With my collection of trainers mostly gathering dust, I’ll loan them out every now and then for a period of time. The Kickrs hold up well. The only damage I see when they come back is to the stickers on the flywheel, if anything. The Neos come back trashed. Missing rubber feet, plastic casing on them will pop open, in some cases the internal fans stop working (rendering the trainer useless after a few minutes of hard use).
I /really/ take care of my own gear, so I haven’t had any issues with the Neos myself. I do when they’re loaned out.
You’ve tested more trainers than anyone on earth, mind if I put you on the spot?
You’re buying a trainer for personal use, it’s staying in one spot. At that $1000 usd price point, who’s getting your money?
Wahoo at this point. They’re solid units plus they have an exceptional foothold here in Australia (availability / support service, etc). My eyes are also on the JetBlack Victory. If they can deliver everything promised at that price point, it’ll do very well. We’re still a few weeks of knowing if that’s going to hit the mark.
2 of those the unit stopped outputting any signal, 2 of them it sounded like the flywheel was grinding. Loud enough that from upstairs, my wife came down to the basement to ask wtf I’m doing making so much noise haha
I keep going back and forth between the Kickr Bike and the Kickr Bike Shift. DCR reviewed the Shift as dead silent, which is a huge plus. But I do race on Zwift so the race feature or whatever they call it would be nice. Just don’t know if that’s enough to go for the full bike. Which model do you have?
I just saw Elite sell a bike frame with virtual shifters and which can be changed just like a trainer bike etc which you can put on any direct drive trainer, not just elite’s. Seems like a very good future proof idea if the price is right
(I see elite is the third manufacturer of such frames)
Even with the most expensive trainer that’s still 1000 euros cheaper than a kickr bike but the frames come with the advantage of easier storage, handling and the ability to upgrade
I have a V1 Kickr Bike. The thing is super quiet. There’s time my wife comes down to see me when doing some hard intervals and asks why I’m making noise because it doesn’t look like a ton of effort (meaning the bike is so quiet).
And I went through so many Kickr Bikes. Failure after failure and delivery problems too. I got good at boxing them up to send back. Do advanced exchange, if the one you have still works, and GET A SPARE TRAINER for the time it takes if the one you have is actually dead.
Maybe I had bad luck, but I also rode them exclusively during, and before the pandemic. One support agent said that I rode them to death (nice).
I finally got so pissed, I told one support person I was done, and wished I could get my money back, and got a call from a different person who wanted account information, and copy of original receipt. Nice…
Bought a Tacx Neo Smart, and haven’t had nearly the same amount of issues. So much more stable and durable. Garmin support has come through on all of my Garmin products.
I’m going to be in the market for my first smart trainer probably in the Fall. I saw DCR do a “review” on the JetBlack Victory and it looks intriguing. Especially at the proposed price point. I had been looking at a Wahoo Kickr Core. I prefer to ride outside, but will need one for 3 am before work rides come winter time and for ramp tests etc.
I know very little about these things. I see the Victory connects with Zwift which I’m not entirely sure I’ll be using. Though it’s mentioned that you can just remove their cassette and install your own. Which would be good because I’m not sure I’d want to be married to using Zwift.
Several weeks ago during Amazon Prime day, the Kickr was $425 but I didn’t pull the trigger. I’m guessing once JetBlack releases the Victory that prices may drop in this category so we could very well see the Kickr go on permanent sale again.
At this price point/category, what would be your recommendations?
They’ll all connect to zwift, TR, rouvy, etc so if you see that in the marketing, it means nothing.
At that price point, I like the core simply on price and customer service, I’ve just had really terrible luck with them long term. If you’re using zwift, get the one with the heaviest flywheel in your budget. Makes shifting much smoother. The lighter one on the core feels much more abrupt compared to my older cyclops with a heavier wheel… seems much smoother
The Jetblack Victory ships with a single cog, so you can only use erg mode or, in Zwift, virtual shifting. You can’t shift outside of Zwift. You can change the cog for a normal cassette though.
I too had major issues with the kickr core. 4 warranty replacements in one year, two of which were brand new after the refurbs they sent were dead on arrival. I finally asked Wahoo if i could just pay the difference to upgrade to the Kickr v5 since the core was clearly a problematic product, and they sent me a brand new kickr v5 for free. It’s been flawless for 3.5yrs.
I was ready to never buy a Wahoo trainer again but they deserve major credit for great customer service. Still wouldn’t touch the core with a 10ft pole, but really happy with the v5.
Seriously, what have been the problems?