Kickr Bike Experience - it broke

I have had my Kickr Bike since April and have loved it during lockdown. I have suffered occasional creaking but this has always worked itself out with or without a little maintenance of connections.

I have had mine for 1 month, love it ( also feels wattage is lower than my watt bike but maybe it is just the legs or that this one is more accurate ! )
Small problem with handlebar / stem sliding down a bit as the Q/r lever is super tight but still not tight enough it seems ?
Re shifting am a bit worried, did a long ride ( everesting ) on it few days after I got it, sweated a lot, and have had unwanted shift down - 2-3 gears - a few times since. Manageable, but isa that an issue with the sweat that may have damaged the shifters ?
Also got a creaking noise, any idea what to do to fix it ?

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I have had my Kickr Bike since June 2020. Love everything about it except that the shifters keep failing. They are in the process of sending out the 3rd set of bars. If the trend continues I anticipate the bars failing again in a few weeks. My hunch is that they have not properly considered sweat (and resulting corrosion) in the device with the ports that the bars plug into. This is really frustrating because I am now going on two weeks with the bike stuck in the 1/3 gear position.

Based on some of the comments I see in here I suspect they might end up replacing the bike but will that truly remedy what appears to be a product design flaw? :frowning:

Oh man. Thats sucks! I think I am destined for the same path as I am now on my 3rd set of bars to deal with the shifters failing.

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New handlebars sent from Wahoo are working fine. Wahoo were great in resolving.

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Iā€™ve had my Kickr Bike a couple weeks. I also had a problem with handlebar height adjustment slipping, need to tighten the clamp extremely tight. I complained about it to Wahoo support and they are sending me a new clamp, not sure how that will fix it though. Other than that Iā€™ve been super happy with bike, I did change the saddle and bar tape though. Youā€™d think for $3500 dollars they could afford to install a decent saddle and good bar tape.

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Which saddle does it come with and what did you upgrade to?

Also a bit more detail on the bar tape please :slight_smile:

So, this morning at the first interval after a warmup my Kickr bike died. IT is the 2nd one! The first one just lost the ability to use the climb feature and they replaced it about 6 months ago. all was fine until this morning. The pedals kind of seized up and the display went blank and it is completely dead now. for others that have had this happen, has Wahoo issued a refund? after 2 of these I am kind of done. I still have a Kickr and may stick with that or may try the Stages bike (I like having a dedicated indoor setup, but this is making me question that).

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Hi, Iā€™ve had my Kickr bike for a few weeks and love itā€¦until todayā€¦ about 2 hours into the ride there was some static in the pedal stroke for a minute - then a loud noise from the wheel and it just stopped registering my pedaling - no RPM/no Watts - so, needless to say - ride over. The screen says ER11. Anybody else deal with this issue or error code? or even know what it means?

Had the Kickr Bike less than 2 weeks. Yesterday my shifters stopped working 90km into a ride. Unplugged and was able to get the right to work again but not the left. Today while messing around, by chance I figured out that thereā€™s some sort of wiring short or grounding issue. The left shifter will only work if the wire is touching the electronics housing and not touching the right shift cable. So Iā€™ve electrical taped it that way (obviously not a long term solution) for now and Iā€™m waiting to hear back from Wahoo.

Iā€™ve also had major slippage issues with the handlebar post which theyā€™ve been dealing with. So currently 2 open tickets with customer service. If things arenā€™t resolved soon, the bike will be returned.

Hello everyone,
after reading this thread I, unfortunately, can agree some of the problems you mentioned. My KickrBike arrived by the end of November. I used it on a regular / almost daily basis (about 700km summed up) until it dies abruptly while just starting a Zwift-training-session. The power block is blinking green, nothing else I can do anymore. Wahoo support replied ā€œimmediatelyā€ (<10h after my support ticket) and mentioned that the board of the bike is probably broken - so they will change it completely.

