Wattbike. Worth the money?

[Phooey]

I want a Wattbike but can't get my head around paying £2500 (Icon is only model in stock atm). I've had a look on ebay but (for obvious reasons) they are selling for upto £2000, with no warranty or guarantee they are in 100% working order. I was close to buying the Icon on Friday, using the 12x monthly payments option and even spoke to Wattbike direct. I figured if I get bored of it in 12 months I can probably sell it for £1500... but just couldn't get it to compute in my head that I might be buying an overpriced spin bike that will probably end up as a funky coat rack!

[MOBB]

Do they still offer 30 day trials?

I had an Atom and just didn’t gel with it at all, sent it back and they refunded no issues at all

Good company to deal with in my experience

[Wilmslowboy]

I have wattbike atom, had it over a year and use it very infrequently, prior to that I had a turbo trainer.


It is a nice piece of kit but I find indoor training boring when I used the turbo trainer I used to watch sufferest videos.

Just looked on ebay they appear to have shot up in value (£1,650 to £2,000) the coronavirus impact.


I wouldn't worry about buying second hand, there is little to go wrong with them, after all, you need to plug your own phone, tablet in.

[redback911]

Love mine. I use it with Zwift and Sufferfest mainly. I put it in a separate room and used it as an excuse to get a big telly.

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

Iron Cowboy...


Is that your grindr name?

[redback911]

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:

Iron Cowboy...

Is that your grindr name?

Hah! Says the Silent Running fan, who's main character is a homosexual btw. ;-)

Back to Iron Man - It does sound like a dodgy movie title, in fact it does have lots of beards, leather and chains, in the movie...

...It's about a guy who does 50 Ironman distances, in 50 states, in 50 days straight.

Honest..!

[ShortShift811]

The Icon and the Atom are very different machines. Atom much more suited to using Zwift and other third party apps and home training in my opinion.

Icon is more of a Wattbike Trainer / Pro but with a better screen (think the gym exercise bike version of a rower with fan resistance). Heavy duty and very good, but a different ride feel and purpose.

With the Icon, Wattbike have found a successful way to repurpose the Pro / Trainer machines - now very timely with the Covid-19 outbreak.

I own an Atom and used a Pro regularly before that. For training at home I’d choose the Atom every time.

[JEA1K]

Phooey said:

I want a Wattbike but can't get my head around paying £2500 (Icon is only model in stock atm). I've had a look on ebay but (for obvious reasons) they are selling for upto £2000, with no warranty or guarantee they are in 100% working order. I was close to buying the Icon on Friday, using the 12x monthly payments option and even spoke to Wattbike direct. I figured if I get bored of it in 12 months I can probably sell it for £1500... but just couldn't get it to compute in my head that I might be buying an overpriced spin bike that will probably end up as a funky coat rack!

I have a trainer bought used off ebay in September for about £800. I chose the trainer as I'd only ridden the pro at my old coaches testing room. I'd been used to a direct drive trainer with me and my Mrs swapping bikes over ... yes its a small inconvenience but training is at least daily between us both in winter.

My Mrs trains on the Wattbike app ... loads of different sessions for her and I used my Wahoo which is paired up so I can work from my training peaks programme. Pedalling is smooth and feels realistic .... the trainer is not an smart trainer so will not make automatic adjustments, which is probably key if you use Zwift. The bike feels solid ... you want to put in a massive sprint effort, it doesn't feel like its going to break!

Unfortunately prices for all indoor trainers as rocketed ... I'm sure when we hit summer, there will be hundreds for sale and rock bottom prices.

It really depends if you actually intend to train on it long term ... some people love it, some people hate it. I personally enjoy being outside ... I do not like training indoors but its a means to an end in winter and when I don't want to get piss wet through in ste weather. You can also be very specific with your training sessions which are not affected by external factors.

[Phooey]

Brill - thanks for replies. I'm only looking at the pro/trainer at the mo, not really interested in the Atom (I'm useless with tech and wi-fi is crap in our house)

I nearly bought a lightly used one for approx £1000 6 months ago.. spoke to the ebay seller etc etc and whilst trying to set up delivery/collection he sold it elsewhere. Almost £2k now.. bloody Kung-flu

[Mannginger]

I have a bad habit of buying shiny gear. I've been through an Atom, Peloton and now have a Tacx trainer.

