Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed Trainer

[Lyric Maro]

Theres no better bang for your buck in getting Zwift (or FulGaz/etc) on your big screen TV than Apple TV - it's the primary way I Zwift. Even if you don't have a 4K TV, the 4K version has more powerful graphics than the base, worth the extra $30.

I use Apple TV for Zwift the vast majority of the time, but also just for watching YouTube/Netflix/etc on the trainer. The Apple TV remote sucks though. This $8 case fixes that, it's a silicone strap that makes it easy to grab, but also has a strap to easily place on the edge of your handlebars. Boom! Note: Not compatible with 2021 Apple TV Edition.

I've got three of these $12 fans floating around the DCR Cave, and I frequently use them on rides. They work just fine. Sure, they're not as powerful as a Wahoo Headwind, but I could literally buy 20 of them for the same price.

One of the most popular trainer fans out there, rivaling the Wahoo Headwind fan in strength but at a fraction of the price. It doesn't have smartphone/ANT+/Bluetooth integration, but it does have secondary outlets. I've been using it, and a similiar European version lately with great success (exact EU variant I use is automatically linked at left).

This desk is both a knock-off of the original KICKR Desk, but yet also better than it. First, it's got wheel locks (so the darn thing stays put), and second, it has two water bottle holders (also useful for putting other things like remotes). I've been using it as my main trainer desk for a long time now and love it. Cheaper is better apparently. Note: Branding varies by country, exact same desk.

This is by far the best value in trainer desks, at only $59, but with most of the features of the higher end features. It's got multi-tier tablet slots, water bottle holders, non-stick surface, adjustable height and more. I'm loving it!

Given the divergence in price smart trainers and smart bikes, I would rather buy a trainer, like the zwift hub, and an entry level road or gravel bike instead of any smart bike in the market. I could even buy a second bike for my partner.

Considering shipping costs for such a large & heavy device, a trade-in would likely be of so little actual dollar value for the current owner/seller, that I suspect the reality would fall well short of the ideal.

I see something like this almost useful in a budget bike-fit studio. On 1st glance however it looks like the cranks are a fixed length so will be restrictive for a bunch of body morphisms and tt-setups.

I wonder if those cranks are the same as on the v1 bike. I have had both left and right cranks crack all the way through all the pedal bolt holes. Seen plenty of others experience the same too. If Wahoo have read across this known issue, I think it speaks volumes about where quality comes in their priority list

One only need to see the Facebook KICKR Bike owners group to see just how wide the variety of noises are. Some noises are temporary (such as mine, about 90-seconds worth of groaning when I start it up), some are responsive (right now the main column bolt at the base is slowly getting more and more loose, so if I do a hard sprint, it clunks around a bunch), and some are just bad motor sounds (not mine, but others).

Tacx Neo also caught my eye. I was originally going to purchase a Peloton but the lock-in to their system, handlebars not being able to go forward/back and their financial uncertainty put them off the list.

I have written an initial (and still incomplete) set of my thoughts on motion related to rocker plates and the like. In short, there is a common presumption that motion = waste with regards to these devices. It might, but the source and result of that motion are key here to determine if that movement is beneficial, harmful or neutral with respect to power delivered to the drivetrain.

Sure, to keep with the simple ideas, consider what actually causes a bike on a fore-aft motion system to slide backwards and forwards. For the bulk of my thoughts below, this applies to seated riding since that makes up the largest amount of riding time for the vast majority of riders.

I called wahoo support ahead of my planned purchase of this bike, and they mentioned a normal 27,2mm round seat post will work fine, so I plan to buy a 400mm (or so) alu post suitable for oval seat rails, as I am 197cm tall, like oval rail seats and like the post to stay in place. =) I understand the stock post only accepts round rails?

I have mine at 3 sec which is good enough for my Kickr data, but I agree that a 5 or 10 second setting would be nice for them to offer. Particularly so for those people with pedal power meters but anyone wanting to level that out a bit.

So after the christmas break they came back to me and they told me that ERG mode smoothing should just work and that they have not received any complaints about it yet. And that basically my issues should be caused by external factors. I have pushed them to investigate this further and see what is causing the variance. To be fair, I discovered today that interference might play a role since the variance can be quite low (around 5 watts) if I remove all technical devices from the room. so there might be some truth to that.

