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Winter is coming... What does your pain cave look like?

My husband and I are in the market for a second hand direct drive indoor trainer to replace the wheel on one we already have. Unfortunately the more I read about the various options the more I feel like we are going to get the wrong thing and then spend a bunch of money trying to fix the problems. We would like to determine whether there is a way we can set up things so that we can both use one trainer, without it being a complete pain to change over between users. Problem is I am 1.65m tall and he is 1.82m tall, thus riding the same bike on the trainer will probably end up making one of us uncomfortable. Thus my questions: Is it difficult and or problematic to swop between bikes on a direct drive trainer (I realize each brand is a bit different, but in general)? Does any specific model of direct drive trainer make it easier to swop bikes (or conversely is there one we should avoid)? I have heard it is unadvisable to use your normal bike on a trainer regularly given it can damage things over time, should we avoid using our normal bikes on the trainer? (we are both on mountain bikes and he has a Shimano XT, 10-51, 12-speed cassette and I have a Shimano SLX 11-42 T cassette, so this may not be an option, but I am trying to consider everything) We already have "cheap" mountain bikes that we were using with the wheel on trainer, they have 21 Speed Cassettes (3 x 7 drive trains). If the indoor trainer had the correct cassette would these bikes work on a direct drive trainer or are they usually only compatible with 11 or 12 speed set up's? I would be interested to hear how other couples that cycle get it right, given I am certain we are not alone and know a lot of people can't necessarily afford 2 complete indoor set ups? I look forward to the opinions/advice.

I know, I know. I'm late to the party. My excuse was pregnant/baby. I'm looking for a unicorn - a trainer which wont make noise (at least not enough noise to wake up a toddler). That is stable (mom can't be in a cast). And offers resistance (I don't see myself on a road/mountain any time soon). AND - the kicker - not going to break the bank. If you can pick up a second hand one without the risk of a dodgy purchase - all the better. Thanks sportsfans!

My man en seun oefen elke aand hier langs mekaar op hulle fietse. Die fietse is gemonteer op hulle RavX en TraXx staanders. My man het al jare lank sy CycleOps Powertap op sy agterwil en my tienerseun het sopas ‘n oefenhorlosie Lefun Fitness Activity tracker gekry. Alhoewel ek kan sien dat alle inligting na die oefensessies afgelaai kan word wil ons graag die metings op die rekenaarskerms kan sien terwyl hulle oefen. Hoe doen ons dit? Dit sal die kompeterende uitdaging makliker maak. Noudat my seun ook ry word daar elke kort-kort gevra om te kyk en my man dra moet ongelukkig ‘n bril brgin dra om naby te kan sien. Met die sweet wat hom aftap is dit nogal ‘n probleem!

Hi everyone I have a tacx satori trainer that doesn't want to switch on. It's been standing for about 2 months and now when I want to use it, it won't go on. I changed batteries, and still nothing. Has anyone else experienced something like this? Chris Willemse said I can bring it to them to have it checked out, but before I go there, I want to see if I can fix it myself (hopefully it's something small). Thanks!

Hi, Having trouble with a broken Tacx Flux. Bought secondhand on bikehub, and it broke 5 rides in. No use crying over spilt milk. Would like to get it fixed now. The problem is: - red/green light flickers (no power?? belt issue???) - orange light flickers, do an update, returns to red/green issue - connects to phone and shows, but no power, no calibration (no data transfer??) - also no connectivity to macbook for zwifting purposes. I already emailed garmin, who seems to be Tacx agents in SA, but to no avail. Does anyone have any ideas or advice on the way forward, other than to just buy a Kickr

I've been wanting to try out the Zwift steerable courses and also upgrade the horrible riser block my IDT came with. I'm probably not on a sufficiently high level yet to do the courses, but I found this SUPER COOL 3D printable design on Thingiverse (similar to this): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4239532 I'm curious if anyone else has given this a go (or wants to give it a go)? This is my current print progress (started this morning): I'm using clear PETG filament due to availability ( ), ease of use and low thermal expansion coefficients. I don't have bearings, so I'll have to print those too. PETG is good for moving parts apparently.

