When the Wahoo KICKR CORE Zwift One was announced in February, Wahoo+Zwift promised it would begin shipping to Canada and Australia in March.
Today, Wahoo’s added the CORE One to their Canadian website, priced at CA$999.99.
This is big news for Canadian Zwifters who have been waiting for virtual shifting capabilities. While Canadians 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.
Shop Now
Canadians can purchase the Wahoo KICKR CORE Zwift One on Wahoo’s website today.
What About Australia?
Watch this space – the CORE One is coming to you soon!
Questions or Comments?
Share below!
Be handy if Wahoo roll out virtual shifting to the v5, not sure what the hold up there is….
Sam premier on virtual gearbox for V5. I hope they keep their word. I have no intention of selling v5 to buy v6-7-8… If you don’t know what’s holding them, they’re holding $. They are waiting for the end of the season to sell the V6. Before used V5s appear on the secondary market.
Good, but $600usd works out to appx $815cad. So why the extra $180 canuck tax?
That’s been pointed out to in the comments on past articles where this discrepancy existed with no response. Disappointing to try to pass this off as good news (and include another big sell of this product) when it’s really giving the short straw to Canada.
Hello From Spain
I would like to know when the virtual shifting upgrade will be available for existing users of Wahoo Kickr Core (with a normal mechanical cog set). I think I read somewhere that this upgrade would be available someday. Additionally, when this upgrade will be possible to purchase in Europe?
Many thanks! 😃
It’s already available. If you have a KICKR Core, you just need some Zwift Play Controllers in order to use virtual shifting.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for your reply.
With the Zwift Play Controllers, I still need the mechanical cog set correct? And as far as I know, it doesn’t work with Campagnolo Record.
Cheers,
You need something for a rear cassette. 😀 That can be the single Zwift Cog, or you can just use your existing cassette, which is what I do because it’s quieter/smoother.
As for Campy compatibility with Zwift Play – yeah, the thumb shifters get in the way, so if your setup has that it may be an issue.