The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Roady · 12 Feb 2018 at 11:03

After failing to jump on saturday (opted out of the club ride in freezing cold wind & rain but failed to get on Zwift due to baby), I jumped on fairly late sunday morning intending to do a good 2-3 hours before lunch. Fatigued quite early (after 1.5 hrs) due to lack of sleep, not much breakfast and being just so damn cold after cooling down from racing!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1402155878
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=43269
As part of the Bikeradar challenge of 1 race, 1 group ride & 1 training session I jumped into the 'Mission: Race' - a Volcano circuit of 5 laps. As I was just starting and the w/kg cats where not the usual I jumped into C with 2.5 - 3.2w/kg limit figuring to take it easy, ride wheels and use the ramps of the volcano as my training. It worked well due to the mass start, spending most of it with a mixed B & C group and not putting any big digs in to keep my w/kg avg under control. Chatting to one of the B riders (I recognised the name of) we teamed up for a race winning finish (there where 3 TeamPL riders racing together in our group), with an effort up the ramp outside, slight ease and then sprint up the ramps inside at the finish. It worked well, only 2 riders coming past me. Came away with the win in C after a bunch of DQ's which was a nice surprise!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1402244239
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=41987
Straight after the BR race I jumped into a WBR 1 flat lap as a Cat B. With approx 2 minutes cooldown between races I was merrily spinning away lactate before I realised I had 3s before race start! Threw both shifters over ramping up the power and promptly jammed my chain/skipped/dropped it! After removing my crushed nuts from the top tube I glanced down and my chain was perfectly set on the big ring. Unsure what happened I pedalled carefully a few strokes, everything seemed ok but I'd been totally dropped by everyone. A few efforts to close up groups and doing some early leapfrogging to get up the road I settled in with a group of C's. Bit of test of my sprint finish to distance them all for a pretty pathetic 19th in B result. Bleh.

Still not totally sure where I should be racing with the power reduction. Should probably be in B for most general Zwifting but think I'll be finishing quite far down the field most of the time. If I race my normal style in C I'll be hitting Cat limits and getting DQ.

With the different Cats of CVR I think I'm correctly now in bracket C, just rather than being one of the stronger I'm more middle field.

randomshenans · 12 Feb 2018 at 14:00

What are people using for tables to put keyboard and stuff on? I would like one that sits in front of my handlebars for keyboard and dinner. I jest, just my dinner. I just am not sure what to search for?

merlin · 12 Feb 2018 at 14:44

"large cardboard box"

100% effective.

Capital outlay £0
Depreciation £0
Maintenance £0

Roady · 12 Feb 2018 at 16:49

"Wahoo KICKR Desk"

100% effective.

Capital outlay £176
Depreciation £probably low, everyone wants one
Maintenance £0

Lots of people use the medical bed table things made for eating dinner when in bed that are height adjustable

Example: https://www.completecareshop.co.uk/...2tZp7_wl3IzyWJ-OioAlR_dzsk0Mf1VhoCfY8QAvD_BwE (don't think this one has enough height but you get the idea)

randomshenans · 12 Feb 2018 at 18:19

Jesus, it's 276 euros! The GBP is crap, not sure why it's so much in EUR.

BennyC · 12 Feb 2018 at 20:33

I would just attach a plank or board to your maintenance stand with a clamp and be done with it.

Good excuse to buy a decent work stand if you don't already have one.

SDK^ · 12 Feb 2018 at 21:46

Roady spent more on the stand than he did on the trainer

Roady · 13 Feb 2018 at 08:57

SDK^ said:
Roady spent more on the stand than he did on the trainer

Sheeesh, hardly!

£30 stand (workbench), £25 second hand monitor arm & £75 21" TV from 2004. I wouldn't buy the KICKR Desk! You know me better than that lol

£290 Kurt Kinetic Road Machine (sold), £320 Tacx Vortex, £570 Tacx Flux.

TLDR; should've bought a KICKR 4 years ago. :rolleyes:

Roady · 14 Feb 2018 at 12:36

CVR Winter 2018 League, Zone E, bracket C last night. Race 7 in the 8 race season. 2 loops of Greater London loop meant two climbs of Box Hill. Brutal!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1406194735
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=42395
https://cycledata.cvrworldcup.com/c...wer_id=1;zone_id=cvrWorldCupLeague-zoneE-male

180 riders in the race (various cats), 63 in C with 58 ZP verified, 38 of which in CVR standings. Wow that trimmed them down! Some riders from B once their work was done (or they get dropped) will get caught by C, or even tactically drop back to assist (as we had, at least 3 of them to help our front riders).

