Alfalfameister wrote:
I dunno if I missed it...
But I'm after a trainer that simulates so-and-so course (with nice video to go along with it), and I know the Kickr has resistance that changes (i.e., like going uphill, or maybe even headwinds), but what about going downhill or tailwinds? Do you still have to keep pedaling? The key to simulating a realistic "road feel" in an indoor trainer all comes down to the design and size of the flywheel and it's moment of inertia-- the resistance to change in rotation. In order to be able to simulate that coasting feeling for downhills or flats, we want a high moment of inertia so that the flywheel continues to spin at roughly the same velocity as when we stopped pedaling. So for super road feel, we just want huge flywheels right? Well, not quite, the same thing works in reverse. If we have a huge flywheel, the high moment of inertia also wants to preserve the state of the flywheel when it's not moving or moving slow, so basically acceleration is sluggish and it's hard to get up to speed.
The flywheel on the KICKR appears (from previous discussions in this thread) to be moderately sized. Sounds like it will be way better than the tiny flywheel on say the CompuTrainer or many other trainers, but not as big as say the Velotron (which is basically a flywheel with pedals) or even the similarly designed (similar to KICKR) LeMond Revolution.
Of those two competitors I just mentioned, The Velotron is functional, but antiquated in electronic and software design, and very expensive, and the LeMond does not control resistance.
So to answer your question, no, it will not be exactly like being outside, but it most likely will be better than any of it's actual competition.