Kinetic inRIDE Watt Meter

Excellent software is occasionally let down by hardware glitches. Bluetooth chest strap occasionally loses communication with iPhone; simply switching out of the app and back in re-establishes the connection and this can be done without restarting your exercise session. So it's not a big deal in most situations.Ability to calibrate the power reading gives credibility and repeat-ability to workouts.Software provides just about any metric you care to measure in the optional displays -- set up as many, or as few, as you want.App automatically sends data to e.g. Strava at the end of each session so you can get your "Suffer Score".I'm using this with a Kinetic Rock and Roll fluid trainer. The bluetooth chest strap connects to Wahoo Fitness (the whole package is actually a re-badged Wahoo unit).All-in-all, pretty good value-for-money to get calibrated power data from your indoor trainer plus lots, lots more.

Bike meter seems to work well. I tried two heart rate monitors and straps and was only able to get a reading once out of a few dozen tries. I then got a wahoo TICKR heart rate monitor and the InRide app picked it up and provided a reading immediately. So maybe 4 stars (just because it connected reliably and gave reasonable numbers) for the bike watt meter and zero stars for the heart rate monitor.

DO NOT BUY THIS . . . IT DOES NOT WORK. This is perhaps the most useless cycling product I have ever purchased. I use a power meter when I ride and rely on the data it provides. I purchased this product approximately a year ago and gave up on it after a few weeks. When I rode, I would get absurdly high power readings and inconsistent cadence and speed. I wasn't expecting much from the device because the math just doesn't work. If all the measurement comes from the speed of the flywheel, it cannot be very accurate. It isn't very hard to trick the device, just shift to your lowest gear and spin as fast as you can, with little pressure, and you can see some great power readings:)When I saw the new app and promises of major improvements in results, I reinstalled the app and tried the unit again. The results were improved. The power readings seemed reasonable and though still inconsistent, the cadence and speed were improved. Unfortunately, I spent the entire week riding and have little to show for it. The phone and the power unit and HR monitor do not maintain a connection for more than 5 minutes. I replaced batteries in both and walked through all the help I could find on the web. The system is just flaky and frankly not worth your money or your time.

Firstly let me admit here that I got a good deal on this, I was looking for a HR strap, and found a deal on Amazon that got me this for only about $20 more than the cost of the strap alone, I wasn't really planning on buying the inRide pod, but for the price I couldn't pass this up, but I feel that it's important to mention this in my review. Anyway this item comes in two parts, a Bluetooth HR strap (which is actually the Wahoo Fitness BlueHR v2.1) and the Kinetic inRide Pod (also made by Wahoo).The HR strap is great, it fits me (260lb guy), syncs easily with my iPhone and various apps I use (Cyclemeter, TrainerRoad, Kinetic inRide app), is comfortable to wear and appears to give very solid results. This is well tested and developed product, the only downside is that unlike Wahoo's latest HR strap (TICKR) it doesn't do ANT+, so if you need ANT+, this isn't going to be any use to you. I personally use my iPhone for all training and cycling recording, so this isn't an issue for me.Onto the pod: It comes with a magnet and grommet that installs into the drum of your Kinetic Trainer (I have a Road Machine 2.0), and a small pod that sticks onto the trainer. Essentially the pod, much like a speed or cadence meter, measures the rotation speed of the drum as the magnet passes it. So the real question is what is the difference between using this and just measure the speed of your back wheel? Well it really comes down to three things:1) The power-curve of the Kinetic Trainers are really stable, so converting the speed of the drum to power is very accurate.2) The drum spins faster than your wheel, so more magnet passes per wheel revolution, so it's more accurate to rapid changes.3) The spin down calibration: This takes out the systematic error introduced by the differences in set up (tire pressure, how much tension you put in between the trainer drum and the wheel).Using software like TrainerRoad, it can give you power from wheel speed, so point 1 is covered, but it's less accurate due to point 2, and not calibration due to point 3. Reviews at sites like DC Rainmaker have shown that a calibration Kinetic inRide matches power-meters very well. The main thing you'll notice compared to using "Virtual Power" is that when you stop pedaling, the power goes to zero almost instantaneously, whereas the VirtualPower you'll see your power dropping slowly as your wheel slows.So what you get here is a power meter for really cheap, albeit one that only works while you're on a trainer. If you use TrainerRoad it's not essential, but it does make your power readings much more accurate and therefore more consistent, which given that TrainerRoad scales it's workouts to your FTP, makes your workouts much more consistent also. The pod also gives cadence measurements. These seem pretty accurate given that they must be calculated. I have a cadence meter on my bike also, and the values are surprisingly close. A single unit that gives speed, power and cadence on the trainer seems like a big win for people who want to use multiple bikes with the trainer, as it means you can train and record without having to swap sensors on the bike. I only have one bike I use on the trainer however. If you use other software for training (and they provide a free app that works very nicely) that requires power, this product seems like a no-brainer to me (if you have a Kinetic trainer already).For the hardware, the HR strap is flawless. The inRide pods are a bit more flakey (based on my single experience I'll admit). The first one I received gave power/speed/cadence readings, but I could not get spin-down calibration to work. An email set via the Kinetic App was met with a reply within 24 hours, and what they suggested didn't work, so I sent a second email and they sent me a new pod in the mail, which is pretty amazing support IMHO, this is why I buy Kurt products. The 2nd pod worked fine and calibrated. The only issue I have noticed with both pods, is that at low speeds the power sometimes drops out to zero for short periods. This doesn't really make much difference to the end results and TrainerRoad has a power smoothing option to remove these, I would guess they are due to the pod missing a magnet pass.I would give this product 4 stars (although the support gets 5 stars). The price seems high, but if you want accurate calibrated power meter readings, it's very cheap compared to the alternatives.

