Don't forget it's also going to simultaneously add resistance to the trainer. Your bike angles upwards and your pedaling becomes harder.

What I'm having a hard time with in the picture is, if the rotational axis is the rear axle, then the picture's angled straight line on the climb device is going to force the fork further and further away from the trainer as it slides up... This would be bad for the bike, or move the trainer. Maybe not all of the details are apparent in the picture.

Looks like the entire sumbitch rocks to account for that rotational axis and the different fork rakes, etc.

All major brands are trying to accurately simulating ascents/descents. Wahoo also going for the feel here
Looks like they going for a cheaper version of the Tacx magnum trainer, also safer than the big treadmill
Also do not see any benefit for this little elevator but we have yet to see reviews and test.
Nice find this will cause some noise in the industry

As I understand it, the big downside to the Magnum is that it *needs* incline to produce any sort of meaningful resistance.

hope somebody can crack it...so it works with a neo, which already had road feel.

Hope zwift or other trainer software would just see it an another device and run it separately from a kickr somehow.

I remember the InsideRide treadmill had a tether to simulate air resistance. Most riders opted not to use it. Why not just increase the angle of inclination slightly to compensate for the lack of air resistance? I think it was because they wanted it to actually be inclined at 5% when simulating a 5% grade and not, say, 6.5% while reporting it as 5%.

BIOMECHANICS AND ENERGETICS OF UPHILL CYCLING: A REVIEW

This paper supports the idea that uphill positioning is different and this device could therefore help simulate that

 
I hope Wahoo are reading this thread and plan on supporting people like me, who have supported them by purchasing 12 of these just before August and they neglected to mention they were planning updates which we wouldn't have the choice to use.

Merchant Bankers comes to mind......

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Which study supports that conclusion?

The one you just linked

It's not a study but a review of ~40 studies. Which one(s) supports your conclusion?

So they are going to release a new Kickr Model, when the current version was released 11 months ago? Not making a backwards compatible accessory is a pretty lame thing to do.....although I doubt I would buy this climbing thing anyway.

My impression is that it will be compatible with Kickr 2 but not Kickr 1. I could be wrong.

Stop being obtuse. Just state plainly state your issue with the Cimb. Have some basic respect for those you're trying to argue with.

Wow! thanks for posting

Was looking to order a trainer this weekend. Guess I'd better hold out through the week.

I found another pic I forgot to post. Good view of the rounded bottom that would allow rotation. And it appears to be matched up with a Kickr2.

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I got as far as buying an actuator, and decoding the ant packets, but never got further.
When zwift talks to the kickr, it sends over ant data packets containing current slope gradient to simulate (as an aside for negative slopes zwift currently sends half the true value, i.e. if zwift says it's 10% down hill, it sends 5% down to the kickr - as it can't simulate down hill very well).
Presumably it's relaying this information to the Climb unit. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a spare channel to do this on the orginal kickr, so there might be a firmware upgrade in the future.
And like you say there shouldn't be anything stopping a software simulating another trainer to then relay the data. Just needs an extra ant dongle.

If you've done any serious climbing on the bike, you've realized that what is hard is not having the front wheel higher. What's hard is having to use your back muscles etc. to stabilize your bike and fight gravity. You really don't have to do this with the new device.
You can try riding for 1h at 280w with your front wheel level, and then 1h with your wheel on top of a thick book and will not see any difference.

More will come out Wednesday when the media embargo lifts, but to answer why this isn't retrofittable, consider the basic physics of your existing Wahoo Kickr; the front lifts, but the back is locked into the trainer. Considering there is no pivot point, imagine what that will do to your frame's dropouts: just tear them up. The two new trainers have dropout plug-ins that can rotate, meaning the frame can move freely without damage to your frame.

I've just been on it, tied to Zwift, and it's pretty rad. More soon...

 
The fighting gravity simulation is done by the resistance unit. Never noticed issues stabilizing the bike.

Doesn't mean they don't exist. I'm sure there's something valid there. Though that's true with non-roller trainers generally.

The Climb does seem like it'd help simulate the change in use of contact points. I think if you did an hour at 280W with three thick books and told me no difference you'd be lying. At a minimum it'd be way less comfortable I'd think. I think you'd have to work to stabilize your body. One book much less so. O

Well, the thing is that I've tried several times already and lifting your front wheel just does not simulate what you experience in the mountains.
I can raise my front wheel by 20cm and even after an hour at somewhat high wattage, you don't experience what you experience on steep mountains, or even long steady climbs at 7-8% for that matter.

The older kickrs don't allow for the bike to independantly move up or down. The new one does .