Wahoo Kickr vs Kickr Snap

A light bike doesn't replace good fitness.

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AJS914
Posts: 5397
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:52 pm

by AJS914

I thought that too, went out and bought a new MTB last summer only to find out that around here at least, it's bad ettiequte to ride on the trails in the rain and for a week or so after, which meant pretty much never last winter rain season. :(


You need to find some rocky trails that don't get destroyed after it rains. And you don't need to wait a week - two or three days is good if you pick the right trails and ride around the big puddles.

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MoPho
Posts: 767
Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2011 7:48 pm
Location: NorCal

by MoPho

AJS914 wrote:You need to find some rocky trails that don't get destroyed after it rains. And you don't need to wait a week - two or three days is good if you pick the right trails and ride around the big puddles.



Yeah, unfortunately the rocky trails are not practical to get to with any frequency. Around here we have soft dirt with clay, so it never really dries out and it globs on to your bike. The trails close to my house got totally destroyed by cows after the rains, so even when it dried out, it was pretty unrideable.


Back to the trainer, reading DC Rainmaker, not much recommendation for the Kinetic smart trainers as of late and the Snap is only like $120 more than upgrading mine. Anyone have an opinion on just getting a Snap (or other) vs upgrading the Kinetic? I have a power meter on the bike, mostly concerned about resistance changes to simulate hills, etc on Zwift



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3Pio
Posts: 1581
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:13 pm

by 3Pio

MoPho wrote:
AJS914 wrote:You need to find some rocky trails that don't get destroyed after it rains. And you don't need to wait a week - two or three days is good if you pick the right trails and ride around the big puddles.



Yeah, unfortunately the rocky trails are not practical to get to with any frequency. Around here we have soft dirt with clay, so it never really dries out and it globs on to your bike. The trails close to my house got totally destroyed by cows after the rains, so even when it dried out, it was pretty unrideable.


Back to the trainer, reading DC Rainmaker, not much recommendation for the Kinetic smart trainers as of late and the Snap is only like $120 more than upgrading mine. Anyone have an opinion on just getting a Snap (or other) vs upgrading the Kinetic? I have a power meter on the bike, mostly concerned about resistance changes to simulate hills, etc on Zwift



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Kinetic Smart Trainers seem that have bad SMart implementation. And their naming is not clear enough what is SMART and what is not SMART considered..

For Example they are saying Kinetic Road Machine Smart, but it's just have INRide module which mean is dumb trainer + some kind of powermeter.

This can be ok, if u dont have power meter, and still want to have some more detaile power measurement. A bit better maybe then using virtual power.

The Kinetic Trainers named with SMART CONTROL are real smart trainers.. Which seem that have very bad implementation and dont work properly..So Smart Control are smart (EGR mode), and just SMART are not really smart (just some kind of power meter (InRide), and no EGR mode or resistance controlling trough software)


In my opinion probably u should start using some software for training (TrainerRoad maybe), and dont need to upgrade the trainer if u have allready PowerMeter (which is important for training). As first i thought as well how good is to have climb simulation, but after reading experiences seem a bit like gimick..

But to be honest i never had a chance to ride a SMART trainer, so take my opinion with a reserve.. Check other thread:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=147145

It helped me to choose in my case...

MoPho
Posts: 767
Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2011 7:48 pm
Location: NorCal

by MoPho

3Pio wrote:

Kinetic Smart Trainers seem that have bad SMart implementation. And their naming is not clear enough what is SMART and what is not SMART considered..

For Example they are saying Kinetic Road Machine Smart, but it's just have INRide module which mean is dumb trainer + some kind of powermeter.

This can be ok, if u dont have power meter, and still want to have some more detaile power measurement. A bit better maybe then using virtual power.

The Kinetic Trainers named with SMART CONTROL are real smart trainers.. Which seem that have very bad implementation and dont work properly..So Smart Control are smart (EGR mode), and just SMART are not really smart (just some kind of power meter (InRide), and no EGR mode or resistance controlling trough software)


In my opinion probably u should start using some software for training (TrainerRoad maybe), and dont need to upgrade the trainer if u have allready PowerMeter (which is important for training). As first i thought as well how good is to have climb simulation, but after reading experiences seem a bit like gimick..

But to be honest i never had a chance to ride a SMART trainer, so take my opinion with a reserve.. Check other thread:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=147145

It helped me to choose in my case...



Thanks, I had discovered that thread late last night and pretty much came to the same conclusion. I have a power meter on the bike, so will just stick with what I have for another season and see where I am at next year. I was hoping that the smart resistance/simulation will make it more fun/tolerable.


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ccresz
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 4:34 am

by ccresz

This is the first result that comes out from google, I got a Wahoo Kickr Snap based on this thread, so I want to share my experience, which would likely have changed my mind and would have gotten the direct drive instead.

pros: the snap is awesome, super quiet (saying this after returning 2 other trainers cause I was afraid to annoy the neighbors with the noise). I haven't had any issues with connections, I have the latest firmware, the power measurement is great even on sprints and big efforts.

I wasn't expecting to get so addicted to zwift, wasn't really expecting to be putting that many miles on a trainer, now I'm considering going for the 100mile ride achievement the next weekend, so here is were the cons start to appear.
  • * As any other roller trainer it will devour your tires, so you need to use a trainer tire or an old tire, but that means that if you only have a set of wheels you are in for changing tires every time there is good weather and you want to go out for a ride, for me it became annoying after the 10th time.
  • * When you roll on a trainer you put a lot of pressure on a single point, your back wheel is gonna get some heavy usage reducing it's lifespan, if you are making big efforts your wheels may become untrue (has not happened to me just read about it, but you can see the stress on the wheels when you look down/back).
  • * Your wheel bearings will obviously wear faster since you are using them, as well as your cassette.
So at the end what I saved on the Snap I spent on other stuff: training tire, tubes I damaged during last minute tire changes, new stuff for summer already on stand by: new chain, new cassette, new wheel bearings (I do this stuff myself so fortunately I have the tools).

Also a minor tip: wahoo have some bundles on their website, I didn't see them cause I was distracted but they do give some extra bang for your bucks so make sure you check those out, wish I had.

shuttlenote
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:17 am

by shuttlenote

Anybody with the Kickr Snap notice that it will wobble a tad when no bike is mounted?

This seems to go away once the bike is mounted, but I'm curious if this is normal or not. Maybe my floors just aren't even?

Thanks.

Millbilly
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2018 1:07 pm

by Millbilly

shuttlenote wrote:Anybody with the Kickr Snap notice that it will wobble a tad when no bike is mounted?

This seems to go away once the bike is mounted, but I'm curious if this is normal or not. Maybe my floors just aren't even?

Thanks.
I haven’t noticed that, but I’m definitely not getting any wobble when riding it


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