The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Cheers guys. I have virtual power based on my Kurt Road Machine - the jump from was around 120W to 360W. Probably took me 3 to 4 seconds to jump and shift gears to hit 350W to 400W for each interval.

I'd forgotten how tough Half is Easy is. Only 36 minutes long but I thought I was going to be sick after the last interval as that is 25 seconds rather than 15.
 
Roady said:
Never seen/heard/experienced it but always used Samsung Smart TV's. Is your indoor a Panasonic with similar software? Check all updates and reinstall app etc.

Our current 4K is what I would describe as 'buggy'. It'll randomly 'lose' it's wifi signal when starting up and you have to power cycle it to get it online. It'll run the Eurosport app but more recently within 15-20 mins it'll freeze needing a soft power off & back on. Similar behaviour with the native NowTV app and YouTube app, it'll struggle for signal and be really slow at times. Power cycling soft/hard reset makes it behave again probably 80% the time. I've taken to streaming from my phone to a Chromecast for Eurosport and we've plugged in a standalone NowTV box and they work flawlessly not losing signal/requiring power cycles.

Doesn't help our home plus.net fibre has been scetchy since around the time we also got the TV. Doesn't matter if TV is on or not so think totally unrelated.
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Tried resetting the app. Didn't want to go as far as doing a factory reset on the TV itself but it still doesn't work. Might have to look at a different solution for indoor stuff later on in the year.
 
#Chri5# said:
Cheers guys. I have virtual power based on my Kurt Road Machine - the jump from was around 120W to 360W. Probably took me 3 to 4 seconds to jump and shift gears to hit 350W to 400W for each interval.

I'd forgotten how tough Half is Easy is. Only 36 minutes long but I thought I was going to be sick after the last interval as that is 25 seconds rather than 15.
Click to expand...
Riding a wheel on trainer, is nothing like riding a direct drive. I rode a Road Machine II for several years, admittedly not one with Smart Control (only the InRide) but it is nothing like the Flux. Riding 'virtual power' like that is just like riding any 'dumb' trainer (from a speed/cadence sensor) and switching then to the Vortex Smart was a big change, then another huge change to Direct Drive.

I'd say the power curve is much steeper - the resistance ramps up harder, without the huge 'spikes' you generally get on a wheel-on (which can come from wheel slip) along with feeling 'smoother'. The power curve has to be much steadier to avoid wheel slip on wheel-on, so the response isn't quick enough for the jump required on a short interval, so the riders expected kick 'overpowers' the power response/curve/delay. Maybe even relatively small ones like those of 240W (120-360w) you found taking several seconds for the resistance to be fully applied...

Pringle W said:
Tried resetting the app. Didn't want to go as far as doing a factory reset on the TV itself but it still doesn't work. Might have to look at a different solution for indoor stuff later on in the year.
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Get a Chromecast, they're ace, then just cast whatever from your Phone to it. Another alternative is getting a NowTV box for your YouTube. Sounds a bit counter intuitive but they're cheap & cheerful - often times people buy them for the NowTV intro subscription offer cards they come with and flog the units (can work out cheaper than just renewing the subscription). I'd offer you one of ours but the other half flogged them for £7-8 each (and we considered that a great sale). You should be able to grab one for a fiver. The NowTV box can be used for various things - you can install apps on it as well as using NowTV (which is just an app on there). They're not as flexible as a Firestick or Chromecast but far far cheaper! :cool:
 
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?
 
I bought the Tacx Bushido for £270 from Wiggle which I would say is good for the money, but have been wondering recently if I should spend more for a wheel off and work out how I can make space in my flat. (Bought the Tacx as it doesn't need power as I don't have power up at the garage)
 
I took a big gamble and paid ~£640 for a Direto ~19 months ago, but it's been worth it, the 14% slope simulation and a decent integrated power meter made me see the benefit of training by power... So much so I bought a 4iiii 105 crank power meter a few months later for outdoor rides.

There's been some great deals on Diretos in recent weeks, as low as ~£450 IIRC.
 
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.
 
It's not been a consideration for me as I listen to music, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything, based on the background music on the pre-ride screens. I wouldn't be able to hear much anyway, over the noise from the turbo and the fan.
 
Robzere31 said:
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?
Click to expand...
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. :cool:
Robzere31 said:
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.
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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.
 
Thanks Roady for the details.

I'm going to start off running Zwift on either my Note 9 phone, or Tab S4 tablet, which hopefully will suffice for my first forray.
If I get into it, I may look at something better (more powerful)

I only have a dumb trainer ATM, hence looking for something better, I've looked at the Tacx before, whioch looks good.
The wheel off trainer mentioned earlier maybe something I would go for if I do get into indoor trainer more.
 
