I have trouble taking a Wahoo product seriously when it's spelled correctly. I would have expected them to stylize it as "Headwnd". Also, for $250 it'd better make me a sandwich.
So.... the best use of this fan is not all the cool smart features, but using it to manualy to change it between what appears to be 4 fixed settings within the app (25%/50%/75%/100%). My pain cave is sporting a $30 tower fan that I bought from Costco. It has a dedicated remote that lets me control the fan speed and it has 4 speeds too, but I usually run it at either the minimum setting or the maximum setting and don't much care about what's in the middle. My fan is also silent and has 2 different "wind gust modes" where the fan speed kicks up and down to simulate gusts. It's a fun little feature. Plus it has a timer to auto-shutoff after 1h/2h/3h/4h of use and can oscillate if needed (which i don't usually use). All of these features can be controlled from the remote. So i hop on my bike, and use the remote to control the fan. I usually have it on the low setting during warmup and 20 minutes in I grab the remote and move it to the top speed. I would argue that the dedicated remote is even easier to use than opening up an app on my phone and clicking through tabs and moving a slider. Just my two cents. I was actually interested in this Wahoo headwind, but after seeing the price and Ray succumb to just using the manual adjustment on his phone, then I think I will save $220 and stick with my $30 fan instead. If anyone else wants the same $30 fan its right here: www.costco.com/Cascade-40-Tower-Fan-with-Remote.product.100405139.html You might be able to walk into your nearest costco and find it too, i just saw it on an endcap at my location a few months ago and grabbed it. No regrets. I feel even better about it now. Oh and unfortunately the $30 fan doesnt have upgradable firmware, dangit.
Got this for $150 after discounts on REI. So far quite impressed as the unit is super quiet yet puts out a massive blast of concentrated air where you sit on the bike. The fan rpm ramping is silky smooth and responsive. Well worth the full price - just one of those devices that simply works the way it was meant to be.
Great review Ray. I like how Wahoo is trying different things to make riding indoors more interesting. Beach balls, smoke machines...Magic. You guys are having too much fun. Now if I could get one to review I would be all set. 😀
Next week Ray reviews the Wahoo rain/storm attachment for the wind machine...soon we will have a pothole machine, angry car driver(road rage levels 1-5) and the rabid dog attachments. Can't Wait
Wait until the cycling VR bike helmet happens...everything all inside the helmet with surround sound and internal helmet cooling...give it 5-8 years if that.
Good grief. I was wondering whether it was April 1st. What's their next product - a robotic dog that attacks your ankles? A UV light to give you a sunburn?
Your article is the only place I've found that this fan will eventually get multi channel BT connections but haven't seen it implemented on my fan yet. Am I doing something wrong?
What I immediate notice was smallish fan=more noise at a given setting. Am currently auditioning my zero-noise Stac Zero in the living room and my large ceiling fan (it has remote) is doing its job silently at very low RPM, I think I will stick with that.
This has one application- VR. Tacx Neo + Kickr Climb + Headwind all interacting with Zwift. Take a turn out front and the resistance goes up but so does the wind. Feel resistance kick up w the gusts at the top of ADZ. Maybe even some day a random gust on an exposed flat let’s you know it’s time to set up an echelon. That’ll be an exciting day.
Hmm... not sure if this product is worth $250. Seriously, I could have got a GoPro or a Garmin that are more useful than blowing air. My fan can rotate if I'm too cold, has a remote to change speed, rotation and doesn't break a bank. Even if this product is sold $125 bucks.. I still won't buy it. It's a just a fan... The goal is to cool me while riding indoors.
Just got one, it's very good. It creates a wind feeling with the stream of air that actually feels like a breeze with variance. One thing that could be improved as mentioned the speed setting does not make the fan blow full strength if you set the max speed at 25 or whatever. It is more a limit on the strength of the wind at that speed.
Is this some kind of April fools joke from Wahoo that is several months late.... $250 for a fan seriously what is this world coming too and is there someone out there stupid enough to pay that much for a fan. $35 fan from stratco does the job.
Ray i need some help: I always ride indoor with my TT bike (so...a lot of my rides are in aero position except when i 'climb' on zwift). Because i'm a class A sweater i need a fan even in winter, even if my paincave is not heated and there are 5/10°. But i usually have to protect my bike with a towel (and during a 2h workout i need about 2 towels...4 or 5 when i train in summer !!!). So i think that the towel could block the airflow if iuse the Headwind on the ground. Do u think i can put the Headwind on my desk , near the monitor i use for zwift (about 50 cm from my head when i ride in aero position) ???
A ball of wool, cut into tufts and tied to a stick, would have been far more useful than your smoke machine. Or even a small flag. Glad you had fun doing the video though.
Thanks for the extensive review. I too LOOOOOVE the desk, but i will pass on the fan... 229 EUR is too much for a fan that i would basically always use full on...
Expensive but really good and useful. Probably much more than Climb or any other gimmick like rocker plates etc. For people who have problems with overheating it might make world of difference.
It's one of the best unique pieces of indoor equipment out there. Trainers, desk units, heart rate monitors, all are pretty similar but this fan is unique in its auto stepping functionality and perfectly focused air blast to keep you cool, while ramping down when your efforts decrease so you don't end up actually getting too cold. I have my setup in a room with a lot of papers on tables and curtains on the side and none of it ends up being blown around as it would if there was a regular fan and its stray wind patterns.
hello ray, maybe you can help me with this one question. Is the air stream directed enough not to hit the shoulders but only the upper body? I have the problem, that when my shoulders get cold the muscles block and I get a bad neck.
The Fact that if you have the Desk & can’t use it head on. Killed it. Yeah Not down with Fan Tech. Get the Desk for the money. But your right. Make it 120 bucks. I would probably buy. Maybe make a Dum version. Just the fan no Tech. And 100 bucks. I would buy for sure.
At $250, the boat, the train, and the target were all missed. Not to mention it's wide of the mark. And is it fixed, does it not tilt? Great thinking outside the box, but come on Wahoo.
To be fair, I love Wahoo products. I own an original Kickr, an Elemnt, a Bolt, and a couple of Tickr monitors, and they are all great products. It just feels like they could sell so many of these fans and the tables if they were more reasonably priced. Who knows, maybe they are. Just my 25,000 cents.
Thanks DCR. "It's a fan. A $250 fan." That's what I kept thinking the whole time Shane was gushing like a school girl over this $250 fan in his review.
30 dollar pedestal fan with remote. Keep the remote in your jersey pocket and change when needed. But I'm sure a lot of suckers will buy this. So easily fooled
Jeff Rejent those same suckers are those like me who were on the verge of putting together the DIY version posted on Zwift forums about a year ago that can only do 3 speeds even in automatic, and cost at minimum an Arduino, a fair bit of soldering, likely a good deal of troubleshooting, etc, and voiding a decent bit of warranties. I also was looking at getting a variably controllable fan and recoding some of the code for that (and adding different actuators to activate it), but that'd be even MORE time and money. If I didn't value my time at all, that fan would be likely 70-90 dollars to get equivalent airflow. Add in the Arduino and parts stuff and it's definitely over $100 (probably over $150), but likely with lots more bugs, troubleshooting, and general jankiness. And if it goes wrong, I don't have any customer service to call - just hours to spend myself scratching my head. So if you don't find the "smartness" valuable then yeah it's dumb. But if you do then compared to the only other options out there right now... it's actually not that badly priced. The same was true for smart trainers themselves at the start, although granted this is moreso finishing that idea whereas smart trainers were starting it.
