Can anyone recommend a trainer to use with zwift?
I'm setting up a permanent trainer in the garage for the winter months as I'm not going to be out on the real roads as much during the poorer weather after my accident last year. (Wifes orders)
Looking to spend upto £300 unless theres a good reason to spend more.
Must haves are some sort of auto simulation of gradient, if such a thing exists.
I have a 22" monitor going spare which I'm mounting on the wall, & plan to use a chromecast along with either my phone or tablet to run zwift.
Does this sound like a plan or is there a better option?
Plan seems fine. I ran Zwift for several years on a cheapy 19" TV which happened to have a HDMI input for a refirbished £360 laptop I stuck more RAM and an SSD in.
You don't need much power for Zwift, my lappy still runs Zwift well at 720p (it has a GPU), but rather than advising others to do the same I'd say re-use an old gaming PC & GPU as at least then you can upgrade parts (my inbuilt 740M struggles to push 1080p over HDMI to my 36" TV at an acceptable fps when things get 'busy'). I've an old Q6600 'gaming rig' with 6GB RAM. 10+ years old. It'd be more than enough power to run Zwift at 1080p with an upgraded GPU (something like an amd 9 series, so not 'new') and an SSD (a plan I've been meaning to put into action the last couple of years). But if you don't have old PC/laptop with GPU/powerful tablet then something like the AppleTV is hard to ignore. They seem amazing spec for the money - £150. Probably money better spent than the time/hassle of S/H PC parts, windows activation etc. But do also have their quirks (limited BT channels & TV compatibility).
Member of any clubs or got friends with turbo's who'd lend you one to 'try before you buy'?
My Turbo shopping recommendation has always been: Tacx Vortex (or Flow) - Directo/KICKR Core/Flux - Neo/Neo 2. Whichever your budget fits into. Largely from my own experience and
also in line with DCR's recommendations/line of thinking.
- The reason I say Vortex/Flow (as opposed to alternatives like the Bushido/Kickr SNAP etc) is because they're the cheap end of wheel-on trainers but enough of a power curve/gradient simulation with FE-C to work well on Zwift and all the other platforms. If you're paying more for a wheel-on, it's a waste of money and you should be buying a Direct Drive.
- Save money where you can - as if you get into Zwift, you'll be upgrading to (or wishing you'd saved some money so you could) a Direct Drive within a year.
- Direto/KICKR Core/Flux as the Direto is very accurate - far more accurate then the Flux I'm using as it uses similar technology to an actual PWM.
- Core for the integration with other Wahoo equipment and the silence.
- Flux S can be loads cheaper, that's the only reason to take one over the other two, but none of them is a 'bad' choice at any price below £500.
- Neo, because why not. The pinnacle of Turbo trainers. If you're spending over a grand on one, then you're silly to get anything else.
Bit of a daft question really but Is sound a consideration with zwift?
Just realized the monitor I'm planning on using has no speakers built in.
Some people like it, I've never used it. My TV has sound and i've got it on low as the start of some races/organised group rides have an introductory kinda monologue. I have the music turned off on Zwift. Don't generally use the ambient sounds for anything, but I'll always be riding listening to something - catchup TV, or streaming music to a set of BT headphones linked to my mobile.
