Wattbike Atom

Bit of a crossed question - do you mean Peleton bike or the Wattbike Atom?

Of the two, Wattbike by far, although I went with a Tacx bike when looking for a full stationary bike to replace my Kick-R setup.

Loads of friends and others have the Atom though, and it's a good bike.

Yes I did. Now amended.

2 generations of Atom, from the outside absolutely no difference. I’ve got the first gen, and I’ve used the 2nd gen too, can’t tell the difference at all! Something to do with the magnetic sensors taking hundreds more readings per second blah blah.
I really like it, the only negative from me is that’s it’s absolutely crap using ERG mode with Zwift. But you can just manually adjust the gearing to suit any training plan you’re doing I’d that’s your thing. Had my gen 1 now for about 4 years…faultless so far.

A better shaped clothes horse. 😉

I bought a gen 2 new in august, it’s been my most ridden ‘bike’ since October, being used at least 3 times a week, combination of Zwift Pace Partner and social rides and some stuff in the Wattbike hub. Currently going into week 3 of a 7 week ‘All Blacks’ general fitness programme on the hub.

My best cycling purchase in a long time, not cheap, but it works very well and the tech is seamless.

A better shaped clothes horse.

Nope, I’ll use it in the same I’ve used my KickR all winter. I just want a smaller footprint and avoid the hassle of disassembling my road bike.

Got a gen2, use for Zwift and it works great. Only problem is I can’t get comfortable on it, tried different saddles and positions and about 45mins is my limit before my arse gives in. If I could get comfy it would be ace.

^^^ I have mine setup to exactly the same bike fit dimensions as my road bike, same saddle etc. I make sure to stand up for 20 seconds or so every 15 mins, and move my hand positions on bars regularly, so pretty much as I’d do outside. I find that helps a lot.

I've had a gen 1 Atom since September 2019. Really pleased with it.
Zero faff. No chain to oil or components to replace.
Other trainers may be more responsive or better with ERG mode but so far, it's been a dependable workhorse and according to Veloviewer I've done 420 hours on it.

I swapped out the saddle to a spare Brooks to match my normal bikes and got a Bespoke R3 rocker plate.

I have gen 2 atom and it reacts significantly quicker than the gen 1 to resistance changes in ERG mode. I think that's the biggest difference.

Power readings can be way out though and inconsistent compared to other Wattbikes. The power readings are consistent to themselves though so not really an issue unless you're using multiple power meters (inside and outside). I just use my power meter pedals on the wattbike for consistency

Why not the kickr bike, out of interest? They look nice to me.

Also, if you want to avoid disassembling your road bike, a second bike is a cheap option as you don't need anything fancy since you're not actually riding it. You can get a stand for the forks instead of a wheel, saves a bit of space.

I’ve had an atom for 3 years now, still going strong (touch wood!) and I really like it.
I plumped for the atom so wife/kids can use it, the advantage being I didn’t have to swap bikes for different users which is what would happen with a kicker or similar.
That said, if i wanted something solely for my own use i think I’d save the cash and go for a kicker instead.

I have 5 bikes and disassembling any of them is a pain, plus the the overall footprint is too large in a mixed use space.

What I'm saying is that if you had a bike specifically for use with the trainer you could leave it assembled. The overall footprint, with the front-wheel saver, isn't that much different to a Wattbike type thing. Unless you are looking to wheel it out of the way or something.

To add some balance to the views above, mine went back within their 30 day return period, as did at least one other from our club for similar reasons.

It was a mixed bag. I was coming from a 2018 Kickr with a dedicated Zwift bike on it. The Wattbike was was solid, well built, easy to adjust, good price. But road feel wasn't amazing, erg mode frustrating and it had an annoying long standing bug that Zwift wouldn't adjust resistance in Bluetooth mode and wouldn't show gears on screen when using ant+ so you basically had to choose between gears or resistance. Given gears on screen was their big selling point seemed stupid when you could only get it if you were happy with no resistance adjustment.

Coming from a Kickr you should also be aware that the ERG smoothing on a Kickr is very aggressive, making it super easy to sit at your wattage targets in workouts, so when I say ERG mode was frustrating, I get that for some the Kickr is too smooth as it is not really reflective of your actual pedal stroke.

I went back to my old Kickr and built up a new dedicated turbo bike (old one cracked) on a £99 Brand X frame from CRC.

What I’m saying is that if you had a bike specifically for use with the trainer you could leave it assembled.

just did some quick measurements before i disassemble again: My wahoo + bike + stand 2.3 meters; watt bike 1 metre. When finished i roll it into a corner in seconds.

They do have a smaller footprint for sure, although are still not exactly easy to move about once set - just because of the mass.

Love my Tacx Bike and the wife liked it so much, so wanted on but being a tad under 5 foot 2 the Tacx was about 20mm too large for her in seat tube length.

She ended up with a much discounted Kick-R bike and that too is great and takes up a lot less space.