Still, when I research ERG mode smoothing I basically see picture like the one below which is also in line with my experience from the KICKR Core. Where it goes from a squiggly line to a flat one. When using my KICKR BIKE the data remains accurate but also remains squiggly no matter what ERG Smoothing setting I use.

Thank you Peter to also share your power graph, your graph looks really similar like mine all jagged up.

in the picture above I did halve of the workout with ERG smoothing OFF and the other ON, it is impossible to know which halve I did which.

To me this means either (1) Our bikes are just fine and ERG mode smoothing is just not a feature for this device at this point in time, (2) Our bikes are just fine and they have just changed how ERG mode smoothing works or lastly (3) our bikes have a malfunction. Personally I lean (based purely on wishful thinking) towards the 1st. I will keep you updated what Wahoo support says on this.

@Ray, I reckon you usually always turn off ERG mode smoothing for your testing, but could you consider testing this functionality (and possibly comparing to other trainers) in your final review? I am eager to learn whether there are any units out there that are able to smooth out their power readings.

Or were you just rolling around in Zwift? If this, keep in mind that the ERG smoothing option only ever applies in a workout AND when using ERG mode. It will never apply when rolling in Zwift because that is effectively SIM (simulation) mode.

This feature is specifically crafted to smooth out the differences in acceleration and deceleration during your workouts, providing a more seamless and enjoyable feel in ERG mode. Although the power graph might not be a perfect match, rest assured that the SHIFT is working to deliver a smoother ride.

To summarize I kept my bike and am happy with it because it fulfills my specific needs, I want a dedicated and neat spot to train whenever I have time and this bike does that sufficiently. There are some things that really should be considered though.

so yeah, all in all, it is a fine bike and I enjoy training on it. Do I love this bike? no, not really. but more importantly this made me reconsider my view on WAHOO as a company and I will try to avoid buying something from them whenever I can. I will especially not buy anything from them if it is remotely new because it would be expected that they mess up something basic (their new fancy treadmill for example).

What i really like is that its silent compared to the saris+bike,

And that it connects over wifi (zwift direct connect), so finally i have steering,button control and hrm on my apple tv all at the same time. The hrm is not connected to the bike and then embedded in the wifi stream, i do not know if that is possible, so its on ble atv channel.

2 buttons control steering, buttons on the right for pwr up and u-turn in zwift, buttons on the left are not used. The v2 uses these for lifting and controlling the bike gradient, but on the shift, its not used.

Edit: got the lilygo t-display, and after giving myself a crashcourse arduino programming , i got it working

(Based on esp32, not for arduino noobs, oh well)

Now i have a tiny display showing actual gear position, very nice.

I still have a useless wahoo rflct , so will use that, remove its electronic board and replace with the lilygo.

Then i can mount it on the handlebar.

Go for the lilygo S3, its bigger and sime come with a case. There is similar software available.

I was a complete arduino noob, so did not order the s3 unfortunately

Well, the gear info might soon appear in zwift itself, but until then, this solution is great.

The person in the second video is just clueless. He needs to loosen the two pinch bolts before tightening the preload cap. The preload cap needs to be just tight enough to remove all play, then he needs to torque each pinch bolt to probably around 12n-m.

It also relates to the trend where many racers use lower Trainer Difficulty settings. They do that to keep shifting from being needed as often. Shifting usually requires a slight let-up in power on the pedals which can lead to issues in some cases. In that light, DD is the opposite of the trend and might make racing and sticking with others a greater challenge.

Extremely helpful just helped me consider what my desicion will be . Wahoo for sure the load on Kickr core (excelent product) trashed my chain expectedly.

Was a Great start point

Kickr bike shift next step in the adventure .?

The seatpost situation is really silly. Why was a D-shape seatpost provided? Why is the cam on the QR clamp plastic? I am going to end up buying a round 27.2mm seatpost and a replacement 32mm collar to eliminate the chance of slippage altogether.

I did a weighing of all the subcomponents in the box yesterday (preparing for travel), and I would be interested in getting the main assembly as light as possible (read: remove as much as possible from it) to keep within certain weight limits carriers impose on us. Strategy is to split it into 2 boxes/bags/cases.

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