Review on Kinetic Kurt Road Machine Control by David Ross

Due to the closure of gyms due to COVID and inclement weather in the North West, I wanted to move my workout indoors to stay in shape. I bought this machine thinking it would do so many things but was disappointed in every aspect of this purchase. Assembly: The online video was much more helpful than the instructions. I installed the flywheel upside down at first because the instructions on the box were worse than IKEA. After much frustration, I finally figured it out. App: The app does not work well with Android devices at all. It said that after the first download you will be prompted to register. It's not like this. He just wanted me to sign up. I had to ask my husband to install an app on his iPhone to set up an account and connect to the device. It took almost 2 hours to install/uninstall/attempt to connect/disconnect/reconnect the flywheel. Finally connected and after a few more reboots the flywheel was able to be connected and calibrated. Ease of use: Terrible. Every time you start this bike you have to go to the sensors via the app, connect them and then return to the workout to select a workout. Obviously you can't connect the video even with a paid subscription. This requires a separate app and subscription. If I wanted to pay $30 a month for an awful bike app and a workout/video subscription, I'd just go to the gym (if it's open). Now every time I want to exercise I have to spend 20-35 minutes connecting the sensors, which requires starting/restarting the app and sometimes turning off the flywheel multiple times. I don't have much patience. I just want to train and keep going. The quality of the device: I installed the bike correctly, but no matter how much I fiddle with it, the stupid thing tilts to one side. I see no point in using it long-term with such poor ergonomics. Frustrated, frustrated and dissatisfied, I am returning this item and getting an exercise bike that connects to wifi instead. For $500, I expected this smart trainer to do more than just track calories and miles. I was expecting the workouts to be interactive with videos, but that's not the case unless you have a subscription to another app. It also doesn't change flywheel resistance, it just measures work and uses algorithms to determine the state of your workout. I tried the FTP measurement and it took 30 minutes to get it working and I couldn't calibrate the bike at all. Notes: You must calibrate each workout. Who has time for this? The app and the bike will require multiple restarts for almost every workout to get up and running again. This does not work at all or not properly when there are other Bluetooth devices nearby. It also doesn't work properly when you try to listen to music on your device at the same time. Basically, you cannot run other apps at the same time as the Kinetic app. Also, the instructions were WRONG on so many occasions that I lost track. The big problem was that the written instructions advise installing the wrong app. I only discovered this after going online to the Kinetic website and from there going straight to the Play Store to the app in question. Save your money, look for another trainer and app unless you get frustrated every time you want to exercise.