Kickr Bike Experience - it broke

David - did this get resolved for you in the end? What was the solution?

Not sure where you are in the world, Wahoo warranty in the UK is two years from date of original purchase.

Wow. I admire your persistence but Iā€™d have just got my brass back a long time ago.

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Way easier to get along with than I would be. My Kickr Bike has been pretty seamless. I probably wouldā€™ve thrown in the towel at Bike #2 or Handlebar #4. And everybody wouldā€™ve known about it.

Iā€™ve had 3 Kickr Bikes sent to us to replace the troubles we have had with the electronics. Shifters - shorts - squealing. Wahoo has been AWESOME to work with. So much good care for us. How did we finally fix this issue? We moved the bike from the outdoor pain porch to inside the house.

Seems that condensation of dew point changes caused all kinds of havoc on at least 2 bikes. Since weā€™ve moved it inside, no problems at all.

They didnā€™t even suggest it. They would have probably kept replacing the bike leaving it on the porch every few months. But it got to be a PIA, and I started to feel bad for everyone.

So watch your humidity levels. Try putting it in a conditioned space where it can stay relatively dry. Put a fan on it. Keep the connections clean. Itā€™s now in the middle of our bedroom. Dedication.

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After a week of riding as a single speed, surprisingly the shifters began working again. Not sure what happened but it was very odd.

Iā€™ve had a similar experience and wondered if condensation was the problem. I asked Tech Support if spraying WD40 onto the shifters and plugs might help prevent it. They said not to do it but didnā€™t give a reason. Iā€™d certainly do it if I had shifters that stopped working out of warranty.

My wife would never go for having a trainer in the house. I use an unconditioned workshop for my trainer.

The deposit is not to make the SHIPPING faster, but so they donā€™t wait for the defective one to arrive before shipping the replacement. Itā€™s called ā€˜advance exchangeā€™ by other companies.

It DOES save time off receiving the replacement, but it will come the same way either way. They just donā€™t wait for the old one.

Advance exchange makes more sense if the defective bike is still ridable in some fashion. If itā€™s dead putting up the deposit for that service does get you the replacement sooner, but youā€™re still out a working bike. (Get a backup trainer to ride while the bikes are being swapped?)

I did have a vendor that offered faster shipping as a charged item for advanced exchange, but I doubt that Wahoo would be able to get that service for a price that people would want to pay for. Ride on!!!

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Mine is always indoors - letting it get damp outside from condensation or humidity etc just seems a no-no.

When mine was replaced the new one arrived quickly without needing to pay anything more. The local bike shop I got the bike from handles everything.

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This is a really helpful thread of discussion for anyone who owns or is thinking about purchasing the Kickr bike.

I purchased mine in Oct. 2021. Because of an unforeseen medical issue, I was unable to really get on it until around January 2022, and then I was having to work myself up slowly through a recovery. Between January 2022 and April of 2022 Iā€™ve put about 1,200 miles on this Kickr.

The only problem Iā€™ve had was an annoying clicking noise that started a few weeks ago. Initially it was intermittent and I just cycled through it. It got worse. A lot worse. It began as a single clicking noise that occurred at 360 degree intervals. Initially Iā€™d hear it for a few rotations, then it would stop. The frequency increased and, a couple days ago, the single click became a triple click, and it was occurring at the same 360 degree interval. It was loud.

This is my first indoor smart trainer, but over the years Iā€™ve experienced lots of bottom bracket bearing failures. The noise issue on my Kickr bike sounded and felt exactly the same. I knew the issue was in what Iā€™d call the bottom bracket area. I could hear and feel it coming from there. Looking through the ownerā€™s manual nothing stood out that I should be doing. So I checked Wahooā€™s website. As mentioned earlier in this discussion, there is a much better document there for scheduled maintenance on this machine. If you own a Kickr bike you need that document.

Ended up my noise issue was a simple maintenance issue. Every 96 hours of use you should check your crank tightness. Easy and simple to do. When I performed this check I discovered the pinch bolts were at about 4-5Nm (just by feel) and the fixing bolt had a torque of 0Nm (which means it was loose!). Both of these were looser than they should have been, especially the fixing bolt. I had to rotate the fixing bolt more than 720 degrees of rotation before I even began measuring torque at all! Thatā€™s how loose mine was. The maintenance schedule recommends the fixing bolt be tightened to a max of 3Nm. I torqued mine to 2Nm. It recommends the pinch bolts be torqued to a max of 15Nm. I torqued mine to 12Nm, which is pretty tight.

Ran smooth as silk after this maintenance. Took about 5 minutes of time.

I know this is a mechanical device, so eventually thereā€™ll be something else that breaks or needs attention. But, again, I highly recommend downloading the online maintenance schedule for this machine. The ownerā€™s manual is terribly incomplete on this subject.

Overall, I love this Kickr bike. I had a dumb indoor cycling trainer before, and for me to spend more than 20 minutes on that thing felt like an eternity. Hated it! This Kickr bike together with Zwift is far more comparable to actual road cycling than I would have imagined possible. By direct comparison, 20 minutes on this Kickr goes by like nothing!

