This morning after completing Geiger -5 as prescribed, I decided to tack on a few extra minutes in “standard” mode to get in a sprint or two. About 20 seconds into a 30 second effort around 500 W, I heard what I thought was my tire going flat. You know that dreaded “psst” sound. Just as I was getting to the end of the effort, the resistance dropped to basically zero. I started coasting and, to my surprise, the wheel just kept spinning. I manually slowed the wheel down and then I realized my tire was not flat at all, and the reason I had trouble stopping the wheel was due to the flywheel inertia. I noted the trainer was warm, but I don’t think any warmer than what I typically see after doing some longer, sustained efforts. (2x12 @ ~300 W in this case). I put the trainer back in erg mode and started spinning again, and it was struggling to hold 50 W (target power was 136 W at that point).
I had to hop off the trainer and get ready for work, so I wasn’t able to look into this more, but I’m afraid I just broke my trainer! Has anyone ever had a similar experience with their Wahoo Kickr Snap?
Finally got a minute to check things out more thoroughly. I updated the firmware. No improvement. Then I tried a spin down calibration, and it wouldn’t show any speed (ie 0.0 mph). So then I figured it was the optical sensor. After disassembling the unit I found the optical “mirror” sticker was gone! So the noise I heard that I thought was my tire deflating was the optical sticker peeling off and running for a moment.
Going to get some new tape which should fix the issue. I will post an update when it’s working so anyone searching the forum in the future with the same issue can find this.
Looks like it worked! Speed is reading now thanks to some new tape. I will probably give it a real test during my toddler’s nap time today. Hopefully the tape stays put
I know this is a three year old post but I just wanted to say thanks! You saved me from buying a new trainer. I heard a pop and was sure the capacitor blew or there was some mechanical failure. I threw some foil tape in there and works great now!
