The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2006
Posts
5,386
We where discussing carpet driers only a few posts ago...! ;)
I'm actually somewhat tempted.. I've a Honeywell small fan thing too but this week certainly noticed it's not as good as last when temperatures were sub 10C!

Me and two guys from work did a meetup and then selected the same training plan. Once we'd got ourselves in sync it worked really well. The plan was harder than I've done so far (Load Up, 75 TSS) spending a lot of time in Z3(?) (Yellow) with 15 seconds of 200% FTP after the yellow... pretty tough. Was good all doing it together, with stay together turned on too.

I've also set out my shopping list -

FRAMES
Canyon Aeroad (L14?) - 532,500 - Best All round bike
Cannondale Evo (L9) - 213,000 - Best climber
Cervélo Aspero (L13) - 426,000 - Best Gravel bike
Cervélo P5 (L15) - 710,000 - Fastest TT bike, also quick up Alpe du Zwift?!

WHEELS
DT SWISS ARC 62 (L6) - 184,600 - Good climbers, great allrounders
Zipp 808 - (Already bought) Best affordable for flats
Hmm I've got like 800k to spend... and need to get something better. Especially because tomorrow attempting sub-40 AdZ with a mate... He reckons we'll need to hold 5w/kg. I've done that for about 7 mins before... eek!
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
8,437
Location
Hereford
Pro 4 I think. It works fine just screen is very small. Just runs 720p on the screen and copes OK when you haven't got a million riders on screen. Nice and convenient though. Had the pc sat there for a year and got zwift running 1080p fine it seems. Think it's a gt950 with an old Intel quad core.
My old GT 740M runs 720p ok! Not really much slow downs except for massive events (like TDZ). At 1080p usual busy races/group rides with a few hundred riders would cause it to tank. GT950 should be better!

Didn't think I would use it much, but currently half way through the "build me up" 12 week training, done about 1800 km this year and lost a stone. Bought a trainer now, with back wheel but thinking about upgrading to something a bit quieter.
Welcome! Good going and well done! Keep up the great work but stick with what you have at the moment... Crazy pricing and very low inventory across the board. Hopefully once the Brexit nonsense and import pricing changes/better supply lines we'll see prices drop. Then the warmer weather (and no lockdowns) should see inventory much better too so prices return more normal. I'm really considering hunting down a KICKR/Neo bargain this year if I can. Been through quite a bit with my Flux but the amount of time I've been on it the last 18 months am due an upgrade - can justify it! But not at the moment, I could sell it for £200 more than I paid for it! :rolleyes:

Quite a few of us around the various race teams and series (I'm in Race3R) so any advice or questions there's quite a few knowledgeable here. So many riders getting into the ZRL TTT at the moment too, I've got local riders who've barely been on a trainer joining Zwift just to ride with each other on it. Fantastic to see!

Got talked into a race with the boss after work tonight, I had entered the Italy/Frenchy race but this was earlier so said ok lets do it.

Until I was in the pen with a TT bike! I ******* hate iTT races, would rather do an actual full on TT.

Started off with heavy legs and couldn't get my HR up, managed to do better 20 minute power on the second half strangely.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4797906736/overview
Good number for the slow legs and good pacing, apart from your hiccup early on after the HR seemed to drop?

I nearly ended up in ZRL last night as they where a rider short on a late team... But I'd missed the message and made plans to eat early so I could ride early. Dinner was cooked before I noticed, ooops! :o

Jumped into TDZ stage 5 (Volcano after party) as the previous ride (on a bad calibration) I went so deep early I faded on the climb. So a much more realistic effort last night and good test of the trainer after another couple of calibrations. 8 minutes up the Volcano is my absolute limit (at the moment). I probably need to shave a few KG to really make much difference as ~300W for it is quite a bit above my FTP.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4798350014

Trainer was solid so hopefully have resolved the belt slip - also calibration issues I've seen (possibly) related to it. Combination of that and cold weather really has put things all over the place for me recently. Means the couple of monster rides last week (FTP from 276W -> 299W!) where junk (which I was pretty sure of). Oh well! FTP reset back down to previous but have dropped it to 270W just to prove to myself around that is 'correct'. So should see it increase a few watts over the next few weeks - the way I'm riding. My riding has been fairly constant (consistently hard!), even if the power numbers have been all over the place due to trainer.

