What is it?
Whether you're a seasoned cyclist or relatively new to it, you'll have discovered that to maintain any fitness on the bike you need to be doing it regularly. That's easy to do in the Spring and Summer months when the weather's nice (well, in principal anyway), while there are long, light evenings to enjoy. When it starts to get colder, wetter and darker, the motivation to get out on the bike isn't great for a lot of people. That's where a turbo trainer comes in.
Turbo trainers let you turn your bike into a static indoor trainer, while you can adjust the resistance to vary your efforts. Turbo trainers of old were a bit of a grind to use - other than sitting there starring at you spare room or garage wall, there wasn't much to do, but the arrival of smart turbo trainers like the Wahoo Kickr Core Zwift One have changed all that.
Smart turbo trainers connect to apps like Zwift so they control the resistance of the trainer via Bluetooth (or ANT+), so you can ride a virtual route and the resistance you feel will mirror the terrain in the virtual world you're riding in. It's transformed how many people train and it's not just reserved for the winter months, as lots of users now like to supplement their outdoor cycling with indoor workouts throughout the year.
Wahoo produces a range of smart trainers, with its top-end Kickr Move costing north of £1000. The Kickr Core Zwift One though is one of the more affordable smart turbo trainers out there, costing £449, but while many other trainers can be bought with a rear cassette to mirror the gears on your own bike, the Kickr Core Zwift One does things a little differently.
That's because it has a Zwift Cog preinstalled - a single speed sprocket that works solely with Zwift, along with a Zwift Click control pad to change gears virtually.
What's it like?
Lift it out of the box and you'll soon appreciate the 18kg weight, 5.4kg coming from the flywheel. The Wahoo Kickr Core Zwift One is based around a direct-drive design, which means a belt drive is used to transfer power from the cassette to the flywheel, which is controlled by an electromagnetic resistance unit. This means that it can simulate a gradient up to 16% and generate 1800 watts of resistance - while that's less than pricier options, unless your name is Tadej Pogačar, it should be more than up to the job.
The Wahoo Kickr Core Zwift One doesn't come fully assembled - you'll need to give yourself a few minutes to bolt the horizontal feet on, but it comes with all the tools needed to set-up. There's no handle on the Wahoo Kickr Core Zwift One that you get on other trainers, so it does feel a little awkward to move about, but once you've got it in place, you're not going to need to move it around that much. When you haven't got a bike on it, the two feet do push together a little bit to take up less space, but it's not drastically different to when its extended.
With the basics sorted, its time to mount your bike, and this is one of the biggest selling points of the Wahoo Kickr Core Zwift One as the single sprocket means its compatible with virtually any 8-12 speed bike. So whether you've got a slick 12-speed carbon disc brake road bike or an older 8 speed rim brake bike, both will fit. All you need is to swap the supplied adapters around. Mountain bikes are just as happy on the Kickr Core Zwift One, and while bikes with wheels smaller than 700C road wheels will fit, you might need to use a riser on the front wheel to avoid feeling like you're constantly descending. To make sure the bike doesn't sound like a bag of nails when you start riding, Zwift recommends moving the chain onto the small ring on the front derailleur and a middle gear on the rear to set the chain up in a nice straight line.
Before you go syncing up with Zwift, you need to download the Wahoo app - here you can check for firmware updates, while you also need to set up your Zwift Click virtual shifter. This is a neat little dual button pad than attaches to your handlebar with two elasticated bands (two sets are supplied depending on the width of your bars), but where you put it will come down to personal preference. I found putting it in the inside of my right hood worked best for me.
You'll need to sign up and download Zwift - until recently a year's subscription was bundled free with the Wahoo Kickr Core Zwift One, but you'll now need to pay £130 for a year's subscription (saving £49.99 if bought separately). If that sounds a bit lumpy, you can buy it on a rolling contract for £17.99 per month.
Zwift will automatically find the Wahoo Kickr Core Zwift One and all you'll need to do press one of the Zwift Click buttons to wake it up and it'll also connect. You can also connect heart rate monitor if you wish as well. Once done you can pick an activity and you're ready to ride. If you've opted for a route to follow, you just need to start turning the pedals and away you go. As the gradient increases, resistance increases making it harder to pedal, so you'll want to use the Zwift Click to change down a gear (or two) to make it a bit easier. The shifts are pretty responsive and while it doesn't have quite the mechanical feel of changing gear as you would do normally, I didn't find this a major issue for me - it complements the digital experience of riding virtually.
But you don't have to use the Zwift Click all the time - for pre-defined workouts (and Zwift has a lot), you can put the Wahoo Kickr Core Zwift One in ERG mode. In ERG mode you won't have to change gears at all as the trainer will automatically adjust your resistance to match your cadence.
If you've used other turbo trainers in the past, you'll be surprised how quiet the Kickr Core Zwift One is - it's almost silent when riding. You'll only notice it rock from side to side when you really put an effort in, but otherwise the broad supports provide a very stable base.
Should I buy one?
As the name suggests, one thing to bear in mind is that its only compatible with Zwift. Now, Zwift if great, but you are locking yourself into an ecosystem. If you want to use alternative cycling apps like Rouvy or TrainerRoad, then out of the box, the Kickr Core Zwift One isn't for you. You'll want to look at something like the Zwift One's sibling, the standard Wahoo Kickr Core, again at £449.99. Virtually identical in design, you can order it with a more traditional 8/9/10/11/12 speed cassette in place of the Zwift Cog to hook it up to any training app.
However, the Kickr Core Zwift One is easy to swap between different bikes (something you might favour if you're sharing the trainer with your partner), while you can retro fit a 8/9/10/11/12 speed cassette if you wish. Ultimately it'll come down to whether you like the idea of virtual shifting and for me, it worked a treat, though for some who have got seriously into Zwift and racing on the platform, physical gears might be perferable.
Otherwise, I think for most users the Wahoo Kickr Core Zwift One is one of the best entry-level smart turbo trainers you can buy right now.