Taking into account all of your comments / problems it is (for me / my opinion) pretty obvious that the current KickrBike version is not worth itĀ“s price. Instead, some (or even some more) development + bug fixing is mandatory by Wahoo, before they should start/continue selling this as a product within this price-range. I feel like a tester instead of a consumer at the moment.

I also had the same problem that the hight adjustment of the handlebar was not accurate. The clamp was still slippery even it was tightened (extremely) firmly. After all I did not experience any issues regarding the shifters (so farā€¦)

Now, I am hoping for a speedy replacement and a ā€œproblem-feeā€ second bike. But honestly, I am very (!) sceptical that Wahoo will deliver the quality I am expecting - but never say neverā€¦

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Hi Jim. How did this work out? I have this issue to the extremeā€¦

My first Kickr bike died in a strange way: the bike would tilt forward uncontrollably if you put downward force on the handlebars. Pretty dangerous actually.

After an annoying exchange process (it was handled well but still takes time to disassemble, move, drive, move, reassemble), the new handlebars just drop to their lowest no matter how hard I tighten!

So curious if this is a problem with the stem or the frame (praying for former). Did your replacement stem work out?

I have some videos but canā€™t seem to share links in posts.

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I received the new clamp but didnā€™t install it because I know that is not the problem. Prior to receiving the clamp I wiped the grease off the stem and tightened the clamp as tight as possible. This solved the problem but without the grease it creaks.

I commented to Wahoo that I didnā€™t think the clamp would fix the issue and they sent me a whole new handlebar assembly including levers. I have not tried installing that and doubt that will fix anything. I think the head part of the frame is simply too large for the stem.

I will say that Wahoo support is very good at responding.

Iā€™m second guessing myself for not going with the Stages bike.

Another thing just came into my mind - regarding the topic of shifting issuesā€¦ Can anyone of you confirm something like this?

During the (short) time my bike worked fine (all in all less than one month) I tried various combinations of shifting setups within the Wahoo app and stored them into different bike profiles. For example I simulated different Di2-setups, e.g. 2x10, 2x11, 2x12 (each one with different cassette gradations) using the Di2 synchro shifting mode, which is my absolutely preferred shifting setup due to the fact that you just need the right shifter (in the same way I am used to, on my real gravel bikeā€¦). In addition to that I created some more bike profiles for imitating a SRAM eagle, which is 1x12.

My experience is, that whenever I was switching from a 1x ā€œwhatever-setupā€ back to a 2x ā€œwhatever setupā€ (means: from a one chain ring to a two chain ring profile) the KickrBike was not really able to do that properly, especially when you additionally play around with the shifting logic in general (means: Di2, SRAM or Campa). The tiny display on the bike very often only showed a ā€œ1ā€ in the upper line also when I chose a 2x setup in the Wahoo app. No matter what I tried on the bike shifters, I was not able to move from the first to the second chain ring.

To ā€œsolveā€ this I found out that it seems to help to change the shifting setup within a bike profile in the Wahoo app ā†’ e.g. from Di2 to SRAM logic. Then, I used the SRAM shifter combination (both shifters at the same time) to place the ā€œchainā€ to the second ā€œchain ringā€ on the bike. This, for whatever reason, worked fine. After that I had to edit the bike profile back to the Di2 mode and suddenly I was able reach all gears with the right shifters on the bike again.

For me, this looked like kind of a software bug. As if the bike was not knowing which shifting logic it has to use. For me (luckily) the physical shifters worked fine so farā€¦

Best

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Have you also tried to use assembling paste? This (although it is supposed to be used for carbon parts) helped me to fix the handlebarā€¦

Itā€™s the frame not the handlebars. Iā€™ve been dealing with them about that issue. It seems as though they are shipping frames that havenā€™t been pre stretched or something. My initial instructions were as follows:

  1. Unplug your shifter cables and remove your handle bars completely.
  2. Wipe away any grease from the head tube.
  3. Open the lever on the quick release skewer and tighten the nut until the axle is flush with the end of the nut.
  4. Ensure the quick release cam surface is inline with the bushing and close the quick release lever. This will take some pressure to close.
  5. Keep the quick release lever closed Overnight.
  6. Next day: Open the quick release lever and unscrew the nut 1/2 to 1 full turn.
  7. Reinsert the steerer tube, set to desired height. Ensure the quick release cam surface is inline with the bushing and close the quick release lever.