Works sometimes and is pretty accurate for what it is when it works, but simply fails far too often. getting on and off your bike takes stationary cycling from hard to bear to unbearable. also, far too expensive for the simple transmitter it is.

If you have a kinetic trainer, this gadget is an economical means to make it smarter. It works well with the iOS inRide app to give you power, speed, and cadence values. You can track your workout sessions using the app and you can link it to Strava to save your trainer rides along with your real rides. It also works with iOS Zwift and Zwift Mobile Link. I did experience some buggyness with the apps. The heart rate sensor will not pair with my iPhone in Zwift unless I have the phone in airplane mode. The inRide app keeps telling me to loosen the roller even if it is so loose that the wheel is slipping. Other than those minor annoyances, it was a great upgrade for my Kinetic trainer.

I bought this because we already own a Kurt Kinetic indoor trainer which in itself is an excellent piece of kit, but we wanted to be able to link up with on-line training apps, specifically in my case Zwift. This system enables you to wirelessly transmit data to the zwift app, providing the essential information you need to take part in online races, training programmes or just personal training. Far far more interesting that just endlessly peddling to music or TV. The computer/sensor comes with a heart rate strap and monitor. The sensor was easy to fit and worked straight away. Heart rate strap is good quality and the monitor works fine. Easy to connect to Zwift on the iPad and iPhone. Thoroughly recommend it especially when it's hard to get out on the road!

This a very good unit once you get the connection bugs sorted out. If you are having problems wiyh the sensors detecting don't play around just change the batteries. This seems to be the weak link. Once it's working the unit is accurate, has good information, has some great workouts and is now an integral part of my training. The app is good as well. It's got large enough readings so that if you are optically challenged you can still read the information. it also interconnects well will other software apps to share info. PS customer service at KurtKinetic is very good as well. They will look after you.

Works well on the iPhone 4s and 5c, but signal with pod keeps on getting lost on the iPhone 6. Timing of when the signal is lost is different. Support from Kinetic was not helpful. Would not recommend for iPhone 6 until fix, but great for the older version of the iPhone.

Worked well for a few months, and then it would permanently freeze at 200bpm, even after changing batteries.