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I canā€™t read every post in this topic, but Iā€™ve been following the thread for awhile since I considered buying a Wahoo Bike (or the Stages or Tacx). What Iā€™ve read reminds me of something a local bike shop owner told me about stationary bikes in general many years past. He had a contract with a couple of small gyms around us to maintain spin bikes and the more ā€œelectronicā€ stationary bikes. He told me to never buy a stationary bike that relies on electronics, and even mostly mechanical stationaries need extra attention. It comes down to sweat and moisture. It corrodes connections and parts, it causes shorts.

I am curious if Zwifters using a DD or wheel on trainer along with a bike with Di2 or AXS electronic shifting have seen issues with their drivetrain/shifting? Most likely not since those systems are designed to be sealed to the weather. On the other hand the Wahoo bike is not designed for rain/snow/salt spray. Translation: sweat

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Have over 20K miles on mine, use it almost every day and wouldnā€™t hesitate to buy again. Love the kickr bike. Also put many trouble free miles on a 2018 kickr. The forums get the squeaky wheel, you donā€™t hear about the many satisfied users out there.

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We all wish we were satisfied customers Bob. I just opened my ticket on my 3rd bike. And Iā€™ve gotten a replacement handlebars somewhere in between. 4 failed shifters since October 2020. I have no faith in any single unit working for an acceptable lifespan. But wahoo support has been very good thus far in replacing quick.

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Sorry to hear it Andrew. It would be nice if Wahoo would release a root cause analysis on the shifter failure. I have made inquires regarding root cause but didnā€™t get a satisfactory response although they did point to the shifter cables.

Iā€™ve convinced myself that the shifters were the problem in my case. Shortly after replacing the bike I experienced the shifter failure again. Support immediately shipped me replacement bars with shifters. It has been many months of continuous use and I have had no failures since replacing the bars/shifters on the replacement bike.

I specifically asked support if they were taking steps to insure that returned suspect bars/shifters were not finding their way back into stock. I was told that they have safeguarded against this possibility and that they were sourcing their cables from another supplier.

I hope it works out for you in the end. I really enjoy this bike and my only concern is that if the market continues to decline, it seems reasonable to think that Wahoo might discontinue the product and possibly support during my ownership.

Kickr bike bricked itself. Completed dead mid ride. Less that one year old. Replacement on the way but very disappointing to see this being a common issue.

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What defines ā€œcommonā€?
Given that there is no way to know how many are out there that do not have issues, there is no way to assign a percentage to the ones that have issues.
If 20 people buy a product, and 10 people complain about it, thatā€™s common.
If 20,000 people buy a product, and 10 people complain about it, thatā€™s not common.
As @brumohr said, the forums get the squeaky wheel.

I did not count here, but I believe it is significantly more than 10, some of them got a new bike more than once.
Only Wahoo knows how many the sold and how many came back, but there seem to be no thread about any other trainer with issues like these. And please do not forget - Kicker bike costs >3100 Euros here in Europe (compare with Tacx bike @ 2200).

Beiing not a Kickr bike user I understand the frustration of users buying the most expensive trainer and expecting best quality.

Well when you buy one brand new and get 1 month out of it, as my first one did and then find out that itā€™s a known problem (based on the checking of the serial number) then itā€™s not great. My one died with the flashing power brick light and massively rough peddling behaviour. It just stopped suddenly.

Fortunately going back through my local bike shop got me a new one quickly without having to pay anything.

I have a 450mm industrial fan that is right in front of the kickr bike, so it keeps sweat away from the bars for the most part. Iā€™m also lucky I donā€™t sweat much.

Mine also makes an awful smell if I did sprinting, so I just donā€™t do that. Keep the power below 500w. But average power fairly high.

Quite a few people in this thread shared their experience with sending Kickr Bikes back to Wahoo for repair or replacement. My unit is about two years old and is going strong. I still keep the original box which it came in, but I must say, it takes a lot of space. My original thought was to use it through Covid and sell it, which is why I kept the box, but I so much got used to it that I doubt I would ever sell itā€¦ I am reevaluating if I still need to keep the box. I heard that shipping this huge box via FedEx is very expensive, shipping via freight services is also very expensive, which probably is why Wahoo provides two smaller carboard boxes for returns. Has anyone in this thread everfound a need for the original box, or used the original box to ship the trainer when you sold it or when you needed to return it to Wahoo? Does Wahoo ask you if you have the original box when you are working with them on repair order?

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Pitch the box.

If Wahoo replaces your bike, they will send 2 boxes for you to put yours in to ship back. There is a ā€˜prepping the bike for returnā€™ doc on their support site that goes through the process. Itā€™s actually ridiculously easy. I got to the point I could ā€˜field stripā€™ a Kickr Bike in about 10 minutes. The replacement will come in the same size box as a new one. (I cut the box sides and framed them for the pain cave)

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