New User onboarding: spindown failing wahoo kickr core & resolution / fix (blaming elemnt bolt)

TrainerRoad Software
1

Hey everyone,

new user here - not sure if this is useful, but ran into an issue during onboarding where my spindown on my kickr core was failing in both the wahoo utility app & trainerroad (ipad). I also had an issue during my first FTP test where I was just spinning out and it didn’t feel like ERG mode was active.

TL;DR: it looks like there was some interference between the elemnt bolt headunit when paired with the kickr core, and with kickr core operation in general, not just trainerroad. Turning the bolt off fixed that.

Setup:

  • kickr core 2018 - firmware 1.0.6
  • pixel 3 xl, android 9
  • wahoo cadence, heart rate
  • wahoo elemnt bolt

Brief background

  • setting up the kickr core and could not get the pixel to update the wahoo firmware with the wahoo utility app to the kickr core - it would connect, did the first successful spindown, but firmware update failed. Resolution was to install the iphone app onto the ipad, which allowed for the firmware update.

  • next installed trainerroad on the ipad air 2. All good - onboarding is very nice.

  • next I brought over the bolt, set to indoor mode, and paired with the kickr – kicker here, I can’t recall which protocol.

  • got to the spindown part in TR, spindown consistently failed. Went over to ipad wahoo utility app, same issue there, so not specific to TR. (Also provided a pretty good warmup :upside_down_face:)

  • turned off bolt, spindown completed as expected in both TR and wahoo utility app.

  • started first FTP test with bolt back on, got to first step, spun out, abandoned test. Turned bolt off.

  • everything working as expected since then (bar rider).

Also the pairing in TR to the cadence sensor and heart rate was sweet – didn’t notice it straight away but was pleasantly surprised, which completely did away with need for bolt anyways.

Anyways, this primarily looks like an issue on the wahoo side, so should file a report with them, but posting here in case anyone runs into the same issue and is getting frustrated, I know I was!

The only other hiccup is that the FTP test never appears in my career. Other rides since then have, and the FTP recorded is what is being used AFAICT.

(edit: clarifying kickr core, not kickr)

1 Like
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You don’t have a unique setup so I am not sure why you have problems.
Manually enter the workout so you have a record of it.
If you felt you were spinning out during the test are you sure it was an accurate number? Ballpark of where you expected it to be.

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Thanks for reply! What’s strange with the successful FTP test (there was one aborted before that, the spinout one), it is published on strava – but not seeing a way to force an import from strava back to trainerroad, when TR was the one that published it :). Not too fussed, main thing is that the ftp is set! But yeah, no idea how to find something to import!

For the spinout test, I bailed after the second increment, as I was just spinning super fast and didn’t feel like there was much resistance, could have been mental, but when I turned the bolt off and repeated, and just held my cadence, things worked, painfully, as expected.

Should have checked the bolt firmware, it’s running WB09-2171 - which is funky as that doesn’t seem to be a release number…

Anyways doing a firmware update to see what happens - but happy without it anyways, as all the sensor I need are connected through ipad / TR.