Two days ago I developed a banging in my Kickr BIKE. It occurs on the right side as my right pedal gets to about 4 o’clock. Clearly something in banging inside the bike. I can feel it in my right foot as well.
I have been going back and forth with support since then. They suggested a few things, none of which has worked. So they asked that I send a video. I have tried to do that multiple times, multiple ways, and every time they say they either are not getting it or can’t download it. To check this I sent the video from my phone to my computer using the iphone mail drop feature just as I did to support. It work fine so I even forwarded the link to support. They again say they can’t get it.
So they ask me to send a smaller video, under 50mb. The one I have been trying to send is only 39mb.
I am hoping someone out there may have had a similar issue that they were able to resolve.
I can post the link to the video if anyone would like to see it.
I’ve had challenges sending videos too, either they’re too large or the wrong format. I’m a Mac/iPhone user and end up having to trim the video as well as downgrading the quality to like 480p or converting the format but I can never remember how.
What they suggested was to cut it down to under 50Mb. Pretty easy to do when it was only 39Mb to start. I was able to email from my icloud account to my gmail, no problem. I was able to send a link via mail drop to my gmail, no problem. I was able to email a full url address email to my both my work & gmail emails, no problem. All failed with wahoo support. No idea what to do now.
Did you swap out the pedals and cleats to rule those out as a cause?
Years ago I was riding a century and developed a once around clunking I could feel and hear. I was worried that it might be a serious drivetrain issue, or worse, a knee or ankle problem, but a few minutes of messing around allowed me to figure out that the inner mounting bolts for the speedplay cleats had worked their way loose and the cleat was slipping forward and back as I pedaled. I was quickly back on the road using only the tools I carried.
Looks like the Kickr bike uses thread in external bottom bracket cups from photos I’ve seen, same as most modern bikes, which are far less reliable than old fashioned cartridge BBs. Have you tried spinning the cranks with the bike powered off to see if you can feel a rough spot?
Not sure this will help, seems almost too obvious to me but maybe…
It doesn’t have the same quality of sound as my issue, but does sound like it could be pedals, cleats, BB, or crankarm.
MY issue has more of a THUMP/KNOCK quality to the sound, (but I would call yours a CLICK, so to each his own!
In any case, my LEFT CRANKARM came loose, only enough that the THUMP was occurring on each stroke, but only when hard efforts applied earlier, and eventually even with less pressure on the pedals.
I finally was irritated enough to check the crankarm by hand, seeing if I could see any movement there or with the BB. I first thought, “Yep, the BB is loose.” But checking further, I realized the crankarm itself was loose. I tightened it according to specs and rode a couple/few more rides and it was loose again. I totally removed it and found that the pinch bolts were actually warped, not straight. Threads seemed okay but definitely 2 crooked bolts.
Called tech support and got a replacement left side crankarm sent with new Fixing bolt and Pinch bolts. (I felt the arm itself might have been poorly made at the pinch area and maybe forced the bolts into a non-straight through alignment. But also wondered about the whole crankarm integrity??)
So I got the new bolts and arm and put it on, set and tightened to specs. I got 4 rides before it was loose again, only a bit, mind you, but loose enough that I can pull in and out on the crankarm and feel the slight knock that is the ARM, not the BB. When tightened to spec, it’s fine again, no knock. I’ve ridden a few more rides since that second tightening (to the same spec, 15Nm for the pinch bolts, 3Nm for the “Fixing bolt” according to the KICKR Bike Maintenance Guide, which also says this is recommended every 96 hours or 4x year.)
My experience is it isn’t lasting anything CLOSE to 96 hours before getting loose.
The THUMP/KNOCK noise gets worse when the crankarm is getting loose enough that I can detect this by moving crankarm in and out by hand, but in MY case, it isn’t very different from the slight thump/knock noise that seems to me is INHERENT in the design of the bike, having the upper frame connected to the lower frame through the center vertical frame “downtube.”
The fact that there are 2 pieces with adjustable height means the top section you ride on has a disconnect from the bottom frame you apply pedaling force to, and it can only be as perfectly tight as the engineering specs and tolerances and necessary fit can be.
There has been plenty of discussion about the possible knock sound in that area, especially when you stand and apply hard torque efforts and rock side to side some. I read about that before buying the bike and then test rode a friend’s bike, and at least on ours, this happens and doesn’t take away my satisfaction with the bike. I still think the KICKR Bike tilt function is FANTASTIC, and I’m not remotely interested in any design without it. In fact, my biggest gripe about this function is that it is NOT the default setting to be UNLOCKED, and it gets LOCKED AGAIN even in the middle of a ride if I finish one GPS course on my EDGE 830 and start another, as it did the other day, and I was well over 1/2 way through the second before I realized it had locked again. I’m too focused on the ride and watching a GoPro video of same ride on same roads as the GPS course to realize the bike lost that function on me. I’d prefer it to stay UNlocked by default, always. But I digress.
On this topic, MAYBE your crankarm itself is loose. If so, it WILL make noise. And in my experience so far, it isn’t staying tight very long at all. I MAY end up asking tech to send me the FULL crankarm if it keeps loosening in 3 to 5 rides.
