Hello All
Just received my Kickr Bike yesterday and noticed this little oddity
Wahoo are saying that its normal but i just wanted to see if any other Kickr bike users had the same experience with their device?
Thanks for any feedback
Have been an almost daily user of the kickr bike since it was first released. I have always had some fore/aft freeplay movement in the integrated tilt ram but no clicking or noise. The fore/aft movement has not changed in the 4 years I have been using it.
While I have never tried to quantify the freeplay, yours does appear to move more than what I āfeelā on mine.
Your clicking noise should be investigated imo. Noise means friction and friction means wear. Rule out the obvious sources of potential clicking like pedals, loose crank arm, lack of bolt tightness, lack of grease, etc.
Review the Kickr periodic maintenance doc and perform same.
Looks like the leg bolts arenāt torqued to spec. Thereās a very helpful Facebook owners group called āWahoo KICKR Smart Bikeā that can help diagnose a lot of these issues as well.
Thanks for the feedback guys
Wahoo are saying its normal?!?! I got a pretty standard reply from them:
Thanks for writing and purchasing a KICKR BIKE! The KICKR BIKE simulates grade changes in real time, offering a virtual experience of riding up and over varied terrain ā including downhill simulation that allows you to maintain bike speed. This allows the KICKR BIKE to match ascents up to 20% and descents of -15% making your workout more realistic than ever.
Due to the functionality of the linear actuator, you may feel a slight bit of forward and backward play in the KICKR BIKE. This is normal and necessary for the BIKE to respond to grade change commands from the Wahoo app or any 3rd party app.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.
sadly im not on facebook mate but thanks for the suggestion
I have no noises like that with my year old KICKR Bike. Watching your video made me question what you are doing that causes this noise. From what I see, you are not pedaling the bike on the video, so it seems what you are doing that causes the noise is not occurring during normal use of the bike.
So I went and tried to duplicate that noise on my bike. I specifically noticed on your video that the climb/tilt motor that sticks out the back of the bike between the legs is moving as you make that noise.
I stood on my pedals with them both on the level, not top and bottom of stroke, and I rocked the bike forward and aft. It makes exactly the same noise.
I got off the bike and just pushed forward/down and backward/up on the handlebars and I can make the same thing happen but to a lesser degree.
If Iāve missed something or stated something incorrectly about your situation, please explain.
Otherwise, I donāt think thereās anything wrong with your setup, and I suspect you donāt hear this noise in normal riding.
You WILL hear some knock on occasion as you rise to stand up pedaling, and maybe when you do hard sprint efforts and are pushing/pulling on the handlebars in that process. Thatās pretty normal.
As Garmin said, there IS some normal but small level of play involved in the design of the KICKR Bike. It does, after all, have an upper frame that has an adjustable connection to the base frame, and that cannot be absolutely rock solid tight, nor does it need to be, IMO.
You also appear to be using pedals with cages/straps for foot engagement. There will be some play there that adds a bit more movement that a typical clip-in pedal setup. Thereās nothing wrong with that if it works for you and maybe other users of the bike, but clip-in pedals MIGHT enable a smoother pedaling style and cadence.
Top Job @DouthatBiker
Youāve confirmed exactly what i was hoping another owner would. Wahoo confirmed in writing that what Iām seeing and hearing is within normal engineering tolerances as well.
Ive tried a few hard sprint efforts and been able to get some motion as well as you describe.
I use Favero Assioma pedals 
- dont know where the ācages/strapsā idea came from buddy. Im using them at the moment while i check the power numbers coming out of the kickr bike which seem ok - nothing that DCRainmaker or GPLama havent identified in their analysis.
Thanks again and ride on 
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@DavidJD Iām glad to have helped! I admit that the noise sounds bad when manipulating the bike by just rocking forward/backward not pedaling, but hopefully not like that when youāre actually riding the bike. And on sprints or very hard pedaling efforts, yeah, pretty expected, I think.
Sorry about the cages/straps ideaā¦ the video doesnāt show much but I thought I saw a hint of something like that in it when the foot was barely in view, and maybe because you were just using sneakers to test and video the sound, I thought I had a glimpse of shoes in cages. Iām chuckling at how you must have thought when you read that your Assiomaās were pedals with cages! 
BTW, I have also found than one other source of potential noise or rocking movement can be the handlebars, at least in my case. I havenāt asked about this with Wahoo so it might not even be true for others, but a least part of the slight knock I get when cranking hard on sprint standing efforts is the vertical shaft that the stem is attached to (what would be the fork steerer tube) moving just slightly side to side. The clamp is definitely tight enough, and the stem bolts are properly tight as well, but there is a minimal side to side movement that I can see even with the naked eye as I torque the bars downward side to side. It is minimal, and with slow movements, it isnāt even a knock, just smooth movement, but in sprints, it does create some sensible knocking.
I donāt care for the knock but itās minor and I can live with it, especially since there is going to be the movement inherent in the design of the upper/lower frame engagement and potentially even at that bottom-most mounting bolt that the frame parts attach to the legs/base. ALL of these things are well worth it to me for what the KICKR Bike does that no other indoor bike does: the climb/tilt change is HUGE to me.
If I had my way, the mounting connection of the front of the bike to hold a steerer tube for mounting stem and bar to would absolutely be round and standardized. I personally think that would be a tight, non-moving connection to stem and bars. The existing setup appears to use some kind of stiff but flexible gripping material pads in between the frame and āsteerer tube.ā And that is what appears to allow the knock. I have that tube raised out of the frame less than the 3cm marking, so itās not like itās maxed out at all, and still get the knock. I think itās just due to those pads allowing some inherent movement even when the quick release clamp is properly tight.
I may even contact Wahoo and ask if my setup isnāt performing quite as it should. If by chance you can confirm whether yours does this also, Iād be happy to have that feedback.
Enjoy your KICKR Bike!!
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