Went by thrift store - found a 10 foot USB cable (2$), a bike water bottle(1$) and a 4$ set of generic flat pedals. And a few unrelated things that we happened to need.

Got home and started playing with the Bolt+Kickr - that's an interesting pairing all by itself without Zwift. You need to first add the Kickr to the Bolt as a sensor (using Bluetooth, this time). The first time I tried that, the BT on the Kickr was all tied up talking to the phone so the Bolt could only see ANT - needed to undo that and reconnect with BT.

Next, go into Strava and save a route (could be a previous ride you have already done). Apparently you don't need a paid membership - a free membership is good enough.

As soon as I started to ride, a new page comes up on the Bolt that is Kickr specific. And there is a place where you can pick up the same route that you saved in Strava, and tell the thing you want to ride that route. The map on the Bolt switches to the starting point of the Route, and it is like you are riding that route all over again. You get to do segments if you want. It is just like riding the route for real.


When I was done, the ride was auto-uploaded to Strava (no KOM however - that wouldn't be fair).

I don't know the extent to which the route stuff works if you have a non-Wahoo trainer.

I only did a relatively short ride (25 minutes or so). One thing I realized was that I didn't level the bike - it is leaning off to the side a little bit. Secondly there was some squeaking from the drive train somewhere - probably bottom bracket (chain is brand new). I haven't ridden this bike in a few years - it wouldn't surprise me if the bearings had gone dry. So more mechanical stuff to do before my next ride. I am pretty sure I have a puller to get the crank arms off, so regreasing the bearings ought not be a huge problem, but I need to validate that this is the problem before I attempt any of this.