The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

[AndyCr15]

I tried a few of them when Zwift changed its price and whilst I cancelled, when it comes round in May, I'll probably just renew Zwift for another year as to me it still is the best. I tried MyWhoosh, but it crashed about a mile into a ride, so that's off the list. I liked Rouvy for the real world rides that you can do and the pace partners it would drop in based on your current pace. I think they have workouts too, but I don't know Rouvy works for a long 2 or 3 hour free ride, where Zwift works really well.

 

[Martynt74]

Ah, that's a good point on free rides if the routes they show are just point to point. Maybe they just have a reset from the beginning, although unsure how that would impact accumulated distance/ascent if it's only set at a specific part of the course. Realistically if i did a long 2-3hr ride, i'd be tempted to just use Netflix and some kind of erg mode on the bike rather than another platform.

Think that's why i'm considering Trainer Road, as it should integrate better into overall riding. I guess my use case is a bit different to the Uk as in theory the weather should be fine to ride outdoors 99% of the time as opposed to rain meaning a requirement to be indoors. Although it's been horrifically windy for the last few days!

I know everything does a free trial for a month, but it's a real hassle going through setup i think to find something i actually like!

 

[AndyCr15]

Realistically if i did a long 2-3hr ride, i'd be tempted to just use Netflix and some kind of erg mode on the bike rather than another platform.

I know a few people that can do this. For me it doesn't work. I can't say why, but I get bored and things start to ache. Yesterday I did 2 hours on Zwift, on a 30 mile route, with a small climb in the second half and about 4 sprints dotted along the route. The 30 miles took about 1.5 hours, and I kept going to get 40 miles. Just the variation in effort, the sprints thrown in, the climb, the variety just kept me a little more engaged. I guess the route itself gave some meaning to riding too. All the time I was still listening to an audiobook, it's just I didn't get bored with the cycling element of things.

As said, if you know you can pedal for 2 to 3 hours, watching a film, then sure. I would just go that route.

 

[Syla5]

Anyone tried the Zwift ride?

Yes had mine a while now and its great, I already had a kickr v6 trainer and earlier this year had got some zwift play controllers and really like the virtual shifting, so the change over to a zwift ride which opens up even more virtual shifting options and frees up my road bike was a no brainer.

the cost of it, you could get an actual decent road bike..

Its all relative, if you dont plan on doing out door cycling then compared to the static smart bike options is actually very cheap!

 

[fez]

Yes had mine a while now and its great, I already had a kickr v6 trainer and earlier this year had got some zwift play controllers and really like the virtual shifting, so the change over to a zwift ride which opens up even more virtual shifting options and frees up my road bike was a no brainer.

Its all relative, if you dont plan on doing out door cycling then compared to the static smart bike options is actually very cheap!

You just get the frame?

Have to say, I wouldn't be able to justify forking out for one of the proper high end bikes like the kickr bike v2 brand new but I am glad I bought a second hand kickr bike v1. I just pull it out, plug it in and I'm ready. Virtual shifting is great, I'm not faffing with and potentially damaging my road bike (for some reason I really struggle with doing up my rear thru axel to the right torque unless I use a torque wrench).

On an unrelated note. Do any of you guys occasionally do AdZ as a training session? Feels like quite a good way to do an hour a bit workout.

 

[Martynt74]

You just get the frame?

I just pull it out, plug it in and I'm ready.

 

[Syla5]

You just get the frame?

Have to say, I wouldn't be able to justify forking out for one of the proper high end bikes like the kickr bike v2 brand new but I am glad I bought a second hand kickr bike v1. I just pull it out, plug it in and I'm ready. Virtual shifting is great, I'm not faffing with and potentially damaging my road bike (for some reason I really struggle with doing up my rear thru axel to the right torque unless I use a torque wrench).

On an unrelated note. Do any of you guys occasionally do AdZ as a training session? Feels like quite a good way to do an hour a bit workout.

Yeah i just got the frame as i already had the smart trainer. I only got in to cycling at the start of the year and havent done any outdoor rides, so i didnt want to go all in on a full smart trainer. Then the ride options came about and now ive upgraded to this, its not game changing in anyway but it is much better.

My power output on the play controllers would be limited to if i was in the big ring or not and there were no ratio options so i would cap out my power around 900-1k watts even though before using v-shifting i had hit over that. Now with the ride, and the ability to pick proper ratios im able to peak my sprints over 1300.

 

[Martynt74]

Annoying. Decathlon bike got delivered but is missing the power cable. It’s a 12v 6ah power brick and not something I have lying around

 

[fez]

Annoying. Decathlon bike got delivered but is missing the power cable. It’s a 12v 6ah power brick and not something I have lying around

If it makes you feel any better, I was selling my Kickr recently and a guy asked for a video of it working before he came to collect. I plugged it in to test and the first thing that happened was the PSU went pop.

 

[Martynt74]

If it makes you feel any better, I was selling my Kickr recently and a guy asked for a video of it working before he came to collect. I plugged it in to test and the first thing that happened was the PSU went pop.

It does!

I've ordered one from Amazon, but currently getting nowhere with Decathlon which is pretty disappointing. Making me want to just return it and get the Kickr Bike Shift. Albeit at twice the cost! Problem is it's a slippery slope. Ooh the Wahoo Shift is €2k, oh but the bike V2 is €2.6k definitely worth the extra €600. Then oh but the full fat version is €3.8k i definitely need that....

 

[fez]

Seems the reason my Kickr bike wasn't tilting was probably because I have trainer difficulty set to 50% so it was essentially halving every gradient. Set it to 100% and thats all working OK now. Only issue is that now I need to faff with the gears on it because I think doing AdZ with my current gearing will be horrible. Maybe I just need to get stronger

 

[Martynt74]

Found a different support page which has been excellent and restored some faith, so Decathlon are sending extra stuff and i'm back to the UK tomorrow so hopefully it's all here before i return

 

[PikeyPriest]

On an unrelated note. Do any of you guys occasionally do AdZ as a training session? Feels like quite a good way to do an hour a bit workout.

Yes. I think it works really well but depends on your fitness. If you can do the climb in 60 minutes you can have a 10 minute warm up and 10 minute coast back down. I used to do it with medium SST when I wanted the Tron bike. I’ve not done it for a while, but maybe January when I finish my 3 month Trainer Road plan I might try for a PB.