Will Vendetta work on the Wahoo KICKR trainer?

[Eric Winn]

I have been chatting with Wahoo support about using a Vendetta on their KICKR trainer. Since I don't have my Vendetta yet (and I'm not sure what all John has changed) I'm looking for some feedback from other Vendetta owners and John on this issue.

The KICKR is similar to the LeMond Revolution Dan mentioned in this post.

My understanding of the process is you loosen the QR skewer on your drive wheel after positioning your chain and RD to the smallest cassette, drop the wheel out of the slots and drop the frame over the corresponding supports on the KICKR, LeMond Revolution, etc. and position the chain and RD on the trainer cassette and then tighten its QR skewer down.

In looking more closely at various Vendetta photos, the chainstay ends are not slotted so how would this work?

Here is what Wahoo had to say,

" The planned launch for the KICKR is in January. There shouldn't be a problem with clearance for the Vendetta to fit on the KICKR. My main concern is that they are using a unique type of dropout that is different than the standard rear dropout on a typical road bike. The KICKR basically has all the components of a rear hub and uses a quick release to mount just like a rear wheel. If Cruzbikes use a different method for attaching the drive wheel then there could be issues. "

Fthills, Dan, or other V owners - can one of you post a picture or two of how the front wheel goes on and comes off? The assembly instructions and other photos I've found are not very clear on this. Do you pull the QR skewer all the way out to allow the wheel to drop out of the non-slotted chainstay ends? I assume you don't have to manually flare the chainstay ends off the fork lugs each time you remove the wheel if you are completely removing the skewer. Confused, looking for guidance.

dcrainmaker video on how bike is added and removed from the KICKR : http://youtu.be/yQJzIsKAUFU

Thanks,

-Eric

 

[Jim Parker]

some photos that may help

Hi Eric,
To remove the drivewheel, First, shift the chain to the smallest cog on the cassette and release the front brake tensioner. Then grab the boom and rear triangle and flip the bike upsidedown. Next, remove the skewer. Standing on the drive side, reach in with your finger and pull the chain off the smallest cog while pulling the wheel out of the dropout. Installation is the reverse process.
Let us know what you find out about the KICKR.

Jim

Here are two photos:
A Vendetta in a Kurt Kinetic trainer (this is a "rock and roll") trainer, but as I wrote previously, no need to pay extra for that feature, a regular Kurt works fine.

And a photo of the V drivewheel with the bike upside down.

 

[Eric Winn]

Vendetta fork dropout dimensions?

According to Wahoo the KICKR is designed to work with 130mm rear dropouts and uses a normal, removable skewer.

What are the Vendetta front dropout measurements as shown in this quick sketch I made? I'll pass them along to Wahoo and see what they say.

Below is a picture from this dcrainmaker KICKR review of a close-up of the cassette side. There are a lot more pictures in the review but this one seems to give the most useful view for this fitment question. Looks like it would work if you remove the skewer first but I'd like to confirm by sending the requested dimensions above to Wahoo for their response.

BTW, Wahoo has announced pricing at $999 US. I was hoping it would be closer to the LeMond Revolution which I think was selling for around $600 US. See: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/09/wahoo-fitness-announces-kickr-trainer.html

Some interesting information about the LeMond Revolution being at least temporarily, if not permanently, defunct further down in http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/10/my-2012-trainer-recommendations-early.html look for the section toward the bottom titled, What about the LeMond Revolution Trainer?

-Eric

 

[John Tolhurst]

Eric, 
If the wahoo pretends

Eric,

If the wahoo pretends to be a 130 OLD wheel, it will work. We provide the skewer that is sufficiently long enough.

John

 

[fthills]

 "Fthills, Dan, or other V

"Fthills, Dan, or other V owners - can one of you post a picture or two of how the front wheel goes on and comes off? The assembly instructions and other photos I've found are not very clear on this. Do you pull the QR skewer all the way out to allow the wheel to drop out of the non-slotted chainstay ends? I assume you don't have to manually flare the chainstay ends off the fork lugs each time you remove the wheel if you are completely removing the skewer. Confused, looking for guidance."
"


Hi Eric , if you look at Jim's picture particularly the second , where the bike is upside down, i.e you are looking at the underside of the forks and the chainstays you can see the fork dropouts where the wheel axle fits are slotted the chainstays which house the skewer are not.

A bit off topic but this arrangement , where there is only one possible position for the wheel makes so much sense. If the wheel isn't mounted correctly the skewer won't feed through the axle and once mounted and the skewer is tight the wheel is not going to move from its mounting no matter how much force is applied to the pedals or the wheel . Once again,nice engineering on John's part .

Could this solid arrangement be adapted to the rear wheel.?

Standard dropouts once you've seen the front arrangement on the V just seem to be lacking in solidity somehow.

 

[John Tolhurst]

So, basically the chainstay

So, basically the chainstay ends have small cups and the fork ends have small lugs, and a dropout.

You do need to remove the skewer ( I know, a bit strange ), then wheel might come out, sometimes its easier to spread the chainstay ends off the fork ends, they are quite springy, and the RD hangs off the chainstay.

There are other ways of engineering the joint, but I have stuck with the thought that the wheel must be carried directly by the forks, and not on a secondary structure; and that the chainstay should be aligned with the axle. Once you have those two principles in play, the rest designs itself, so to speak.

The coming V has fully redesigned dropouts, and can be skewered with an MTB skewer, rather than a special cruzbike one.

 

[Eric Winn]

OK, makes sense to me.

OK, makes sense to me. Pulling the skewer isn't onerous as my Diamondback doesn't have QRs. it's an old beast with nuts on solid threaded axles with a round tabbed washer that covers the dropout slot to keep the wheel on even if the axle nuts come loose so having to pull the skewer would still be a vast improvement over my current operation to remove my wheels. ;-)

-Eric

 

[Eric Winn]

Vendetta on a KICKR

The Wahoo KICKR works quite well with a Vendetta.

I'm still assembling the V, but at the request of Wahoo Murray, here are some photos of how it works.

That stand at the back is not necessary. I just put it there to check the fit as it just arrived today. It is an EZ Bike Stand.



Standing at the front of the Vendetta looking down:



Left front:


Right front. The QR skewer has to be removed from the KICKR and reinstalled after mounting the forks because of the way the Vendetta chainstay cups over the bottom of the fork. The chainstay is not slotted but the fork is, see the next photo below this one.


Underneath the left chainstay/fork looking up. You can see the dropouts on the fork and how the chainstay cups the bottom of the fork. You can see the fork cup detail in the last picture of the first post in my Vendetta 2.0 unboxing and build thread.


-Eric