Came in 34th place, giving me a 25th place finish in the CVR rankings, pushing me up to 27th overall I'm pleased with (one of my included results has screwed points from a bracket change & I've changed turbo half way through which has lead to a drop in power). :cool:

Lots of RaceWBR in the race (10) meant we rode for our highest placed rider (Jason) overall (now up to 4th!), with the plan for us to try and keep the group together on the first time up Box as most of us are rubbish on the hills. After the front selection it became obvious that WBR where the most prominent group (as usual) with 12 of us present. One of our club leaders jumped onto Discord to act as DS and he wanted us to try out a different tactic - we swarmed the front the first time through the trefalgar drag to try and split things long before Box where most would be saving their efforts for. After some big WBR pulls things where very strung out as nobody had expected the move. We dropped around 15-20 riders from the already selected front group. I found myself drifting at this point and had to dig to regain the back of the group in around 32th place. Resting as much as possible before Box hill loomed... :eek:

The group hit Box hard, I was 5.0w/kg and losing wheels in maybe 14th place but as soon as we'd gone into the trees after the roundabout I had to reign myself in, settling into around 3.8-4.2w/kg for the rest of the climb. Most of the group ahead paced well with our GC man Jason and our best C climber (Ross) up there. I found myself riding with a handful of others barely maintaining the gap to the splintered groups ahead in around 30th place. Even descending we made no ground, I sat in to try and rest. We where around 2 minutes down on the main front group but I knew there where not enough riders around me to chase and catch them.

Through the flats I found myself with another WBR and a CHOCK rider rolling a few turns. Several scattered riders in front behind a small group containing A WBR (Alan) who was top 25 on GC. Chasers behind us at around 55s. I could see Alan was losing some wheels around him so fired him a message saying to ease and get a tow from us. We where in around 32nd place but the chasers behind us had done well closing the gap to 20s before I really realised and attempted to inject some pace. To no avail they caught us just before the underground, several of them firing off the front as we jumped on their wheels, forming a group of around 10-15.

In very short order we hit Box the second time our group got smashed to bits. Alan did well holding a couple of wheels up front, Marc (other WBR) dropping back a little as the climb unfolded. I managed to reel 3-4 others in around and the CHOCK rider from before was one of them. Towards the top of the steepest section he attacked and I had no answer, but as the gradient eased I reeled him back in, before launching a small dig of my own over the top which he marked well. Finding myself on the descent with him and 2 others I attempted to chase some wheels in front without much luck, seeing one of my compatriots in aero tuck I did the same, but just before the bottom we caught a B rider who although dropping back was still pushing 3.5-4w/kg. Using his tow one of the others in aero got dropped by my kick, CHOCK and I both riding hard to hold this B's wheel.

When we hit the escalator ramp I hit it hard, seeing an orange 11w/kg probably going a little too deep but it was my last chance to try and shake him before the sprint... It was enough to drop the B rider and the others apart from CHOCK, who again had marked me well. Resigned to the sprint I knew I probably didn't have much left. I attempted to fake an early kick but he didn't respond, easily catching me when I actually opened up but I was barely able to maintain the effort. A quick check of the gap behind I eased through the line in 34th place. Utterly destroyed!

Some fantastic teamwork up the road was going on, with several B riders dropping back to help teammates to some great solid results.

Sgt_Pepper · 15 Feb 2018 at 07:23

Finally got my Flux replaced, got delivered last Thursday but then my PC decided to break. Eventually got it all upand running again.....

New trainer squeels like a pig when its cold but slowly quietens down after about 10 mins. Fingers crossed it doesnt get any worse.

Roady · 15 Feb 2018 at 17:10

Saw something on the 'Zwift Riders' FB page where someone took the side off a Flux and retensioned the belt after it had got noisy and fallen off the flywheel. He commented it was quieter & better than when new!

Not sure what tools but there was a picture of what it looked like with the side off and looked fairly simple. I can try and find the picture if you want?

Can't remember his name but he's done some insane mileage, something like 5,000km this year already.

Sgt_Pepper · 15 Feb 2018 at 20:03

I will keep that in mind, used it again tonight and once the squeaking stops its pretty much silent other than my rattly gears.

Martynt74 · 16 Feb 2018 at 08:48

As a follow up to my previous posts my dad has an old mountain bike that he no longer uses. If i bought a turbo trainer. Could i use that for a little while to see if i actually feel it's something i'll use?

