Wahoo Kickr Poor Build Quality

[sirmoun10goat]

It's a crazy world when you think R25k for a basic piece of kit is cheap

At no point did I ever mention cheap. I said same price point.

[Wobbles]

It is still a biased rant, blatantly calling Wahoo out on quality, and iKambi on service.

 

Before making these accusations, it needs to be verified how many other products are affected by this issue, versus how many other products are general operating without fault. Likewise, how many happy iKambi clients versus unhappy.

 

Most people can make/build/items to a higher level of quality than that is available on the market, but can they do this at the same price point, on scale?

I do not agree. It is an account of his experience.

[mecheng89]

Had my KICKR Core since Oct 2019. Not a moment of problems, other than the BT communication between the unit and my native BT on my laptop. But I have an ANT+ dongle, and that works a charm. 

[Cyclewizz]

I had a Kickr Snap 1 and that poor trainer was put through hell during lockdown.

Two us us putting in a few hours a day. 

After a while it started misreading the power / watts but after some searching in YouTube I found the reason, the optical sensor needed a clean.

After it was cleaned it worked 100% again.

 

Now I have a Kickr 3 and have only had good km.

 

I've never dealt with the local agents.

[Andreas_187]

At no point did I ever mention cheap. I said same price point.

You said it was built to a price point which implies the quality had to be lowered in some way to make it viable to sell at whatever crazy price they are these days. I might be completely wrong but I had a look inside a 25k trainer and couldn't see anything more than 4k inside. This may be why the supplier can happily swap out all the broken ones no questions asked. I know my friends are in their 2nd and 4th replacements (although they do hammer them for 10 hours per week)

[lechatnoir]

it really sucks to pay good money for a poorly manufactured item and have poor backup service.

 

I've dealt with iKambi several times to purchase and for support and it's always been stellar. I urge you to try again.

[DR ◣◢]

@OP did you email them or submit a support ticket through : https://www.ikhambi.co.za/warranty-return-request/

[RocknRolla]

Kickr 1. Still going very strong.

 

Ikhambi Servie - Excellent the once or twice I had a software/reading related issue.

 

I do understand the need to have different items for different price points, I also understand trying to keep material costs down, to try and mitigate other material cost increases.

 

Lots of Mech engineers here, who does not necessarily have to work with the numbers, and has the directive to actually make something that is affordable. Plus, if we make stuff that never breaks...it wouldn't be very good  for business....

[DynaplateRocker]

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. 

[NickGM]

Lots of Mech engineers here, who does not necessarily have to work with the numbers, and has the directive to actually make something that is affordable. Plus, if we make stuff that never breaks...it wouldn't be very good  for business....

 

Lol. That's dangerous ground. Fun fact... one of the first commercial light bulbs ever made (the centennial light bulb) is still shining. But soon after that, lightbulb manufacturers decided that they should be made to fail because the alternative was a bad business model. Thanks to thinking like that, 100 years later companies like apple thinks it's OK to intentionally slow down your OS to force you to buy a new phone, and bike companies think its fine to bring out a new model each year with no significant changes other than the coat of paint and some minor changes in geom that we're told is essential.

 

I'm sure you were being sarcastic, but give me stuff that doesn't break any day, rather than fill the world up with redundant junk.  

 

Sorry, not much to do with this thread. Just a pet hate.  

[DynaplateRocker]

Lol. That's dangerous ground. Fun fact... one of the first commercial light bulbs ever made (the centennial light bulb) is still shining. But soon after that, lightbulb manufacturers decided that they should be made to fail because the alternative was a bad business model. Thanks to thinking like that, 100 years later companies like apple thinks it's OK to intentionally slow down your OS to force you to buy a new phone, and bike companies think its fine to bring out a new model each year with no significant changes other than the coat of paint and some minor changes in geom that we're told is essential.

 

I'm sure you were being sarcastic, but give me stuff that doesn't break any day, rather than fill the world up with redundant junk.  

 

Sorry, not much to do with this thread. Just a pet hate.  

 

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. 

[RocknRolla]

Is being a Mech engineer like riding SS or doing crossfit, or being vegan?

[DynaplateRocker]

Is being a Mech engineer like riding SS or doing crossfit, or being vegan?

 

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. 

[arendoog]

I was one of the first owners of the kickr one .According to ikambi i had a vintage model when i traded it in for a kickr 4 ,i think. The quieter model .Mine worked really hard and i had to replace the power cable unit and the sensor at some point a few years ago .The wattage reading froze when it became too hot .I trained outside but without a fan on the unit .I paid 30% less for the new model when i traded the old unfixable one in .The new model has a different feel to it ,especially when freewheeling or keeping momentum on rolling hills .The older model,s flywheel would carry momentum better like with real cycling .I now find i have to keep pedaling even on the descents .I will probably get used to it ,but i am happy to say that i used mine  thoroughly and ikambi,s service was always good .Only time will tell if the new model is as robust as the first one 

[dave303e]

You said it was built to a price point which implies the quality had to be lowered in some way to make it viable to sell at whatever crazy price they are these days. I might be completely wrong but I had a look inside a 25k trainer and couldn't see anything more than 4k inside. This may be why the supplier can happily swap out all the broken ones no questions asked. I know my friends are in their 2nd and 4th replacements (although they do hammer them for 10 hours per week)

 

I would hate to know what you think is in a mtb. certainly not R150k in a top end bike.

Also mech engineers don't know it all. You are also paying for software, cloud storage and computing, integration among multiple platforms and a lot more than just what is in the machine.

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, my gen 1 kickr gets hammered, and I mean hammered. I have done 8 hour rides through the night, in lockdown we both hammered it 1-2 times a day. We have extra  waterproof on the bottom bracket and steering on the trainer dedicated bike because we have had sweat get in and corrode them. But the gen 1 kickr is still 100%, yes it gets cleaned(sensors, vents, belts, seals etc every now and then. 

[Vetplant]

I would hate to know what you think is in a mtb. certainly not R150k in a top end bike.

Also mech engineers don't know it all. You are also paying for software, cloud storage and computing, integration among multiple platforms and a lot more than just what is in the machine.

 

SNIP

I have told this story a million times, but it bears repeating.

 

A BIG Automation Company costed out their 4 button remote, including everything that is needed, from electricity to labour, everything.

 

It came to about R22 to produce that remote a couple of years ago.

 

By the time you purchased it at Builders, you paid R320.

 

That is the extreme point of the spectrum, their actuators themselves were way closer to cost price. 

 

Point is, cost of components is but a fraction of the entire system that delivers a good product and after sales service to consumers.

 

China just copies a design and manufactures it. Zero input upstream or downstream. No wonder they can undercut OEMs on price. Thus it is unfair to compare any OEM with some copy coming out of China.

 

PS. More a general statement worth remembering whenever we consider the pricing of consumer products. We can go down a rabbit hole with regards to your Medium-Rare Rump Steak at Spur vs what the Farmer gets paid, but that will completely derail this.