Kinetic By Kurt InRide Sensor 3 Unboxing

I picked up a new Kinetic By Kurt InRide Sensor to use with my Kurt Kinetic Road Machine 2 Fluid Bike Trainer. The InRide 3 is a $50 sensor which mounts to the back of the trainer and measures speed, distance, and estimates cadence and power. You can order one from Amazon. The sensor connects to your smartphone or other bike computer using either Bluetooth or the ANT+ wireless protocol supported by a number of bicycle computers. If you need want to use the InRide with your iPhone or Android phone you’ll need it install the Kinetic Fit app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store respectively. The InRide sensor is also compatible with several other smartphone apps including…..

Inside the box, you’ll find some instruction cards, the bright green InRide sensor, a CR2032 coin cell battery, and a small magnet / grommet combination. The grommet and magnet need to be inserted into a hole in the roller on the back of your Kinetic trainer. The coin cell battery needs to be installed into the InRide sensor. I used a coin to remove the cover and install the battery. The back of the InRide sensor has an sticky pad that is used to attach the sensor to the back of the trainer, Installation is pretty straight forward and only takes a few moments.

One of the cool things about InRide is that they are able to pretty accurately estimate your cycling power output with out actually having an expensive power meter sensor.

In my case I am some what disappointed as the InRide sensor does not currently work with the Wahoo Fitness App I use with my trainer. Using my iPhone X with Bluetooth the latest version of the Wahoo Fitness app does not detect the InRide sensor. I know the sensor is working because I installed the Kinetic Fit app and it does detect the sensor. My case may be somewhat unique. In 2015 I bought an Kinetic Road Machine Trainer and the original InRide V1 sensor. I used with the Kinetic InRide app for about a year or so. One day I updated the app, and installation did not work right and I was unable to open the app. All my historical data was stored in the app, not the cloud. Kinetic told me to delete the app, and reinstall it. This was the only solution offered and would have let to me losing all the stored data.

At that point I decided to switch to the Wahoo Fitness app. I’ve been using it for years. During that time, Kinetic discontinued support for the InRide app and the InRide V1 sensor. Apparently the original sensor contained technology licensed from Wahoo. Kinetic apps no longer support the V1 sensor. Now most recently, Wahoo as released updates for their app. The app still recognizes the InRide V1 but only for distance information, it no longer reports speed, power, nor cadence.

At this point, I need to decide if I want to switch from the Wahoo Fitness app to the newer Kinetic Fit app if I want to use the new InRide sensor. The other alternative is to see if I can find some device that will “bridge” the InRide using ANT+ to my iPhone X using Bluetooth.

I ride my bike trainer almost every day for about an hour. I had everything set up the way I wanted and don’t want to spend a lot of time dealing with bike maintenance, let alone hardware and sofware update and compatibility issues.

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