I have used the wired Direct Connect on my Wahoo Kickr v5 for about a year - until recently it’s been rock solid and avoids any RF interference with the multitude of ISM band devices we all have everywhere. Since the new pairing screen with auto-select / recommended/all, etc. was introduced (version 1.97.2?) I’ve had escalating issues of the direct connect not showing up, and now disconnecting after I had connected and signed into a race. It was very seldom before 1.99, and it would just be that I couldn’t see the DirCon option for the trainer. Restarting Zwift or rebooting the PC solved the problem every time. I would have loved to try to get more data, but I got the message that the trainer was disconnected and I was being kicked from the (hardware enforced) event roughly 1min before event start as I came back from last-second drinks fetching at 0600, so didn’t have time to capture packets for analysis. Was clipping in with 10s remaining. My setup: Windows 11 PC with (11th gen?) i5, GTX1660Ti video card. Extension cable with ANT+ dongle under the bike, using companion app bluetooth bridge to run Play controllers because they wouldn’t stay connected using the PC bluetooth (I think because of distance) My PC is connected to my network through WiFi, the Cat 6 cable is connected directly between the trainer and the PC. Yes, I’ve restarted my router recently. I’ve checked the cable with a tester and swapped it with another cable. Release notes for v1.99 specifically mention “improved reliability for trainers paired via Wi-Fi”, implying changes were made, whether positive or negative, to the DirCon. There have been other complaints (@Guy_Anthuenis in Game Update thread with similar to my exact complaint but with Kickr Bike v2, @Antoine_GOUGEON and @Nick talk about issues in the Kickr Bike V2 on Zwift 1.97 thread) - it looks like Antoine had another issue with his bike, but I don’t think it means that this DirCon issue isn’t also a problem. I’ll capture packets on the direct connect interface after work and set up to do it quickly if a disconnect happens again, but a pretty big fraction of my Zwift riding is going to be racing over the next week so probably won’t get anything in the rush to get reconnected if something does happen.

The Direct Connect was rock solid until the recent Zwift updates…now Zwift doesn’t show the Ethernet icon in the pairing screen only wifi ant and Bluetooth. The direct connect is active and ready to be discovered and the laptop and direct connect are on the same Ethernet network sub net. Nothing changed but Zwift and it doesn’t show the Ethernet icon direct connect as it did before. Oh well back to wifi connection. I’ll watch here for solutions and or updates. Thanks

My impression is that some of the reports about DirCon issues in this topic are real problems. But if riders are disappearing, that’s something else. So the question is whether you have only network problems, or if you have a combination of two problems.

[image] Tom Noel: The Direct Connect was rock solid until the recent Zwift updates…now Zwift doesn’t show the Ethernet icon in the pairing screen only wifi ant and Bluetooth. Zwift changed the icons a few updates back. Now there isn’t a separate icon for a wired DirCon connection - it just shows a wifi icon for both wired and wireless DirCon.

[image] Tom Noel: only wifi ant Bluetooth options to connect show up. [image]Game Update v 1.110 [March 2026] Network connections are now represented by a single Wi-Fi icon in game. As noted by @Steve_Hammatt the icon changed in v1.110. I have mentioned a couple of times in other threads that I believe that is a regression and leads to confusion. Wahoo has said that if the trainer has DirCon connected, it will use DirCon.

I’m curious if game version 1.116 improves this issue [image]Game Update v 1.116 [June 2026] Improved connection reliability for trainers connected via Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

I hope so. I’ve seen it take almost a minute to connect, alternating between “Connecting” and “No Signal” before it finally would connect. Unless the Zwift fix is addressing dropouts during a ride. Wahoo implmenented a fix for the trainer dropouts a little while ago.

The recent Wahoo firmware fix was only for the V6, but there are other models that seemed to be affected in this topic, not related to a firmware update

I’m no longer able to connect my V5 via dircon, so it would suggest it’s not linked to the V6 or their firmware.

It was definitely linked to the V6 firmware update. That’s when the problems for those users started, and when they released fixed firmware their problems disappeared. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t having a problem. It just wasn’t introduced by a Wahoo firmware release since the last firmware release for the V5 was more than two years ago. The cause must be something else for you.

Direct Connection Issues [October 2025]

Known Issues

Paul_Southworth (Paul) June 24, 2026, 6:52pm 142

I’m curious if game version 1.116 improves this issue

Topic		Replies	Views
Game Update v 1.99 [October 2025] Zwift Game	73	26050	October 20, 2025
Wahoo Kickr Direct Connect General Discussion	116	15492	April 15, 2022
Wahoo Direct Connect Adapter Feature Requests	56	7544	November 12, 2024
KICKR v6 WiFi connection \| Wahoo Direct Connect [October 2022; February 2023] Known Issues brevcon-1241 , zbri-4043	142	12597	May 24, 2024
Game update v 1.100 [October 2025] Zwift Game	105	37218	December 6, 2025

Direct Connection Issues [October 2025]

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