I am using a kickr v5 with an old bike attached. I’ve been thinking of upgrading to a kickr bike v2. I feel like I’m always tinkering with setup so thought this might be a nice upgrade. Has anyone done the same thing and found benefit? Also, for any current owners, what is the handlebar reach on the stock kickr bike bars? If I get one, I’d replace the bars, and would want to get bars with the same reach so fit calcs work easily.
I don’t have a kickr bike but if you wanted something like that I would get something like the Elite Square, much cheaper and easier to store (and upgrade)
https://www.elite-it.com/en/products/home-trainers/ecosystem-accessories/square
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I’ve had my V1 Kickr bike for about 3.5 years I think. Closing in on 500 hours. Prior to that I was using the original Elite Direto and taking my bike on and off the trainer. After getting tired of doing that I decided to get a cheap dedicated bike to just leave on the trainer for a few years. I’m not home right now to measure the bars but can try and remember to do so when I get back in a couple days.
I’ve been happy with the Kickr bike and it has been worth it for me. I do like playing around with fit adjustments (stack and height, crank length). Spending a winter on this slowly adjusting things helped me get longer and lower before purchasing my new bike this spring so I could have my fit dialed in before having the steerer tube cut and cables routed. The tilt is fun when riding in vertical worlds and I also find it useful in TR when doing intervals (to match the grade of the local long climbs I do). I did have one warranty issue with the bars (one of the shifters stopped working). I got around it by changing what buttons shifted what until wahoo sent out the replacement bars. Wahoo support has been good for me. I also like not having a chain and all that maintainer and mess that goes with it and worrying less about sweat in headset bearings and what not.
I had several Kickr Bikes. Yes, you can swap the bars. No I don’t recommend it, based on my experiences. Why? When the bike fails, you have to undo it all to send it back. They refunded my money and I bought the Tacx Neo Bike and like it better and have had less failures and other issues, and at least when it needs to go back, they only want to power unit part, so swapping bars isn’t usually so traumatic and rushed to put the stock bars back on (although I did have to send the whole thing back once, and got a NOS bike back).
The last incident I had with the Kickr Bike was a HUGE discrepancy between reality and what the bike did. They kept telling me I was basically wrong, and that the Kickr bike was ‘just like riding a real bike’, and it was way off. I sent them dozens of rides using DC’s data analyzer, and they spend weeks digesting the graphs and came back with 'It all looks fine to us. I finally ran my bike on a 2T using the same workout and proved that the former was ‘hot’, and they still said it was fine.
But back to what I do to the smart bikes I use: I do pedals (obviously), a saddle, and double wrap the stock bars. Swapping the bars just isn’t worth it. the Tacx has flat top bars actually. But I liked the Kickr Bike. The ‘climb’ feature was a gimmick, but it did make some of the big climbs worth it. The clunking that the mechanism made was a bummer. The Kickr is so complex and the shipping is so rough, I think some of the problems I experienced was due to shipping damage (several of the returns WERE because of shipping damage), but can’t dismiss engineering fails too. (Like the fact that early bikes were killed by static electricity in the rider’s home. Wow)
After all that, maybe the later generation is more stable and reliable. If I had the extra cash, I’d consider giving it a try, but I can’t afford to go down that road again. Good luck… (Someone local bought one at the same time I did, and I kept hearing that they didn’t have any issues. The unreliability struck me. Also most of the replacement bikes I received were older than the bike that I started the journey with, so I questioned the refurbishment process, coupled with the inefficient packaging and notorious rough shipping process. One replacement went back the next week. I was riding between 200 and 350 miles a week)
I went through something like 4 2T’s, 2 H3’s, and so far, 4 Neo Smart Bikes.
