Seeking info on Wahoo Kickr

[Krank]

How consistent is Power drift on the Kickr?

Do you Kickr Owners observe a noticeable power drift over time and use with these units?


Krank

[Andrew28]

How consistent is Power drift on the Kickr?

Do you Kickr Owners observe a noticeable power drift over time and use with these units?


Krank

I haven't had any noticable problems. I don't have another power meter to use as a comparison however.

I leave mine switched on and rarely perform a spindown.

[Comedian]

How consistent is Power drift on the Kickr?

Do you Kickr Owners observe a noticeable power drift over time and use with these units?


Krank

During a 20 minute FTP test mine was within 1w of the average power read by my vector pedals.

[thecubical]

Anyone know if the KICKR is compatible with any of these cheaper ant+ sticks, http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/251725519440" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bluejay87]

Anyone know if the KICKR is compatible with any of these cheaper ant+ sticks, http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/251725519440" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I use a similar one and it works ok

[cancan64]

Anyone know if the KICKR is compatible with any of these cheaper ant+ sticks, http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/251725519440" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will find out soon... was going to use a blue tooth dongle but zwift doesn't work with Bluetooth so will see how this goes (currently using a Garmin ant+ off my Garmin 910xt but want to sell it)

[cancan64]

What gear should you use when doing a spindown... I set my Kickr up on Saturday and rode for 20 min and then done a spindown to calibrate it.., signed up for Trainerroad and done the ftp test ( was end of the week so was stuffed so think my limit may be low...well LBS owner thought it was) This morning I had a trainerroad session with a sufferfest video but found I was sitting on the hardest gear to keep my cadence in the high 90's and power at the target... and still nearly spinning out so I done another spindown but used the small front ring which improved it but still ended up on the biggest gear on whats supposed to be an uphill sprint... end of the hour and legs were a bit sore but heart rate didnt get anywhere near max and was still able to commute to work easily enough after...I also tried zwift yesterday as well but was spinning and going nowhere...so thinking something is not setup correctly.
I do have 4 days off the bike at the end of this week so will redo the ftp on the night of day 4 or morning of day 5

[macca33]

Doublepost

[macca33]

Are you using the iOS / Android Wahoo app? If so, are you putting the Kickr into the correct mode.

Kickr has 4 modes:-

Sim - for Zwift & other software programs to enable the kickr to vary resistance according to feedback from the program, etc...

Erg - allows you to dial-in a target wattage and the kickr adjusts resistance to keep wattage there no matter your gear sleection/cadence

Level - you choose the level you want to work at - there are a number of power curves

Resistance - manually set a resistance that the kickr holds for you.

I reckon you may not be in the correct setting.

cheers

[cancan64]

Using the android app.. Will have a look at the mode but I think it's on erg... I might also check the level for when I do the ftp test on trainerroad, I might have that to easy

[Bluejay87]

Trainerroad should automatically set it to erg mode, but for ftp intervals it will go into level mode. You shouldn't run out of gears but if you do it is just a matter of going up a level or two.

[lock_]

I've got a beta version of Hurts Ergo (iOS only) available if anyone's interested in having a play around. Just send me through a PM with your email address and I'll get an invite sent out. Main change being support for BTLE heart rate and cadence sensors, but there's a few other tweaks too. Good time to make feature requests.

[vosadrian]

Hey Lock,

My wife uses Hurts ergo quite a bit. We are using the free version and logging with a garmin, as we have garmin ANT cadence and HRM sensors. Just recently we have started having heaps of dropouts on the garmin connection to the KICKR. It is almost unusable and drops out several times a minute causing the Garmin auto-pause to beep continuously. I realise this is likely to be either the Garmin or KICKR at fault, but I was just wondering if you had heard of this and found a solution? I suspect it started when we upgraded the KICKR firmware to 1.3.32, but can't be sure. We would of course be happy to pay to upload from Hurts direct to Strava, but unfortunately we have no way to get the cadence and HR data with Hurts unless we buy BLE sensors. Just wondering if you have heard of this before and have any suggested solutions. I wonder if the BLE connection to Hurts could interfere with the ANT output from the KICKR?

Cheers,

Adrian

[lock_]

FWIW I still record the ride data on a Garmin. I don't like the way Hurts Ergo records data on a per-workout basis; when I do a session it's usually made up of a few different workouts... Also, during dev/testing/debugging it's not uncommon for it to crash on me, and it losing a workout really sucks.

The BTLE connections seem pretty rock solid for me, as in I can control my KICKR from the other end of the house. I suspect it's a KICKR/ANT+/Garmin issue. Hurts Ergo uses the same API as all the other apps, although this new version does contain an updated version of that API.