Is there anyway I can fit my 29” mtb on my Genius Trainer? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Trailblazing technology that adds multi-axis movement to stationary cycling. MP1 brings the freedom of riding outside to training indoors. Click here to view the article

I am looking at getting a RAV X Tx 4 indoor trainer and was just wondering if it is adjustable to be used by a 29'er? Any another reviews or comments on it will also be appreciated

Good afternoon folks! Hope you're all having a great Sunday. Had this Tacx indoor tyre since mid-December 2018. Then after my session on Thursday evening I noticed a very small bubble forming in the tyre. This after I took the tyre off hoping the tube underneath was bust. Turns out the tube was flawless, and my tyre is de-lamitating. This is my second Tacx tyre. Has this happened to other Tacx tyre users before? Is there a better tyre on the market? Do these new tyres come with a warranty? I usually run it between 7-8 bar on a Tacx Genius Smart trainer, doing TR workouts at night.

Morning all, To those who use the Tacx Utility app, have you noticed that the Calibration option has been removed with the latest update? Comments in the Play Store about this c0ckup are plentiful. How do I calibrate my trainer now? I do calibrate the trainer in TR after a 10 minute warmup, but experience proves that the trainer must be calibrated in the Utility app after a warmup.

Good morning to all Hubbers, It's Friday, yay! To those of you who are familiar with TrainerRoad and the Ebbetts workout, it requires a 5 second sprint at about 150% FTP at set times as the workout progresses. So yesterday while I was busy with my workout, I got to the the first 5s interval, and my Eskom power trips! When I went to be DB I noticed my mains switch had not tripped, but the mains of the prepaid meter had! Flicked the switch back on with no issue but did not attempt the workout again. It did however say on the little display "earth unsafe". Does anyone have the first clue as to why this might be? The trainer runs on it's own dedicated socket in the wall, nothing else (in that room) was on at the time

So after 5 years of trusty service I sold my Powerops pro beam trainer (on the hub within 48 hours!). I was looking for a direct drive (no back wheel), top of the range replacement to avoid the back wheel usage, improve accuracy and have a better experience. The three products I read up on where the Tacx Neo, Powerops and Wahoo Kickr and based on what I was reading the Tacx had the slightly better reviews but for training purposes all were excellent options. So I went for the Wahoo Kickr which was well priced compared to the Neo. I have encountered problems from the outset but was impressed that the South African agent phoned me after I emailed a list of my concerns. Here in short was what I have encountered and the proposed solution from the agent: 1. My desktop computer's bluetooth does not pick up the Wahoo - he told me that most desktops don't have the right Bluetooth for Wahoo and when I get an Ant+ adapter it will work. My old Powerops came with the Ant+ the Wahoo is a R900 additional cost if you want to run it from the desktop 2. As I can not use my desktop computer until the Ant+ arrives I am using my Ipad with Bluetooth but the surges and inaccuracy are shocking. I use Zwift where I preprogram power rides and found that when I set anything above 200 watts I simply cannot pedal (FTP of 250) as it simply over does the resistance and ruins my ride or the power is simply not there but shows 170 watts even when free wheeling. I had used my P1 pedals to see the difference which was typically and consistently around 15% difference with the Powerops but a whopping 40% with the Wahoo (which promised +1% - 2% accuracy). I took the P1 pedals off to avoid interference but still found that the Wahoo was over or under powering my ride and the readings. He told me that Bluetooth can easily have interference and that with the newer Wahoo Kickr models like mine he has had a lot of complaints of inaccuracy with IPads. Something he has addressed with the manufacter 3. Sometimes the Ipad does not pickup the Wahoo at all. I learned this was interference as although my phone was not connected to the Wahoo it did have the Bluetooth on and when I turned it off the Ipad picked up the Wahoo. Very unfortunate as anyone in the family close by with their phone on can destroy your session not to mention if you use the device like I do at events (I have a plug in the car) to warm up and all the other riders with Bluetooth on their phones near by could potential destroy the warm up. 4. The cassette that comes with the Wahoo is not running well with my brand new Shimano 11 speed chain and is often making more noise than the device like it is not sync in gear that you can feel thru the pedals. Agent said this was not common. I guess the chain will be destroyed or will run into the cassette - I hate to think what will happen when i ride with chain on normal cassette. 5. The spin downs (calibration) don't seem to be consistent with the device sometimes taking minutes to slow down just a few KPH and other times rapidly. Agent response was that I must always use the Wahoo App to do all spin downs despite Zwift having their tailor made Wahoo spin down tool which he says does not work as well as the Wahoo App (then why have Wahoo worked with Zwift to put this in place?) 6. I also explained that I found the whole technical side not only disappointing thus far but also confusing with three different Wahoo Apps to use (Utility, Fitness and Studio). I am still confused by this (why not just have one app?) and don't know why we cannot just plug and play as per the marketing jive. Also the different modes are confusing and until now I still don't know how to find the different modes and when I asked does Zwift automatically select the mode he says Zwift has its own mode? I don't blame him but the product as he was doing his best to explain. He also sent me a mail where by it had different proposed solutions to how to over come technical difficulties but the only one that addressed the problem, directed me to the Zwift site for direction which did not help as Zwift is working but the machine is not reading the required output correctly in bluetooth on an Ipad. Work in motion - so I am not about to send the whole device back (agent says if it continues he will address USA for warranty claim which sounds long winded and I will fight for my money back first), as I am still waiting for the Ant+ device to arrive (2 weeks back order at Takealot). However if you are looking for a trouble free upgrade and use a desktop or Ipad to do work outs, Wahoo Kickr will do its name sake and kick your trouble free set intervals into turmoil. I will follow up with conclusion once Ant+ arrives but believe the Wahoo marketing of the shortfalls are not apparent and in my case misleading.