EDIT: When I went into this whole thing with smart bike trainers, I heard people saying it was extravagant, that it was too expensive, that it would be better with a standard bike on a wheel-off trainer, and I’d tend to agree, especially because the Climb can be added to a Wahoo trainer setup. There has been a lot of drama with the smart bikes. Even with the Neo Smart. (The NOS bike I received had very little grease on the freehub, and the pawls were stuck, and sticking. I had to pull that all apart, deep clean, grease and reassemble the whole thing. The one thing that I find a problem with these miracle devices is the lack of right to repair, the lack of parts. Some of the bikes could have potentially been repaired here, in-house, rather than packaging it all up (or just the Neo power unit) and sending it back. At the moment the Neo Smart appears to have a failing bottom bracket, so will it have to go back again, when all it needs is a new part? They sent me the dramatically overpriced tool to remove the belt, so I could swap the thing myself (I have all the tools) so they could save shipping cost and keep a capable user happy. That power unit is not at all light…
But for the whole, Wahoo support was usually very responsive, but there were times when they dragged things out, and telling me I’m wrong when I can prove it was ballsy and unfortunate. Not good at all… I figured they were as tired of me as I was of them. I’m glad I got a refund. I was surprised they agreed and thanked them for it. (I think that using the DC data analyzer really helped get the point across, BTW)
I went through several firmware updates and the effects they exhibited on the bike. It’s amazing what they can cause by tweaking that code. I hang on to the Neo Smart because it works. It’s not the Plus, so it has short falls, but it seems to be really solidly accurate, and isn’t falling apart. The shifters work, the power unit is remarkably quiet, and support responds within 24 hours to my messages. Yeah, it doesn’t ‘climb’, but it doesn’t clunk either…
This is interesting. I hadn’t heard of this before. Any idea when it will be available to purchase as well as if the handlebars are replaceable. For example I’d want narrower bars with flat tops like my road bike. Information is sparse online.
The stock bar on my Kickr bike v1 was a thin round bar and incredibly uncomfortable. IIRC 42 cm width. I’ve changed the bar (and saddle) several times, to narrower with flat tops 
You could set it up with the stock bar, then when you change keep the same measurement from the tip of the saddle to the back of the hoods.
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It sounds like you are way to hard on your equipment or just don’t take care of it
I guess the question is why. I mean, why are you tinkering?
Honestly, I never feel 100% comfortable on a locked in trainer. It always feels like it’s 1 deg off to the right or the left. And that discomfort can change ride to ride, day to day, even though the position of the bike and trainer hasn’t moved. I don’t feel any of these issues when I ride my rollers.
Personally, I don’t see the problem the Kickr bike solves unless you have 2+ people using it constantly and they need different setups every time.
At $4,000 it’s costly. One could build out an amazing trainer setup with motion for like $2000 - Kickr Core, motion setup, open mold Chinese frame or any used frame with the correct geometry, whatever inexpensive shifters/derailleurs/bar/stem you like.
The Zwift frame also looks interesting to me. I wonder if it shifts outside of the Zwift app.
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A bit more niche but I like my Wattbike
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I have had my Kickr bike for 2 years and have logged more than 300 rides on it. I picked it up on sale when they were clearing them out at 2k. Considering that is 1k more than just a kicker I went for it.
Like any form of technology I guess it works… til it doesn’t. So far (knock on wood) it’s been great. Takes up less space than my bike on a trainer. More stable, adjustable and convenient. Not having to move my bike on and off a trainer was worth it to me. (I know some have an old bike on the trainer but I don’t have one of those).
Personally it has been a great purchase and one I’d make again. I don’t use the incline buttons though. If I bought one today I’d go with the shift.
If you can get one on sale, do it. You don’t even need the V2. I have done 25,000 km on the V1 Kickr Bike, and it has been amazing.
Sure…
At one point, I got a call from a different person at Wahoo. ‘We’re curious, we have questions’. Okay, what do you what to know? ‘How much do you weigh?’ Oh really? 195 pounds. Why? ‘We are just collecting information. How many times a day do you ride your Kickr bike?’ Probably 7 days a week. ‘And how long do you usually ride, say in a usual day?’ Anywhere between 45 minutes to a max of 3 and a half hours. “Three and a half hours? Wow.” Yeah, no kidding. “So how many miles do you average a week?” 300, 400 miles, maybe more. “Wow, so you really are riding the heck out of the bike then.” Yeah, I guess. It’s the pandemic and I can’t really ride outside, so I joke that this is what’s keeping me sane, I’m a lab rat working for my next food pellet I guess. “Well, thanks for your help.” Do you want a picture to prove what I said? I can show you what the scale says. “Oh, no, we’re good. Thanks.” Sure no problem…
Yeah, I ‘rode the heck’ out of their creation.
So I ‘abused’ it by using it, a lot apparently. It sat in my house, in my office, and I rode it pretty much every day. It was air conditioned and I did wipe it down every so often. I think it (they) lived a pretty good life. When I saw how others were using there bikes, and where they were doing it, I cringed. Yeah, be good to your toys, and they will be good to you. Many of the issues with the early Kickr Bikes are noted elsewhere in the internet. To have simple static electricity literally kill their bikes was ridiculous. They cheapened up the engineering, saving money on capacitors and MOV’s and the owners paid the price in missed workouts and having to ship their junk back, some several times. Yeah, they were hard on their equipment, sure.
