So it appears my Wahoo KICKR has gone kaput. As John Cleese might say, it’s ceased to be, gone to meet its maker, shuffled off its mortal coil, rung down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible.
This is an ex-smart trainer.
It started having problems a week or so ago. It’s worked fine since the day I got it, more than a year ago. Then all of a sudden it wouldn’t connect at all to Zwift or TrainerRoad, so I started my troubleshooting routine. If you have a smart trainer, you’ve probably done some version of this drill.
Unplug the trainer, wait, then plug it back in. Unpair the app from Bluetooth, then re-pair. Uninstall the various apps—Zwift, Zwift Companion (the Zwift app for folks who use it with Apple TV), TrainerRoad, Wahoo (all the usual suspects)—then reinstall them. Unplug Apple TV itself (which fixed a problem once). Unplug the power strip that everything plugs into, wait an hour, then restart everything. Cut the head off a live chicken and sprinkle its blood on the flywheel. Call in an exorcist. You know, all the normal stuff.
Nothing. Nada.
I did manage to get the KICKR to the point where it would give me a speed reading. But no power or cadence info. Once during my increasingly-desperate measures, it gave me a power reading. It showed a power of 78. Yes! We’re making progress! Alas, ‘twas only a mirage. It stayed at 78, even when I was sprinting and pumping out at least 500 watts. Then it all went dark.
Since then, it’s worked as well as a Russian tank in Kyiv. Zwift will find the trainer easily enough, as will TrainerRoad, as will the Wahoo app itself. But none will provide any data: all the numbers stay at zero. So it reads the KICKR, but the KICKR responds with “I got nothin’, dude.”
This is unfortunate, given that it’s November 10 and training is moving mostly indoors for the next four months or so. It’s doubly unfortunate that I’ve had this thing a little over a year, i.e., JUST LONG ENOUGH to be out of warranty. It’s triply unfortunate that this trainer cost me $1,300.
The upside? It does give me the chance to start looking at smart training bikes. In the meantime, if you have any thoughts on how I might de-zombify my trainer, including magic spells, I’d love to hear them. Let me know in the comments below.
Sooooooo….what happened?
If you haven't done so yet, I suggest giving Wahoo a call, despite the warranty expiration. I use a Wahoo bike computer as do many of my cycling friends. Their reputation for good customer service is pretty strong.