The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Soldato
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Wahoo have an offer for a few days - they have 2018 model Kickrs which have been refurbished down from £849 down to £679. Comes with a two year warranty.

I can't see anywhere discounting the "new" Kickr (v5) from £999 so it's quite a saving over that. PBK have had the Saris H3 as low as £699 recently but it's currently £799 (same as Tredz).

Very tempted to get an upgrade from my Road Machine. With PM pedals I'm happy with power being accurate, even if I have to finesse it myself but where it falls down is the occasional leg burner sessions I put in. If the workout wants FTP (or more) at 60rpm (so a properly steep hill), I run out of gears (even in 50 x 12) and end up over target RPM.
 
Soldato
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Wahoo have an offer for a few days - they have 2018 model Kickrs which have been refurbished down from £849 down to £679. Comes with a two year warranty.

I can't see anywhere discounting the "new" Kickr (v5) from £999 so it's quite a saving over that. PBK have had the Saris H3 as low as £699 recently but it's currently £799 (same as Tredz).

Very tempted to get an upgrade from my Road Machine. With PM pedals I'm happy with power being accurate, even if I have to finesse it myself but where it falls down is the occasional leg burner sessions I put in. If the workout wants FTP (or more) at 60rpm (so a properly steep hill), I run out of gears (even in 50 x 12) and end up over target RPM.

It seems a good deal on the face of it, but would prepare yourself for risk.
Lad on my team bought a recon 2018 Kickr and the things knackered. Under reporting and horrendous noise.... 5 weeks wait on a replacement and 3 weeks since he has got the replacement they have made no comms or intention to collect or take back the broken one.
I've heard of MANY of these 2018's having issues and quite a few stories knocking about regards these reconditioned ones.

Not putting you off. Just letting you know it is totally risky and not guaranteed you will have a perfect unit.

I bought a 2018 Kickr from a local guy. He had his replaced in January 2020 with this one I bought. So it had a years warranty left on it and was like split new as he had barely used the thing..... £500 I got that for.

I would buy a brand new H3 for £700 any day of the week if you see that again over a Kickr. But if paying near full whack for new, I'd be Kickr v5 every day of the week.
 
Soldato
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Cheers @xdcx - thoughts/comments are welcome. What I've not found for Saris is if they have UK or EU support/spares. I've also just gone to PBK to check the price of the H3 again and notice the first "review" says:

It’s loud knocking noise irritates everyone in the house after one week of use! It’s difficult to calibrate and resistance seems very erratic in zwift. Wish I would have bought anything else!

Quality issues aren't unique to one vendor I guess! At which point I re-think of the downsides I have with a dumb trainer (back tyre is splitting again but I'm currently working through my pile of used tyres) and wonder else I could spend that money on!
 
Soldato
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So with the H3 I cannot say I have heard of that issue from above. That's new to me.
And I know A LOT of people with that trainer both on my team and other prem teams. The entire Saris team that my mate Gav is on for example, all have them and rate them very highly.

Dave (Sticky) who was the former top zwiftpower mod is on a H3. Only issue I heard from him was the power cord slipping out which he fixed with blu tac. But I mentioned that to guys on my team with the H3 and they do not know how he has that problem. So you can see it is all tit-for-tat.

There is a washer that must be fitted correctly on the hub which the cassette and bike then attaches. A lad on my team snapped his hub part the other week even with this washer fitted. Apparently it is something to do with the hub extending out too much resulting in too much place, hence the washer. But he's still knackered his but it's the only instance of it happening I am aware of.

I will find out for you if Saris have UK support and spares. Wahoo support is superb in the UK, a big reason to go Wahoo. But I will find out for Saris for you just now.

Kickr V5, Neo 2T and H3 are the 3 main trainers right now at top end.
Direto XR being tier below, I have issue with that trainer in terms of data in racing at a level on Zwift but bang for buck if you want it for training and not serious racing it is a very viable trainer at a good price IMO.
I wouldn't bother my arse with anything else out there at the mo.

EDIT - @#Chri5# - Raleigh do the support for Saris right here in the UK :)
 
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Soldato
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Many thanks for that @xdcx - much appreciated.

I read DC Rainmakers reviews and one of the stand-out comments for the H3 was how accurate it is in ERG and would be his choice if you were a heavy TrainerRoad user. I'm a Sufferfest subscriber but I think that recommendation would also ring true for SUF.

Current thinking is to hang-on and see if the H3 comes down to £699 again. I noticed CRC have it for £799 as well now, so hopefully some price competition coming back into the trainer market now.
 
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I am running a 10 speed cassette and as it was a refurb so they don’t include a 1.8mm spacer so went to my bike shop and they had a rummage and gave me a spacer however I’ve got it all up and running however the gears feel like they need adjusting I take it off the trainer and out the wheel back on and the indexing is spot on. Is the spacer not the right size and would anyone recommend where I could find one?
 
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Can be the same when using different wheels as the cassette doesn't always sit in the same area.

Turn the barrell adjuster the way you need the chain to move.
Thanks I’ll give that a go once I’m back home.As I am in Holborn visiting a client for work I popped in condor cycles and had a look in there they had a 1.8mm spacer there which looks thinner than what I got so for £1.99 I picked one up to also try that.
 
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Soldato
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Anyone noticing that Zwift's latest updates make it crash? I know the spec isn't mega on my machine but using a RX560 4GB GPU, 8GB RAM and I think it's a low end ryzen cpu (3600?) but these latest updates keep crashing zwift as it's loading! Anyone else had this? Seems loading Watopia or london just about work but any others keep crashing the whole thing!! Driving me mental
 
Soldato
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It seems a good deal on the face of it, but would prepare yourself for risk.
Lad on my team bought a recon 2018 Kickr and the things knackered. Under reporting and horrendous noise.... 5 weeks wait on a replacement and 3 weeks since he has got the replacement they have made no comms or intention to collect or take back the broken one.
I've heard of MANY of these 2018's having issues and quite a few stories knocking about regards these reconditioned ones.
Ouch, then again have seen new Neo 2T owners on their 3rd and 4th replacements already!

