Zwift Chat

[<Tommy>]

I still have my Atom and am fairly happy with it. But then I'm not really a fair judge on this, because I'd never had any other bike trainer beforehand - I'd been umming and ahhing for a while about whether to shell out for a wheel-on controllable one, just at the time when the Atom first came on the market and so I decided just to take the plunge and buy that instead.

So without any other experiences to compare it to, the biggest issues with the Atom such as gear change/resistance lags, to me they're just a slight annoyance that you can get used to (and admittedly they have been improved a bit with firmware updates) whereas someone who'd used other trainers might say that the experience was terrible and a real deal-breaker and look to go back to a normal trainer again.

I got the impression from the Facebook group that a lot of the guys had come from the original Wattbike. And so the year change speed and functionality wasn’t such a big deal for them. I think like you say if you’re coming from a road bike / road bike on trainer is was a bit more of a deal breaker.

 

[Aleman]

The other thing I would perhaps add to the Wattbike/Neo discussion is that prices will probably go up massively after 31st Dec this year, as will lead times

 

[mjd1988]

I got the impression from the Facebook group that a lot of the guys had come from the original Wattbike. And so the year change speed and functionality wasn’t such a big deal for them. I think like you say if you’re coming from a road bike / road bike on trainer is was a bit more of a deal breaker.

I suppose I am used to a wheel on trainer. It's louder and less accurate than a neo, and it doesn't have a rocker plate or any incline simulation, so I wouldn't miss those sorts of features. I also use 50% realism at the moment and tbh I very rarely change gear, unless it's an extended climb.

I'm on a 30 year old steel bike that has downtube gear adjusters (and maybe only 8 or 9 working gears anyway). I also sweat a lot and like @Whorty (only morseso) limited maintainance skills (put a chain back on, change a tyre, rubbish indexing level stuff) so the idea of one machine with very little needed other than a wipe down is very attractive.

Either a direct drive or smart bike would both be a significant upgrade anyway, but not one that I need in the very near future but just fun to explore options at this stage. I suspect the bike will breakdown before the turbo!

 

[mjd1988]

The other thing I would perhaps add to the Wattbike/Neo discussion is that prices will probably go up massively after 31st Dec this year, as will lead times

Almost forgot about the b word

 

[bobinski]

“B”aside I can’t see prices coming down. Zwift and other platforms have benefitted hugely from covid and that’s changed peeps expectations of the experience they can get out of training at home. Supply and demand is probably in the manufacturers favour for some time to come.

 

[mjd1988]

“B”aside I can’t see prices coming down. Zwift and other platforms have benefitted hugely from covid and that’s changed peeps expectations of the experience they can get out of training at home. Supply and demand is probably in the manufacturers favour for some time to come.

There's so much more competitors though now in the smart bike area though, no? I'd hope that more consumers would mean higher production and lower unit cost (for production) in the longer term (although seeing what people are paying for things on eBay at the moment I totally take your point).

 

[Del C]

Ok, all I have a problem. I did mention this just before the start of the TTT last night but I'm not sure if anyone saw it / was paying attention.

We all know that for true happiness the N+1 rule applies, as long as N+1<S-1, so if I buy a tandem does this count as N+1 or N+0.5?

This is further complicated by the fact that "I" already own a tandem, and She has a unicycle!

While I know my bike stable is no where near the size / capacity of some / many on here, trying to avoid the N>S is a delicate game.

Edit: This is what the cave of pain looks like
View attachment 532286

I mean...... I'm not the tidiest person in the world. Ask my wife!

I tend to do things like leaving tools on work surfaces when I ought to put them away. I leave old tubes dangling from the hoods on my handlebars, because I might patch them......... but I never do, although the tubes still stay where they are.

But, I looked at your picture and...... well, it looks like you've opened the shed door and then just thrown everything in. It doesn't matter where it lands, just that it lands somewhere.

Is the Giant on a turbo? It looks like a bit of a Neo behind it, but I can't really tell.

Anyhow, you've made me feel much better.

Your shed is just glorious!

 

[Whorty]

Am I the only person who's 'pain cave' is in my library?

And no, I'm not joking, I really do have my turbo set up in my library

 

[<Tommy>]

There's so much more competitors though now in the smart bike area though, no? I'd hope that more consumers would mean higher production and lower unit cost (for production) in the longer term (although seeing what people are paying for things on eBay at the moment I totally take your point).

I think sometimes you‘ve got to be careful what you wish for. Who knows what the profit margin on this stuff is. Reduced prices could mean cutting costs. That normally entails cheaper parts and less production standards.

For what it’s worth there are what, 3 or more companies making these bikes now? It’s not exactly saturated, and not a monopoly either. I think prices will steadily rise along with the tech. Side question, If one of these companies begun to offer a cheaper version of the same bike would you want to buy it?

 

[<Tommy>]

Am I the only person who's 'pain cave' is in my library?

Depends, do porn magazines count?

 

[mjd1988]

I think sometimes you‘ve got to be careful what you wish for. Who knows what the profit margin on this stuff is. Reduced prices could mean cutting costs. That normally entails cheaper parts and less production standards.

For what it’s worth there are what, 3 or more companies making these bikes now? It’s not exactly saturated, and not a monopoly either. I think prices will steadily rise along with the tech. Side question, If one of these companies begun to offer a cheaper version of the same bike would you want to buy it?

Tacx, wattbike, stages, kickr, virtupro, srm, truekinetix...was there a bkool at one point? some of them are more concept bikes that'll probably never sell much to be fair, but you never know who will enter into the market if they think there's money to be made.

But I agree, it's not like the component parts are going to be cheap and profit margins are huge. Just hopeful that as it becomes less niche it may edge down a couple of hundred quid

 

[bobinski]

Depends, do porn magazines count?

you can still buy porn magazines?!?

 

[steverob]

Am I the only person who's 'pain cave' is in my library?

And no, I'm not joking, I really do have my turbo set up in my library

Well mine is in the spare bedroom, which is kind of like my study/library I suppose...

All I need to do is turn the PC monitor 90 degrees to face the bike and away I go. The big grey box is my primary fan, with a secondary one situated behind the bike (obscured by the wardrobe in this shot).

 

[JuhaL]

Depends, do porn magazines count?

Porn magazines are too old fashion for me, i prefer free porn video web sites

 

[Whorty]

Depends, do porn magazines count?

You've seen my library then