I’ve been waiting for years for the Wahoo KICKR CORE to be updated but now it has, no one is talking about its best feature…

The Wahoo KICKR CORE was released in September 2018 as a mid-budget direct drive trainer, you know, back before we’d heard of words like Covid or TikTok and we weren’t all worried about AI and the Metaverse stealing our jobs. A lot has changed since 2018 but you’d be forgiven for thinking that Wahoo’s engineers have spent the last 7 years optimising their nap schedules…

Truth be told, the Wahoo KICKR CORE needed very little in terms of changes: Earlier this year it won our ‘best value direct drive', marking its sixth consecutive year at the top thanks to a suite of ongoing firmware updates. What makes it so successful? Well, the fact that you get all the resistance, stability and power accuracy for half the price of many trainers certainly helps!

This second generation isn’t just a rerelease though, look a bit closer and although it looks familiar you will see some small but impactful changes, the Zwift Cog and Click for example. That wasn’t a thing back in 2018 and it allows you to fit all manner of speeds of bike to the same turbo without changing a cassette, handy if you live in a multi-bike household.

It also has redesigned legs with half as many bolts for faster setup and they’re also said to improve stability - perfect for if you’re going to try and trouble the trainer’s maximum resistance of 1,800 watts, I wish I could but it’s safe to say that I won’t be…

Then there’s the KICKR CORE 2s party piece, the update that I think is the most important and yet has been somewhat overlooked, it now has WiFi connectivity. Up until this point indoor trainers with WiFi have been mostly reserved for riders looking to spend the big bucks, the KICKR CORE 2 aims to bring this technology at a lower price point.

So, what are the advantages of having a WiFi enabled turbo? Well, it can do boring stuff like automatically download firmware updates and maintain a more stable connection and it can do exciting stuff like Race Mode - It broadcasts power data up to 10x faster than the last CORE, this means quicker responsiveness during hard accelerations and so no excuses at the end of races with this trainer!

It also means that it can act like a bridge for other devices and for me this is its biggest appeal. You see, I usually load up Zwift on an Apple TV which is limited to two Bluetooth connections. That's not ideal if you’re a bit of a tech obsessed person like me. By using the KICKR CORE 2 as a bridge you can save these connections by streaming data from devices such as heart rate monitors and other controllers directly through the trainer to your training app, hence, reducing device conflicts.

In the future this will also enable you to pair the Zwift Click v2 and Ride controllers through the trainer.

The only tell-tale sign of the KICKR CORE 2s new WiFi connectivity is the updated LED system which promises clearer connection and status feedback, it might not be the most visible of changes but it once again makes premium indoor training features that little bit more attainable.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the KICKR CORE 2 though is the price, both the KICKR CORE 2 and KICKR CORE 2 with Zwift Cog and Click have a price tag of £499.99 / $549.99 / €549.99. Have a guess at the RRP of the KICKR CORE when it launched in 2018.

So, more features and a smaller price tag, not very often you see that in 2025! We’ve got one coming in for review soon to see if it can fill the shoes of Wahoo’s most popular trainer.