Had the Ride with Kickr Core delivered yesterday.
Got it all set up, but was unable to complete the controls tutorial as the connection dropped out and didn’t return. I quit and reconnected everything, loaded into the world, then had an issue with the gearing. When I tried to shift up or down, nothing happened. At random intervals, the gears would then go up and down randomly, sometimes as many as 10 gears at a time. As you can imagine, this was completely unplayable.
I ordered an ANT+ dongle which arrived today, but I couldn’t find any way to connect the controls via ANT+. I then found a suggestion to pair my devices through the companion app. The only device the app found was the controls (updated firmware on my Kickr, but was still unable to find it). Fired the game up, and the game immediately tried to connect to the controls. I don’t want that, so I click the button on the top left that says “pair using phone”, and I’m then instructed to go to my phone and pair my devices. I then attempted to do just that on my phone, but it told me to pair the devices in-game (on my PC)!!!
You can’t use ANT+ because Zwift Ride only works via Bluetooth for its controls, and everything has to be paired via BT (including the Kickr), or it won’t work.
Have you updated the firmware on the Ride itself? You do this via Companion.
For using the Companion on a phone to bridge (pair) the devices, you still do the pairing via the Zwift app on your main device, not on the phone. Your phone needs to be able to see your Zwift game app device on your local network, so make sure you aren’t using any kind of Wi-fi Assist feature on your phone (which may sometimes use mobile data where your wifi signal is weak, and that won’t work for Zwift).
Thanks for the reply.
I’ve updated the firmware on the Kickr in the wahoo app, and the controls in the companion app. The companion app is unable to find anything other than the controls when I search for devices to connect to.
That is normal, the controls on the handle bars are the only thing you should be updating firmware on in the companion app.
Everything should connect via bluetooth when you open the Zwift game app. I’m guessing you are using a PC or laptop since you mentioned getting an ANT+ dongle. You should return that and get a bluetooth dongle since PCs and laptops usually have very poor bluetooth antennas. An external dongle will be a more stable connection and minimize dropouts.
Yes, I’m on PC. Thank you for the suggestion, I will give that a try.
For dongle shopping and tips about disabling a built-in Bluetooth controller, check out this video