Wahoo are meant to have good support, kinda the support the others are judged against, but I guess inventory shortages affect them all.

Quality issues aren't unique to one vendor I guess!
Not at all. Lurk around the various owner groups online and you'll see they all have a fair amount of problems! Naturally only those users who have problems tend to post up questions so it gives you a very biased view. But use that to judge feedback from how people have found dealing with support and warranty when making any decisions on which to 'trust'. You'll hopefully not have to deal with their support, but if you know generally how you'll be dealt with and what to expect beforehand you won't be too disappointed.

Take Stages for example and all those with StagesBikes which died multiple times. It was a shambles. I'm not sure I've heard of a SB rider who even had one which has worked without needing support!

Wahoo have always 'admitted' faults and been up front about them, really s*it hot after sales support from them. Tacx used to be poor, either really slow or lots of to-and-fro with support before you got anywhere all the while they seemed to ignore some pretty obvious design flaws. That looks to be changing rapidly with Garmin now at the helm, there's still delays getting parts to people but they are getting there. They're even pretty good getting parts out to people even supplying some of them free to those who are out of warranty (bearing kits). Or those who can't get the parts locally - Garmins site is geo locked, so for example Australians can't see the shimano freehub, for some reason AU don't stock it, but they'll help out and ship it from an area which does for the same price.

I actually ticketed them for a replacement casing for my Neo OG (from 2016). Although I couldn't supply a receipt (not the original owner) I was vague about why and they added one to a cart for me for £25 (it was no longer listed on their website) when the original price was £85 when Tacx did things...

EDIT - @#Chri5# - Raleigh do the support for Saris right here in the UK :)
Good find. It used to be Paligap (well for the Powertap side of things when Saris took them over).

I just got one of the refurbed kickr cores, so far so good
What did you get it for if you don't mind me asking? Just interested the prices they got snapped up at when people ask me what trainer to get.

Thanks I’ll give that a go once I’m back home.As I am in Holborn visiting a client for work I popped in condor cycles and had a look in there they had a 1.8mm spacer there which looks thinner than what I got so for £1.99 I picked one up to also try that.
I would confirm the spacer is 1.8mm somehow, but also confirm with Wahoo that's the right size for it. For example Neo's come with 2 different spacers and they actually colour coded them so people get the right one (they still don't!). The Neo 2T even has different sizes to the OG/2 and some of the earlier OG where sent out with the wrong sizes...

EDIT: Fixed. Good job - guessing the LBS spacer wasn't the 'same' 1.8mm as the other! :rolleyes:

Anyone noticing that Zwift's latest updates make it crash? I know the spec isn't mega on my machine but using a RX560 4GB GPU, 8GB RAM and I think it's a low end ryzen cpu (3600?) but these latest updates keep crashing zwift as it's loading! Anyone else had this? Seems loading Watopia or london just about work but any others keep crashing the whole thing!! Driving me mental
All good here on mine last night, but do find it a lot more choppy the last couple of updates really starting to put a strain on my little 740M in my 7 year old second hand laptop! Dropped it down even lower than 720p (560?) but it does look sucky. Maybe that needs to change...

But then I've found my old setup far more stable than most others I ride with who have newer rigs and high end cards! :o
 
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@roadie I paid £509 as they had 15% off the reconditioned cores for a few days and its now back upto £599

I went for one of those too as seemed a good price. Pleased with it so far and looked brand new. Feels a good upgrade over my Tacx Vortex but not had too much chance to use it so far but with the rain forecast next week will get a few sessions on it.
 
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My zwift free trial has just expired and have now signed up as i have really enjoyed it. Although i have been trying to do recovery rides and i get carried away when i see the spints, don't seem to help myself so been unable to do a proper recovery ride.
 
Soldato
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My zwift free trial has just expired and have now signed up as i have really enjoyed it. Although i have been trying to do recovery rides and i get carried away when i see the spints, don't seem to help myself so been unable to do a proper recovery ride.

Learn to love erg mode, once you have a ballpark FTP to set your zones. Then you normally just shift to small chainring and a sprocket in the middle of cassette before the workout and spin, Zwift will control the turbo resistance to match the power requirements.
 
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@UTmaniac That was tough i gave it a go on the ramp test light and i couldn't quite hold old on the minute at 230 watts so it reckons im 166 watts at the moment for my first test and only been cycling for a couple on months ill take that i was hoping for somewhere around 150. Will try some of the training plans, in a couple of weeks time as im going for doing the 60 mile route of this https://stnicholashospice.org.uk/news-community/events-listing/the-edge-cycle-ride/ on the 11th furthest ive been on a long ride is 79km so hopefully the excitement of the day will carry me the last 10/15km
 
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@UTmaniac That was tough i gave it a go on the ramp test light and i couldn't quite hold old on the minute at 230 watts so it reckons im 166 watts at the moment for my first test and only been cycling for a couple on months ill take that i was hoping for somewhere around 150. Will try some of the training plans, in a couple of weeks time as im going for doing the 60 mile route of this https://stnicholashospice.org.uk/news-community/events-listing/the-edge-cycle-ride/ on the 11th furthest ive been on a long ride is 79km so hopefully the excitement of the day will carry me the last 10/15km

The more often you do efforts to get FTP estimates, the more you learn how to pace them and what your limits are, more than likely you will quickly progress your FTP and endurance stamina in the coming months. Keep yourself hydrated and fueled, while not setting off to hard too early on, I'm sure you will be fine.
 
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