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Wahoo Kickr Climb

ibr17xviiibr17xvii Posts: 1,054
edited September 2019 in Indoor training and turbo forum
Interested in some real world opinions from anyone who has the above as to what you think of it? Worth the money or not? Does it enhance your indoor riding experience?

I'm a self confessed Wahoo junkie with just about everything Wahoo, got the £100 voucher last year when my Kickr 18 went belly up & 50/50 as to whether I should be putting it towards a Climb.

Posts

  • whyamiherewhyamihere Posts: 7,632
    I have one. It's ok, but not much more than that. On the plus side, it allows you to adopt a similar position on the bike to the position you would adopt in reality on a similar gradient. For training specificity, that's good. However, when it's moving, it doesn't feel very natural in my opinion. It's also worth noting that, for Zwift at least, if you don't have your trainer difficulty set to 100%, there's no point. Reducing the trainer difficulty (and from memory it's set to something like 40% by default) just reduces the gradient number being sent to the Kickr, which passes that on to the Climb, so if you're going up a 10% gradient in Zwift with your trainer difficulty set to 50%, the Climb will only move up to 5%.

    I don't think I'd buy one again. I got mine on a reduced price and had some spare disposable cash, but I don't think it's worth the money.
  • ibr17xviiibr17xvii Posts: 1,054
    whyamihere wrote:
    I have one. It's ok, but not much more than that. On the plus side, it allows you to adopt a similar position on the bike to the position you would adopt in reality on a similar gradient. For training specificity, that's good. However, when it's moving, it doesn't feel very natural in my opinion. It's also worth noting that, for Zwift at least, if you don't have your trainer difficulty set to 100%, there's no point. Reducing the trainer difficulty (and from memory it's set to something like 40% by default) just reduces the gradient number being sent to the Kickr, which passes that on to the Climb, so if you're going up a 10% gradient in Zwift with your trainer difficulty set to 50%, the Climb will only move up to 5%.

    I don't think I'd buy one again. I got mine on a reduced price and had some spare disposable cash, but I don't think it's worth the money.

    Interesting. As I only use Zwift that's good feedback. Even at £400 it's still a chunk of money although I do use Zwift a lot in winter.

    Not sure if you're aware of this but there is hack to get round what you say about the gradient:

    https://zwiftinsider.com/kickr-climb-tr ... ifficulty/

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AZ_j0HDDeQ

    I'd deffo be doing this if I get one.
  • whyamiherewhyamihere Posts: 7,632
    ibr17xvii wrote:
    Not sure if you're aware of this but there is hack to get round what you say about the gradient:

    https://zwiftinsider.com/kickr-climb-tr ... ifficulty/

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AZ_j0HDDeQ

    I'd deffo be doing this if I get one.
    I wasn't aware of this, it's good to know, thanks. Slightly controversially though, I do think that everyone who has a smart trainer should have trainer difficulty set to 100%, especially when racing on hilly courses, otherwise you may as well just do flat races.
  • ibr17xviiibr17xvii Posts: 1,054
    whyamihere wrote:
    ibr17xvii wrote:
    Not sure if you're aware of this but there is hack to get round what you say about the gradient:

    https://zwiftinsider.com/kickr-climb-tr ... ifficulty/

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AZ_j0HDDeQ

    I'd deffo be doing this if I get one.
    I wasn't aware of this, it's good to know, thanks. Slightly controversially though, I do think that everyone who has a smart trainer should have trainer difficulty set to 100%, especially when racing on hilly courses, otherwise you may as well just do flat races.

    How would you rate the reaction time of the Climb to the gradients on Zwift? Read mixed reports on that.
  • whyamiherewhyamihere Posts: 7,632
    There is a bit of latency, but it's around the same as the latency of the Kickr reacting to the gradient change to change the resistance, as would be expected. As the two effectively change together, it's not that bad.
  • ibr17xviiibr17xvii Posts: 1,054
    whyamihere wrote:
    There is a bit of latency, but it's around the same as the latency of the Kickr reacting to the gradient change to change the resistance, as would be expected. As the two effectively change together, it's not that bad.

    Cheers mate.

    Got to admit I'm still tempted.......
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