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Nothing fancy. Just something to turn my legs over in the garage. Want to be able to strava the session and it's to fit either a ragley mmmbop 2020 or a cotic soil mk4 or maybe even a pace RC295 29er.
Got about £200 to spend.
Cheers.
Get yourself on facebook marketplace and its full of barely used turbo trainers. Loads of people bought them in lockdown an never used them
I bought a TACX Vortex, like brand new, off there for about 120 quid complete with trainer tyre. I use it with Zwift. I've just had a quick look now and there are 3 of the same on there in my immediate vicinity, priced from 100 - 150 quid. Theres also direct drive ones from 250 quid up
With the TACX Vortex you can adjust it to take different wheel sizes. With the direct drive ones that obviously doesn't matter, but they cost a bit more and you'll probably need a cassette
I am about to sell my Wahoo KICKR but I am looking for £450 so probably a bit more than you want to spend.
Yeah sorry buzzer. Times are tough!
Cheers banners I'll look for a tacx now. Are they easy to set up? Never had one before.
Is the tacx QR skewer rather than a thru axle?
They're a doddle to set up. Even I managed it. Literally pop your bike on by clamping on to the Skewer, adjust the clamp to the wheel size, plug it in and fire up zwift and it just links up over bluetooth. Simple as that
They fold up too so it doesn't take up much space when you're not using it
Its a QR as I use my road bike, but I believe you can get a thru axle to fit too
Will I need an adapter for thru axle on my MTBs?
Belting! Cheers mate. I'll have a browse about now.
Make sure you find one that works with the axle of the bike - my one only works with a QR so won't work with my MK.V Soul. You'll also need a smooth tyre (unless going direct drive) - I just use whatever old road tyres I've got lying around. Worth getting a spare wheel so you can easily swap between outside / inside wheels
I'd seriously recommend you also buy one of these
You'll need one! Its warm work, cycling without moving 🙂
Yeah I had an exercise bike but it broke. Garage does get hot!
Defo get on Marketplace and see what you can find. I had a Tacx Flow for years, which was perfectly serviceable. I bet there's tons knocking about.
That said, if you can find a direct drive one, they're so much better, worth it even just for the reduction in noise.
@jree, where are you based? I have an Elite Novo Smart trainer for sale in the classifieds
For the love of god get a decent trainer tyre, I helped out a friend of a friend who had destroyed a gravel tyre on his turbo trainer, a little mountain of rubber filings underneath the trainer roller and a threads showing through the tyre carcass. I was actually impressed, there's no way that can have been nice to ride!
Just something to turn my legs over in the garage
Danger! This sounds a bit aimless, I guarantee you'll get no benefit and probably get very bored and give up quickly.
If you're doing it on the cheap (like me) then I'd suggest at least a speed sensor for the rear wheel (Wahoo do a good one) so you know what speed you're doing. Speed is a very approximate indicator of power so if you keep everything else the same (e.g. tyre pressure, clamp tightness, resistance setting if there is one etc) you can train to speed like you train to power.
Then you can get free workouts off Youtube, the GCN 'Get Fit Fast' 40 minute sweetspot is a great session and quite versatile, I used it today as an easy Z2 workout but you can also use it as a Sweetspot or even threshold workout, although you'd probably also want to invest in a heart rate strap if you wanted to figure out what sort of workout you're actually doing! It's basically two solid blocks of 15 minutes with three little spin-ups sprinkled in for variety.
If you want to go REALLY old school, British Cycling does a 20 minute warm-up drill which I try to use before any serious workout, you can download the pdf and print it out, I've got it taped to the wall beside the laptop. Doesn't really work without a cadence sensor though (fairly cheap).
Get some tunes in the headphones and crack on!
If you want to go REALLY old school, British Cycling does a 20 minute warm-up drill
They have a load of indoor training sessions here.
Second the trainer tyre. Was a big improvement to my initial experience on the trainer.
For the actual trainer, I got about the cheapest Tacx smart one that was available. It's simple, easy to use and works. If you can find one used, buy that, it should be cheap.
Personally with an mtb id try and get a direct drive smart trainer if you can - otherwise are you going to change tyres for the turbo (instead of ruining an mtb one) or run a spare wheel?
I think your bikes are probably 148x12 boost rear axles so look which direct drive trainers have adapters and then search for one of those.
Also it’s a good point - what workouts are you going to do? If you just go in to spin legs over you’ll probably get bored and it’ll be quite aimless / not beneficial. I’d find the cheapest training app you can and use that. I think Zwift is £12.99 a month but Xert might be under a tenner?
Edit - a quick fb classifieds shows a number of elite muin direct drive trainers - no idea if these are any good….
Messaged you swdan mate.
I'm not bothered about getting bored. In winter I just watch the birds, liste to music or put a film on.
using a wheel-on trainer, which would involve switching rear wheel, isn't much more hassle or cost than using a direct drive. both will require a cassette. the DD requires extra parts for the through-axle. the wheel-on requires you to buy a rear wheel. Both require you to remove your normal rear wheel.
I use a Flux S now, which is a direct drive and probably more than you want to spend, but I've previously had a Vortex (wheel-on) which was pretty good and a cheap way to get into Zwift/Sufferfest etc.