That didnā€™t work well enough. Eventually they sent me a bolt that uses an Allen key to tighten instead of a QR (they call this a ā€œbinder boltā€). If I use that along with carbon paste it holds. Not the greatest for switching between users but workable. They say you can run the above process overnight with the binder bolt and then switch back to the QR but that didnā€™t work for me so I just use the binder bolt all the time.

Now if they can just get me a working set of shiftersā€¦

Also interestingly enough Tacx/Garmin stopped production of their smart bike until they can fix the issues it was having, most significantly the drive belt breaking. Those wonā€™t be available again until at least August.

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So, it seems the shifter issue still hasnā€™t been fixed a year on from your problem Rich. I bought my Kickr bike about 3 months ago and Iā€™ve had exactly the same issue.

Iā€™ve had emails from Wahoo making me jump through hoops to ensure I havenā€™t somehow broken the shifter ports myself, even though they know this is a common issue with their product.

Not happy

Had the same problem after one ride. Whole bike was replaced.
I also have the annoying power spikes when shifting.

Thanks all for your valuable experience!! I am in the market for either the Wahoo or Garmin/TACX bike. Wahoo is (was) my favorite, but now Iā€™ll hold off purchase until either one of them clearly comes with an improved version. Reading Wahoo support is good is comforting, but the trend seems to be towards bike replacement delaying tactics rather than towards real fixes.
TACX may well win this purchase decisionšŸ¤”.

Continuing the discussion from [Kickr Bike Experience - it broke]:

Got the Kickr Bike in July and have put about 70 hrs on it. Iā€™ve had some of the issues mentioned in this forum and have mostly muddled through them with some help from Wahoo.

Shifting problems: Within weeks I encountered some erratic shifting and power (resistance) issues. Apparently part of the problem was a busy house circuit where I had the Bike plugged into a power strip with 6 other gizmos (note that the Bike plug tag says it wants a full 10 amps). So cleaning up that arrangement and giving the Bike itā€™s own plug receptacle seemed to help. Weeks later I occasionally encountered similar problems, but found that unplugging the Bike for a minute before rides and making sure no other apps were connected to the Bike prevented further problems. Actually, the manual says to keep the bike unplugged when not in use, so now I just plug it into itā€™s own dedicated power strip and switch that off after rides. In a recent Wahoo support ticket I asked them if I likely will have to keep the Bike unplugged forever when not in use, or might there be a coming firmware update to alleviate that. They replied that it might be a hardware issue and can replace the cables or entire handlebar unit if I want. I will try replacing the cables. Wahoo has been very responsive, but Iā€™m skeptical that itā€™s the cables in this case, based on other posts in this forum.

Sweat goofing up the shifter cable connections and other bike parts: This has not been a problem for me because of investments in (1) really good fans (Kickr Headwind, which was a game changer, and a smaller fan attached to the handlebars that cools my head) and (2) really good sweat bands.

Noise: In recent weeks the creaking mentioned by others was becoming super annoying. I eliminated that by removing the rear support legs, greasing the metal insert parts, and reattaching. Lately Iā€™ve also noticed Wahoo has a pretty detailed Bike maintenance guide, that includes greasing other parts of the bike (e.g., lower frame rails) that could also become noisy.

Overall experience: Given the price of the Bike, these issues are disappointing. Nevertheless, the ride experience with this kit is second to none for indoors IMO. So overall, I really like the Bike.