Not all turbo trainers are created equal. Wahoo have proven this with their KICKR power trainer

We have been testing out the Wahoo KICKR power trainer, one serious piece of kit. The first thing you will notice as you get it out of the box is that its no light weight. It was very easy to set up and get running, It comes with a 10speed 11-25 cassette fitted ready for Shimano or Sram. If you use Camapagnolo dont worry you can still use the trainer, but you will need to order a new free hub body and cassette.

First thing you need to do is adjust the trainer for your wheel size, this is done by moving a bar which is on a quick release bolt, you can use wheels sizes ranging from 24″ wheel up to a 29er wheel and everything in between. Once you have removed the rear wheel the bike easily slips on to the trainer and locks in place with a QR skewer and you are almost ready to train.

Download time. For this test we were using a HTC One ( M7) running Android, You need 2 apps, first the Wahoo Utility app this is used for calibrating the trainer takes all of 4 minutes. The second app is the Wahoo Fitness app, this is an ace bit of kit on its own. With this app, you can long your training rides on the trainer but if you have and sensors on our bike it will also sync with them, so when we do get nice weather and you adventure out you can still log all your rides and monitor your stats. It also syncs with Strava so you can share all your rides and training sessions with your mates.
With the app you can monitor all your stats, cadence, speed, heart rate (extra sensor needed), power(watts)Distance, workout time, set fat burning levels, cardio levels, plus control power curves,resistance, power targets and simulate slopes and wind speeds.

Some Screen shots from the app

We now have everything set up and ready to go. The bike feels every stable in the trainer, there is a bit of built in “wobble” to help with a more realistic feel. The bike spins up nicely and when you adjust resistance it comes in smooth not like hitting a wall. Over all this is one of the best trainers we have ever used, great adjustment, easy to use and key to home training very quiet.

Now for some spec: