My Liveliest The memory of a rolling coach is of the night a cyclist friend used him in a competition to see which of us had the best balance after a margarita or two. The competition is a prime example of how a roller coaster speed, which requires riders’ technical skills to balance their bike in front and behind a spinning drum, can become a weapon of destruction. series when the driver said he lost his balance, fell and lost in addition, a precious family heirloom. Luckily no one was seriously injured.
So I’m happy to see Wahoo Fitness Kickr Rollr, a roller trainer designed to reduce flight probability. This latest release from the manufacturer of endurance training combines a roller — where the rear and front wheels drift freely, requiring skilled balancing to stay upright — with a Smart trainer, helps keep the bike clamped in place. A typical smart trainer asks you to remove the rear wheel and attach your bike to the drivetrain using an adjustable flywheel that allows you to vary the resistance of the pedals. Instead, the Kickr Rollr allows you to leave both wheels on your bike. It keeps the front wheel stable, and you use an app to adjust the amount of drag from the flywheel.
Photo: Wahoo Fitness
The task of this new machine is to give cyclists more freedom of movement than a fixed rear wheel exerciser. This design makes indoor training easier for the body and better mimics an outdoor ride, and adds the technological perks Wahoo has built into the Kickr — specifically is the company’s flywheel that controls the amount of pedal resistance — and the ability to connect to a variety of software platforms that traditional roller trainers don’t offer. Bonus bonus: In freeing up the rear wheel, Wahoo also frees the rider from the hassle of taking it off during setup and messing around with extra cassettes or axle and shaft converters.
That’s a lot to promise a trainer, so I’m curious to see how it measures up against the other fixed wheel options out there, like Garmin’s Tacx New 2T and Wahoo Kickr, both are high-end devices. What is immediately apparent is that the new Rollr lacks an internal power meter to measure your output and feed it into an application where it can be recorded and analyzed. To pair it with external apps like Zwift or TrainerRoad, riders must install their own power meter, usually located on the bike’s crank or pedals. Another option is to buy one from Wahoo — the company that sells PowerLink Zero one side electric pedal in a bundle with the trainer for an additional $600. (I used this set of pedals for my testing.) In any case, you can connect your power meter using ANT+ FE-C, Bluetooth or Direct Connect.
One of the most impressive aspects of this machine – which weighs 50 pounds including the 10.5 pound flywheel – is the speed that goes together. Take it out of the box, connect a few pieces, roll a road or gravel bike (anything with a tire width up to 2.1 inches) into the front grooves and secure the top of the front tire in place. A-frame using a tightening wheel. Fastening the bike like this puts the rear tire on the rollers. I was set up in less than 10 minutes.
Plug in the training device, then let Wahoo mobile app guides you through the connection settings, including calibrating the smart pedals (if you’re using them). The app also guides you to turn off additional external power meters if you have more than one meter. This way, Rollr will always default to using the same power meter in your sessions. Finally, you were instructed to connect the Rollr to the cycling app of your choice. In my case, the app is Zwift, which connects seamlessly to a Windows computer, but requires a few tries through my iPhone13 and my partner’s Zwift Android app.
