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I have a full sus as my only bike but given the uk weather and injuries preventing running means I'm looking at a turbo set up to keep fit. I like the idea of a smart trainer with zwift to keep things interesting but never used it.
I have £1k to spend, where would your money go? Currently thinking of a wahoo kick core (£700) and a £300 Decathlon road bike
^ That is exactly what I was going to suggest. Spend a bit of money on a decent fan, especially if you plan on Zwifting from now til Autumn. Other than that you'll need a ANT+ dongle, HRM if you don't have one and a mop! 😉 Welcome aboard.
Are you going to ride the road bike outside? If not just get a Wattbike - that's what I'll be doing this autumn when I've paid off my current trainer.
Only issue with that £300 decathlon bike may be the rear cassette/mech compatibility with the kickr.
Wiggle have currently got the Elite Direto for £500 with 0% finance available.
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/elite-direto-smart-turbo-trainer
I went for one a month or so ago & have been very impressed with it so far. My previous trainer was a Tacx Flow Smart & the difference between that & the Direto is night & day.
That will leave you with £500 to spend on a bike.
I've got a cheapo Pinnacle (Evan's own brand) 7 speed road bike on a Kickr Core, works fine but you'll need additional spacers for the cassette for 7speed. The Kickr is a really good bit of kit.
As others have said - a decent fan is a must, and an HR monitor.
My Direto is 15 months old. Done over 2000km on it. It's been absolutely solid. Absolutely no need for the newer model. That's ^^^ a good deal, I'd get one of those. And - as said - decent fan, decent HRM.
I've got my very old CX bike on my Direto, I hardly every use the inner front chainring but I'm glad you have it occasionally. Not sure what comes on budget road bikes but I'd not go 1x.
https://www.halfords.com/cycling/turbo-trainers/smart-turbo-trainers/elite-direto-x-ots-turbo-trainer-304374.html would be ~£600 using online BC discount, besides the extra 4% slope emulation (so 18% max) over my Direto and coming with a front wheel riser, don't know if the build has improved.
Use your FS for now and wait for more choices of a ~£400 bike?
Wattbike Atom. Used or ex demo if you can find one. A dedicated set up is just so much nicer.
https://wattbike.com/gb/products/reconditioned-wattbikes
keep looking or enquire directly. Otherwise Kickr and a Decathlon Btwin road bike (they are all good).
cheap bike, nice smart trainer all the way, even the £299 Decathlon 7spd road bike comes with HG splined cassette that should fit on any smart trainer with a HG freehub.
I've got a cheapo £250 road bike permanently mounted to my wheel on turbo. I tried riding it on the road a few times, tyres are too narrow and don't grip, brakes don't work, cheap HI-ten steel fork gives a bone shaking ride, none of this matters on a turbo as long as the drivetrain works. I even took the bar tape off because it got manky from all the sweating, now I drape a towel over the bars to give me something soft to hold onto and to soak up the sweat.
Regarding the Wattbike suggestion, there have been quite a lot of reports about it not being very good when used in ERG modes for workouts, as it can't hold the wattage steady.
It's strange as it looks OK in 'just riding' mode when using Zwift or whatever, but then can't keep a stable power when doing a workout. Just something to bear in mind, but it would put me off.
I know a few folk who went watt bikes early on. And the lack of gear and the poor implementation of erg was moaned about frequently
Later versions appear to be less moaned about though
I think they have fixed the Wattbike ERG issue with the latest model? Or at least that was the intention. Either way, it's still ~ £900 more than the OP wanted to spend!
The admin at Zwiftpower used to moan a lot about Wattbike power inaccuracies that they had to deal with, no idea if things have improved in newer Wattbike models.
Either way, it’s still ~ £900 more than the OP wanted to spend!
That was more my point you can get recon early models in budget. Don't be tempted
Thanks for the input, looks like spending most of the money on the smart turbo is the consensus. The watt bike looks nice but out of budget for whats availble now.
Going to go for the kickr and https://www.halfords.com/bikes/road-bikes/carrera-virtuoso-mens-road-bike-2020---white---s-m-l-frames-348270.html which is the cheapest I can find in stock with normal shifters a bit more range than the decathlon one.
I have a hrm so I think I just need the dongle, a big fan and maybe a cadence sensor.
My kickr (full fat one) came with a cadence sensor in the box, not sure if that’s the same for the core.
That carrera looks alright for a turbo bike, 8spd cassette should fit straight on with the single spacer (again supplied in the box with mine)
I bought an ancient Raleigh road bike for £40, it just needed bar tape, a chain and cassette (and all the knackered brakes etc thrown in the bin), plus a saddle I like, and it works great.
Thing is, I don't exactly want a bike for this job. I basically want the back half of a bike, and some weirdness to put handlebars in a nice place, and everything else just to be small. So the stem is high and short, the front wheel's in the bin, the forks are back to front and it has a wooden stand instead of a front wheel to make it smaller (and I can stand it all vertically on top of the trainer to make it super small)
I'd feel bad about inflicting that to even a half decent bike.
Kickr and Kickr Core have integrated cadence which works well most of the time but seems to struggle above 120. Not a deal breaker for most people at a guess.
That carrera looks alright for a turbo bike, 8spd cassette should fit straight on with the single spacer (again supplied in the box with mine)
Is this right then? I've just set up a core. I've put my only road bike in it at the moment as I'm not getting out much for now. Bought a cheap 11spd cassette.
The instructions state a 9/10 speed cassette will fit, but can you get away with 8?
I'd like to plonk a cheap bike on it permanently.
I bought an ancient Raleigh road bike for £40
Yeah, or get down the tip and see what they've got
it doesn't have to be fully roadworthy (brakes, rear wheel unnecessary)
Spaff the rest on a good direct mount trainer and a good big fan
I use a cheap cadence sensor on the core as the core is "estimated" cadence which I don't trust. The Core is a great turbo though. Oh, I'm an absolute convert to rocker plates after getting a Lifeline one. Much more comfortable and natural. Couldn't go back to a fixed turbo/ get post now, didn't realise what I was missing.
Also worth looking at the Jetblack Volt turbo, an Australian company, its basically very similar to the Core and has a few tricks up its sleeve that even the Core/full fat kickr can't do, BT bridging comes to mind. Comes in £100 less than the Core.
O.o, what you going to run Zwift on? Sims Pc's will struggle with the new Japanese routes.
Apple TV is cheap but the graphics are a bit meh, including the 4k. Probably doesn't matter for Zwiftng mind you!
Enjoy.
I use a KickR Core & my old Allez.Just get a cheap used road bike,I would also get a fan.
My kickr (full fat one) came with a cadence sensor in the box, not sure if that’s the same for the core.
Yes it's the same for the Core,no cadence sensor required
I have a hrm so I think I just need the dongle, a big fan and maybe a cadence sensor.
Cadence sensor's built in with the KickR Core,not sure what you need the dongle for?
He might want a dongle for Ant+ at a guess, if he wants to go that way?