Lol, while reading about all of the “Tickr” issues people have on here I cant help but think to myself… Wait my Tickr is 3 years old and
I literally have never cleaned it
and it works fine still haha. I literally pull it off after a ride and fold it up and sit it on a chair/bench until the next time I need it…
Knock on wood and yes I bathe I just never cared about my HRM haha.
Your experience might be different, but I always had a couple of Coospo on hand as backup for the days my Garmins failed or I didn’t have time to change the battery.
Just recently I was nerding out on intervals.icu looking at statistics of my past activities and noticed that a handful of activities over the past few years had strange signatures, like max heart rate hit during “regular workouts”. Sure enough, all the activities for which the heart rate was funny looking or questionable were either with a Coospo or with the wrist Optical Sensor. All the other activities (done with HRM Pro and then HRM Pro+) looked solid with no spikes or questionable waveform shapes.
My conclusion is that Coospo will do the job, regarding calories expenditure, staying in the zones, etc… but I would not trust it for max heart rate detection and I wonder if it gives good enough data to Garmin for VO2 max estimation.
My assumption on the higher price for the speedplay power pedals is the assumption that their is a crowd of loyalists who will only use speedplay.
I don’t see people who use spd-sl as particularly loyal. It’s just what was popular when they started and it worked. And the look cleat that comes with Assioma is only slightly different.
I agree with your assessment about the market need that Wahoo served in 2015-2018. At that time everything was fragmented, frustrating, UI experience was blah. Wahoo came in and fixed a lot of that and they should be praised for the roll they played. The problem is Wahoo stuck with that ethos, make it simple, user friendly, open… without understanding that the market had shifted. New Garmin devices don’t have the same lagging UI and upload issues. The 1040 and presumably the 540 and 840 have device setup via your phone (they already have this for watches). The differentiator that Wahoo brought 8 years ago is now the bar to entry.
As Ray said in his post the question is will Wahoo be able to differentiate again or be a me too product. I’d argue that they don’t have the capital or staff to take on Garmin and Zwift at the same time. They need to get focused on the core differentiated offering and bring that to market asap.
Funny thing. I used speedplay for years and have always been happy with them. I was planning on buying the powermeter pedals (actually was watching way back when metrigear was trying to make them work on speedplay, before Garmin bought them and they became the Garmin pedals). After reading the Cycling Tips article on consistent issues with all wahoo speedplay pedals, I started looking at Assioma instead, and am trying out SPD-SL. So Wahoo’s quality issues here has actually pushed an existing customer, ready to buy, to another product.
yup, and a couple weeks ago I bought a Kickr V5 on sale fully aware that Wahoo was in a financial pinch.
That has been my position, even before the JetBlack Volt / Zwift Hub. I grumbled a bit at paying $800++ for the V5 (+shipping and freehub it was ~$970 total), but sold my V3 for $400 so overall it was reasonable price for upgrading. Would have rather paid $500 for the Hub, but still no XDR freehub. LOL at the double speak on JB website: “For all SRAM XDR users, available now. Coming Soon” how can it be available now, but coming soon, and click here to Join Waitlist?
I used to be anti-Garmin and anti-Touchscreen. My old Garmin had constant software problems and the touchscreen would change every time a drop of sweat hit it. I got the original Elemnt and it still works fine. I wasn’t so happy with the UI because it drove me crazy not being able to go both directions in the screen loop. Then I bought 2 Bolts and both had to be replaced due to screen failures. After a few more years I got tired of the missing Bolt features and went to the Karoo. That has been my favorite. It has a great screen and a decent touchscreen. I only use the touchscreen for setup. When I ride I lock the touchscreen and use the buttons. That is, in my opinion, the ideal combination- a good touchscreen and good button functionality. That is the same as my Garmin Epix2 watch- both buttons and the touchscreen work well and I can control which one I want to use. For some reason Garmin won’t do that with the Edge. I tried the 1040 and the software worked well for me although some features lagged the Karoo. The touchscreen is a lot batter than previously but I still have issues with false activation. I wish it had more button as well.
Yeah, I think HH has largely resolved many of the issues with touchscreens (although I still feel they are not a “best use” scenario for the technology.
