Wahoo Snap + PM Good Setup vs Kickr?
 

After research I've found the downsides to wheel on: delay in power output, noise, wheel slippage, and tire wear.
If I'm not concerned about noise or tire wear and have my own PM, doesn't that mitigate some of these downsides? Is there really another reason to spend $200 more on Core or $500 more on Kickr?

Been riding a KK dumb trainer for years now so I'm very much use to wheel on trainer. I have a dedicated training wheel and just use old racing tires. I have a cave in the basement away from everyone so no real issue with noise.

I would say ride what you have. If you are looking to use a program like Zwift or TrainerRoad, the set up you have will work fine. The major upgrade with a smart trainer is the ERG mode that will set the resistance of the trainer to match what is set in these programs.

I agonized over trainer decision. To me, the minor annoyances with on-wheel are worth it considering a direct drive is $500 to $600 more. I got the Wahoo Kickr Snap and it's fairly quiet. There is a slight delay, but I can live with that. It works well with Zwift and I got a training tire for the winter months. If I was going to go on-wheel, I think the Snap is the best on-wheel trainer. Unless you take Zwift races serious, I think you'll be happy with the Snap.

Been using a Kickr SNAP for two years now, it has been fine. I don't think the added cost and complexity would have changed much for me if I went with the more expensive direct drive types for Zwift riding, but I'm not a racer.

What causes delay with wheel on? I have a Snap and don't understand this.

For SNAP users, I am also wondering if you have to do a spin-down / recalibrate every time the bike comes off / goes back on the trainer?

I went through all of this myself last year. I eventually went with wheel-off. For a wheel-on trainer the downsides were that I would need to start adding in the cost of the trainer tire, I would need to keep that tire properly inflated, and the docs seemed to imply that before every ride you needed to do a spindown (the degree to which this is actually needed is a question I have not really seen answered however).

Then I found a used Kickr on eBay for about 900$ and went with that.

Yeah, I'd really like to have a yes or no answer to "do you need to do a spindown every ride?" It's keeping me from buying at the moment, frustrating.

Spindown on SNAP: - directions say "A spindown is recommended every 2 weeks or after transporting to a new location" so not necessarily every time you put the bike on/off.

That said, to take the bike off you have to turn a knob that lowers the roller and to put the bike on you have to turn that knob the other way and raise the roller to make contact with the wheel. I put a dab of paint on the knob so I can try to return to the same pressure but that is still inexact.

So, I usually do a spindown (which takes a minute or so) after I put the bike back on but I have noticed that the results rarely indicate any major difference. When I leave the bike on the SNAP (like over the winter) I'm not doing a spindown every 2 weeks either, maybe a bit more than once a month. You can do a spindown from Zwift, which makes it pretty trivial to do but I just forget.

Tire wear is definitely an issue - I do put a different tire on for SNAP/Zwift season. I just use old worn tires. But for the occasional Zwift ride on a rainy day in season, I do ride on my outdoor tires and there is definitely some rubber dust from some softer tires (Bontrager R3) but not much noticeable from harder tires like Schwalbe Marathons.