Has your trainer been hiding in the closet all summer? Well, if the change in weather has you thinking about your next indoor rides, you may be happy to find out that your Wahoo trainer gained two new features in the off-season. The updated features apply to both new and existing Wahoo KICKR (V4) and KICKR Core trainers, meaning if you currently own one, a firmware update is all that is required.
So what are the new features? To start, both trainers now calculate cadence – without the need for external sensors. Utilizing some electronic wizardry, the trainer takes data from your power and speed output, and converts that into a cadence figure, no external sensor required.
The trainers also will now support three Bluetooth connections. This seems like more of a setup benefit than anything since you’ll always be able to pair to the trainer, even if it’s already paired to another device. All new KICKR and KICKR Core trainers should come with the features already loaded, but it’s always a good idea to check for the latest firmware even if the trainer is fresh out of the box.
To get the updates, follow the firmware instructions here for iOS or Android. For the KICKR’18, v3.4.69 was the update for the cadence and Bluetooth connections, but there has since been another update to v3.4.70 to fix “a bug that affected speed and power after certain spindowns.” On the KICKR CORE, the v1.0.11 update adds the integrated cadence and Bluetooth updates, but it also has a more recent update to v1.0.12 to fix the same speed and power after the spin-down issue.
