I know there are bike people here, I'm gonna buy my lad an indoor trainer for use with his own bike, wants one that doesn't require chain removal as it's his road bike. He will be using the Zwift app.
Anyone recommend one? Budget 500 quid, he'll be using an old TV we've got, I assume he just plugs in his MacBook with hdmi and away he goes. Will put the TV on one of those purpose stands
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If he doesn't go direct drive then he'll need to use a turbo trainer tyre as it will ruin his normal tyre. Best thing to do is get a cheap spare back wheel and cassette then fit an indoor tyre to it and use that. I've got a Trax Vortex smart trainer which works well with Zwift. Should be able to.pick one up.off eBay for a half decent price.
Forgot to say you don't need to remove the chain when using a direct drive type, you just remove the back wheel and use the bike chain on the cassette that's fitted to the trainer instead of a wheel.
Thanks, he just said he wants to avoid that I'll ask him againOriginally Posted by Toddy
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10x easier to remove the back wheel and go direct drive than have a spare wheel hanging around
Totally agree. Just get a cheap bike with a widely available cassette and quick release rear wheel. Then spend the money on as good a direct drive trainer as you can afford.
I've no idea what a widely available cassette
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I have a Kinetic "smart" fluid trainer that worked well with Zwift. However there are smart trainers, and then there are smart trainers .. it doesn't always mean the same thing. Some will vary the pedalling resistance while you're going uphill in Zwift. Mine doesn't but I found it pretty immersive anyway. You still have to put more effort in to get up a hill.
You replace the rear skewer with a special one (which you can leave on for the road), mount it onto the trainer then tighten until you've got the proper contact / friction between the tyre and flywheel.
I haven't used it for a few years but I did a lot of Zwift miles on it without ruining the rear tyre. I've done about 800 road miles on the same tyre since. I've no doubt it did increase the wear but if you set it up properly, you can get away without using a dedicated rear wheel unless you absolutely hammer it on the trainer.
Would have a look at the list of supported trainers on the Zwift site.
I've got one of these
https://uk.wahoofitness.com/devices/...BoCs5UQAvD_BwE
and it's night and day better than the wheel on trainer i had before. The wheel on will work but the direct drive trainers feel a lot more natural in terms of acceleration and going up hills. On the wheel on trainer i had (a Taxc) there was a noticeable delay in terms of putting down the power and the trainer spinning up.
I use my road bike on it and it takes a couple of mins to take it off and put the wheel on to go outside. It's a chunk of money but when you start to add up the cost of a wheel on trainer, spare wheel, turbo tyre and cassette you won't be a huge amount away.
I do 2-3 zwift sessions a week and they are superb. The races are brutal.
Think they mean 10 or 11 speed cassette, with a range of 11 - 28, or 12-27, 12 -30 etc teeth on the individual 'cogs' ?
Yeah that's it - on a direct drive you basically leave your rear wheel as it and then fit a new cassette to the direct drive trainer.
So swapping is as simple as taking the wheel off and fixing the bike to the trainer. Couple of mins tops.
The only think you need to know is how many rear gears the road bike has and then match that to the new cassette. most likely going to be 10 or 11 speed.
Agreed, to my mind the faff is the same, not massive (but enough for me to choose a Wattbike Atom smart trainer but I am notoriously lazy 🙄 ) however the ride experience is better on a wheel on according to the many people I know with trainers...but that said ...a half decent wheel on is fine too and I know plenty of people who have those and are happy. It depends how fussy he is - if he just wants to go on Zwift and crank out some Watts anything will do.
Make sure it is properly smart eg some just report numbers to Zwift, you want one that is fully controllable by the app in terms of resistance etc.
Just one thing to note, I know a few people who have cracked carbon frames on trainers. If he has a carbon bike worth considering a cheap ali or steel to avoid breaking it.
An atom is a significant amount more cash tho
I've been thinking about upgrading my old CycleOps fluid trainer to a smarter one potentially with direct drive. Are there any fine-tuning adjustments you make to the trainer to align the cassette on the trainer to the rear mech on the bike? I'm assuming by their popularity that you don't have to tweak the rear mech every time you mount the bike on the trainer! I've swapped out Shimano wheels for Zipp wheels, etc, in the past, and there seems to be some variability in cassette placement from hub to hub.
It's my road bike that goes onto my wahoo. It's a '17 supersix evo with the latest 105 groupset and with the rear derailier set up for campag or hunt wheels it's perfect on a sunrace 11 speed cassette. It's a lot of money to upgrade from wheel on but i've never regretted it.
Biggest difference for me is during races (you can react to people leaping ahead much more quickly) and in the long uphills where i used to be able to stop / slow my pedals and not have that much of an impact. Now it's much more like the road, you pay almost instantly on the big gradients. Which was initially a shock :D
I purchased an Elite Novo Smart Turbo Trainer from Halfords 12 months ago which was within mine (cough, the wife’s) budget. I’m a trainers over tyres chap all day long so didn’t feel the need to spend a fortune but this came highly recommended by a couple of cycling buddies.
Wife’s old CAAD12 is parked on it in the garage and it’s great fun.
I use with a MacBook plugged into a tv and Bluetooth to my Garmin Fenix and HRM.
Pitch
Last edited by Pitch3110; 9th November 2021 at 18:56.
Thanks all, he just wants one to pop his bike in over Christmas in the garage, will shop for those
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I've also got an Elite Novo smart trainer which pairs directly to Zwift and I use this with a Windows 10 laptop. I started using it plugged into the telly, but as I have to split it all apart after use (no dedicated space to ride), I took to putting my MS Surface on a music stand instead and found that was adequate, despite the small screen.
The Novo (and many wheel-on trainers) are limited to simulate a gradient of max. 6% while the direct drive trainers (and higher end kit) will go up to 12%
I can't say that's particularly bothered me for just being able to ride indoors and keep out of the bad weather throughout the winter.
I've got a spare set of wheels so just fitted another 11 speed cassette and a turbo tyre and left it on the bike in the winter.
Thanks for advice, he bought one and a Tele from second hand shop, moved a mesh point to the garage and dug an old Apple TV out of the loft and he's away
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Depending on how much he uses it and for how long you might want to consider a turbo trainer specific rear tyre as it can get pretty hot on the roller and a standard road tyre will wear very quickly.
…& you might also wear the roller out if you do enough miles
Get two Wi-Fi plugs on those fans or if he gets into it get a strong fan from Screwfix. Think they’re called industrial floor fans. Should be under £50.
Respect to that man Trident. You must have done thousands of miles on that roller to wear it away. No wonder your TT times are so good. Its all the winter “secret training”:)…& you might also wear the roller out if you do enough miles
Steve
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