I have enjoyed Zwift since early on in the Beta using my KK fluid trainer. I know every non zPower user thinks we are cheating but I feel in many ways it is harder especially the downhills. Anyway I have been mulling over getting a Kickr Snap really for the added game enjoyment not to be able to measure myself against anyone else.
Anyway, can anyone who has gone from a fluid trainer to a Kickr explain why it was or was not worth it.
I can’t comment on the Kickr Snap but I went from a KK fluid to a Tacx Vortex Smart and couldn’t be happier. I have always wanted to get a Computrainer and have had friends have amazing success using them. I just could never justify the price. I also have friends who swear by the Kickr but still a little out of my range.
I used virtual power with a Garmin GCS-10 it the past and also including a KK $50 powermeter/speedometer but was never really happy. I have 1 wired Powertap and 2 Powertap G3s and have used them with my KK fluid. I love the fluid trainer and it is fine but I wanted ERG mode and realistic resistance change on the climbs. I bought the Vortex simply based on price. I initially used the Powertap as my power output source . It was way off initially from the Vortex but after breaking in the Vortex it appears that it is only a few watts different from my G3. Today I actually took my G3 off of my trainer bike and put my wired Powertap wheel on. I just didn’t want to keep wearing the bearings on the G3. I can still spot check the Vortex to see if it is accurate.
The riding experience on the Vortex is awesome. I like the increased resistance when approaching a climb and it doesn’t back way off on a descent so you don’t spinout. Definitely a better experience than the KK
Overall, I won’t be selling the KK anytime soon in case I want to do some hard intervals but the smart trainer is a huge step up from the dumb trainer
Picked up the kickr snap on the REI sale, was using a Kurt kinetic road machine. I’d like to tell you I’m blown away by the difference, but not yet. It is better, but the first couple of rides the kickr, even after a couple of spindowns felt much, much harder–like I’d lost 40% or so of my power. And I’d taken some pains with the KK, always same amount of turns for the handle, checking my pressure, and even using the 13.4 second spindown from 20mph to 0 that they used to recommend as the baseline. Using a harder gear to simulate hills, you can get a decent experience on zwift with a KK. I dug a little deeper into the kickr and did the advanced spindown, and that has it feeling much more in line with the KK, but maybe a bit easier–I don’t have a separate power meter, and I don’t think I should have to to get a pretty trustworthy number from the kickr snap, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in it yet, unfortunately. It is nice to get the hill resistance, and some drafting feel, but I’m not sure the kickr snap was worth it. Still need to ride it a bit more. But I wouldn’t be in a huge hurry to ditch your KK…
Thanks for the input. I do like my KK I have the additional flywheel weight and I get good inertia. The only oddity is pedaling at 100rpm+ up the hills to put out good power.
BTW. Don’t most of the Kickr people run it at 50% instead of 100% realism.
I haven’t played with the realism setting, so I believe it would be at 50% (default). Might try tweaking it. On the KK, the old road bike I use as a trainer bike has a big enough gear (52-13) so that if I dump it into that when I hit a big climb I can stand up and be putting out 300+ watts at 70 rpm or so, which gives it a hill feel, and likewise grabbing that big gear for sprints and winding it up to 110-120 rpm feels like fairly realistic resistance. But if your gearing is a bit lower and/or your power is big then the KK would definitely be short on providing resistance, which the kickr would certainly do. It is a much more ‘realistic’ experience in Zwift. I just don’t have much faith in the power numbers it’s providing quite yet… And I’m only talking about the Kickr Snap, which is what I have.