Hi - looking for some feedback from Wahoo Kickr owners. My friend and I both have one and we both are getting ridiculously high distance readings. A 3.5 hour ride often ends up with 80+ miles for a 24 mph ave. I’d like to think I’m truly this fast, but not without a motor. Anyone have a fix? Thanks!
Indoor trainer distances are never that accurate. If you’re that concerned just estimate what your outdoor speed would be given how much power you made. My Kickr is a lot closer than my KK was.
You need to check the wheel circumference profile setting in the app. Mine was originally set too small and created unreal MPH and distance readings. I now have it set at 2096mm, and the readings still seem a little high. But, that’s my normal wheel setting, so I’m going with it. Either way, MPH and distance are pretty irrelevant on a trainer.
Are you riding in ERG mode? If so, speed/distance are irrelevant. For instance, you could ride at 200 watts in a 53/12 or a 39/21, and the power will be the same but the speed that registers will be different.
Set it to simulation mode if you want accurate numbers, just don’t ride on TT mode if you’re on a road bike, I find that it’s pretty accurate.
Anyone have a fix?If you’re riding in ERG mode, play with the gearing. Shifting up/down yields different speeds against constant wattage on the KICKR.
will the garmin 510 work with the wahoo kick just wondering if the speed and thing work so I can upload my workout on the trainer to my coach
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Why care about speed/distance on a trainer?
Sounds silly to say/ask… but have you calibrated it and completed all of the updates for it? Doing that has made a big difference when I have used a kickr… Remember when doing the Sufferfest workouts that you don’t want to shift. In those work outs wattage is the only thing that really matters, not the distance or speed…
then why care about watts and heart rate? I just want to know because I like to upload my workouts to the coach and so I can track my my milage for the year with my garmin just something I like to do.
You care about watts because that’s your only true input. HR is a potentially useful output for identifying improvement/fatigue/etc.
Speed/distance is an output that is dependent on many factors, so on a trainer it’s irrelevant. Especially in erg mode when your “speed” (read rear wheel speed) is just a function of your gearing and cadence, if that doesn’t change your speed won’t change even with large changes in resistance. Outdoors, if you ride at 100% effort across a flat field vs up a 10% grade hill your speed is wildly different despite your input being the same.
For purposes of rough milage estimation on the trainer just ballpark based on wattage and what a similar outdoor ride would get you at that effort level. It’s all academic though as you assume your terrain, wind and other variables. If you need to just keep it as simple as 18 miles per hour ridden for an MOP rider, 20 miles per hour ridden for a slightly stronger rider and 22 miles per hour for a stud. You decide if you are a stud or not.
The short story is indoor speed is not relevant. I can make my trainer report between 15mph to 35 mph for the same effort by switching to the right gear.
I hear ya. I like to track mileage too because it’s just something I like to do also even though I’ve been training with power for years. Using the regular trainers or rollers it was possible to make an approximation of the equivalent outdoor miles. I think with the KICKR a solution using software might be possible but after only a week owning one I don’t know if it exists or if it’s possible.
But like some others mentioned, training with the Kickr or any other Erg trainer is all about training according to power targets, time and cadence. The distance “ridden” is not nearly as important. Your coach should be on top of this.
The best way I can think of to describe it is:
(1) in one session we ride our Kickr in Erg mode at 175 Watts, 90 rpm for 20 minutes in a particular gear, say the 21 on the cassette,
(2) the next time we ride the Kickr we’re in a “harder” gear, say the 14, but still in Erg mode at 175 Watts at 90rpm and again ride for 20 minutes
The same work was done in both (1) and (2), 175 Watts x 20 minutes. You wouldn’t feel anything different. The training dose was equivalent.
Translating it to outside riding:
(1) The first session might be like 20 minutes at 175 Watts on a flat road = X miles.
(2) The second session would be like 20 minutes at 175 Watts up an incline in an easier gear = < X miles.
Same work, same training dose but much different equivalent miles ridden.
From a training perspective your coach should certainly be able to give you workouts with Watts targets now that you have the Kickr and he/she should be much more interested in getting data files that have Watts, Time, Cadence, HR and just a casual interest in estimated miles from your Kickr sessions.
But, back to your original issue, when someone likes to track miles and shoot for a target mileage in a year, and many do, have done for years and will continue to like doing it, it’s an adjustment to not have that data easily available from indoor rides.
On the plus side, after a few months using it when you ride outside you will almost certainly ride your favourite outdoor miles faster than before getting your Kickr 