Wahoo KICKR CORE Zwift One Now Shipping to Australia

March 28, 2024

LAST UPDATED March 28, 2024

When the Wahoo KICKR CORE Zwift One was announced in February, Wahoo+Zwift promised it would begin shipping to Canada and Australia in March. Canadian availability was announced last week, and today Wahoo added the CORE One to their Australian website, priced at AU$1059.95.

This is big news for Australian Zwifters who have been waiting for virtual shifting capabilities. While Australians still don’t have easy access to purchasing Zwift’s Play Controllers, the CORE One ships with the Zwift Click device which provides simple up/down buttons for easy virtual shifting.

It also ships with the Zwift Cog which, when coupled with virtual shifting, makes the trainer easily compatible with a wide range of bikes including mountain bikes, road bikes, gravel rigs and more.

CORE One Specs

Built on Wahoo’s well-established KICKR Core line, the CORE One has all the capabilities required to deliver a high-quality Zwift experience. Here are the trainer’s key specs:

Zwift Click included for virtual shifting
Calibration: automatic
Cassette: Zwift Cog (compatible with most 8-12 speed bikes)
Accuracy: +-2%
Flywheel: 12lb
Max Wattage: 1800 W
Max Incline: 16%
Cadence: built in
Communication: ANT+ and 3-Channel Bluetooth
Axle Compatibility: 130/135mm quick release, 12×142/12×148 thru-axle
Weight: 18kg
Physical Dimensions: 9″L x 23″W x 21″H (closed), 20″L x 23″W x 19″H (open)

About Virtual Shifting

With virtual shifting, your chain doesn’t move between different rear cassette cogs when you shift. Instead, a virtual shift changes the resistance of your smart trainer so it feels like you’ve changed cogs. This is how smart bikes like the Wahoo KICKR Bike, Wattbike, StagesBike, and Tacx NEO Bike have always worked.

Why do Zwifters like virtual shifting? Because it beats mechanical shifting in several ways:

Fast, smooth, quiet: with no chains skipping between cogs, your shifts are completely silent, perfectly smooth, and lightning-fast.
Less wear and tear: your chain won’t wear out as quickly, and neither will the Zwift Cog, since it is built beefy because weight is not a concern.
Shift under full load: no need to ease off the pedals when shifting under power, as your chain isn’t going to “skip” when virtual shifting like it can with mechanical shifting.
Compatible across many bikes: no more spinning out on your low-geared mountain bike, or needing to swap cassettes if you swap bikes. Virtual shifting works with almost any 8-12 speed bike and auto-calibrates to your physical gearing.
No more fine-tuning: many riders have to fine-tune their physical shifting when moving between outdoor riding and a direct-drive trainer, since the cassettes aren’t lined up exactly the same. The Zwift Cog doesn’t require any such fine-tuning… just shift to a physical gear that has your chain lined up straight on the Cog and you’re ready to ride.
Expanded gear range: Zwift’s virtual shifting currently supports a virtual 24-speed setup, which is more gears than most riders have on their outdoor setups. Additionally, the gear ratio range is very wide (from .75 to 5.49), meaning everyone should find that virtual shifting offers more easy gears and more hard gears than your mechanical gearing.
In-game visualization: with Zwift’s virtual shifting, you can always see what gear you’re in on screen.

Zwift’s virtual shifting was rolled out to the Zwift Hub in late 2023, and it’s arguably the most significant technological advance we’ve seen in smart trainers in years. The CORE One is the first non-Zwift trainer to support virtual shifting, and that’s big, good news for Zwifters.