just set my kickr bike v1 up and did first TR workout today. coming from a Neo, with power smoothing turned on, the kickr bike erg is buttery smooth. instantly hits the target and doesn’t stray. Do you perhaps have Zwift open at the same time? perhaps they are competing?
Erg mode works fine. It’s resistance mode that won’t work.
Power smoothing only makes for a pretty graph, it doesn’t actually smooth power.
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Pretty graph is fine to me. I don’t need the stress of worrying about targets. That’s what erg is for. If my graph looks perfect I’m assuming my trainer is doing its job over the course of a workout. The overs and unders don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
Your trainer is doing its job either way, thats what @Charlie777 is saying.
Below is a graph fram the same workout, one is with Kickr Bike and Power Smoothing on, one is with Wahoo Kickr without smoothing.
The Kickr Bike would look the same as the Wahoo Kickr, if we were to turn on the Power Smoothing - as its just there to make the line flat, instead of showing the natural movement of the ERG fighting to keep you at the right watts 
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First ride on my new Kicker Bike V1 tonight. First ride thoughts…
Positives:
- Bike is really well made & sturdy. Feels like a real bike.
- Spins super smooth.
- Transitions & change in watts was smooth.
- The app is great. Simple set up and geo is really, really close to my bike, if not right on.
- Shifts well and the incline/decline feature is really cool.
Negatives:
- The quick release for the seat post hits the inside of my leg. Annoying.
- Coming from an H3, which is absolutely silent, the Kickr bike is loud comparatively. It also had a (louder) airplane like sound at around 85 rpm. Would go away at 90+ rpm.
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I tested the Kickr Bike at my LBS before getting it, and realised that I needed to run a whole different setting on the standover height and all that to make my legs not touch the frame.
So I run the lowest setting on the bike (A), and then use a longer ZIPP seat post + highest settings on the handlebars to make it work for me.
Touching the frame is annoying as hell…
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I had some creaking developing that seemed to becoming from the below the seatpost. I did a quick google search and found a solution that worked perfectly and posted it below. I used Motorex Bike Grease 2000, but anything that is a little thicker and doesn’t run should work fine. Kickr Bike is back to begin nearly silent again.
My Wahoo Kickr Bike started making some serious creaking noises when pedaling. Like really loud. After getting in touch with WAHOO, it was determined that the seat post sliding rail needed to be lubricated. This can be accomplished by pulling the seat post assembly which slides up and down, off of the frame. To do this, you must back the bottom screw out from the the water bottle cage mount. It doesn’t have to be completely removed, but almost. Then, while pulling the seat height pin out you can lift the seat post assembly completely off the frame. When you do this, a plastic thingy, for back of a better word, will fall out.The plastic thingy was held in by that screw and restricts the seat post assembly from being completely removed Set the seat post assembly aside and you will see the rails that the seat post assembly slides up and down on. Lube the heck out of the sliding areas and inside the holes on the back side that the height adjusting pin goes in. Remount the seat post assembly, down to the H position. Then get the plastic thingy and insert it back into the front side of the seat post assembly, with the flat side down. Then you can reinstall the lower water bottle cage screw. I used Park PolyLube. Good luck!
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Mine has developed pretty bad creaking the last 2 rides. Going to try this…
How hard was this. I am a bit confused by the last few sentences and how to reattach the “plastic thingy.” Is this pretty easy to figure out or any advice before I take it apart?
I had previously taken apart a Kickr Bike and sent back to Wahoo after it was dead on arrival, so I had a bit of experience. That being said it’s not too complicated.
If you have someone who can help you and give you an extra set of hands, that would help. I did it alone, but the issue is when you pull up the whole lower seatpost assembly piece there is a wire on the inside that tethers it. It someone can hold the whole thing up for you, then you can simply apply the grease and then have them lower it all back down.
A couple of tips. There are a bunch of screws on the plastic piece that holds the water bottle cage. You only need to unscrew the botton screw that is on the front of the piece (ie. facing forward to the front of the bike. This screw is going through that “plastic thingy/piece” which is inside the front part of the piece you are lifting up to expose the rails that you are planning to grease. As the screw is loosened, the plastic piece will drop out. If someone is hold that lower assembly up for you, try and keep a hand underneath it and catch the plastic piece as it falls out. Once you see it, it will make sense, but there is a correct orientation for it when you slide it back in.
