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Pain cave indoor trainer setups

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,195
4,419
What does it cost to get into a desirable trainer setup for something like zwift? And what would that look like?
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
I’d get a used kickr, 450-700, hr strap, and an old pc or iPad. Plus two fans, one for the head and one for the body. Kickr has the power meter in it.
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,195
4,419
I’d get a used kickr, 450-700, hr strap, and an old pc or iPad. Plus two fans, one for the head and one for the body. Kickr has the power meter in it.
They’re going for $1000 used here. Wild stuff.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
They’re going for $1000 used here. Wild stuff.
That is wild. I bought an elite suito for about 550, but I’m not a huge fan of it. I’ve seen wahoo units going for 450 and up, and that’s probably what I’d recommend. The suito struggles with high power low gearing and I have to run a secondary cadence sensor.

anyways, that should be it. I run Zwift on a gaming pc for the sick graffix yo, but I had it on a 12 year old laptop prior and it worked fine. You do need Bluetooth or ant+, but you could probably get away with just Bluetooth. Cadence power and resistance are all done through the smart trainer.
 

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
15,827
13,063
Ideally you want a direct drive trainer, so you remove the rear wheel from your bike and have a cassette on the trainer that the bike then uses.

Lots of different brands to choose from. It will connect to your computer/tablet via bluetooth for whatever app you decide to use.
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,195
4,419
Looking around, this is a $2000 cad thing… or maybe $1000 cad used. Pretty steep! Combined with my road bike refurb next month, I suppose I will be training outside this winter.
 

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
15,827
13,063
Looking around, this is a $2000 cad thing… or maybe $1000 cad used. Pretty steep! Combined with my road bike refurb next month, I suppose I will be training outside this winter.
Your outlay will be against the below, fan and workout mat you might already have, presuming you already have a laptop or tablet etc to use with the app you choose

Smart trainer (plus cassette matching the range on your road bike, no need to spend on the expensive version)
Rubber mat (yoga mat or similar works)
Big fan
Ongoing software subscription - most platforms have a short demo period so you can try a bunch first.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
Ideally you want a direct drive trainer, so you remove the rear wheel from your bike and have a cassette on the trainer that the bike then uses.

Lots of different brands to choose from. It will connect to your computer/tablet via bluetooth for whatever app you decide to use.
You can just take your cassette off and slap it on the trainer. That's what I did.

@dump
Not sure if these help, but them are the cheapest smart trainers you can get. The elites are nice as they come with thru axle adapters. I have struggled with the sensor quality but it's largely fine.

You can get a wheel-on for way less, but I'm not sure if it's any good. You'd need a trainer tire, ideally, and have to worry about tire pressure etc. Not sure where a good canadian classified section is, but if you can jump the border you can get them for way less, apparently.

Might be tough because it's winter and they're all in use. I bought mine in the summertime for this reason.
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,195
4,419
You can just take your cassette off and slap it on the trainer. That's what I did.

@dump
Not sure if these help, but them are the cheapest smart trainers you can get. The elites are nice as they come with thru axle adapters. I have struggled with the sensor quality but it's largely fine.

You can get a wheel-on for way less, but I'm not sure if it's any good. You'd need a trainer tire, ideally, and have to worry about tire pressure etc. Not sure where a good canadian classified section is, but if you can jump the border you can get them for way less, apparently.

Might be tough because it's winter and they're all in use. I bought mine in the summertime for this reason.
Good to know. Think I’m going to wait. No more border crossing in my near future. Was far too much of a headache last time around… and not worth the risk getting stuck.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
rower 2.jpg


here's the current thing. Starting my build 1 phase with boring z2 miles. trashpicked a 32" TV that's hooked up to the PC on the other side of the door. Works great.