After decades of technological innovation, five evolutions of smart trainers and millions of pedal strokes, Wisconsin-based indoor bike trainer manufacturer, CycleOps, announced a new kind of indoor riding experience – the Hammer. Designed for cyclists looking to advance into the next generation of virtual trainers that seamlessly integrate with a variety of smart devices and are compatible with virtually every training application. Click here to view the article

If you’re anything like me indoor training can be a bit of a chore, but often the sensible option to supplement training through winter. Even with a decent trainer and the distraction of TVs or iPads, I quickly get bored and uncomfortable. Enter the CycleOps PowerSync and their Virtual Training software. Click here to view the article

Rooted in their dedication to providing all types of cyclists with the best tools to help them achieve their goals, the Wisconsin-based indoor bike trainer manufacturer, CycleOps, unveiled their newest smart indoor bike trainer – the Magnus. Click here to view the article

First Look Friday is an introduction to the products that we are currently testing for review. This week we're previewing the Fox Metah helmet, Specialized's Power Pro saddle, and the Stages SC3 indoor trainer. Click here to view the article

Beyond 2000 was a documentary TV Show that aired from 1985 to 1999 and featured technological innovations that were meant to improve our lives and be widely available to the mass market soon after the year 2000. Most inventions and ideas were outstanding and, for the time it was aired, quite out there. Flying cars, jetpacks as daily transport - next level stuff. Click here to view the article

The CycleOps PowerSync is an indoor trainer with an onboard power meter to accurately measure your training efforts. The trainer is operated by your iOS or Android device via the VirtualTraining software. We'll be buzzing away in the early mornings of winter to bring you a full review of the PowerSync trainer and VirtualTraining software in July. Click here to view the article

The Wahoo Kickr is a wireless ANT+/Bluetooth 4.0 power trainer with a built-in power meter that allows you to accurately measure and control your efforts. You can connect the trainer to a variety of apps, including Wahoo's own, or programs that control the resistance in real-time to follow along with a specific workout or a video course. Click here to view the article

Greeting Hubbers, A friend of mine is looking at spending around R7500 on an indoor trainer. She tested the Kinetic rock and roller and was taken by the idea that the system moves underneath you in an attempt to simulate being on the road. My feeling is that this is a gimmick and the something like the Trax T2790 would be money better spent. Link to Kinetic --- http://www.kurtkinet...p-312-l-en.html Link to Trax --- http://www.cwcycles....bushido-tablets Any advice on these or other suggestions within the budget would be most helpful.

Can anyone enlighten me to the differences between the Tacx Bushido and i-Flow ? Costs from CW Cycles : Tacx T2790 Bushido for Tablets - R10 500 Tacx T2250 I-Flow - R8 999 I want to be able to use a Tablet(or macbook) to show the tacX videos and also I am interested in the multi player online options. What extras do I need to buy over and above the trainer? Anybody using this setup please provide me with advice/feedback? Much appreciated.

Hey Experts, If you have any tips on buying an indoor trainer, please feel free to share them with me. Regards, Danielle

Hey Experts, If you have any tips on buying an indoor trainer, please feel free to share them with me. Regards, Danielle