I smeared a lot of the grease on both sides along the rails and then a bunch over the holes in the back. I don’t think you can put too much grease. Regardless, the amount I put worked perfectly and two rides later not a creak to be heard.
After you grease, slide the little plastic piece back in. It goes in with the screw hole on the top half. Slide it up so it is flush with the metal at the bottom, not further. This will align the screw hole so you can get the screw back in. Then just lower everything back to the same level you had it before.
I hope this helps!
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A few rides on my V1 so far. I love everything about it except how resistance and RPMs change when shifting. Hitting a hill on zwift at 250 watts @90 RPM I shift down as the incline increases. RPMs spike to 105 and power drops to 200 for 2 seconds before coming back up and over 250 as the hill continues. Opposite when I shift up. Let’s say I am at 200 watts and shift up on flat terrain. Power spikes to 260, RPMs drop from 95 to 85 but then in 2 seconds power settles at around 230. I tried messing with zwift’s trainer difficulty settings an found that I can minimize this effect when that realism setting is set to 100%. Also tried custom shifting in the wahoo app to reduce the jump between gears. But it’s still there and pronounced in my opinion.
Has anyone else experienced this? I am really not sure whether this is a defect or a by product of lightning fast shifting and software programming between wahoo and zwift.
Very glad you brought this up, @vtsteevo
I also just got my V1 and have done 1 ride on it. I’m coming from a dumb trainer and so have never experienced ERG mode before. Would appreciate hearing from other users how you get the most benefit from ERG mode and prevent these power spikes/dips when changing wattage or cadence. I was able to dial it in pretty well when going at a consistent wattage but as soon as there was a change, the transition was not particularly smooth. Fully willing to believe this is more of an issue about me than the bike itself… Suggestions welcome!
In ERG, when you pick up your cadence the Kickr bike (or any smart trainer) will compensate for it and adjust watts accordingly. Because of how fast the shifts are on this bike, it happens really quick. You can go from 200 to 400 watts in 2 seconds, which is what you want for short intervals, as an example. I typically pick up my cadence before the interval starts to smooth out the transition. Older trainers didn’t have this "issue’, but it also took them a long time to get to target wattage. Kickr Bike gets to target wattage FAST.
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I just increase my cadence 2-3 seconds before an interval with a larger wattage increase and then slowly go back to my normal cadence. This makes the change pretty smooth. Otherwise the change is brutal with ERG mode.
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Hi all… quick easy question here. I just upgraded from a KICKR Core to the V1 bike. I control it in TR erg for most workouts I assume the “gears” do not matter (I still set the bike up in 1/5 to be mid-chainring). Are there any special settings I need to consider riding the KICKR Bike in erg one TR? I’ll add that I push that data to. Zwift while riding to capture credit for the rides.
Thnx for any advice.
ERG mode does not care what the gear setting is since there aren’t any actual gears. It only matters in resistance mode. I don’t know what effect there might be on the Zwift side of things if it doesn’t know that you are in ERG mode.
EDIT: this is incorrect for the KICKR bike. Please ignore.
That’s actually not true. Being in the small ring middle vs the big ring feels very different. It will also produce different values for distance if you’re saving from the trainer to something like Strava.
I’ve at mine in 1/3 for ERG mode and it adapts very quickly. Along with TR, I do a lot of Wahoo SYSTM/SUFFERFEST workouts and those often have a lot of quick changes and its pretty flawless (along with the incline changing, the KICKR Bike has brought a whole new level of immersion to the Sufferfest workouts for me).
I did try early on when I got the KICKR Bike to got to a bigger gear with a faster flywheel speed, but this felt a lot less responsive so when back to 1/3.
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Are you thinking of a regular Kickr trainer and separate bike installed?
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This topic is about the Kickr BIKE, which has a single drive belt ratio. As such ERG is always the same for this setup, no matter the setting of the virtual shifting.
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Oops. My bad. Thanks for the correction.
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