Did a Bike Brand Just Launch the Ultimate Treadmill?

Since its founding in 2009, Atlanta-based Wahoo Fitness has consistently delivered excellent products in pretty much every space it has entered.

While the brand does make heart rate monitors and various training accessories, its most celebrated offerings are cycling-related, including its KICKR indoor trainers and smart bikes, ELEMNT bike computers, RPM cycling sensors and SPEEDPLAY pedals.

But can all that hard-won expertise carry over and help dominate another huge fitness activity, indoor running?

From the looks of the brand’s latest product, it just might. Meet the new KICKR RUN, Wahoo’s very first treadmill.

Wahoo

Wahoo Kickr Run

• $5,000 at Wahoo

Features galore

For the record, we are hardly treadmill experts — and GP’s in-house running ace is indisposed at the moment, on his way to this weekend’s Chicago marathon, where he aims to try out the KICKR RUN at the expo (before running the actual race of course). 

From what we have seen and read, however, Wahoo is making up for its lack of running experience with enthusiasm, fresh ideas and concepts borrowed from its bike training products. Here are some notable features you won’t find on many other treadmills — if any.

Wahoo Fitness

Responsive running

The KICKR RUN feature the brand is quickest to shout out is what it’s calling RunFree Mode. There’s a big button on the right side of the console you can tap to activate it.

When you do, the treadmill employs fancy position-sensing tech to automatically adjust the belt speed to your stride, enabling you to run much like you would on the street – less focused on numbers and simply embracing what the moment brings … indoors.

Wahoo Fitness

Dynamic terrain

One trademark of Wahoo’s indoor cycling products is the various elements the brand has introduced to mimic the feel of outdoor riding.

That quality also appears in the treadmill, through such features as Automatic Grade Control, which changes the angle of the platform (from 15% incline to 3% decline) when used with a compatible app — Zwift Run, Final Surge, Kinomap, Humango, Training Peaks, etc. — that puts you on a virtual route with its own ups and downs.  

Wahoo Fitness

On a related note, the KICKR RUN offers what Wahoo calls a “Clean Console.” Rather than yet another screen directly in front of you on the console, there’s simply a flat, angled surface to put your phone, tablet or laptop — then pull up an app, pair it and get moving. That approach makes a lot of sense for the way people operate these days.

Replicating the side-to-side movement present in its best bike trainers, the KICKR RUN also offers Responsive Surface and Lateral Tilt. The platform itself provides a natural energy return and also tilts up to 1.5 degrees, activating your stabilizer muscles and getting closer to the feel of running outdoors.

Serious speed

This one is simple: The KICKR RUN’s belt can spin at up to a 4-minute-mile pace, ensuring that just about everyone but Emmanual Wanyonyi will be pushed to their limit by the machine. 

Wahoo Fitness

Tactile controls

Last but certainly not least: On either side of the console, you’ll find actual, physical control paddles. The one on the left allows you to adjust the grade, while the one on the right deals with speed.

This charmingly old-school quality, in the midst of a very new-school product, might actually be the one we are most curious to experience. More on that and everything else once our erstwhile editor has a chance to give this thing a run. 

Availability and pricing

The Wahoo KICKR RUN is available now for $4,999. It requires in-home scheduled delivery and set-up for $300 and cannot ship outside of the contiguous United States.

Wahoo

Wahoo Kickr Run

• $5,000 at Wahoo

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