Last year, Kinetic created the stick-on InRide system to let any of their trainers pair with the InRide app to calculate your power output. Now, they’ve started shipping two of their best trainers with the “power meter” preinstalled. The Kinetic Rock and Roll Smart and Road Machine Smart will both come with the Bluetooth sensor transmitter already on board and a magnet in the roller. Since they know the resistance of their fluid unit, they know how much power is needed to spin it at any given speed. The sensor on the back measures speed, does come calculations and transmits that information as power to their InRide app.
They’ve also upgraded the InRide app dramatically, adding a tiered subscription model that goes from Free up to $25 per month with in-app streaming of The Sufferfest’s training videos, all with the ability to push the data up to your big screen TV…
The InRide pod, which is what you’ll find on their new Smart models, is also sold on it’s own for $75 ($130 with Bluetooth Smart heart rate monitor) and will retrofit to any of their Road Machine, Rock and Road and Power Trainer models.
If not preinstalled, the magnet presses into a hole on the roller and the pod uses double stick tape to attach to the base. Just line up the line with the magnet, then pair it the app.
The InRide app is a free download on iTunes and shows power plus basic data like speed and distance from just the pod. Add a Bluetooth cadence sensor and heart rate monitor grab that data, too. While it looks basic, what’s particularly impressive is what’s included for free:
While the training plans are limited in the free Core level, they’re still there and you can create your own workouts. Upgrade just a bit and you’ll get the ability to throw your data onto the big screen via Apple TV and Chromecast. The upper two levels add competitions and rewards. Once your session’s over, you can share the data with Apple Health, Google Fit, Strava, Training Peaks, MapMyFitness and more.
It’s worth mentioning that with the InRide pod, you can also see power data in TrainerRoad and other smartphone trainer apps.
The Rock and Roll Smart retails for $569, just $20 more than the standard model making it a cheap way to get InRide if you’re looking at new trainers anyway.
The Road Machine Smart runs $409, the standard one (which we reviewed here) runs $369. Both are available now.