Originally Posted by
Atlas Shrugged
I have a Kickr Bike and it's awesome, do not regret purchasing it for a second. Did the Smart Trainer thing before and was just not as stable and comfortable. Takes up less space and permanently sits ready to go in my exercise room. As far as cost goes that's a personnel decision and as someone who has travelled extensively, a vast majority of the world would consider the spending and products talked about on this forum as a ridiculous waste of money.
Thanks for the recommendation. I've been reading the reviews, especially DCRainmaker's. My only reservation with the Kickr Bike is reliability. It looks like some early adopters had teething troubles often requiring replacement bikes. I presume yours has been reliable? How long have you had the Kickr Bike? Hopefully now it's been on the market for a year or so, reliability/QC has improved.
I'm also looking at the Stages bike, which looks really solid, but doesn't have the slope tilt function of the Kickr Bike, which I really like since I do a lot of climbing simulation on the trainer. There's also the Wattbike Atom 2 which is quite a lot cheaper in the UK. But it seems like it still has issues with ERG mode and I'm not too keen on the "aero" styling.
At least there are more choices in this market now. Last time I was looking for a complete bike (around 2018), only the original Atom was available. I ended up buying a Matrix U50 gym bike (as my wife wanted to use it too), which was okay for fitness, but the position is not very realistic for road biking and you are limited to Matrix proprietary software. But at least it had ERG mode and the inductance resistance drivetrain was extremely smooth and quiet. But without Zwift, Rouvy, Sufferfest etc it was a pretty dull experience. So I soon moved to a direct drive smart trainer (Elite Direto X) for all my indoor bike training. I'm just missing the ultimate convenience of a standalone bike trainer and the ride feel of the Direto is not the best. It's very good for the money, but considering how much indoor training I do these days I could easily justify an upgrade.