And this is the Kickr

Ahhh, Kickr puns, so plentiful. You have to love a product name that lends itself so much to wordplay. It does tend to cause havoc with spell check though.

Anyway, this morning I finally jumped on the Kickr for my first session on the trainer. It went well, better than expected in fact. Probably the biggest endorsement I can give is that the session was 90 minutes, which is the longest I have ever managed to keep myself on a trainer before. That is good news, the better news is that if necessary, I feel like I could have stayed on there for longer.

So how did I find it.

In a word, good.

In more words...

It still feels trainerish, which isn't surprising, since it is a trainer. Also in terms of how it felt through my backside and my peddles, if I closed my eyes I would have struggled to tell you that I didn't have a back wheel on a roller. So when rolling it perhaps doesn't feel that different to a normal wind trainer. However, one area where it does feel a lot better than my old trainer is coasting and spin down. The extra momentum from the massive fly wheel on the Kickr means that coasting feels more natural. The session I was doing didn't involve a lot of coasting, but it is the sort of thing does contribute to a much better feel.

Another factor that contributes to a better feel is the solidity (is that a word??) of the unit. I commented the other day that the Kickr weighs 27kg and feels very well made. That impression remained once I was actually on the bike and riding. No movement around, it inspires nothing but total confidence in the machine that, in the end, is the only thing standing  between your bike and the ground.

However, probably the biggest area of improvement over the trainers that I have used in the past was the resistance and gearing, which felt like a much better simulation of the road. I was in the same sort of gears, with the same sort of cadence and the same sort of power output as I would have on the road, which was great. So from that point of view it is a good simulation of the road.

Speaking of power output, during the session I was running the Wahoo trainer app, which gives power as an output. However, I was also running my Garmin 510 picking up from my Garmin Vectors. I had a couple of reasons for running the two in parallel, one was so that I could get cadence, and the other was so that I could do a comparison between the two power outputs. The power outputs were reassuringly similar. They weren't exactly the same since, as far as I could tell, the Wahoo displays instantaneous power and I have my Garmin set to display power averaged over 10 seconds. However, they were close enough to give confidence that they were measuring the same thing. In the end the average power output from the Wahoo was about 5% higher than from the Garmin. I will have a bit of a play and a tweak, but I think I can live with that. After the fact I also realised that I missed a step in calibrating the Garmin, which Garmin says can add 1 or 2% more accuracy. Not a big deal, but it could account for a bit of that 5% difference. On the whole though the two are close enough that I am satisfied.

Another area I will have to experiment was my average speed. Whilst my cadence and power output were similar to what I would usually ride, the average speed picked up by the Wahoo was down on what I would usually do. It is a metric that doesn't really mean anything on a stationary bike, but I was just surprised to see it was out, when all the other aspects of the device have been so spot on.

Beyond that, my initial impressions of being impressed remain. The other day I commented that the initial stages of set up were nice and easy. I was pleased to see that the remaining set up steps stayed that was as well. It really wasn't complicated to get set up and the whole thing worked first time, which is refreshing.

I have to say as well though, boy it can hurt. Once you remove all other variables, and concentrate on holding XX watts at XX rpm, you can really put the hurt on. I was doing some 60 second intervals that had me gasping by the end. That is exactly the sort of work out I was looking for from the Wahoo, so I was glad to have it deliver.

I can tell as well that with the ride this morning I have not really scratched the surface of what this thing can do. I remember hearing an analogy once about computers. It was that if we all used our microwaves in the same way that most of us use our computers, then we would all still be using them to just boil water. The point being that for most of us our computers can do far more than what we use them for. If my Wahoo Kickr was a microwave, then I think during the session this morning I would have barely opened the door. The device is clearly capable of far more than I used it for today. So it will be fun to start learning how to use it for more than just making cups of tea.