I’d be astonished if there were that many users on the TrainerRoad forums don’t have trainers already, but sure, I guess it’s a possibility.
I have no feelings about JetBlack either way, I just can’t imagine getting bent out of shape over a couple of months delay.
It’s more than a possibility, it’s me. I didn’t have a trainer because I moved in May and my previous location I didn’t need one. But my new home has terrible winters. Saw the JetBlack and ordered in August because I figured the October delivery would be perfect. Well now it’s halfway through December and they’re just now getting the first batch delivered.
I gave up and just bought a Kickr Core. Still kept the JetBlack preorder and I’ll probably just throw it on Facebook Marketplace. Don’t think it’ll be that hard to sell seeing all the glowing praise. But it left a bad taste in my mouth regarding JetBlack.
Fair enough. I think JetBlack is in the position of creating something good and then being overwhelmed by demand. In time that will almost certainly be fixed by adding manufacturing capacity and by the initial demand smoothing out. But it’s surely annoying to make your offseason plans based on an anticipated delivery date and then have your order miss that by a mile.
In my case, my Kickr V2 is kind of noisy now and sometimes has dropouts in the power which is aggravating. But I can still use it for my training while waiting for my Victory, and I suspected they’d be late so it isn’t a huge surprise to me. I’ve worked enough major projects in my life to remember the saying “I love deadlines, especially the whooshing sound they make as they fly past me.”
There’s a term in telecom: FOA. It stands for “First Office Application” and refers to the first time a new system is actually turned up in the field. It typically means a lot of unanticipated problems coming to light. Buying a new product that’s already in demand puts one in FOA territory. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but unexpected delays are par for the course.
As with many things, one’s expectations have a lot to do with how happy you are with what you get. You expected a delivery as promised (perfectly reasonable) and didn’t get it, so you’re not happy. I expected things to go somewhat pear-shaped and that it wouldn’t make it in a timely fashion, so I’m less upset by the delays.
Fedex says mine should be here by Friday. The final proof will be in the riding, so I’ll know soon (hopefully). In the meantime, may Santa bring you a whopping FTP increase! 
While it is unfortunate, the reality is that anytime you sign up for a pre-order for any product or good, it is likely that there will be delays, especially for the first few orders.
From JetBlack to CyberTrucks and everything in between, that is just the world we live in.
Does anyone know point of the Zwift cog? Wondering if I should go with that or just stick a cassette on it. Right now I’ve just left the cog on as it was the default.
Easy swaps between bikes and not having to reindex your rear derailleur is really nice. The cog itself has 10 indexing points so you don’t need to do anything to your RD, which means when you go back on the road your RD is good to go. Also, if you have multiple bikes that run different speeds you don’t have to worry about compatibility. Everything I have now is 12sp but a while back I had 11sp and 12sp bikes that couldn’t use the same cassette. The big downside is if you’re not using Zwift. It’s limiting in using other apps.
Thanks.
I must admit, my first experience with the trainer has not been a good one. Every time I go above 200 watts I’m getting a fairly unpleasant vibration / inconsistent resistance through the pedals. Now I appreciate I’m not used to smart trainers… so they might all do it, but I definitely don’t like it (is that what people are talking about when they talk about road feel?).
A slightly bigger problem is that I’m not convinced I’m getting an accurate power reading out of it. It’s reading a solid 15-20% higher than my crank power meter (on intervals), which was already reading 5-10% higher than the “virtual power” on my dumb trainer. Now I get that the virtual power was likely garbage, but I’d have felt a lot happier if the crank was lining up with the trainer.
Not really sure what to do. Don’t know anyone near me with power meter pedals, so I can’t really think of a way of checking if I’m getting accurate numbers from it, or the crank. I’ve only got a week left before I need to decide if it’s going back or not.
I think the next step will be running it in level rather than ERG and seeing what sort of numbers are coming out of it / how the resistance feels.
If your crank if left sided only, that could account for the difference. Based on tests by some YouTubers I’d say it should be fairly accurate. But you could let trainerroad use your pm to control the smart trainer using power match.
I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now and very impressed by it for £400
All these trainers with virtual shifting read too high, elite, wahoo, probably jetblack too. It’s why zwift elite racing was cancelled. Ask @Junk_Miles about his kickr core
Here’s my comparisons with my Kickr Core. Was reading around 25-30W high. So far the JetBlack has been more realistic, giving me around 2-4W lower than my Assioma pedals, which would track with some small drivetrain losses. Though I did have 1 weird ride recently on the JetBlack that was way low.
https://old.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments/1hjyxke/how_to_instantly_gain_2025wbuy_a_new_trainer/
Kickr Core
Previous Kickr v5
Weird JetBlack ride. Previous rides to this the JB was within a few watts of my Assioma pedals. Then this ride it was reading really low. The more concerning part was that it started around 20W low and after around 10min in, it was closer to 10-12W low. So the power readings are changing as the trainer warms up. Which I know happens but seemed like a big change.
I think the moral of the story is find a power meter you can trust (pedals, crank, spider) and disregard any trainer number and use the outside power meter. I think TR have said this for years. Trainers can vary wildly.
I had heard something like this. I remember somebody posted on Reddit but it got buried.
To be honest then, based on that I might as well go back to my old KK Rock n Roll as I have no need of the ERG functionality (I’ve been hitting power targets manually for years).
Very disappointed. Wish I’d known that to start with, but never had call to find out that information.
Funny you say this - I’ve been using a KK for many years and it recently started making some awful noises - could be bearings, not sure and there is a crack in the metal where the roller attaches. Anyway, I was thinking of grabbing a new modern trainer, and then I saw a pretty much brand new KK on marketplace for 50$ that included the front wheel thing and a trainer tire! Should be good for another decade with my assioma pedals lol.
I had mine replaced once under the “lifetime” warranty. Shame that no longer exists!
I always thought an updated KK Rock n Roll with direct drive and thru axle support (not smart trainer, old school resistance with just a speed / distance sensor) at a reasonable price (~$200ish) would be an awesome trainer option
Looks like they were in agreement at the start and then drifted 
I wonder what a calibration mid ride would have done?
At least if a calibration of the trainer without calibrating the crank brings it back in line then you know it is the trainer that has drifted.
My assumption would be that the temperature compensation on your victory wasn’t working correctly on that ride.
Ditto, the Elite Volano was the closest I ever saw in a production unit.
If a person was motivated enough, finding a failed Wahoo Kickr or Core could be a foundation for a DIY conversion with a Kinetic Road Machine resistance unit for a rather nice “dumb” direct-drive trainer.
Interesting theory. I’ve got a session tomorrow that I might make steady state to check it out.
Thanks.
Mine is having something similar. Started the ride and it was reading 10-15W low. Then it was close for a while. By the 90 minute mark it was 1-2W higher. So close to a 20W swing from start to finish. Luckily, the beginning ramp is pretty quick. It took about 10min to warm up before reading close to my Assioma.
User from the Zwift forums is also suffering the vibrations that my unit has, and opened theirs up to find that the bolt / washer for the flywheel isn’t centred.
Not opened mine up yet, but I’d be surprised if my issue wasn’t the same.
