Wahoo Kickr Snap Questions/Issues

Equipment
1

I’m interested in hearing about issues that people are having with the Kickr Snap trainer while running TrainerRoad.

I’ve been running this trainer for almost a year now. It has a few quirks that are not happening on the Kickr’18 trainer. Some of which are problematic. First, the power reporting and resistance seems to be off. Even when the trainer is in ERG mode, it seems to vary the power and resistance depending on the wheel speed. Initially I was trying to use the small chain ring to save the wear on the big ring, but I soon noticed that the resistance was way harder in the small ring, i.e. at lower wheel speed, than it is in the big ring, at higher speed. I’ve done several experiments to make sure this is not just a perceived effort issue. My cadence is consistent in either case. But the intensity of the effort is way more at low wheel speed. I don’t know why this is happening, but I’ve ended up having to use my highest couple of gears on the trainer in order for the workouts to be doable, when I understood that ERG mode was supposed to be consistent power/resistance regardless of gearing or wheel speed. I’ve confirmed this issue with a power meter and Garmin, so I’m pretty sure its not just perceived.

Additionally, and probably related to the first issue, is that my trainer typically gets quite warm. When I’ve tried to use lower gears/wheel speed, it actually gets very hot. I’m talking about the flywheel. Its nearly too hot to touch after a hard ride. But when I am in higher gears it just stays warm. Recently, it got very hot, and the trainer quit reporting power at all, and TrainerRoad app kept stopping the ride and said “no power meter detected” or something. I had to keep forgetting the device from the app and then re-adding it to get it to show power again, until it would drop again. I don’t know if this is related to or caused by the heat or what, but it was very frustrating.

I’ve updated firmware, I’ve done calibrations and everything Wahoo and TrainerRoad suggest. I’ve tried using the trainer in other modes. I’ve played with all the settings etc. I’ve tried to read online and talk to Wahoo about it, but it doesn’t seem like others have had this issue. But this is an issue because I don’t know what my FTP really is, or if the trainer is really giving me useful power data since it seems variable depending on the wheel speed.

Has anyone else been experiencing this or something similar, and if so have you found a solution? I understand how the flywheel and resistance work on the trainer so as to cause the heat, but should it really be getting very hot? How hot is too hot, and could that cause the bluetooth or power reporting to quit working? I’ve used the Kickr’18 and it didn’t have this issue, and have friends with that trainer that said they’ve never had that problem. Do I have a defective unit? If anyone knows more about this than me, I’d appreciate your suggestions, thanks.

If there are other Kickr Snap issues people are having, I’d like to hear about those too.

2 Likes
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I have the same issue, but I don’t have power meter to verify which power is correct (small or large front ring).
However on large ring I was getting very high FTP values, which were unrealistic for me. So I’ve decided to switch to the small one and middle ring on casette, this is also advised in manual. It is also better option, because kickr snap is much quieter with lower speed.

I’ve read that when you’re spinning to fast then wattage floor is high and is affecting measurements.
You can read about wattage floor here

this is also worth reading:
http://athletictechreview.com/2016/12/12/wahoo-kickr-snap-spin-down-calibration/

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Thanks for the links. I’ve had that wattage floor issue as well, and also the opposite. Not sure what the term for that would be but lets say “wattage ceiling” where I am able to put out higher watts in ERG mode than where trainer road says I should be. Its all screwy and makes me wonder about my FTP.

5

Yepppp. This is a huge issue with the Kickr Snap in my opinion. I generally just try to stay in the middle of my cassette. I ride 1x, so I have no room to play in the front (just a 50t chainring). I downshift during recovery sessions to make up for the wattage floor.

All that said, I’ve decided that I’m going to sell my Snap and move to the Kickr Core, Kickr '18, or perhaps the new Kinetic R1. I spend enough time on the trainer now that I can justify spending the money on a nicer (and hopefully more compliant) trainer.

2 Likes
6

I’ve had the same thought about selling, but its a pretty big price jump to the Kickr’18. As for the Core, if I were going to be that close in price already, then I’d feel better about making the jump to the Kickr. Will probably get another winter on the Snap though. Kind of a hassle to deal with selling in my little community, and don’t want to deal with shipping it either.

1 Like
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Absolutely understand about selling in a small town. I’m hoping I can find someone I ride with to buy mine.

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My Snap correlates power with my Garmin Vector 3 pedals pretty well.

I have had no problems with it at all. The wattage floor is a thing though. for me it’s sometimes about 160W @ 95rpm but that’s in Z1 so no problems

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@RCC Can you clarify what you mean by wattage floor? I thought that the wattage floor was the lower limit as to which a trainer could read power. So, if your FTP is below a certain point, you won’t be able to get to the interval valleys. The happens to my wife when she does rides like Pettit, which end up being a 0.87 IF ride for her!

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But the wattage floor here is more like 70-80 watts, not the 160 you’re talking about.

10

Wattage floor goes up with higher speed due to internal friction of trainer.
Therefore AFAIK it’s better to ride at lower speed (lower front chain ring, middle of casette)

1 Like
11

I 'm also having issues with the Wahoo Snap and TR. I’ve been using it for a couple of workouts and tried to figure out how it works together with the Stages Powermeter. Sometimes it’s like the trainer is getting stuck in a high resistance during an intervall and I can’t get it going. Even when I adjust the trainer to the Stages with the spindown it is not working. I bought the Wahoo cause I thought using a Smart Trainer with TR would let me focus more on the actual workout and hitting the targetpower but so far I’m just dissapointed. Maybe it’s just me using it wrong. Any advice?

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