I have extolled my affection for my Kickr a few times on this site. If you have been reading this for a while, you will know that I think it is qutie nifty, but I have never actually done a proper review of it. If you have been reading this site for a while though, some of what is coming might be a bit of repetition.
I will also repeat my usual disclaimer. I am not DC Rainmaker. I just had another read of his review and the level of detail he includes blows my mind everytime. If you want to know absolutely everything about a Kickr, then his review is definitely worth a read. It can be found here:
DC Rainmaker Kickr Review
Also I have noticed in the past that sometimes people who Google something like 'DC Rainmaker Kickr', end up here. If that is you, then I apologise for the disappointment.
Instead, as usual, this review is more about my experience with the Kickr and what I have found to be helpful etc.
One more disclaimer before I get going. I paid for my Kickr, it wasn't provided by a sponsor, so I think I can fairly say that the contents of this review are based on my experiences rather than on kickbacks.
So what is the Wahoo Kickr. Well the Kickr is a bike trainer and it looks like this:
A while ago these things were called wind trainers because they had fans on them that provided drag through air resistance. Riding on them spun the fan creating a strong breeze and a lot of noise, hence the name. These days there are a number of different sorts of resistance used, air, fluid and electro mechanical being the main ones. The Kickr is electromechanical. That means that the resistance is controlled by an electromagnet. The advantage of this is that the strength of the electromagnet can be easily adjusted so the Kickr has a high level of adjustability. This happens to be one of the things that Kickr uses to great effect.
A while ago trainers were nearly all what is now called, a 'wheel on' design. This meant that the trainer was made up of a frame with a roller connected to some form of resistance. You mounted your bike on the trainer such that your back wheel was off the ground and was in contact with the roller. You turned the pedals, which turned the back wheel, the back wheel turned the roller, which turned the resistance. If you increased the resistance, riding became harder. Fairly simple idea. Most trainers still use this basic idea, although they have come a long way.
Looking at the Kickr is should be immediately obvious that this is a bit different. Namely, there is no back wheel involved.
In fact this is what is called a 'direct drive' trainer. This is a design that has been around for ages, but really only became mainstream back in about 2011 or so with a trainer called the Lemond Revolution.
Now whether you like the idea of a direct drive trainer or not is quite personal. I love them and don't really like 'wheel on' trainers, but at least some of my bias is based on my experiences on old, basic trainers. Prior to the Kickr I had only really used cheap 'wheel on' trainers before. With these trainers, getting the resistance right was a fiddly and inexact science, often resulting in wheel slip. The trainers created a lot of wear on the back tyre which just seemed like a waste to me. I always preferred to be on the road so spent very little time on a trainer. These days, I gather, with better designed rollers, trainers that automatically position the roller etc, 'on wheel' trainers have improved significantly. In fact, as I have said above, most trainers still use a wheel on design and Wahoo have recently announced that they will be bringing out one of their own called the Kickr Snap, so they can't be all bad. Add to that, a lot of people don't like the hassle of taking the wheel off and having to mount the bike on the Kickr. This is particularly painful with a TT bike with horizontal dropouts. So as I have said, it depends on your priorities and what you like.
For me, I have no great issue with taking my back wheel off and mounting the bike on the Kickr. It only takes a minute. Once that is done, I love the advantages of a 'direct drive' trainer. There is one less interface, the drive train connects directly to the resistance, no tyre to roller interface in between. This means no slippage, no wear etc. I just think it is a neat solution.
So assuming you are happy with a direct drive trainer, what is the Kickr like.
I have to admit my range of experience is quite narrow, the Kickr is about the only type of trainer like this that I have used, so I can't really talk in terms of comparisons. But I can talk about my experiences with the Kickr and those experiences have all been good. The Kickr has taken me from somebody who used to hate trainer sessions to somebody who will try and incorporate at least one a week into regular training, irrespective of the weather. I now will happily(ish) spend a couple of hours on the trainer once a week, a month or so ago I was on there for over four hours. What about this piece of kit caused such a significant change?
