New Wahoo Kickr 5th gen compatibility issues in resistance mode

Equipment
#1

I am having real issues with my Wahoo Kickr 5th gen in resistance mode. Everything works fine with ERG, but when I am in resistance mode there is basically no resistance. I had resistance at 100%, whilst pedalling 100rpm in 52x11 and was only producing ~70ish watts. When I am not in a work-out, turning the pedals feels really tough, but as soon as I load up a work-out and start spinning the resistance disappears and its like i’m riding downhill.

I have tried with no improvement:

  • turning off and on
  • disconnecting and reconnecting
  • calibrating
  • factory spin-down
  • Connecting the trainer with bluetooth and ant+

Unfortunately I don’t have Zwift or another platform to test the trainer on.

Any recommendations on how I can resolve this?

#2

I feel your pain, I’m pretty fed up with my KICKR Core (new) for similar reasons. Put it in ERG mode last night, pretty good for basic steady state type stuff. Then needed to do some sprints (not in ERG) and it’s like it has no idea, it’s either too much brake or nowhere near enough. First sprint I almost snapped my chain. It’s like it’s good at specific things but terrible at other basic stuff. My Magnus M2 wheel on trainer just worked! Power meter as power but whatever effort I needed to do the trainer just seemed to handle it.

1 Like
#3

You can use free Wahoo app to use a range of trainer modes as a test.

Beyond that, a call to Wahoo support seems in order.

1 Like
#4

I’m having the same issue. Resistance mode worked for me initially connected to Bluetooth but not with Ant+. Now it doesn’t work in either BT or Ant+. Standard mode still works in BT but isn’t available with Ant+. I’d prefer to use Ant+ because I’ve had occasional BT drop-out issues with my phone. It’s frustrating as heck but have been putting off dealing with Wahoo support.

#5

Anyone have a solution to this issue? I’m having the same problem.

#6

For me it turned out to be an ant+ connection error. Removing my ant+ usb and connecting solely via Bluetooth fixed everything and now the kickr works perfectly in both ERG and resistance mode.

2 Likes
#7

Thanks. I wonder if this is on Wahoo’s end or TrainerRoad’s. Ant+ is just so much more stable for me I hesitate to muck around with Bluetooth again. I’ll stick with Erg mode for now and hope a future update solves the issue.

#8

Resistance mode worked fine when I first got the trainer, but then started having issues after a wahoo firmware update. So pretty sure it’s a wahoo issue that they need to resolve. I find The connection drops once or twice per ride with Bluetooth but only for a couple of seconds and the resistance stays the same during that time, so have been really have with the Bluetooth connection.

2 Likes
#9

Having the same issues. V5 over ANT+

#10

New Kickr V5 with same issue. Completed first ride with original firmware and it seemed to work fine. Then uploaded latest firmware 4.1.1 and lost resistance mode functionality. I’ve reached out to Wahoo and will share with the group when hear back.

Additionally, I’m curious as to the resistance setting level that you folks run on the Kickr when using TR. With my old Snap I would run out of gears at about 240 Watts with zero resistance. I would do threshold efforts in the 290 - 310 Watt range @ 16-18 resistance level. I have the impression the kickr operates differently?

3 Likes
#11

I too lodged a ticket with TR and after working with them lodged one with Wahoo as well. TR support has been great trying to troubleshoot this.

1 Like
#12

In the few resistance rides I have done, I can spin comfortably doing endurance rides 180-220w at 20% resistance whilst staying in the little ring. When I was testing it in the wahoo app, I set the resistance to 100% and could barely turn the pedals. 20-30% resistance seems like it would cover pretty much all rides

#13

Just received a response back from Wahoo… They are aware of the problem and acknowledge a issue on their end. Glad they are taking ownership, but wish they had an estimated timeframe on the fix. For your reference, I copied their response below.

Take care,
Mike Connelly

Thanks for reaching out to us! We’ve done some digging on this and it does appear there is a bug on our end, which the developers are currently working to fix. Though we do not have an exact delivery date ETA, the problem is a priority on our road map for upcoming app and firmware revisions.

1 Like
#14

This is my response with them

Andy Ba. (Wahoo Fitness Support)

Jan 7, 2021, 11:55 AM EST

Hello

Thank you for letting us know about your experience. This is an issue we are aware of and we have opened an internal ticket with our development team to investigate and resolve the problem.

Since we have an open ticket with our development team, all customer service tickets related to the issue (including this one) will be marked as “On-Hold” and merged with the developer ticket to be monitored internally. This process allows us to send automatic notifications to you via email when changes are complete. Full release notes are posted on https://support.wahoofitness.com

Be sure to keep your app and device up-to-date to receive the fix, when available.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience and support as we strive to serve you better. Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns in the meantime.

Thanks for being a Wahoo customer,

Andy​

3 Likes
#15

@MikeC @dtidy1609 Wahoo just pushed new firmware. Apparently addresses drift, not sure if it will address this issue as well.

edit: just ran a test, does not address resistance mode in ANT+ connection.

1 Like
#16

How do you know that the firmware is to fix drift?

I suffer from some drift on my kickr but there has been no indication I can find so far that wahoo have acknowledged it as an issue.

1 Like
#17

Wahoo app says “Stability improvements”.

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#18

They’ve added in manual calibration back in, something that was previously missing on the K20.

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