I have a Vortex hooked up to my 10.5 iPad Pro, it seems to run well but @Roady is spot on as I will be going for a direct drive this winter - Kickr core being front runner at the moment! I tried a Kickr in a shop and it was immediately much better than my Vortex, I don’t regret getting the Vortex at all as I’ve done 900km on it since feb and I didn’t know I would enjoy Zwift so a couple of hundred quid was not much of a risk!

I don’t have the sound / music on - listen to podcasts with some BT headphones, I use AirPods but probably going to look into other options as I occasionally have one fall out so probably want something more secure!
 
Robzere31 said:
Thanks Roady for the details.
Click to expand...
No probs, you know I'll always share my experiences/opinions! ;)

Headphones I'm using are TaoTronics and highly recommended. Some cheapy Amazon brand which have been amazing for us, these are the current (higher spec than mine) for a few quid less than I paid. We've had 2 pairs (for about 2.5 years) and the cheapest are only just starting to play up. We use them 1-2 hours a night watching TV. Can't argue for £16. The more expensive £22 'sports' one (sweat proof) I also use on the turbo paired to Sammy S7, probably very similar to those I linked and are still going strong. Battery life has started to suffer a little and having to charge them more than once a week - still can't argue for the 2-3 hours of turbo riding & 10-15 hours of TV they do a week. Have always easily got more life out of each charge than the quoted estimates!

We got the matching Taotronics optical broadcast unit for our new Samsung smart TV (10 months old) and it's a pain with 2 headsets paired with it. Plays up every 4-5 days and needs resetting & both hairphones re-pairing. Wouldn't advise getting one. I'm sure there are better other brands with hardcoded/paired headphones with a transmitter, but we already had the headphones so seemed logical. Meh.
 
I was feeling pretty good yesterday, solo blast to nursery I found was able to sit at my old FTP (270W) which is quite a result considering I've been estimating it at 250-ish for a while (which seemed pretty accurate). Really overdue a test I think! Rode the Chariot back around 10-15 mins later at a good tempo with that average around 200W, which is around normal. My legs where feeling a little flat afterwards though (not unusual second consecutive day of chariot towing, especially in gusty winds as the torque required really fatigues, regardless of the power).

Jumped into a short iTT on Zwift in the evening. Legs still feeling good with power numbers good still, I fluxuated between holding 270W/300W and recovering at my FTP which pushed the average up. Rolling end I powered up a few of the ramps but had to ease to recover. 272W average for 15 mins. Even had enough left for a power finish & sprint! I jumped into a race afterwards hoping to continue the power a little but it dumped me on the TT bike so I dropped out. Extended the start into a 10 minute session at FTP, still felt fairly good but fatigue had built up and was starting to run out of time. Nice long cooldown was in order after the earlier iTT, normally 10 mins would be enough but had to extend to 15 minutes after a friend joined on me and goaded me into racing up the slight drag lol :rolleyes:
 
Too much rain tonight for a Monday night chainy. Jumped on a spin bike at the gym

10 minute warmup
4:23 @ 410-440w (3.2k test to compete with a mate who's been trying to beat 5 minutes)
10 minute spin
1 minute @ 440w
1 minute @ 100w ish x 10
Spin down.

Jumped on the leg press and leg extension straight after it too :D
 
Just purchased an Elite Direto to replace my awful Tacx Flow. Was trying to decide between the elite offerings and a Kickr Core but went with the direto due to price. (£480).

*Edit*

I've got a spare Trainerroad 1 month referral, if anyone is interested. It reads as though they need to be new users on the referrals page.
Trust me your name and email and I'll send it over.
 
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Let me know what you think of the elite directo.
I'm going to be in the market for a new trainer, i currently still use a Tacx Setori.....:eek:

In other news I did my first Zwift ride last night, I can certainly see the appeal. So much so I've decided to build a cheap 2nd PC for the garage to run Zwift.
Works fine on note 9 & chromecast, but at quite a low resolution, plus there are features missing.
It also gives me an excuse to build another PC :D
 
Hi All, apologies if this is a question that has been asked many times. I'm after advice on what trainer to get? I haven't previously had a trainer before but with winter months coming and having a young family I'm not going to be able to get out much and I don't want to sign up to a gym.

Is there a cheap smart trainer which I can plug my laptop into for data? I'm really sorry if this is vague, I'm unsure of where to start.
 
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