Bluetooth 4 Indoor Bike Trainer Controlled By iPhone

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Close the drapes, grab a Clif bar and a Gatorade and get ready for some bike-sturbation.
Close the drapes, grab a Clif bar and a Gatorade and get ready for some bike-sturbation.

I can’t think of many things worse to do on a bike than ride it indoors on a stationary trainer. After all, without the world going by and the wind in your hair, you’re effectively just sitting on a stool and waggling your legs.

However, if forced to use these blow-up dolls of the bike world, then I’d insist on one that connected to my iPhone 4S or iPad 3 via Bluetooth 4 and let me control it and hook it up with third-party app. And amazingly, that’s just what Wahoo’s Kickr PowerTrainer does.

Remove the rear wheel from your delicate carbon-fiber bike and replace it with this stand. Actually, who are we kidding? Just dig that rusty old piece of junk out of the garage – weight and aerodynamics don’t matter on a stationary bike, so you might as well be comfortable.

Then, hop aboard (after dressing in your logo-bedecked uniform) and pedal. The resistance in the trainer’s flywheel-driven rig can be adjusted with apps like Kinomap and TrainerRoad.

The simulator can pretend to be all kinds of terrain, up to 15% grades (with 600-2,000-watt resistance), and can be paired with your existing cycle computer for cadence and “speed” measurements.

Or you could just climb on a bike and ride it, you know, outside. Just sayin’.

The PowerTrainer will be available sometime later this year, for a price yet to be announced. We won’t be grabbing one of these for test and review purposes, either: Where I live, we have something called roads.

Wahoo Fitness

Thanks: Brad!

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