Kinetic Road Machine Smart Control Bike Trainer

It works with its own app, but even there it often seems to get stuck in a high resistance mode. It seems that they have fallen out with Zwift as it does not work with it any more. It was just too frustrating and unreliable so I bough another (much more expensive) one from another manufacturer- it just works!

First off, I'm not aspiring to be a professional cyclist so I just need to maintain fitness over winter or maybe gain a little. The KK Smart control trainer has been great so far! A lot of people complain that it doesn't have ANT+, but that has not been an issue for me. I have used the Kinetic iFit app, but most of my riding has been on Zwift. The trainer connects via Bluetooth smart through Zwift's mobile link on my iPhone to my PC running the Zwift program on the same WiFi connection. The smart control trainer changes resistance with the virtual course and gives a dynamic and immersive experience vs just staring at a TV show or blank wall. It also has one of the heaviest flywheels of all the other smart "wheel on" trainers, which gives it a more realistic road feel and provides some coasting on the virtual down hills. The only drawback...cadence isn't always accurate, but if that is important to you then purchase a designated cadence sensor and pair that to iFit or Zwift.

This works great. Easy setup, resistance control works perfectly even at steep (10+%) inclines in zwift. My only complaint is that at lower wattage the built in cadence sensor doesn't always read properly - it often reads half or seems to just sit around 65rpm. I ended up buying a separate Wahoo cadence sensor to use instead and now my setup is fantastic.

This is the first "Smart" trainer I ever bought and tried and I bought it primarily to use with Zwift as it claimed to be compatible with the Zwift apps. Unfortunately my first experience with a "smart" trainer proved to be a very disappointing one. The installation of both the trainer and Kinect Fit apps on my IOS devices was relatively easy (including upgrading the latest firmware on the trainer) however, its interoperability with Zwift and reliability proved very bad to the point where after 3 weeks of trying to get this to work properly, I decided to return it. I had "3" issues with the trainer: 1) Bluetooth connectivity to my IOS/Apple device would be very hard to get (pair) and would drop constantly. Without connectivity, there was no reliable way for my IOS devices running Zwift to control the trainer so basically, the trainer would operate as a manual trainer. 2) For the short period where Bluetooth pairing could be maintained (even for a very short period), I felt that the resistance/power of the trainer was very weak; I could ride my bike on top gears at all time. This could be a side effect of bluetooth pairing failing in the background but still made the experience of riding with Zwift very frustrating. 3) Trainer would freeze/lock up when going up hills of 12% + grade in Zwift. The control unit would start buzzing/humming and would put on excessive resistance. The only way to recover was to power cycle the trainer. I came across a statement in a user forum stating that the Kurt Kinect control trainer would support a max grade of 10%. I would have been ok with this if it meant that the unit would adjust to a max resistance equivalent to 10% slope but not freeze/lock up. I reached out to Zwift support and they told me that there were known issues of having both the Zwift apps and the Kinectic Fit apps on the same device and that I should have not have Zwift and Zwift Companion on the same device and for the weak resistance problem, they suggested a setting in Zwift to set the "trainer difficulty to MAX". I followed the suggestions by removing Zwift Companion from my device and used 2 different IOS devices, one for Kinetic Fit Apps and one for Zwift. Unfortunately, I still encountered the same problems of pairing. I also followed the suggestion to set the trainer difficulty level to max in the Zwift application unfortunately I did not see an increase in trainer resistance but, to make matters worst, it resulted in the Trainer locking/freezing up in even lower grades (6-8%). After this, I packed the unit back in its box and decided to return it. Kurt Kinectic got back to me and suggested that I try a new control unit firmware that had just came out. They believed that it would address all my Blutooth pairing issues. Unfortunately, by that time, the unit was already packed so I will never know if this would have fixed some of the issues I encountered. . On the positive, the stand/frame for this unit is very firm and robust and their technical support (for both the Seller and Manufacturer) was responsive and they really tried to help. This is the only reason why I am rating this product as a 2 stars and not a 1.

I purchased this during the COVID shutdown, to enhance my cardio workouts, as well as to provide a means to ride during the winter. I was not disappointed. Combined with Zwift, this provides an easy, effective, and interesting workout. My only mild issue is slipping when on steep inclines, but I suspect it's more a user issue than not - I haven't looked into the issue and didn't spend a lot of time on set up (it's that simple). After two months of riding an average of 2-3 times per week, I am very pleased with the product.

I could have purchased any cycling trainer currently on the market, but did not want to spend a lot of money for something whose bells and whistles my skills will never be able to match. I was afraid that the kinetic trainer would be too basic though. In the end I chose it because I have other "non-smart" Kinetic trainers and they are high quality and have served me well. Bottom line: This ended up being perfect for me. I am not a trained competitive cyclist, I just wanted to be able to use Zwift in a realistic way and this fits that bill. The only drawback is that you are limited to 10% grade. If you Zwift, then you know grades can get much steeper than that. For me though 10% is plenty to give me the workout I want and steeper grades are easily simulated by shifting into a higher gear. One other thing that would be a problem if you are seriously training and are a stats geek. The power is estimated. This works fine for me, but if you really need to be exact, this isn't going to satisfy.