take your speed into account. The KICKR is much different. Not only did the resistance smoothly change as you slowed or sped up, but it also changed as the within the grade percentage. In Zwift, when the grade number turns red it means that your closer to the next percentage. You can acutally feel the KICKR increasing, or decreasing, resistance accordingly for this.

I’m extremely happy with my purchase at this point. I probably didn’t NEED to upgrade to as nice of a trainer as the Wahoo KICKR, but I firmly believe it was well worth it.