I get rare, say once per hour, speed drops (with Garmin auto pause). But these are accompanied by large spikes in resistance (jump from say 300w to 500w), I believe this is just my KICKR misreading speed. eg; it thinks I've slowed down and ramps up resistance when I really haven't. Lasts maybe a second. This to me seems more an issue internal to the KICKR than a connectivity problem. I haven't updated the firmware on it however.

In-app purchases in TestFlight beta builds are free (and will likely leave functionality unlocked in final release), so it's worth PM'ing an email address through. You could then do a test run recording on the Garmin and Hurts Ergo and do a comparison of the speed recorded via BTLE and ANT+. I'm interested to see if the same speed drops show up in both. This new version displays KICKR speed, so you probably don't even need to worry about digging through data files...

A simple test may be to position the Garmin down next to the KICKR and see if that helps. I know a few people run a USB extension cable with ANT+ dongle down next to their KICKRs to get Zwift going without issue. You could test for Bluetooth interference by using the KICKR without any apps running, make sure you kill (not just close) all Wahoo apps as they are pretty good at picking up a connection. Then see if the Garmin still reports speed drops. I'm not entirely sure this would stop all BTLE related transmissions from the KICKR though, it must broadcast a "I'm here" message continuously in order to be found by your phone.

[vosadrian]

I just had a look back through some data on Strava. It seems that before the firmware update, we would get an occasional speed drop (like once an hour), but the power and Cadence stayed relatively constant. Since the firmware update, we get dropouts that also cause the speed, power and cadence to drop to 0. I believe the garmin is pausing on autopause. I am not sure if the autopause will cause the cadence to read 0. Seems strange to me that the cadence goes to zero since it is not from the KICKR. I would assume that the issue is the Garmin, but on a normal road ride with the speed/cadence sensor there is no issue. It works perfectly. When we first did the update, it was much less frequent... maybe 5 times in a 30 min session. Now it can several times a minute and my wife needs a fix. I will try some of your suggestions as well as setting her up with my Garmin to see if it is any different. Another thing to mention is that the ERG mode on 1.3.32 firmware outputs speed differently. It has two modes. One outputs the speed equivalent to the power you are doing, and one outputs actual speed. It defaults to simulated speed for power. We changed it to output actual speed as it used to in older firmware. It seems to do the dropouts on both settings.

Thanks for your help. We love your app. It seems to be the easiest way to do intervals with the KICKR. My wife prefers to use an app on her phone that she can get going in a few seconds than to boot up a PC and debug IT issues on that before she can do her workout. We just have to debug the Garmin issues. I will PM you email addresses for the beta.

Thanks again!

[kb]

Speed drops might not be firmware related but could be that the Kickr's optical sensor needs cleaning or a slight repositioning. From vague recollections reading about dropouts a year ago or so anyway...

[vosadrian]

Thanks kb. Will look into that.

[squizz_08]

Anyone had a change in the Kickr reported power since the latest firmware update?

My Kickr (the second mind, first was already replaced under warranty) has gone from reading a little higher than my P2M power meter to reading at best 10w and at worst 30w lower.

[lock_]

My KICKR procedure was to do 10-15 min (AT) 250w to warm it up, then spindown, then the actual workout. So I'd like to think there was no temperature related drift over the remainder of the workout, I believe one of the changes made in the update was related to better accounting for this...

Anyway, feels (in a very unscientific sense) that I 'lost' about 10w, and over a 20min interval that hurts. Of course it could have just been an off day(s).

[Spaniel]

Interesting developments by Kinomaps announced on the DC Rainmaker site.

The new Skuga app with whole Strava rides is just the thing to replace a rained out ride with a virtual version!

[lowrider]

New to the Kickr and not sure if I am going to pull the trigger or not. Obviously a great training tool but are the power numbers accurate or average?

I would only be buying it for structured training as I find it hard to get out and ride these days.

[Bluejay87]

Pretty accurate power, but there are some reports that it overreads power compared to other PM's. Hard to say which is truly accurate though if there is a difference. It's more important that is consistent. In my experience, it is.

[cancan64]

Same as what Bluehay87 said....I use mine with Trainerroad and done there ftp test which is the numbers I set and just pick a plan and pedal away.... I keep it in an easy gear (to keep the noise and vibration down since everyone else is asleep) concentrate on my cadence and let trainerroad and the kicker talk to themselves and sort out the pain side. I dont compare the power outputs to my other bike which has a power meter as thats used on the road in an uncontrolled and unstructured enviroment

[Crawf]

Would you be missing out on anything if you purchased one second hand? i.e would you not get any of virtual training stuff? I'm not sure what comes bundled with it for a first time purchaser?

[Bluejay87]

Would you be missing out on anything if you purchased one second hand? i.e would you not get any of virtual training stuff? I'm not sure what comes bundled with it for a first time purchaser?

Only thing to check would be warranty. There is no software bundles.