Which bearings in particular? I've worn belts, shims, and had my fleet (yeah, I collect them) in parts. Never had to replace bearings.

The latest firmware that switches the Kickr1 (original) to Model Mode seems to be good for accurate power figures on the units I have. Latest firmware and performing an advanced spindown will flip the unit to Model Mode. Strain Gauge mode is still an option... if needed.

---

Shane Miller - GPLama
YouTube | Web | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Strava

Yep, I still use power meter control in PerfPro, but since this latest upgrade and advanced spin down changing to the Model Mode my Kickr has been consistently within 2 watts of the power meter. Whereas, the Kickr was consistently 15 watts higher than the power meter previously. I may even take it out of power meter control this evening for an active recovery spin just to see what happens and see if it no longer needs a competent baby sitter for it to behave. :-)

Hi,

Thanks for the responses,

Gplama, it's the bearings of the flywheel.

Felt_rider, interesting, I recently did the update, but haven't looked into the advanced spindown option. I will have a look at it. Thanks a lot.

What do you exactly mean with model mode? And how to use it with perfpro?

Can't be that hard. I have about 2000 hours on mine without problem. The new calibration system gets it consistently within 2-4w at 300w to my stages, p2m, and quarq.

The latest firmwares for the Kickr1 switch to the same power measurement methods as the Kickr SNAP and Kickr 2 (not relying on the strain gauges) after performing an advanced spindown. The mode the Kickr is in is transparent to the application used.

---

Shane Miller - GPLama
YouTube | Web | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Strava

Hi iamuwere, thanks for your reponse.

2000 hours! That's a lot of indoor riding! Than you are definitely among the lucky ones. I had to exchange 2. Youtube is full of clips illustrating these annoying cracking sounds of the flywheel... Still pretty pissed off about it, given the >1000$ price tag. Costumer service has been pretty poor as well. I had to wait for a month (and 4 reminders) to get a response on my last email. I understand it might be a busy period, but then again... why don't they just hire more people to deal with it, instead of shifting the burden to their costumers... Profit over service.

Another option would be to switch to the Neo... Tacx apparently offers a 5 year warranty? Definitely a tempting offer, given my experiences with Wahoo so far. Also, no more calibrations :O very tempting. But more pricey than paying Wahoo and having it fixed (or not, let's see)

Either way, curious to check that improved accuracy. It was annoying having it differ so wildly from my stages. In particular the fact that the discrepancy increased depending on power output (both in absolute and relative terms), making it impossible to draw any analogy when riding outdoors. Fingers crossed!

All my riding is inside except for races. Almost never otherwise.

I can't defend their service. I have way too many employees in my business so people don't wait. It could cost me less but it would come at a price.

Was there ever an answer to the OP's question about replacing bearings for the flywheel? I have the same problem - noise levels slowly increased over time, which I did not notice but my wife did. Classic bearing symptom. Then, when I removed the housing covering the pulley and belt assembly to have an investigation, metallic dust fell out from the cover. Yikes. So yeah, I definitely want to replace bearings.

Same question here. Have a Gen 1 Kickr that I purchased in March of 2013. In the last year it has started getting very crunchy. Over the years I have repaired and replaced various parts, but never the bearings, which appear to be shot.

Don't worry about the bearings, these things are still better than Computrainers. As long as you have wireless you are good to go.

How do you know it is the bearings that are gone?
So I had similar issue, mine was making weird wailing noises, and they thought it was the bearings. So because I was comfy trying to repair it myself, they just sent me two bearings free of charge. That said, when I went to take it apart, I said fuck it, and decided to just spray a bunch of WD40 onto the existing bearings, just to see out of interest if it took the noise away, and low and behold it did. And I've been using it problem free for the past 3 years. Go figure.

I'm away from home at the moment, but will be back tomorrow night, I can give you the bearing sizes if you want, you can just buy them yourself for a few bucks.