Well a couple of reasons. Firstly the Kickr is a very well designed and built bit of equipment. It is built robust and tough, it weighs a tonne (well about 21kgs actually) and feels very solid when you are using it. It has a giant 5kg flywheel, which plays a big part in why the trainer feels good to use. Essentially once the fly wheel is spun up it gives the Kickr some inertia, so if you stop pedalling, the trainer freewheels, rather than stops. This makes it feel a bit more like the road. It isn't perfect, but it is a big improvement over the basic trainers I used to use. Being pleasant to use removes ones of the barriers that used to prevent me from getting on trainers.
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| That big flywheel |
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| Surprisingly compact |
As well as being better to use, I have come to realise that the Kickr is a great training tool. It isn't a replacement to being on the road, I am of the opinion that time on the road is vital, there are certain skills that you can only get by properly riding. But it is a wonderful tool for improving bike speed, particularly for increasing power output.
On top of all that, it does get you out of the weather when it turns nasty. That is what I got for in the first place after all.
So talking about increasing power output brings me nicely to the Kickr's other party piece, and really this is what makes it so good. The Kickr is what Wahoo refers to as a smart trainer. That means that it is highly controllable, ie the resistance can be minutely adjusted on the fly (if you look at the above photos you will a power cord plugging into the bottom of the Kickr). The control is carried out through pretty much whatever interface you like, smartphone, tablet, PC, whatever your preference is. The Kickr communicates through both BlueTooth and ANT+ and so if your devices can communicate through those channels then chances are it can communicate with the Kickr. Wahoo has its own App (both Apple and Android) which can be used to control the Kickr. This App is pretty much the most basic control option, but through you set up the Kickr, record your session and control the resistance. The resistance can be set by level (like a stationary bike in the gym), or you can simulate an incline or a head wind to ride into, or you can set a power level that you want to sustain, plus there are a heap of other options. You input what you want through the device and the Kickr takes care of the resistance side. In return the Kickr will communicate back information like cadence, speed, distance travelled, average power etc. The Kickr can even transmit to your bike computer, as long as it uses either ANT+ or BlueTooth, although this is purely a read out, you can't control the Kickr from there. Once you understand just how controllable the Kickr is, you get an idea of how powerful a tool it can be.
On top of being controllable, Wahoo has made control of the Kickr open to third party software. That means that there is a large amount of software out there that can control the Kickr. For a good rundown of some of these pieces of software have a look at the DC Rainmaker review, there is also a list of some of the Apps on Wahoo's website (Wahoo Kickr). Here is a very broad summary though.
There is training software, like Trainer Road, which allows you to build a session on your device first. If you don't know what you want to do Trainer Road can provide with prebuilt sessions. Once you are on the Kickr you press start and your device will control the Kickr throughout the session. Doing hill repeats or intervals? Well the software will automatically increase the resistance as you ride up hill and ease it off at the top. Very nifty.
There is software that will allow you to ride stages of the Tour and other famous races (Trainer Road does this too), all accompanied by a video of the course. The software will tell the Kickr when to increase resistance to simulate a mountain etc. Planning on a particular race, if it is a well known course then chances are that the course is available online and you can ride a simulation of it. Sufferfest is a bunch of ride sessions and a whole community built around using trainers like the Kickr. All very cool stuff although I should say at this point that none of this software is free, but it isn't super expensive either.
A fairly recent development is program called Zwift, which is like an online computer game for cyclists. When you log into Zwift you ride on a simulated island with other cyclists. These cyclists can be from all over the world. I haven't ridden in Zwift, but chatting to mates who do it sounds like there are section of the Island suitable for whatever you want to do, go for a cruisy ride, do hill repeats, whatever you are after it is available. Zwift may not be ideal of doing a specific session, but it is a great option if you just want to get out for a ride when the weather is nasty. Head out for a group ride and not get wet, not get crashed into etc. Nice.
In fact I suspect Zwift will just be the start of an increasing online integration of trainers like the Kickr. Already you can upload and ride Strava segments on the Kickr. The Kickr will make sure the elevation profile etc is accurate, you just have to ride. Although you can't actually record KOMs on the Kickr, for that you will have to go out and drive the segment in a car just like everybody else.