The shop in Vietnam that manufactured their bikes also offered engineering and electrical layout services, and I’ll bet that shop did all of the prototype and construction, and DID cut corners. I mean, there were SOME people that didn’t have the static electric issue. There were SOME people whose power supplies and boards didn’t fail. There were SOME people that didn’t have their shifters fail.
It’s always the users fault to some people. Yeah, BS!!
Manufacturing a device that people will use is full of pitfalls. There is always the choice to make something to fit a price point, but the Kickr Bike was EXPENSIVE, and they should have designed and engineered it better. Maybe it’s better now, maybe not. I would hope that they learned that the expense of cheap engineering was more than the savings they might have gotten from doing it. I lost my faith in their product. Again, I’m very grateful for their agreement to refund my money. I would be curious if their current version is more reliable. I did really like riding it, but the failures and fragility was a definite buzzkill. sorry…
I also liked the concept of the RUN when I saw DC’s videos, but would want a lot more time into it and see how many failures they have before I’ll sink that much money into their stuff again. Once bitten twice shy? Riding a device that was made to be ridden ‘too much’ shouldn’t be possible, right? One possibility is that all of them were damaged in shipping, which would be out of their control, but would lead to a failure in early packaging then. The Neo is shipped in form fitting foam, and the Kickr was not. The benefit was the Kickr needed less assembly when received. Which is better? I wonder if there might have been a ‘better’ shipping method. Maybe selling through local bike shops, or facilitating delivery through a LBS that would assemble it and test it prior to delivery? Tough call…
I’ve got 14,000 miles / 680 hours on my Stages SB20 and haven’t had any problems at all. It’s a tank, and I’m sure the design was informed by their experience with studio spin bikes that were ridden more hours in a day than I will ever even imagine. But they’re also bankrupt now…
Bad management can kill the best companies, and good management can keep the worst in business too. It’s just business… 
I’ve used a lot of different trainers over the years including Kurt Kinetic, Original Kickr, Tacx Neo, Saris H3, Kickr Rollr and Kickr Bike. I sold the Original Kickr but still have all the other ones. I also have a couple of the Saris motion platforms.
The Neo and the H3 on the Saris motion platform is a really good set up and I liked it a lot. However once I got the Kickr Bike, I almost never use them anymore. I got the Kickr Bike on a whim when Zwift sold them off really cheap post-pandemic and really glad I did. I might be an outlier, but I really like the tilt feature. During regular rides I adjust it a fair bit. For lower cadence work I’ll tilt it to simulate a climb, and then bring it back down during higher cadence work. I also find being able to adjust the tilt helps with comfort on long trainer sessions.
The Kickr Bike is prone to creaks. There is an easy fixed posted elsewhere in the forum where you need to grease part of the main assembly. It’s about a 10 - 15 min job and I found it needs to be done about once a year before the creaks come back.
The only other issue I have is that I have an older Surface laptop that I dedicate to the trainer. Because it uses an older Bluetooth protocol, TR will only work in ERG mode with it when using the Kickr Bike. If I want to use Resistance mode with the Kickr Bike, then run TR off my Samsung S24 phone or off my Samsung tablet. Interestingly, if I use Wahoo SYSTM, resistance mode works fine with the older Surface laptop, so it is a TR specific issue.
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Also, Kickr Bike has brakes that can be abused to increase resistance temporarily very high above prescribed power when doing maximal sprints.
So does the Neo Smart Bike.
I’m back in the market for a new trainer after sort of giving up on waiting for the JetBlack Victory (last update from them is pushing it back into mid December). I was thinking of just springing for the Kickr Bike, either Shift or v2. I considered the Zwift Ride as a budget option but it really limits what apps you can use. I don’t really feel like paying $20 a month for Zwift when there are free options like IndieVelo/TPV or MyWhoosh. Especially now that MyWhoosh is getting bigger e-races. Echelon Racing League is now on MyWhoosh, as well as the US National Champs. So I was going to switch over to do those races and the Zwift Ride won’t work. So it’s likely a Kickr Bike.
The Shift seems like the logical way to go for pricing. The v2 doesn’t get a ton of upgrades apart from Race Mode. And while I would love Race Mode I don’t think it’s worth the $1000+ premium. Are there any major reasons to skip the Bike Shift?
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I’m on a V1 Bike. For me personally the Tilt function is huge. I use it during pretty much every workout. I like increasing the grade when I stand and climb and then mix it up when sitting. It also helps somewhat to move the pressure points around a bit when on long rides.
Along with a lot of TR rides, I still use Wahoo SYSTM at times and a lot of those workouts will tilt the bike automatically depending on what is going on in the video/workout.
I’ve seen others post that they don’t use the tilt at all, but I know I would miss it.
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