I’d like to hear how you like it. I just got one this week and so far I’m not impressed. Coming from a Saris H3, I guess I’m a little spoiled with the H3’s ERG mode. The Core2 feels like mud. I’ve done the factory spindown and it doesnt feel any different. 250 watts on the Core2 feels like 300 on the H3. The virtual shifting in Zwift feels horrible, everytime you downshift it feels like its adding 20 watts in ERG mode, you feel a momentary ERG death spiral until you get your cadence back up. I’m going to try putting my primary roadbike on it with a Power2Max power meter and normal cassette to see how it feels and how the power matches up. The Power2max and the H3 were always within a few watts of each other.
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Bought one last week, after being recommended by club mates the Zwift cog was a must have. After 3 rides couldn’t put up with it any more and put my cassette on, lovely now. Was getting slight vibrations on higher cadences and I just missed the cassette feel and variety of feel through the pedals it gives. Virtual shifting not my cup of tea either.
Cant fault the trainer though power matches my other sources.
Shame I cant test the wifi and race mode though doesn’t seem to connect via a wifi extender plug in the garage.
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Im hoping it feels better with a regular cassette. The wattage difference could just be the feeling of the resistance kicking in, will find out when I throw my primary bike on there.
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I certainly felt that the Cog & Core 1 were harder to pedal through than my previous Tacx Neobike, but doing power checks against a known source (Garmin Rally’s), it was all within tolerance.
Its just more primitive, but then for me, given how much cheaper it was than a Neobike, it was still a good deal & I dont regret the shift.
The fact I had to send 5 Neobikes back to Garmin in 3 year was also a deciding factor.
Have you tried putting the cog on the H3 and to see how it feels compared to the wahoo? I know it won’t have virtual shifting but you can still use in ERG mode.
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I put my bike with a power2max NG power meter and a regular casette on the Core 2. It feels better than the cog in erg mode but still seems harder. The avg power of the core 2 vs the NG was close enough, within 2-3% with the core 2 being lower. I imagine the flywheel weight has something to do with it…the H3 had a heavier flywheel which I thinks feels more realistic. Ive never been a fan of erg mode, just feels like too much resistance all the way around the pedal stroke where as in reality you dont have that resistance all the time.
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Interesting. I paired my Power2max NG Eco to zwift as the power meter and the core 2 as the resistance. The ERG mode felt completely different, it felt like actually pedaling a bicycle, it didnt have that 360 degree drag all the way around.
I just bought a Kickr 6 and Zwift Cog and Click and I am about to return the Cog and Click after one ride.
I agree, I think that the trainer feels better with the OG cassette, a bit quieter too.
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I was thinking of returning both the core 2 and cog. But I wasnt aware that backcountry’s return policy is store credit only…tried to reason with them to no avail.
Just switched from Kickr Core 1 to Core 2 over here (while simultaneously switching from a regular road bike to the Zwift Ride). I don’t use the Zwift features, but I am not the only rider in the house. After five rides between us, we’ve both observed that (1) riding at any given wattage feels somewhat harder than it did before—not just at the beginning of an interval, but also sustaining it, and (2) we are struggling to ride at our usual cadences, both of us going maybe 5-10 rpm slower than usual. We don’t have power meter pedals that we could use to check wattage. I gather that the perceived difficulty could in part be a function of the flywheel size, vs. actual miscalibration. Further, (3) we have noticed some high-pitch noise coming from the housing, almost like slight metal-on-metal scraping at high speed, while riding. I also gather that everyone is being told that the setup needs some time to get broken in (?), so we will reassess in a week or so. I would really appreciate hearing from others.
Have you done the spindown in the wahoo app?
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After my initial post above, we both did a couple of in-ride spindowns, which I think helped. Then, after the ride I just did this afternoon, I did the full factory spindown. I will report back later once I’ve done another ride or two,
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So here’s where we’re at after a few more rides. The factory spindown didn’t affect the perceived increase in difficulty or the pretty measurable decrease in cadence we’ve been experiencing. The wattage itself may well be accurate, and we’re able to complete challenging intervals as expected, so it’s more of a subjective/ride-experience issue than an actual defect, as far as we can tell.
With that said, we’re currently planning to return the full shebang, because of repeated dropouts on the Zwift side. I’ve not been part of all that trouble-shooting (and I’m not having bad dropouts within TR), but I gather that basically all obvious causes of interference have been ruled out and the company tech support is not helpful. I hope others are having better luck!
Can you explain what you mean by decreased cadence? How is that caused by the trainer and not you just spinning faster? Not a challenge, I just don’t understand how it’s possible.
I think she is talking about the ERG mode death spiral…drop your cadence below about 80-85 and suddenly the resistance ramps up. Seems to be a wahoo trait…my H3 didnt feel like that at lower cadences.
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Basically, I used to ride at like 90-95 RPM, I’m now struggling to even hit 85-90 RPM. At the end of an hourlong ride, I’m a few hundred pedal strokes short of where I used to be, dropping from ~5500 to ~5200 (rounding). I would very much like to be spinning faster, but it just feels harder to get there and stay there–even with very conscious effort. Certainly I and not the trainer am in control of my own cadence, but it feels harder to stay where I want, which I attribute to the generally harder feel of the trainer. OP says it “feels like mud,” and I tend to agree. Someone with power-meter pedals could probably offer a lot more insight into what’s actually happening. I just have strugglebus vibes!
No, it’s more pervasive/chronic than that; please see my reply to Pbase. I am well familiar with the ol’ death spiral and this isn’t that.
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I just bought a Kickr v6 and am running into similar issues. After I swapped in the Cog, there was noticeably more resistance. I tested it against my Quarq and it was consistently reading 8-10% lower, instead of the 2-3ish is expect from crank-based to trainer.
I reached out to Wahoo and they haven’t been super helpful, so I’m considering returning it myself.
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So weird. I can’t even understand how it’s possible that it causes cadence to be lower. Definitely makes me wary of buying a Wahoo product and I’m in the market.
I’ve had my Core 2 and Cog for a few months now and like it just fine. No issues. Matches up with both my Sigeyi spider and Favero Assioma pedals, never more than around 5W difference between them. Way better than the JetBlack Victory I came from. That trainer had issue after issue until I just got rid of it. The Core 2 has been a noticeable improvement.