When I first began bike racing a decade ago, I quickly discovered the particular horrors of indoor training. I bought a set of , taped a training plan to my handlebars, and spent much of that dark winter鈥檚 night of the soul staring at the wall while聽trying to hit 300-watt intervals as聽a raging chorus of metal pulsed through my earbuds.
When the online racing and training platform Zwift debuted in 2014, it felt like a revelation. No more solitary penitence鈥攏ow I could suffer along with others, on what looked like actual roads, albeit on a screen. I pretty hard. It was a bit 聽but vastly better than before.
Meanwhile, my equipment was in transition. From rollers I switched to a , a 鈥渨heel-on鈥 trainer鈥攂asically a smart roller聽for your bike. Then I upgraded to the , in which the rear wheel is removed and the bike is attached to the trainer鈥檚 cassette. I later added the , an indoor 鈥済rade simulator鈥 that鈥檚 attached to the bike鈥檚 front forks鈥攇oodbye front wheel.
I鈥檇 gone from riding a whole bike, intact and free聽but聽on rollers,聽to a semi-attached setup聽to, finally, a fully attached rig, in which my bike had been reduced to its frame, resting on peripherals. Like some kind of natural selection, it was slowly shedding vestigial organs.
And so when Wahoo鈥檚 new was delivered to my house recently, it seemed like the logical next step:聽a machine purpose-built for indoor training.
At $3,500, it costs more than many decent road bikes. Heck, it costs a grand more than a Peloton bike. The idea of spending that much on a device designed to go no farther than my spare bedroom might have seemed risible a few years ago.听
And yet, as indoor training, largely for reasons of convenience and efficiency, has become more important to me (I鈥檓 now a level 40 Zwifter, which basically means I鈥檝e been riding indoors a lot聽for several years), the Kickr Bike suddenly seemed an attractive proposition. Instead of constantly trying to domesticate my outdoor聽road bikes, why not ride something that had been bred for the specific requirements of its native environment and not have to switch between them?聽
Indeed, an entire market has rapidly emerged to meet this seemingly surging demand: there鈥檚 Garmin鈥檚 , the , the .听
As I鈥檝e been living in the Wahoo ecosystem, I was drawn to its product. But would the Kickr Bike actually be better than my existing setup? And could it remotely justify the cost, which was about $1,700 more than my current setup?
I headed to my pain cave, where the Kickr Bike now had pride of place. Setup was fast and intuitive. Via the Wahoo app, the user has several options: you can import your fit data, if you have it, from one of several established systems,聽you can take a set of pictures of your existing bike,聽or you can simply input your body measurements.
After taking a few snaps of my current setup with my phone, I was given measurements for my saddle and handlebars (all of which have clear centimeter markings on them), as well as the overall frame geometry. Unlatching the quick-release levers, I slid everything into its proper place. Next聽I attached my pedals, then fired up a Zwift group ride and was ready to roll.
My first impression was the smoothness of the pedal stroke. It didn鈥檛 seem jumpy or glitchy, and shifting felt quick and fairly natural. Shifting happens via traditional levers, and the rider can choose, via the app, any of the leading systems (Campagnolo, Shimano, SRAM), as well as any number of gearing configurations. You want to push a 53/39? Go ahead. Feel better with a compact chainring? You鈥檙e a button push away.
The Kickr was comfortable but, more importantly, it felt like a road bike. You not only coast on downhills, but the bike pitches down鈥攚hich feels strange the first time, as, with no front wheel, you鈥檙e essentially dangling into empty space.
The next thing I noticed was the sound, or lack thereof. A few years ago, I had a sound-engineer friend drag his equipment to my pain cave, and we measured the audio signatures of several trainers. The main takeaway was that while some were quieter than others, they all make a different sound; some kick out a rumbly bass, some emit a high-frequency whine. By informal poll (i.e.,聽my wife and daughter), the Kickr Bike was my quietest setup to date.听
Early in that first Zwift ride, I suddenly became stuck in one (fairly low) gear. It happened again during my next event, a Zwift race. I ended up doing 24 hard miles at an ultrahigh cadence, an experience I鈥檒l not soon forget. I got someone from Wahoo on the phone, and we walked through various possible problems. He concluded it must be some hardware issue (in all fairness, the bike was a demo unit聽and had been shipped to many different testers over a period of weeks). He sent a new set of handlebars, and the next day, the problem was gone.
I was sold after a week of testing. I鈥檇 completed a number of Zwift rides and races with the new bars with nary a hitch. The power numbers I was hitting seemed true and consistent. I didn鈥檛 have to do any time-consuming 鈥渟pindowns,鈥 the process of calibrating your trainer鈥檚 power settings to Zwift, and I didn鈥檛 suffer any dropouts. I no longer had a chain to worry about slipping or lubing, and as I powered through 1,000-watt sprints, I didn鈥檛 fret that I was somehow damaging my expensive road bike. (It鈥檚 a source of whether trainers can be bad for your road bike.)
And it didn鈥檛 just benefit me. The bike鈥檚 sheer range of size parameters meant my wife and daughter could each ride the bike聽after just a few minutes鈥 tweaking. Logistically and aesthetically, the Kickr Bike has a slightly smaller and more attractive footprint than my previous trainer-bike combos鈥although it鈥檚 still not quite living-room worthy.
There were also a few flaws. The shifting display, which lurks to the right of the top tube, is not so easy to see鈥攅specially when I drape a towel over the bars in a vain effort to mop up the torrent of sweat I produce. There鈥檚 nowhere to hold a phone or an iPad, which are as important as a water bottle when it comes to indoor riding (though an accessory is said to be coming). And the wires coming out of the handlebars are a tad unsightly.
So: Is it better than what I had before? Absolutely. Rather than trying to get the best out of a machine designed to be ridden outdoors, I felt like I was on a high-fidelity device that seamlessly interacted with a virtual world indoors. Honestly, it鈥檚 been a bit hard to go back. My demo unit was returned to the company, but I鈥檝e since been plotting to buy one. Do I want to pay $3,500? That鈥檚 more complicated. Like any proper cyclist, I subscribe to the notion that the ideal number of bikes is n plus聽one. If you are dead serious about indoor training鈥攊f, say, you ride nearly half your miles under artificial light鈥攎aybe it鈥檚 time to sell one of those other bikes and embrace the great indoors.