I do think there is an increasing disconnect between sales of high end bikes and participation in races. Race numbers in my area are significantly down on 2021 and on pre-covid numbers. But the number of riders I see out on the roads continues to increase, and more and more casual acquaintances (colleagues, neighbours, parents at the kids school, etc) are getting bikes. Often surprisingly nice ones. Bike shops still seem to be doing OK and there’s certainly not much in the of discounted bikes out there. That might change as inflation and energy prices continue to hurt of course.
Maybe the cost of bikes is actually driving down race participation because nobody wants to crash a £10k bike?!
The interesting dilemma to me is that from a complexity standpoint and a technology standpoint, the kickr bike seems to warrant a higher price tag than some of these high-end bikes. But obviously the market is such that while folks don’t mind dropping 7-12k on a high end bike, they don’t want to spend 4k on a trainer, even if that trainer is technically a bike and not just a bike. Given less expensive options I think the market would depress trainer costs more than bike costs, but I do think the value for the money is greater for the trainer.
My Kickr bike is great but I just couldn’t justify paying above the $2500 I paid for it. Maybe I would go to $3000. But $3000 is my typical price point for bikes where I know I’m getting pretty good value and a bike I likely would need major upgrades to.
The Kickr bike is great but if I was in the market and it’s price being $4000 or even $3500 that would deter me as I’d get a similar workout with a Kickr core for far less money minus the climb which is just a bonus.
I just hope the market for indoor trainers hasn’t cooled too much
Not to mention, a good portion of people spend more time riding inside than outside
I got the gen 1 kickr bike and it’s been worth it for me (I think it was ~$3300 when I bought it 2.5 years ago). I don’t ride outside as much as I’d like (due to weather, daylight, a young child who I am home alone with sometimes). So I figure I might as well make it as enjoyable as possible (not having to take a bike on and off, not having to deal with chains, etc, being able to play around with my for really easily, using the climb function on different intervals to keep things interesting and switch positions)
While the USD$1000 increase over the current price for the gen 1 bike I feel is over the top, keeping the Euro price at 1:1 with USD is very fair in the current market. Still a hefty Euro price jump from gen 1 to gen 2 but a case could be made that some of the tweaks make the extra price worth it.
Yeah, I ride more inside than out. I would totally invest in a good indoor setup but there are just so many great lower priced options. I have the neo 1 and an old retired road bike. If the road bike fails I may reconsider. If my wife used it, might be a different story.
Wahoo has the benefit of having a number of products so can straddle a number of different price zones with the KICKR Snap, KICKR Core, regular KICKR, and KICKR bike. Factor in the +/- of the KICKR Climb and you can tweak what you want to spend even more.
That being said, 4k is definitely a lot, especially for a pretty incremental upgrade. However it’s much easier from a marketing standpoint to lower the price later. They can test the market at 4k and see how demand for the bike versus their ability to supply it aligns. Down the road they can adjust. If we start seeing 25% off sales by Black Friday, then you know the initial sales were probably not great.
I think the Zwift Hub with some sort of a rockerplate has got to be the best deal going right now. It would be something I would point a person new to indoor training as a good initial set up with solid bang for the buck.
I don’t quite see the logic here. As you spend more money, do they need more expensive materials? Does it have disc brakes? Is it more aerodynamic? Does it make you have a higher average speed because you spent more money? I don’t think so. When cyclists spend money on outdoor bikes, these are the reasons they use to justify the purchase, Thinking of the added features on the v2 bike, I wouldn’t use them. I don’t even use the adjustments I thought I would, because my other half doesn’t use the bike (and she wanted it).
My odometer would read zero, it isn’t going anywhere. An hour meter, or megajoule counter, or revolution counter would be a heck of alot more useful for determining how hard a trainer has been used. I ride it as fast as I can, and go absolutely no where with satisfaction.
The wifi makes no sense to me, it doesn’t have a display, or some kind of app. For a computer (tablet, whatever) to control it needing to hit a Wi-Fi access point seems crazy, and an unnecessary complication. Bluetooth direct to the device is good enough for every other device (headphones, keyboards, mice, etc), this should be able to be improved by Wahoo. The signal probably could have been bettered simply by relocating the Bluetooth antenna further from the EM motor…
I think people would pay for flat bar brakes/controls, at least the MTB crowd would, and they crash their $10k bikes, all the time, racing or not.
I believe this was talked about by Wahoo at the launch of the original KICKR Bike and never materialized. It would not be hard to implement and really valuable.
but you use the bike. and you use the power meter. you use the resistance control. you use the integration to applications. you use the data. If you think about the cost of a power meter, $600-1000 bucks. the cost of a bike computer, $250-$500 and all the other stuff plus like i said, it’s a bike. All of that stuff and still less than even the base road bikes these days.
I’m not arguing the value over the v1 or even the kickr. I agree, I have the neo 1 and am perfectly happy with it. I’m just saying you get more tech and possibly functionality with the trainer bike than a real bike for the money.
I think the argument may be against this is you can buy a used bike, maybe $1k. You can buy a cheaper trainer, the hub or even a nice trainer like a neo for $500-$1k. and you can get a dedicated bike set up for less than half the cost of this kickr bike. But that’s not my point. My point is more how over-priced bikes are. If you want a new bike, it’s hard to get in the game for under $4k.
I won’t disagree with bikes being overpriced but you can still get a decent bike for $2k. But I guess it depends on what your requirements are. But at $2k you can still get shimano 105 groupset.
Sure, they could supply a flat bar with almost no effort. That is lacking is a prototypical set of controls for shifting, braking & peripheral buttons that integrate in the same way as the current road hood setup. They could potentially outsource some or all of that and take bits from SRAM or Shimano to get some electronic controls via the MTB options.
But considering that Wahoo went their own way to make unique controls for the road setup, I expect similar for their MTB (or even TT aero extension which were also mentioned IIRC) if they ever go down that path. Doing so will require some real investment in design & tooling to meet that new MTB control set. Certainly doable, but takes $$$$$ to make it happen.
I guess I should say “more than capable” rather than “simple” and capable in the sense of it’s not designing an entirely new bike. I don’t see them doing it as I don’t see the demand being there. It’s something I’ve rarely heard mentioned.
Well, a fool and his money… Just plunked down my card for a new Kickr Bike.
Shipping on the 23rd, presumably.
Maybe a new thread at that point, i.e. "Kickr Bike, extremely short-term reviews?
This has been a valuable thread for me, trying to weigh the value and cost of the bike, thanks!
Unless I am mistaken, the Kickr Bike V2 is not actually available to purchase right now. My guess is that he just got the V1 model. Coincidently or not, the Kickr Bike V2 page is dead on the WahooFitness page. I am pretty sure it was working on the day of the info release.
