We see lots of comments about issues with one or more trainers made by Wahoo and Tacx/Garmin. I always wondered if the problems were widespread or if we only see posts from people with issues. Let’s not complicate this with adding other brands or multiple options and stick to the big 2. I randomly chose 3 years as the cutoff.
What is your experience with trainer quality?
My Wahoo broke in 3 years or less
My Tacx/Garmin broke in 3 years or less
My Wahoo has lasted more than 3 years without breaking
My Tacx/Garmin has lasted more then 3 years without breaking
Kicker V3 over 3 years in use, no issue.
Kicker V6 2-ish years?, no issue.
Neo 2 5 years with first use by me, now wife’s trainer, no issue.
Repeat for the Hammer and H2 that had 2+ years use each.
Essentially, I’ve had great luck with trainers from several brands.
got my kickr core replaced just out of warranty (25 months). sounded like dry/worn bearings. got replaced by a brand new “refurb”. Running OK for 1,5 year now
I had my first KICKR CORE warrantied a few months after buying it. My replacement is ~5 years old now and still working well.
I have had at least two TICKRs replaced though, as well as my RIVAL watch. My replacement watch had issues out of the box, but what they were indirectly telling me when they sent it over was essentially that that’s the best they could do, so…
It will sadly be hard for me to buy another Wahoo product. I love their design and UI, but their QC just isn’t there for a lot of things.
Might be that there are more out there than Garmin. I have a NEO2 and burned something on the circuit board. Garmin sent me a refurbished NEO. I got rid of it and turned around and got a Wahoo KICKR 5. Still going strong. As one person mentioned, the Garmin and KICKR have a slight ride feel difference.
Not nearly enough votes to draw much conclusion (and me messing up the ability to do multi-select didn’t help) other than that Tacx/Garmin users vote much later than Wahoo (or other) users! I commented early on that there were far more Wahoo owners, but it ended up being much closer.
During the pandemic, I went through 6 Kickr bikes. Some of the issues weren’t product reliability issues though. Like the one that was delivered upside down, another delivered looking like it fell 6 feet onto the end of the box, and another with a fork truck tine speared through the box.
But the other times were quality issues. Noise, shifters failing, incredible loud squeaking, totally out of calibration. I bought a Tacx Neo Smart Bike, and have only had 3 swaps, and one was for a loose crank arm (yeah, they wanted to swap it for that ) One was the bottom bracket failing somehow. I tried to get them to send me a new one, but they wouldn’t budge. One was for a belt issue, it kept skipping in toward the inside of the mechanism. Current one was ‘new in box’ unit, and seems to be 110%.
Wahoo support was generally responsive, but sometimes took a week or more to respond to questions, issues. Garmin has been quicker… Yeah, I miss ‘climb’, but I don’t miss dragging out the spare trainer to keep riding.
Maybe (hopefully) their quality has gone up for the newer model Kickr Bike. A couple of people around here bought them, and some had continuing issues, and some didn’t. I kept wondering if the people that didn’t have issues were actually using their bike.
For the Kickr Bike, I kept getting refurbs after the first swap, and some of the dates of manufacturer were away before I ordered mine. And having to send ‘the whole thing back’ I’m sure ate up a lot of cost for them. For Garmin/Tacx Neo Smart Bike, you usually only send the ‘power unit’ back, saving quite a bit on weight. Although sending one back for a loose crank was over the top I thought. The next one, I swapped the bolt myself. (That one returned, the bolt was stripping out, and it was also BENT in the crank! Crazy, and maybe that’s why they wanted it back, can only guess)
But the wife rode me for going through so many of ‘the most expensive bike that goes nowhere’. She kept saying ‘And it cost how much?’. I’m just glad I got out of it as easy as I did. I half expected to have to try to sell it, and probably take a beating on it. Not that she was wrong, but getting it out the house became a near necessity…
And all the shipping screw ups!! I’ve shipped and received things via truck before and had no issues, but so many bikes showing up damaged, upside down, dropped, etc. (One bike lasted not 3-days before it was replaced because of shipping damage It was almost as loud as my old H2)
Oh, all that said, I think the Neo Smart Bike is better packaged, supported. If it matters to anyone…
Purchased Wahoo Kickr v5 (i think) in March 2022. Have ~1100 hours of use on it, problem free until about a week ago.
I don’t use erg mode and usually ride in level mode (or whatever it is called). Suddenly out of nowhere the resistance completely went away. Below is the workout:
TICKRs replaced though, as well as my RIVAL watch. My replacement watch had issues out of the box, but what they were indirectly telling me when they sent it over was essentially that that’s the best they could do, so…
) One was the bottom bracket failing somehow. I tried to get them to send me a new one, but they wouldn’t budge. One was for a belt issue, it kept skipping in toward the inside of the mechanism. Current one was ‘new in box’ unit, and seems to be 110%.
It was almost as loud as my old H2)