DynaplateRocker

Something like that. Or being a pilot. You'll note I never mentioned it in my original post, only after all the other posts. Simply wanted to highlight that I have the means at my disposal to go exploring and potentially fix the problem, not everyone has that privilege and that there is nothing wrong with returning your defective trainer should you not have the time/resources for fiddling.

Well if they did indeed design them to fail at some point in this case it would be bad for business as they will just have to replace them every few months at their own cost while under warranty. Light bulb I get, most people have accepted it that they fail periodically. Cheap and easy to replace. But a R10k trainer? A R300k car? Nope. As a Mech Eng I can also say that the Kickr Snap shouldn't cost more than R5k to mass produce. The circuit board inside is tiny and just glued on by hand. Not as fancy inside as you might suspect.

Thanks for the loads of replies, really interesting to read your opinions and experiences. To be clear the reason for my post was simply to share my own experience with my Wahoo product, based mostly toward my own experience on the quality of the product itself, not so much the service received. I do not plan on replacing the unit anyway as I've misplaced my receipt. I also don't want to replcace the unit and have the same problem again in June. Thus, being a Mech Eng myself (seems a lot of us are haha) I decided to tinker with it and see for myself what was going on. A lot of people would rather send it back and have it replaced and I respect your reasons for doing that. No time for fiddling and not everyone really cares about how the burger is made. At the end of it all our common ground is that we just want to ride our trainers without any issues. If your unit works well, it's all good, keep using it. I still like the brand personally and trust your experience and subsequent opinion. I was just taken aback by what I found as I did not expect it all, especially because of the brands good reputation. As a design concept, the asking price seems fair to me, else I wouldn't have purchased it. I feel a R10k asking price for build quality on MY machine is not acceptable though. I'm not sure if it was simply a bad batch or if it affects the newer trainers, I just hope they sort it out soonest. I just had to share it as I felt it would make an interesting read. Update on usability since repair: I rode the trainer last night and it's quiet and smooth. Toward the hour mark a faint sound returned. I suspect the worn out shaft is up to no good again. I will be re-machining a new shaft (to the tolerance required by the bearing manufacturer) and replacing the bearings a second time. For interest, Bearing set = R70, EN24-T Machined Shaft = R200 (potentially free depending on if I have off-cut material laying around). I'll resubmit a ticket to Ikhambi. I'm glad most of you have had a good experience with them.

Hi DR, Unfortunately from South Africa. I have indeed reached out to Ikhambi via email. No feedback as yet and would love to get their opinion. I should mention that my Tickr 2 HR monitor has also decided to stop working recently after a month of use.

Hi Hubbers, I purchased a Wahoo Kickr Snap 2 during the lockdown indoor cycling craze around June 2020. I rode it roughly three to four times a week since then. At the beginning of December I started noticing it getting progressively noisier. Then around Christmas I could start feeling a vibration in the back wheel and a clunking sound every few rotations. The noise/vibration also seemed to catch a resonance at a certain rotational frequency. Running okay one moment and suddenly whirring loudly thereafter. I suspected one of the bearings had gone. I read up on the problem and found that some other folks had a similar problem. They sent it back and had to wait ages for feedback, or they simply were told to tighten the roller wheel grub screws or flywheel bolt. This is not the cause of the problem. I decided that I wasn't going to wait months from the useless Wahoo service department and decided to open the thing up. What I found was pretty horrific. As soon as I opened the housing opposite to the flywheel side a mass of black soot fell out from the bearing. See photo. I completely disassembled the unit, investigated and made the following discovery: The tolerance on the bearing housings are machined incorrectly (too large for the bearing to sit snugly). It seems Wahoo knew this and added what seems like Loctite or similar to the outer bearing race to fill the gap. This worked fine for a few months, then after the filler faded and the bearing gradually started loosening in its housing, vibrating around like crazy and generating enough heat to burn the filler thus causing the soot. It doesn't stop there though. The shaft the bearing is mounted on was also badly worn due to the loose bearing, with chattering and a large indentation on it. See second photo. The flywheel side bearing seemed to be all fine, although there was evidence of green Locitite type filler there too. The bearings used were also of a brand I've never heard before. I cleaned out the unit and bough SKF replacement bearings and fitted them instead. I used a punch to punch a few small holes in the aluminium bearing housing with some small burrs sticking out around the holes. This causes the bearing to sit much more snug in it's housing. I actually had to give it a few good taps to go in. Although the shaft was worn, it seemed to now sit snug on the shaft too. I re-assembled and gave it a test spin. It rotates under it's own inertia much smoother and for much longer than even when new. The true test comes when I put the bike on it though as well as a few months down the line. Thus a word of warning thus when buying a Kickr as I'm unsure if this quality issue affects any other Kickr trainers. I've submitted a support ticket to Wahoo but am yet to receive a response. Truly shocking and disappointing from a company as well known and expensive as Wahoo in my opinion. Something I would expect from a cheap Chinese off-brand trainer. Your thoughts welcome.