When I got my Kickr back in early 2014 this sort of controllable functionality was still really rare, it has come a long way very quickly. Up until the Kickr came out there wasn't much beyond the Computrainer that allowed you to have this level of control. The Computrainer was several thousands of dollars more though and infinitely more complicated. The Kickr really kicked (pun intended) this segment of trainers off. These days there are a number of devices that allow you to control the trainer through software (and several of them are direct drive). Most manufacturers now produce at least one 'smart trainer', typically near the top of their range. Some of the alternatives are cheaper than the Kickr, but as as far as I aware the Kickr is fairly unique in the variety of the software that can be used.
If I am honest, as cool as all the above is, I use the the basic Wahoo App the most. There is a mode in there called Erg mode that allows you to prescribe a power level and the Kickr will hold it no matter what. As long as you are turning the pedals you will be generating the programmed power. Turn them slowly and it is like doing weights, turn them fast and you will spin along. No matter what your cadence, you will be holding the power level that you entered. I find that this mode is about all I need for the sessions I do. That is really why I haven't ventured into other software (that and laziness). I have considered using other software several times, particularly TrainerRoad, but I have never been convinced that I need the extra functionality. I have the Wahoo app on my phone, I just put the phone on a music stand next to the bike and tick the power levels up and down as my session requires. It is simple, but it works very well.
So that is the very impressive software side. What else?
I typically use the Kickr in conjunction with my Garmin Vector power meter. It is not that I don't trust the Wahoo, it is just that I have found that the power outputs from the Kickr and the Vectors rarely align and I like having consistency with my road sessions. Sometimes the outputs from the two devices are close and sometimes they are as much as 30 Watts apart, sometimes the Vector's measure higher, sometimes the Kickr. It seems a bit random. To be fair to both though if I set them up correctly, including a re-calibration/spindown after 10 minutes of riding (which the manual for both tells you to do) the power outputs are a lot closer. As annoying as this sounds, I actually don't find this discrepancy to be a big issue, I always go off the Vectors and adjust the resistance on the Kickr to suit. I don't think this issue is because the Vectors or the Kickr are wildly inaccurate. I think both of them are consistently accurate with themselves. I just think small variations in the outputs of both can lead to large(ish) relative differences. As I have said though, when set up properly those differences decrease.
The above discrepency also means that the distance and average speed recorded by the Kickr don't always gel with reality. Once again though, I don't really use these values, I only really look at the power, so it doesn't bug me. For others though it might be an issue. Although considering that a lot of trainers don't even produce this information, I could see this not being that big an issue for a lot people. Might become more important if you are spending a lot of time on something like Zwift.
Another thing is that for a trainer, the Kickr isn't cheap. It costs about $1500 in Australia, although you often see it advertised for less. This is about par for the course for a good quality controllable trainer, although as I noted above there are cheaper options, one of them being Wahoo's own Kickr Snap when it is available. I actually think that for what you get, the price isn't a bad one, but that is quite subjective.
The above few points are probably about the only issues I have found with the Kickr though. I regularly tell people that the Kickr has been one of the most beneficial pieces of training equipment I have ever purchased. I honestly believe that. I think the Kickr has probably been responsible for knocking between three and five minutes off my half ironman bike time. That may not sound like much, but to put it another way, it has moved my bike time from being a fast age group one to being a middle of the pack pro one. That means a lot. Sure there has been other factors, but the Kickr has been a big one. It was the first piece of equipment that really led me to pushing the power levels that I was generating on the bike. I had already been using a power meter for months when I got the Kickr. I had been seeing steady but slow improvements. Once I got the Kickr those power levels improved significantly and quickly. Using the Kickr just encouraged me to push another 5W and another 5W. I was then amazed to see those gains then transferred to the road. Another side benefit I found from using the Kickr is that it encouraged me to spin more so my average cadence lifted, in both training and racing, without me really having to focus on it.
It really has been an amazing piece of equipment for me.
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| The set up |
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