Learn me indoor cycling

I have a mountain bike, a fat bike, a older trek 1000 road bike and a crappy spin bike inside.  
 

the spin bike has no way to gather info and feed it back to Strava or zwift .  I'd like to do that to track my training in the winter. I just completed my first triathalon and I'd like to do more.  Particularly not losing the base of fitness that I built up over the past year.   I will be cycling outside in Minnesota in winter with the fat bike but sometimes it's too cold for me. 
 

so should I get a trainer for the road bike or upgrade to a better spin bike?  What day you team?  
 

I don't wanna spend a fortune nor get into the peleton cult. 

Get TrainerRoad and a trainer for the road bike. I got mine (a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine Smart) second hand off FB marketplace for $150. TrainerRoad is $15 a month. The combo has been great for my fitness.

Below is what my wife uses, along with Strava/Zwift. Keep in mind you should swap to trainer tires or you will destroy the street ones in short order. 

What you need, my friend, is a velodrome!

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

We had one here in Blaine, but it was just torn down two years ago.  We do have a couple indoor bmx tracks, but I'm not that crazy. 
 

https://www.hometownsource.com/abc_newspapers/community/blaine/velodrome-demolished-spring-lake-park-schools-plans-to-create-outdoor-space-on-blaine-site/article_912ae5dc-d82b-11ea-a359-a38e23b5afcf.html

I have a ProForm bike that's iFit enabled and love it.  I like the variety of workouts available, I've done the Blue Ridge Parkway series with George Hincapie and a climbing series with Tommy Rivs.  The bike auto-adjusts resistance as you hit hills, etc.  It didn't work very well when I first got the bike, but now it's pretty seamless.  Definitely a great way to combat boredom while you ride inside.

In reply to Slippery :

Oh yeah. 100% get trainer tires. Some people I know get a second wheel with cassette so that when they want to take the road bike out they can just throw the other wheel on to avoid having to change the tire.

Personally I tried out Swift but found I liked TrainerRoad better. Swift felt more like a video game whereas TrainerRoad felt more like a focused workout but that is just personal preference.

I have never had the issue, but enough people have reported bike damage from sweat stains that it may be worth it to put a towel over where you drip.  Or expect the bike to get stained and corroded.  Or use a badass fan or something? *shrug*  

I'm on a tacx neo smart,  I use zwift. Visually stimulating.  Good times 

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Yes, it happens. Sweat is some nasty stuff. 

Zwift fan here.  I started out with a used Kickr Snap as pictured above, purchased virtually unused for $250 off Facebook.  After one winter, I upgraded to the Kickr Core, purchased new through REI.  With sale pricing plus the 100 buck gift card they gave for signing up for the REI Mastercard, the upgrade cost me $525.  My wife took over the Snap and found herself wanting an upgrade the next winter, so now we have 2 Core's side by side.  

I would definitely put the road bike on a smart trainer.  The position is the same as what you are going to be racing in for your triathlons, and the smart trainers give you resistance increases when gradient increases in game.  

Number one priority after a good trainer is airflow.  We have a Patton industrial air circulator, and a Lasko "squirrel cage" blower  for directed airflow.

I'm also a Zwift fan. The group rides and workouts are alright, but I find the races really fun. Eracing is a unique skill, the fitness is real but it's different then riding in real life since it generally always follows a similar cadence... Sprint start, threshold effort for 15 min-1 hr, sprint finish. As I gained strength, I found myself mixing it up just to play.  Feeling good, alright.. let's try a mid race 2 min all out effort to see what happens and who chases.

Equipment-wise... I had the 1st iteration of the Wahoo Kickr Core, the one with the ESD issues. As such, I killed 3 in 3 years, and sold the 4th. To their credit, the customer service is fantastic. Now I have a NEO Tacx 2 that probably cost too much, but it's nice. 

I will attest to the ruining of a bike. My road bike is gross, and will need a full overhaul if I ever decide to play frogger again.

Alright this is an area that's in my wheelhouse!

• Direct drive trainer (the rear-wheel-off) kind for sure
  • I have a Tacx Neo and while it was a few bucks, its one of the few, maybe only, to be self-powered (no cord) AND offer drive power feedback meaning you actually "coast" downhill
  • Its also super rigid, super simple, and super quiet
• Zwift has entered the hardware game and their trainer is gonna beat everyone else in terms of features for the price.  Expect everyone else to either drop their prices or do something.
  • If you can wait, the Zwift trainer will be cheap new and will drive the secondary market down, considering the zwift trainer is only gonna be $499 brandy brand new.
  • https://cyclingtips.com/2022/09/zwift-launches-499-zwift-hub-direct-drive-trainer/
  • No guarantees how/if the Zwift will work on other platforms, but its a commodity unit with Zwift firmware so it shold be able to be reflashed to generic firmware if needed
• I use the Tacx tablet mount along with an older Samsung Galaxy Tab for my Zwifting screen and its great, lets me watch real TV on the big TV
  • You definitely want a tablet with native ANT+ and a bit of processor power to run Zwift.  I had an older one that was gifted to me and it was a real dog compared to a used $100 decent tablet
• I use a small Milwaukee Tools jobsite fan to keep me cooled down and a rubber mat on top of my floor, and a towel on the top tube of my bike.  

Its all pretty fun and was a nice thing to do when it was either too cold or to late in the day to ride fat bikes or if the trails were in poor condition.  

Looks like you're getting some great advice.  I've had a few Wahoo Kickrs that have all worked great.  If you have a garmin, wahoo, or phone that allows you to upload to Strava, you could also get a set of powermeter pedals for the spin bike, assuming it takes 9/16in pedals.  That way you'd be able to measure what you're accomplishing on the spin bike and then swap the pedals over to one of your outdoor bikes when you transition to riding outdoors.

Does anyone use rollers anymore?  They are sooo fun.

The best thing about rollers is letting someone else try them for the first time.  It's like watching someone autoX a 70's Cadillac on bare rims....

Holy crap!  I thought I knew something about bicycles. 
 

This thread has taught me that I don't know E36 M3!

Carry on. (Although I have no idea what is going on here!!) haha!

Merino wool and rain gear.  To heck with riding a bike and going nowhere.  

direct drive is the way to go.  

read dc rainmakers reviews of trainer models and decide what exactly you need.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/11/smart-cycle-trainer-recommendations-guide-winter.html

Saris has been clearing out their H3 trainers.  Both because they just released the H4 and they made to many during the pandemic and the company is trying to sell itself right now.   

but other than that you can get the H3 for $400 with code YDSR2K it has been as low as $384 in the past month or so but who knows what the price will do in the future.   

https://saris.com/products/h3-direct-drive-smart-trainer

or wait for the zwift trainer that is only a little more.