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New Kickr Indoor Trainer Is The Quietest One Yet

Photo credit: Trevor Raab
Photo credit: Trevor Raab

From Bicycling

Price: $1,200
Weight: 44 lb. (claimed)
Drive type: Direct
Use: Indoor Riding

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Indoor trainers have gotten so good lately. But despite all their tech advances and wireless connectivity, no one’s cracked one of the fundamental problems: Sprinting on one can make it sound like there’s a freight train rumbling through your living room. Not any more.

Already a leader in smart trainers, Wahoo Fitness is promising that its new Kickr Smart Trainer is virtually silent. In fact, they say that the noise produced under load is equivalent to the ambient noise level you’d experience in a library. From my experience I can verify this claim, though you still have the noise of grinding gears and your own grunting and swearing as you attempt to push the trainer past its 2,200 watt limit.

What’s New for 2019

The new trainer boasts a larger, 16-pound flywheel than its predecessor to enhance ride feel and create a more realistic indoor-riding experience. The trainer also is compatible with 142x12 and 148x12 thru-axles.

Recognizing that more bikes come with disc brakes, Wahoo moved the handle for carrying the trainer for an easier fit with disc-equipped bikes.

As with previous editions of the Kickr, this one maintains third-party connectivity via Bluetooth, ANT+, and FE-C to work with sensors on your bike as well as apps such as Zwift, Ful Gaz, KinoMap and Rouvy. If structured workouts are more your style, Kickr remains compatible with programs such as Sufferfest and TrainerRoad.

Photo credit: Trevor Raab
Photo credit: Trevor Raab

Additionally, users have the ability to control the Kickr in manual mode with Wahoo’s Element GPS computer.

If you can swallow the hefty $1,200 price, this trainer will make an excellent addition to your arsenal of indoor-training tools. And since it’s so quiet, your spouse may just let you ride in the comfort of your living room instead of banishing you to the garage.

With the proliferation of smart direct-drive trainers and virtual riding apps, the woes of shredded trainer tires and extreme boredom are (mostly) in the rearview mirror. And the ride feel of new trainers, especially this one, keep improving.

The Kickr’s new adjusted flywheel does provide for a virtual ride experience that is very impressive. It lets you build momentum and will keep rolling when you let off the gas in a manner that feels similar to (but not exactly like, yet) of riding on the road. Connected to the new Kickr, you experience the same kind of gradual coast down when you finish an interval as you do on a flat road.

As impressive as the ride feel is, the big story here is the lack of noise that the trainer produces, even during max efforts. If you enjoy listening to music while you ride, you no longer have to crank up the volume to drown out the trainer noise, or even wear headphones. However, the absence of trainer-produced noise means you can clearly hear your own sounds of suffering—the huffing and puffing and gasping for breath. While your spouse and neighbors may appreciate such a quiet machine, you might want to keep the earbuds around if you, like me, don’t like the sound of your own suffering while working out.

Of course power meters measure and display the watts very well for an objective measure of output, but it was initially a little disorienting to do full-power sprints while still hearing the slight hum of the overhead central air vents. I missed the audible feedback, and it changed my perceived effort. One could say it’s similar to the physical feedback that was lost in the transition from cable to electronic shifting. Gear indicators told us what gear we were in but we also had that tangible feedback of the increased or decreased tension on the cable to remind us where we were on the cassette. Whether that affects your ride, or workout, is up to the individual, but it was something I noticed and had to compensate for.

One Trainer For The Whole Fleet

Another perk, in a long line of perks, of the Kickr (and new Kickr Core, see below) is better compatibility across many wheel sizes. By simply turning a knob on the middle support leg, you can change the height to accommodate most road and mountain bike wheel sizes (24-inch, 650c, 700c; 24-inch, 650b and 29er).

Photo credit: Trevor Raab
Photo credit: Trevor Raab

Now you can have one trainer to fit your entire fleet of bikes and even some of your kids can ride without stacking blocks under their front wheel. The Kickr comes with a SRAM/Shimano compatible 11-28t 11-speed cassette and the freehub body can accept 8-, 9-, and 10-speed cassettes, as well as SunRace or SRAM Eagle NX 12 speed cassettes.

Also New: Two Lower-Priced Trainers

The new Kickr Core has much of the same tech and features as the original Kickr, but packages it in a slightly less expensive ($900) option. It retains nearly identical functionality, except that its maximum readable power, +/- 2 percent, is 1,800 watts and the maximum grade it will simulate is 16 percent compared to 20 for the Kickr.

Rounding out the trainer lineup is the $600 Kickr Snap, which is a less expensive option but is not direct drive; resistance is set on the rear wheel. While that can typically be less accurate than direct-drive systems, Wahoo says that with proper set up, the Snap boasts +/-3 percent accuracy with power readings.

All three trainers are compatible with the Kickr Climb that was released last year and will also pair up with the soon-to-be-available Kickr Headwind fan that can adjust fan speed based on your efforts.

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