We caught up with Wahoo at the recent Eurobike bike show to get the latest on its 2018 trainers, which includes an all-new £699 Core trainer, £199 Headwind fan and revised Kickr, which uses a bigger flywheel to produce a claimed silent operation.
The Core is all-new, taking everything that is great about the Kickr, including the direct mount interface but brings it down to a £699 price that puts it right in line with the Elite Direto.
It's fully compatible with all Wahoo's newer products such as the Climb and Headwind, and the max power is 1800 watts compared to the updated Kickr's 2200 watts.
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We predict this being a really popular choice this winter, for those people put off by the heady price of the range-topping Kickr. We’ll be getting one in to test as soon as this amazing summer is done and dusted.
The new fan, called the Headwind, can be controlled manually, via buttons on the front unit, by the Wahoo smartphone app, or it can automatically increase the fan level to match your power output. Pedal harder and the headwind increases.
It might have seemed like a gimmick when it was first announced but after a closer look, there are some things we like. The fan speed increasing in response to bigger efforts sounds properly useful. But whether it's worth £200, well we'll hold judgement until we get to review one.
The Kickr has been upgraded with a bigger flywheel and a near silent operation, ideal for cyclists who live in flats and don’t want to upset the neighbours. The flywheel weight has increased from 12 to 16lbs and the max power capacity has increased to 2,200 watts from the previous 2,000 limit.
Disc brake clearance has been increased and it's thru-axle compatible out of the box, in keeping with the ever-growing popularity of disc brakes.
More coverage from Eurobike here.
Be careful, you'll be here for hours, and no argument will make him deviate from his line, he'll always try and have the last word. Really tedious.
Here he goes again (is this a thing, now?)
3 pedestrians in the clip; mounts 2 separate pavements out of control. Norfolk police: we'll wait until it's a KSI.
One of these, perhaps?
Even the Pope doesn't enjoy that much mass.
Agreed to the latter part, very much. It's not about "cyclists" it's about active travel and independent mobility (and can be an improvement over ...
I don't think he's equating it. Had there been a cyclist locking their bike up they would have been dead. How can a COMPETENT and CAREFUL driver...
You are Boatsie and I claim my £5
My commute takes me past a very popular state secondary school (that was attended by a famous rock star and has his name on one of the buildings)....
Also, I shall always be grateful to her and Jason for recording a little "good luck" video to me when I was about to embark on my season of cycling...