My honest opinion if the Tacx is the best for riding Zwift etc. Having your own bike direct-mounted improves the experience as the gear changes are immediate and it's obviously immediately set-up for you.

That said, the Atom was pretty damn good but if you have a "spare" bike or are happy to inter-change rear wheels regularly I'd save the money and get a smart trainer like the Tacx or Wahoo

[anonymous-user]

Next generation Atom available from 1 July 2020

https://wattbike.com/gb/product/atom

"The next generation Wattbike Atom is an evolution of the award-winning smart bike. Introducing an electromagnetic resistance motor for a smoother and more realistic ride, the best indoor bike trainer just got better.

With Wattbike DNA at its core, the Atom improves your performance in real time with precision data and analysis like never before. Next generation Wattbike Atom reads your data 1000 times per second for an accuracy level of +/- 1% across the full power curve.

This is the next generation Wattbike Atom. The best just got better. "

[ChocolateFrog]

Those people who were paying £2800-£3000 in late March for used Atom have just been handed a bath by Wattbike.

Wonder if we'll see a glut of the first gen Atoms for sale now Lockdown is effectively over.

[okgo]

People paying over retail for them, utterly mental behaviour.

I think I am going to buy one in Autumn, good to see its been updated, a lot of the reason I'd want one is to use on Zwift. And until now it was basically impossible to win a Zwift race unless you had a kickr.

[Castrol for a knave]

I have a Wattbike Pro, with the upgrade B monitor.

A great piece of kit if you are doing really structured, targeted training, an ~FTP test on one of these is even greater purgatory than a smart trainer or the road bike.

It is, however, less than ideal for anything like Zwift or Rouvy. I've had it for about 5 years, and decided to sell it, as another winter of staring at Traineroad in my garage is more than I can bear.

The plan is to switch to a Taxc Neo 2, a big telly and something a bit more interactive. i'll still get my legs torn off by the skinny little grommets in the races, but at least it will be a little more fun training for it.

[andySC]

okgo said:

And until now it was basically impossible to win a Zwift race unless you had a kickr.

Do tell....a pal has sold the Atom to buy a Kickr, I thought this was a backwards step but maybe not after all, the little tinker.

[xcesx]

I've got a Pro Form Tour De France 5.0. I've had it a couple of years now. It does the job. I only tend to use it in the winter, I find the trainers very boring.

[Davey S2]

ChocolateFrog said:

Those people who were paying £2800-£3000 in late March for used Atom have just been handed a bath by Wattbike.

Wonder if we'll see a glut of the first gen Atoms for sale now Lockdown is effectively over.

If you have a new Atom less than 30 days old Wattbike will let you upgrade to the new version for £150.

[LimaDelta]

I use the Wattbike Atom in my work gym. It's ok for an hour or so but I struggle with comfort much after that. Also, after only a year or so of useage it has definitely aged, lots of wobbles and regular re-tightning required. I think to be fair though that most people will have them at home, set the geometry and leave them. They are not meant for multiple (different sized) users. Would I spend £2k of my own money on one? - probably not, but then I'm not a top-level cyclist looking for the ultimate training tool.

[okgo]

LimaDelta said:

I use the Wattbike Atom in my work gym. It's ok for an hour or so but I struggle with comfort much after that. Also, after only a year or so of useage it has definitely aged, lots of wobbles and regular re-tightning required. I think to be fair though that most people will have them at home, set the geometry and leave them. They are not meant for multiple (different sized) users. Would I spend £2k of my own money on one? - probably not, but then I'm not a top-level cyclist looking for the ultimate training tool.

A mate of mine has had a custom rocker plate made for his that gives movement, would likely help a lot with comfort.

[So]

LimaDelta said:

I use the Wattbike Atom in my work gym. It's ok for an hour or so but I struggle with comfort much after that. Also, after only a year or so of useage it has definitely aged, lots of wobbles and regular re-tightning required. I think to be fair though that most people will have them at home, set the geometry and leave them. They are not meant for multiple (different sized) users. Would I spend £2k of my own money on one? - probably not, but then I'm not a top-level cyclist looking for the ultimate training tool.

I think you're right that they don't like regular adjustment. The ones at our gym were rubbish. Usually something broken and it tended to be something adjustable. Unless it was the computer. All in all not brilliant.