The Indoor Cyclist's support thread

I am thinking about getting a smart trainer, I more or less have it narrowed down to a Hammer or Core.
The 2 things that are most important to me are quickness in response time for short high intensity intervals (say 15-90 seconds) this where my current trainer really lets me down.
And then just overall road feel.
Anyone ride both of these or do any research specifically on. these?.

Thanks in advance for any insight.
 
trener1 said:
I am thinking about getting a smart trainer, I more or less have it narrowed down to a Hammer or Core.
The 2 things that are most important to me are quickness in response time for short high intensity intervals (say 15-90 seconds) this where my current trainer really lets me down.
And then just overall road feel.
Anyone ride both of these or do any research specifically on. these?.

Thanks in advance for any insight.
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@seanrunnette says the new TACX will simulate road bumps (on Zwift I guess).
*disclaimer - I still have a dumb trainer.
 
Actually the NEO already does this (simulates road surface) but it's too expensive for me, the Core and Hammer are in my price range (maybe)
 
trener1 said:
Actually the NEO already does this (simulates road surface) but it's too expensive for me, the Core and Hammer are in my price range (maybe)
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IDK what the difference is between Core and regular old Wahoo Kickr. But I love my Kickr. Totally changed the game for me.
 
I called Wahoo toady, not a whole lot of a difference between first gen kickr and the Core.
The new Kickr has a larger Flywheel
 
trener1 said:
I called Wahoo toady, not a whole lot of a difference between first gen kickr and the Core.
The new Kickr has a larger Flywheel
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Ok well I have nothing but excellent things to say about the Kickr. If I would change 1 thing about it, I guess maybe I would have it make me espresso too? Otherwise I have absolutely no complaints.
 
Norm said:
IDK what the difference is between Core and regular old Wahoo Kickr. But I love my Kickr. Totally changed the game for me.
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According to DCRainmaker:

"The KICKR CORE basically took a full 2017 KICKR and made it silent, then lopped $300 off the price. This meant that you got what up until July 2018 was one of the best trainers on the market that was loved by most, for $300 cheaper – and now it didn’t make any tangible noise."

Seems like a great buy.
 
Can someone talk me out of a Tacx Flux Smart? $200 cheaper than the Kickr Core. It's not "silent" but I really can't complain about the Kickr Snap we use now.

On paper it isn't as good as it doesn't make as much power or incline % but that's not really an issue. If I'm pushing 1500W I'll buy myself a new Kickr as a present...

My biggest concern is it's too slow to respond to ERG mode intervals, no way to really test it.
 
Santapez said:
Can someone talk me out of a Tacx Flux Smart? $200 cheaper than the Kickr Core. It's not "silent" but I really can't complain about the Kickr Snap we use now.

On paper it isn't as good as it doesn't make as much power or incline % but that's not really an issue. If I'm pushing 1500W I'll buy myself a new Kickr as a present...

My biggest concern is it's too slow to respond to ERG mode intervals, no way to really test it.
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Interesting side note from his google network review was some interesting information about drop outs and responsiveness in general and possible settings changes to stack the odds in our favor a bit.

 
If you are looking for deals, you can pick up the Elite Direto for $649, not sure how much the Flux is going for, also Hammer for $719.
 
Santapez said:
Can someone talk me out of a Tacx Flux Smart? $200 cheaper than the Kickr Core. It's not "silent" but I really can't complain about the Kickr Snap we use now.

On paper it isn't as good as it doesn't make as much power or incline % but that's not really an issue. If I'm pushing 1500W I'll buy myself a new Kickr as a present...

My biggest concern is it's too slow to respond to ERG mode intervals, no way to really test it.
Click to expand...

I had a TACX and it was good. It was a different one though. It was also super loud, but I don't think that means the Flux will be.
The TACX app was garbage compared to the Wahoo app. Not sure if this matters if you're using a different app like zwift anyway.
I'd go by whatever DC Rainmaker says. If he says the Flux is good, it's good enough for you.
 
For what its worth a couple guys that I was riding with last week told me they were getting a Flux
 
trener1 said:
If you are looking for deals, you can pick up the Elite Direto for $649, not sure how much the Flux is going for, also Hammer for $719.
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I bought the Direto for a couple of hundred more last year and I'm still very happy with it. Strongly suggest at this price and it was the DCR favorite last year. The only "weakness" is the climbing grade tops out in the low-mid teens. 15% will still feel like 13%. Many trainers are like this and as someone who seeks out steep climbs IRL, I still feel that 15% climbs on a trainer are just dumb. Not sure what Zwift was thinking when they needlessly put such grades on the NYC map. I suppose it makes some noise, but between the fan and the music, I can't hear anything else.
 
jShort said:
I had a TACX and it was good. It was a different one though. It was also super loud, but I don't think that means the Flux will be.
The TACX app was garbage compared to the Wahoo app. Not sure if this matters if you're using a different app like zwift anyway.
I'd go by whatever DC Rainmaker says. If he says the Flux is good, it's good enough for you.
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The problem with DC Rainmaker unless something is BAD and he shits all over it, it's generally all good. The trainer reviews could almost be cut/paste of one another. What I need him to do in the trainer writeups is a little bit of comparisons to other trainers. Perfect example is how fast they react.

Yeah I think you had the TACX Vortex Smart? I was going to tell Joy to buy that one as it's cheap and seems to work well, but I can see it being loud. I can't complain about noise from my Wahoo Kickr Snap so I doubt the TACX Flux would be any louder considering there's no tire/roller interface.

Will pull the trigger on something early this week. They're expensive devices and don't want to blow money on a bad decision.
 
Zwift technical questions... Quick google search tells me it's not really possible to run 2 Zwift sessions on the same PC concurrently so that means I need to add a 2nd machine capable of running zwift for trainer date nights. AppleTV or old PC with a new GPU card? How is Zwift on AppleTV?

edit: Oh, nevermind. AppleTV doesn't support ANT+ without some bridge. poop.
 
Delish said:
Zwift technical questions... Quick google search tells me it's not really possible to run 2 Zwift sessions on the same PC concurrently so that means I need to add a 2nd machine capable of running zwift for trainer date nights. AppleTV or old PC with a new GPU card? How is Zwift on AppleTV?

edit: Oh, nevermind. AppleTV doesn't support ANT+ without some bridge. poop.
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Paging @seanrunnette because he has all the Zwift answers.
 
Delish said:
Oh, nevermind. AppleTV doesn't support ANT+ without some bridge. poop.
Click to expand...
Unless I'm doing something magical, it's fine. I've been running Zwift on it for the past year.
Edit: oh, shit, right. Lemme do some looking...
Edit some more: seems like you'll need this - https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B071S929ZC/dcr07-20 (Shane Miller on the NPE )
May not be worth it. OTOH, Apple TV has been bulletproof, and the NPE adapter may be cheaper than a new card...
 
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Delish said:
Zwift technical questions... Quick google search tells me it's not really possible to run 2 Zwift sessions on the same PC concurrently so that means I need to add a 2nd machine capable of running zwift for trainer date nights. AppleTV or old PC with a new GPU card? How is Zwift on AppleTV?

edit: Oh, nevermind. AppleTV doesn't support ANT+ without some bridge. poop.
Click to expand...



It’s called a CABLE or “Convert Ant+ to Bluetooth Low Energy” and they work. But with AppleTV only having two BT channels so you need one to control the trainer and one for everything else (thru to the cable).
 
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