Are any Wahoo Kickr owners willing to share their experience of how the trainer feels when climbing hills please?
I bought a Tacxs Genius last winter to use with my powertap rear wheel with the idea of being able to replicate high force but low cadence hill intervals through the winter among many other attractions including DVD based endurance rides. However, while the Genius has been entertaining in terms of doing DVD and Google earth rides, the feel on it when climbing hills above around 3% is just nowhere near real. The best I can describe it as, is like being on a stepper machine. The resistance is not consistent across the whole pedal stroke leading to feeling like I’m pedalling in an oval. Tyre slippage and calibration aren’t a problem and while some of it might be me having a weak pedal stroke, I honestly don’t suffer the same thing when riding 15%+ hills outside.
I’ve read that the power accuracy is good on the kickr so I could ditch my powertap while using it. I love the idea of setting up wattage based erg interval sessions on a kickr. I’ve also read people’s accounts of it feeling pretty good in terms of road feel on the flat, but what does it feel like on hills? is it possible to set it at say a 10% gradient and spin along at 75rpm in a 50/20 cog and have it feel smooth enough to act like a real hill? especially given that film footage of outdoor rides with linked GPS data seem to be becoming avaliable for the Kickr, will the hills feel like real hills?
I’m not sure the Kickr cares whether you are on a ‘hill’ or not. In erg mode it just sets a wattage and you pedal it. If that wattage corresponds to a rider your weight climbing a hill of x% grade at y mph then that’s the wattage it sets.
I’ve only had the Kickr for a week, but I’ve spent 6 hours riding it so far and ‘feel’ to me is great. I’ve only reached a sustained wattage of ~240 watts at this point but if I drop the cadence down to 75-80 rpm it sure feels like climbing a hill to me.
I don’t go through the trouble of elevating the front wheel for ‘climbing simulation’, just crank up the watts and lower the rpm, and I am happy with it. Some LBS have a Kickr setup to demo around here… maybe you could try one out that way.
I’m not sure the Kickr cares whether you are on a ‘hill’ or not. In erg mode it just sets a wattage and you pedal it. If that wattage corresponds to a rider your weight climbing a hill of x% grade at y mph then that’s the wattage it sets.
KICKR also has simulation mode and it feels quite good on low grades. So you are not limited to Erg mode. At higher grades it can offer gobbles of resistance but can not properly simulate inertia due to technical constraints of that particular design. So no silver bullet here. True simulation does exists but it is expensive.
Has anyone had any more experience since these earlier talks?
I am particularly interested in finding out if anyone has had any joy wrt uploading gpx files of routes from strava or similar?
When I tried to download the Strava segments app here in Aus yesterday it said that the app is not available in Australia - even though screenshots of the app clearly show Australian segments listed - has it been withdrawn from use or discontinued for some other reason? Or is it just another example of poor software marketing that limits worldwide customers?
What I’d like to do is virtually ride the bike route for ironman Mallorca that I’ll be doing later in the year. The race is too far away physically for me to visit and get a feel for the climbs on the course prior to the race (Mallorca full distance), so this is my next best bet.
I plotted the course on strava routes, and now have gpx file that shows the climbs etc… It seems like the sim function on the kickr would be ideally suited to providing a simulation of what it feels like to ride these climbs? And there are no climbs here in Perth that I know of that would give a reasonable idea of what it feels like to climb a 7km 5% climb…
Anyone had any luck since this question was first raised back in October last year?
I have a KICKR as well, it does seem the segments app has been pulled, I don’t know why. If you have the GPX file for the course you can use it to generate a custom workout in trainerroad though.
the flywheel is very heavy on the kickr, it takes maybe 40 secs to spin down from 20 mph. For working at low rpm’s, I suspect the heavy flywheel and direct drive would be good. I find in ergo that at higher wattages I just lost my ability to overcome to load under 50 rpm’s.
I have no idea if you can replicate actual real life climbs, but if you use the thing consistently you will be able to climb better on race day.
Trying to figure out the same thing (long hill workouts) for IMLP training this coming winter. I am in a flat area with no sustained climbing hills nearby.