For example in the DCR Cave, it’s just a concrete beast. Whereas if you’re in a concrete or other hard surface with little static electricity build-up, it’s less likely to happen to you. If you’re in a carpeted room with socks on, and manage to ‘shock’ your bike/trainer, that’ll do the trick. Meaning, it explains quite logically how a single person could manage to kill 2, 3, 4 KICKR’s in a row. In particular though, the death by ESD bit is heavily environmentally weighted. They even have a nifty picture to tell them apart with green and red text. It’s notable that when Wahoo support sends folks a replacement KICKR, they are very explicit in telling folks not to use the older (non-protected) power supply and instead to use the new power supply. They did note that this has actually been the same since the very original KICKR, it’s just that the KICKR sales volumes Wahoo has now are dramatically bigger (read: they’re selling way more units). The second is adding an ESD diode to the CORE itself. The first step is switching to new power supplies (the power brick thing you plug in the wall) with discharge grounding. Wahoo details in the video what they’re doing to address this. There’s no recovery from this except a unit swap. Totally dead killing, no half-deaths here. This is the result of electrostatic discharge (ESD) that results in killing the onboard chip responsible for that. – KICKR CORE No Power/Speed Issues: This is probably the most challenging issue of all.
Wahoo has a detailed PDF as well for this. It’s simply opening up the CORE and tightening a few things. – KICKR CORE Noise Issues: This is a slightly different issue than the KICKR 2018, and in this case is a much quicker fix requiring no additional parts. I’ve had one friend that recently did the self-repair kit and it fixed his issue pretty easily. The self-repair kit can easily be requested from Wahoo support, and they note it’ll take about 20-40 minutes to complete the procedure. And then more time before they hit retailers, and finally more time before they end up in your living room. Wahoo implemented this fix the week of Sept 24th, 2018 (units made after that), however, keep in mind that it takes about four weeks on the water (by ship) before units hit distribution centers. Wahoo has provided a self-repair kit you can get from support. – KICKR 2018 Noise Issues: This was primarily due to a locking key that wasn’t designed for certain states, and would end up being too loose and rattle.
Here’s the quickie version of that video: Wahoo noted after the call that the issues in total represent about 3% of units shipped (read-on to understand how someone could end up breaking multiple consecutive units though). Again, since it was mentioned multiple times – this won’t impact everyone, or anywhere near everyone. In case you’re looking for the ‘too-long, didn’t watch’ version, here’s the basics of what was covered in bulleted fashion. To cut right to it, here’s that video:Īgain, I realize a 21-minute video is a bit long for some to watch, but I personally prefer listening to a company explain the details of an issue and how it came about, than a 2-minute canned PR piece. After which, I give some closing thoughts. With a few more clarifying questions tossed in. Instead, I generally prefer to provide a bit of background, and then ask some starter questions and let companies discuss the technology themselves. I wouldn’t really want to call it an interview per se, as that’s not really my cup of tea. Instead, we ended up filming a video via Skype call a few days ago – with one of the Wahoo engineers present (plus CEO Chip Hawkins) to detail the issues and the fixes Wahoo has put in place.
I had wanted to film a video there, but the logistics didn’t quite work out. Whereas most with perfectly functional units continue about their daily life unaware. As always, it’s a bit tricky to tell by looking at forums or Facebook pages, since for the most part only people with broken units bother to reply. As well as a bit of clarity on exactly how many people (or percentage) of the units this impacted.
So while at CES two weeks ago I got the chance to chat with CEO Chip Hawkins about the issues the company has faced, and whether the company feels like they’ve got a handle on them. To those unlucky folks, it would seem as though every KICKR made was broken.
Especially if they’re on their 3rd KICKR. While both have been enormously popular, and certainly the vast majority of people haven’t had problems – those words haven’t been much comfort for those that have run into issues. Since the Wahoo KICKR 2018 and KICKR CORE were announced back at Eurobike 2018 (in July), it hasn’t entirely been smooth sailing for either product.