I used a Karoo all last summer and the only time i had any issues with the screen was during a rainstorm at SBT GRVL. I locked the screen and relied on the buttons after that…while workable, I didn’t think it was ideal.
I think there is actually more of a market for the SNAP. I’ve heard couples who both cycle but don’t want to buy 2 trainers use them so you’re not swapping cassettes or have to make sure a single cassette will work.
Also you’ve got the super novice cyclist that doesn’t like the idea of having to install a cassette (probably why Zwift includes it) or it’s just easier to leave the wheel on for them. I feel like it’s a gateway trainer for many (myself included who wasn’t sure about the whole indoor cycling thing). Now a $3-400 Core…with a cassette…it may solve this point. Just not sure they can get there. I’m guessing Zwift isn’t making a killing on the hardware and is more banking on people using their software. Not sure if Wahoo has the luxury of a loss leader.
I’m still using a gen 1 snap. I have a few rim brake bikes kicking around still and so does my SO. We both have on the bike power meters so the accuracy isn’t an issue. I really almost bit on the $400 whatevers they were blowing out, then the zwift hub, but I might just hold out until the snap dies…
Could do a lot worse than a snap though. Has some heft to it.
I sold my v3 Kickr to a guy that has a Snap. He hates training inside. He hates the Snap and tire stuff. His wife would rather do some training inside, on a direct drive trainer, to support long rides on the weekend. He was going to buy a Zwift Hub but paid $100 less and got a great direct-drive trainer. And I got to upgrade to the v5 and put my Tarmac with sram flattop chain on it.
Was almost going to buy the Bolt v2 to replace my android phone running the wahoo app - just seemed like a more user friendly and practical bike computer compared to the aging edge 530…, now I’m not so sure,
I love my forerunner 955 and training metrics, but the wahoo bike computers just seemed more intuitive 
As I mentioned I went from a Snap to a V5 and kicked myself for not doing it sooner so I’m with you. I just know when I first started $1000 or even $800 is more than I wanted to spend on something I wasn’t sure I was going to stick with. Again…if we’re talking about a $4-500 wheel off trainer…
There is a reason why SNAP’s are going for ~$300 right now….no one wants them.
Sure there are some consumers for whom it works, but it is not enough of a market to sustain the product. The sales numbers are pretty clear on this point.
Direct-drive trainers provide a superior experience for the overwhelming majority of consumers.
That and I can just see a potential “next feature” offered for wheel-off trainers.
Could be as simple as a regular freehub removal where the pawls and such are exposed, so some risk there to contamination and such. But I also picture a refined system where the pawls are retained on the trainer and the freehub is a simple interface that has no risk in swapping. Hmmmm…
Agree. I’d like to see them more narrowly focus on the things they do best, like the trainers. I think the move to build an ecosystem was a distraction. They certainly seemed to get sucked up in the hype of COVID shifting the market to working out at home, when in reality is was a short term blip.
I think this is right….companies believed there was a fundamental shift in how people would workout moving forward and that the market would continue to expand. (Why they thought this, I have no idea 
).
From that viewpoint, going after an ecosystem made sense, as there could have been a market opportunity for a strong #2 platform. Then you aren’t worrying about creating compelling reasons for users to leave Zwift, you are gaining new users at market entry….that is a much easier lift.
Unfortunately that market viewpoint was horrifically flawed….
It is definitely right-sizing….and Wahoo would need to restructure to make it work.
Where else are they going to go in the market? Anything else would require some sort of brand extension into new categories and they don’t have the resources.
Certainly the bike computers are still very popular but as dcrainmaker pointed out they’re not innovating in that area anymore. So hopefully they can sort out a way to innovate there again
Just bought a new KickR V6… but I’m not worried, they have a good market share of the trainer industry- maybe they will need to scale down, but I don’t see the wahoo trainer line going anywhere soon…. Even if they went into liquidation, the administrators works be able to sell the trainer division and it would no doubt continue in some form
So hopefully they can sort out a way to innovate there again
The RIVAL watch was not promising in that regard. I’ll never forget how the list of things it has and things it was missing was about 10 deep and ended with “nothing else not explicitly mentioned above”. Timer and stopwatch were both features listed on a new release $400 watch.
I will be shocked to see any meaningful innovation until there is radically new battery technology.