Today's video is from here in the DCR cave in Amsterdam, and it's all about the Kickr bike
You may recall my earlier videos on the Kickr bike where I rode through the llama lab test and in ERG mode
The bike reported smooth power. So it was reporting the setpoint in ERG
so for example
The 200 watt steady-state just reported 200 watts not actually what I was doing on the pedals.
250 flatlined and my over-unders were very very squared off.
A recent firmware update has been released for the Kickr bike version 1.4.0 is out
I perform the update and a second Lama Lab Test here in the DCR cave a
Quick overview of the changelog here from Wahoo for firmware at 1.4.0 and it's dot point number 1
We're looking at today, which is firmware support added for enabling or disabling ugh mode power smoothing
They've also added firmware support for sending odometer data for remote diagnostics and some bug fixes for tilt calibration
But it's dot point number one
We'll be diving into today.
Onto the update process and once connected to the Kickr bike via the Wahoo fitness app
It'll prompt here for the update. It will pull down their firmware
perform the update and away we go a very similar process to that of all other Wahoo, products such as the Kickr, the Core and
Everything else.
Once complete. We now have the toggle switch there for mode power smoothing so we can toggle that off or back on.
Today we'll be turning it off for my tests
And it's worth noting the ERG mode power smoothing option is only a visual change for power reporting, the on bike on pedal experience
Doesn't change
Ok cranking out some watts here on Titan's Grove as the warmup
It's a really great course Titans Grove with the up and down hill simulations
Really gets the legs warmed up for the Lama Lab Tests and the trainer and its components warmed up too.
You can see there's a few red sections
before we get the legs ticking over into ERG mode and
Into ERG mode here on desert flats and you can see on the bottom there. It's not a flat-line smooth ERG mode
So what we have is real power being reported up at the top there
You see it bouncing around plus or minus 10 watts depending on how smooth I am on the pedals
But it's not locked into that artificial 200 watts and here into the overs and unders
They're not squared off either
So for me, I'd much rather have the power reporting of what I'm doing, rather than that ERG mode smooth enabled
With the Lama Lab Test now complete with the new firmware
Let's jump over here to the DCR Analyzer tool to see how the bike stacks up against the Assioma DUOs that were on the bike at the same time
So standard Lama lab test here
Which we should be all familiar with, using the Titans Grove course as the warm-up for the first 10 minutes
so this is SIM mode so not a test of the ERG mode but
Does give us an indication of how accurate the bike is up against another set of Assiomas.
So, 270w versus 270w Titans Grove all looking pretty good there and
Then into what we need to have a look at today, which is the ERG mode performance
Jumping in here to the steady state and the sprints and all looking as expected
It's not flatlining from the bike which was what was happening previously with ERG mode. Moving on now
We're getting more real power from the bike
You can see there the Jags up and down and the average is looking pretty close to the pedals
So all looking good there into the sprint
now this does break out into SIM mode but a good indication of how things perform and it's pretty close there on to the
22sec over and under which is just
Here as part of the Lama Lab Test and we can see there the power on the pedals and the power coming from the bike
Reports exactly what I'm doing on the pedal. It's not smooth. Not an artificial number and flat line
So that's more realistic power reporting with ERG mode smoothing turned off.
Accuracy wise within one watt there, so no problems at all with the accuracy and the final component of the Lama Lab Test is the
Flywheel speed test. On a smart like the flywheel is a little different in the way it performs. It's more of an inertial
Calculation test because it's a single speed. There's no real gear. So it's a virtual gearing test
It gets a little complicated with these bikes. Now what we have here is a slow flywheel speed test at 225w looking good
Medium flywheel speed test or mid gearing and then a high gearing. So the
53/11 simulated there the experience in the pedals does change a little bit but the accuracy is still pretty good across the board there
So all good. And finally for good measure just to see how this bike does stack up against Ray's
Assiomas just riding along (just riding along) 232w vs 234w
All looking pretty good there power wise and the visual summary of that is right here with the mean max power
Across the board there. So a little bit of difference for about two seconds right there [at the start]
Other than that one for one across the board for the whole hour. They're looking good
So there we are ERG mode power smoothing is now optional on the Kickr bike.
If you want to turn it on. That's fine
The power reporting out of this thing is pretty accurate
But if you want that jagged line with exactly what you're doing, which is what we saw on the pedals as well
there's an option there for you do flip that off and
Ride on so there we are
If you own a Kickr bike or looking at getting one, you'll get one probably with the new firmware on it anyway.
So good stuff from Wahoo keep those updates rolling. All right. Thanks for watching
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