Can't imagine riding the Volcano 3X like they did in ZRL, guys I would've been riding with only ~15s off that 8 minute marker - but 3 times! :o

Me and two guys from work did a meetup and then selected the same training plan. Once we'd got ourselves in sync it worked really well. The plan was harder than I've done so far (Load Up, 75 TSS) spending a lot of time in Z3(?) (Yellow) with 15 seconds of 200% FTP after the yellow... pretty tough. Was good all doing it together, with stay together turned on too.

I've also set out my shopping list -
<snip>
Venge (level 33), Cervelo S5 (level 25), or Canyon Aeroad (level 10) are fastest on the flat.

Best flat wheels are Zipp 858 (level 37), Enve SES 8.9 (level 31), Enve SES 6.7 (level 21), Zipp 808 (level 13).

For climbing, Specialized Tarmac Pro (level 11) although quite tied with the Canyon Aeroad (level 10) as it's a better buy (best allround until the Tron) until you can get better so drops better spent on it. Although I tended to use the Tarmac SL7 (level 5) as it's only a few seconds slower, looks better and quite a bit faster on the flats.

Don't know much about climbing wheels, Probably Zipp 404 / Enve SES 3.4's until you can climb the Alpe enough times to get the Lightweights.

Once I got the Tron it's the only thing I ride, would only probably change it if doing multiple long climbs - like Alpe repeats or something. Everything else it's just so 'easy' to keep it and be riding one of the top 5 regardless of course and not having the hassle/time of always picking over wheels and frames...

I’ve got 6 million credits, just never spend them! I just stick to the tron bike so everything is comparable :o
Same here. Tron for everything, just so easy! Then don't need to 'waste' drops on things, so when you need a TT or off-road you can just buy the best.

I'm on around 5m drops but only because I bought the 858 (1.5m), 808 (1m), Felt IA (1.7m), Epic S-Works (675k), TM01 (781k) all within the last couple of months lol
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
24 Apr 2013
Posts
3,067
TRON for everything unless it is AdZ or Ventop.
For that use Spesh Tarmac Pro and the Zipp 202 or lightweights if you have them from AdZ.
If no TRON then S Works Venge with 808/super9 or 858/super9 is the fastest combo.

For esports races not allowed to use the TRON or disc wheel, so the next best thing is the 2021 Aeroroad or S Works Venge with Enve 7.8 for the flatter races and we swap out the wheels to DT Swiss for courses with more hills.

Nothing else is worth bothering about. I have 10million drops with absolutely nothing to spend them on!
 
Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2004
Posts
10,646
Good number for the slow legs and good pacing, apart from your hiccup early on after the HR seemed to drop?

I nearly ended up in ZRL last night as they where a rider short on a late team... But I'd missed the message and made plans to eat early so I could ride early. Dinner was cooked before I noticed, ooops! :o

Jumped into TDZ stage 5 (Volcano after party) as the previous ride (on a bad calibration) I went so deep early I faded on the climb. So a much more realistic effort last night and good test of the trainer after another couple of calibrations. 8 minutes up the Volcano is my absolute limit (at the moment). I probably need to shave a few KG to really make much difference as ~300W for it is quite a bit above my FTP.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4798350014

Trainer was solid so hopefully have resolved the belt slip - also calibration issues I've seen (possibly) related to it. Combination of that and cold weather really has put things all over the place for me recently. Means the couple of monster rides last week (FTP from 276W -> 299W!) where junk (which I was pretty sure of). Oh well! FTP reset back down to previous but have dropped it to 270W just to prove to myself around that is 'correct'. So should see it increase a few watts over the next few weeks - the way I'm riding. My riding has been fairly constant (consistently hard!), even if the power numbers have been all over the place due to trainer.

Can't imagine riding the Volcano 3X like they did in ZRL, guys I would've been riding with only ~15s off that 8 minute marker - but 3 times! :o

Cheers mate, sometimes it's all in the head or a radiator being left on in the room. :o

Started a race with my boss today in C group, was able to drift to the very back of 250 strong bunch and work my way up through it again. Dropped back and jumped across to different groups giving me so intervals. Had planned to rest up for TTT tomorrow. That was until the B group came along so jumped in with them. Last lap was 300w for 13 minutes - a little bit nippy to say the least. Peak 1:35 @ 410w in there too.