From reading it sounds like it would work, just that i won't be very fast due to the gearing but that doesn't bother me much. It's just so i don't spend about £700 on something i'll never use.

Roady · 16 Feb 2018 at 08:56

Marvt74 said:
As a follow up to my previous posts my dad has an old mountain bike that he no longer uses. If i bought a turbo trainer. Could i use that for a little while to see if i actually feel it's something i'll use?

Wheel size will be your decider, is it a 29" or a 27"? You'll have to do some research on trainers to confirm what's compatible. The majority are made for road bikes with 700cc wheels, but I know the Vortex I have has a fitting for at least a 29" wheel where the resistance unit fits onto the trainer frame in a slightly different place.

I previously used a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine II with and old hybrid with 26" wheels without issues, it had similar trainer frame mounting points to the Vortex to move the resistance unit. Used it with a road bike afterwards.

Martynt74 · 16 Feb 2018 at 09:08

I've no idea. I assumed it was 26" wheels (i didn't actually know wheel size went any bigger than that for mountain bikes!)

How was the Kurt Kinetic? I've not seen that one before. Any reason you changed as going purely off price it doesn't seem any different to the Vortex.

EDIT - Ah it looks like the Road Machine 2 wasn't a smart trainer. Kurt Kinetic do seem to do other smart trainers in the same price range though.

EDIT2 - Looks like the Kurt Kinetic doesn't adjust resistence for hills with Zwift. Isn't that a big element of these things?

Roady · 16 Feb 2018 at 11:31

Yes, having a 'smart' trainer is so much better on Zwift - it'll add resistance automatically when you reach a 'hill' (commonly called FE-C) as well as transmitting your 'power output' rather than the software just using speed & cadence sensors to try and calculate it.

The KKRMII was ok as a 'dumb' trainer (the common name for these non-smart trainers), solidly built and a large flywheel so a great 'road feel' (inertia). Arguably better than the Vortex (which had a much smaller flywheel) but the immersion and interaction from riding a smart trainer was far better than the 'feel' for me. Now I've moved to a direct drive smart trainer (with a large flywheel) it feels loads better than I remember the Road Machine did (but several years since I rode it).

Be careful with KK 'smart' trainers. Those with an 'InRide' pod are not 'smart'! They basically have a pod which is measuring the wheelspeed and transmitting power. They're very flaky and inaccurate (on par with using speed & cadence sensors). I had 2 replacements and could never get it working correctly, there's a reason they stopped selling them as an 'upgrade'. There is also 'smart control unit' which KK released which converted their trainers to smart trainers with a resistance unit, then/now they sold their trainers with it already fitted. They had loads of teething problems and for some reason are using their own locked down protocol and not the open protocol standards used by other trainers. Just means they're slow to implement any changes, like for new software compatibility. They're backward compared to 99% of other trainer manufacturers, others doing that have gone out of business (Computrainer etc). They also pulled the smart control unit from sale.

Great 'dumb' trainers, I'd recommend the Rock 'n Roll over the road machine, but avoid if you want to use with any software. Your money is better spent on something like a Tacx Flow (Decathlon, Halfords) or Vortex (online). Easily the cheapest smart trainers there are.

Martynt74 · 16 Feb 2018 at 11:42

Cheers. It's definately a smart trainer i think i'm after. I'm umming and arring about how much to spend. Having read back over the thread it seems you've steadily spent upwards to improve on the performance and i'm wondering if i should just jump straight in around the Flux level or if that's stupid if i'm not 100% how much it'll be used and only using an MTB.

The BKool Smart Pro 2 looks pretty good aswell and seems to have its own software so i could potentially negate the need for Zwift.

Suppose the end question is if you had up to around £400 which would you spend? The Vortex seems to come in around £360 and seems quite an old model now (does that matter?) which used to be around £250 and has just increased in price.

Martynt74 · 16 Feb 2018 at 11:51

Also whats the etiquette of a nice kind forum member letting me use their BC discount code?

merlin · 16 Feb 2018 at 12:03

Marvt74 said:
Suppose the end question is if you had up to around £400 which would you spend? The Vortex seems to come in around £360 and seems quite an old model now (does that matter?) which used to be around £250 and has just increased in price.

The Vortex was never £250.

A few of us got lucky and snagged them new for £315 ish.

Martynt74 · 16 Feb 2018 at 12:06

Oh, there was a post which said they hoped they dropped back down to around £250ish from around Aug 2016 that i saw