I did the Volcano KOM for the first time in a virtual reliability and didn't realise how long it was until I saw my estimated time of 8 minutes-ish. Went into the start of it a bit hot having a battle with a sales rep from the shop but backed off in the middle as I wanted to be first across it from my group so went deeper. 8 minutes is good for us normal folks :D

I'd set my FTP as 290w but a short crit bumped it up to 300w, I can't do 300w for an hour so I'd argue 280w would be an actual 1 hour FTP for me.
 

SPG

SPG

Soldato
Joined
28 Jul 2010
Posts
10,258
So many FTP beasts in this thread I hate your youth !

Well the TT bike is on the trainer now....Instant loss of 30 watts, my legs are on fire this morning in my it's as my body suddenly made a new muscle group. Not dialed in but tempted to splash out £180 for a fit when a few more bits arrived I have ordered.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Sep 2006
Posts
4,135
Location
Gloucestershire
I find the same when I'm on the TT bike. I've just made space in my spare room for the TT bike on a dumb trainer (with power meter pedals).

I've got a 25m time trial this evening on Zwift, it'll be a bit of a test for my 1 hour power.

I managed 350W for 1 hour on my road bike, but I will be amazed if I can hold anything like that on the TT bike. Like you, I normally see a 30-40W drop.
 

SPG

SPG

Soldato
Joined
28 Jul 2010
Posts
10,258
Between Nottingham & Derby :)

I really think its money for old rope and a lot of Suedo nonsense to justify 40% of it. Oh nnd they always seem to recomend you need to buy X to make it much better... where X = £50 or X=150 in Carbon which is always the one you end up having :)
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2003
Posts
40,102
Location
FR+UK
4rdp is something they've promised from even before their app. It was hinted at when they 'just' did videos, so surprised it's taken them until now to do it. Is it done well? Or not know yet? They had quite a lot of the groundwork there already so hopefully it's the start of something massive, especially with Wahoo. Will have to check it out sometime, thanks for info & please give some feedback when you've tried it! :D

I liked it when I tried it when the app was quite new, but more of a way to 'revisit' much of the fun I remember from early Sufferfest days. It didn't really offer me anything massively different from Zwift, but I still see the appeal. Would be awesome if someone like Rouvy or RGT ended up pairing with Suff and merge the 2 platforms somehow. A virtual world, alongside the awesome & engaging race stuff and 'suff-fun'. Maybe Wahoo have the power to do that.
I did it last night as part of the ToS, and well yes I was impressed. I don't know how much of that was the 4rdp stuff, or the fact that it was a brand new Suf video and it was a great part of pro racing at that, but yes it felt good. It was really interesting to be riding PoV with the team car/DS barking orders over the radio in real time and what have you. It was a really interesting concept and well executed.

With the investment of Wahoo I can only see the app getting better - they're hiring like mad and a fair wack of developers (I totally would have applied if it hadn't required a green card). Whilst partly this is to push out a proper android app, I can't help but think good things are coming. Their direction is definitely one of a professional approach, steeped in proper sports science, rather than Zwifts "fun" game approach, and I think the market probably is happy with that - Zwift does have training in it but it is far from extensive and the plans aren't brilliant, but they push the racing approach much more. To me, who started using Trainer Road, I'd say that Suf now occupies the top training spot, whereas back when I started TR was the best by some way for training plans and coaching.

I enjoy zwift and the odd race, but I don't like paying for subscriptions I'm not using, so for the forseeable I see myself rotating the two whilst I do a training plan on Suf and then a race "season" on zwift.
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2003
Posts
40,102
Location
FR+UK
So many FTP beasts in this thread I hate your youth !

Well the TT bike is on the trainer now....Instant loss of 30 watts, my legs are on fire this morning in my it's as my body suddenly made a new muscle group. Not dialed in but tempted to splash out £180 for a fit when a few more bits arrived I have ordered.
I'm doing an FTP test after this weeks ToS. After a hard winters training I'm really looking forward to seeing what it is. Zwift increased it to 270~ recently but I'm skeptical of that.

Re the TT bike... I really, really, really need to be doing far more on the aero bars, but I'm dreading it because I know they're not fitted properly and it makes my neck ache.
 
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