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smart trainer--what is your set up?
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Decided to get a smart trainer.

Probably a Wahoo kickr Core.

My son will be riding it also. No need to switch bikes.

We have a family laptop, but it does not go over well with others if taken up by trainer time.

Need set up for zwift.--Cheap Laptop vs cheap TV? Mounting options?

I really have no idea.

Thoughts?

Thanks
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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I use an AppleTV with a wall mounted TV in my pain cave. Trainer is a Wahoo Kickr. I also have the Cable, which transmits ANT+ to Bluetooth. You could use a phone for Zwift, which I’ve done a few times, but the screen is pretty hard to see because of size.

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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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Apple TV
32 inch tv - plenty of cheap $100ish TVs nowadays
Elite direto
I use Zwift companion app on iPhone to manage my connections to my trainer, power meter, and heart rate monitor
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [natethomas] [ In reply to ]
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What is the ANT + to Bluetooth cable and what exactly does it do?
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [Cedar Creek] [ In reply to ]
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Ant+ and bluetooth are two different ways to connect your smart trainer or other features like heart rate monitor to your phone, tablet or laptop.

I used bluetooth at first but had some problems. I bought a ant+ dongle which plugs into a USB port. I bought a long USB extension cable so the ant+ is right next to my trainer getting a strong signal and the cable brings it back to my pc.
I still sometimes use bluetooth to have my phone connected to my trainer to perform certain functions while using zwift.
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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Kickr Gen 1
Intel NUC
39" TV
TrainerRoad
This USB Extension cable to put the Ant+ adapter right under my bottom bracket - since I did this, I've had zero drop-outs either with my Kickr / Power Meter / heart rate monitor

Matthew
Twitter: @AlphaDogCycling
Instagram: @AlphaDogCycling
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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I would get a $400 laptop and a $200 TV from Amazon. Plug the TV in via HDMI cable. (Or you can do Apple TV for cheaper than laptop, but then you don’t have an extra laptop!)

Plug a ANT+ USB dongle into the laptop

Buy yourself two lasko fans

I’d also get a hospital bed rolling table that you can rest your laptop on, water bottles, phone, etc

I can send you amazon links if you want me to for all this stuff.
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [Cedar Creek] [ In reply to ]
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Cedar Creek wrote:
What is the ANT + to Bluetooth cable and what exactly does it do?

CABLE is an acronym for Connect Ant+ to Bluetooth Low Energy. It's a device made by North Pole Engineering to translate ANT+ wireless protocol to BLE, and allows you to use ANT+ sensors with any BLE enabled device that supports the equivalent BLE sensor.

Less is more.
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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J-No wrote:
Decided to get a smart trainer.

Probably a Wahoo kickr Core.

My son will be riding it also. No need to switch bikes.

We have a family laptop, but it does not go over well with others if taken up by trainer time.

Need set up for zwift.--Cheap Laptop vs cheap TV? Mounting options?

I really have no idea.

Thoughts?

Thanks

If you have an android phone that supports Zwift, you can buy a Chromecast for $35 and mirror your android screen to HDMI.

My plan for this winter is dumb trainer, bike with power meter, Pixel 2 running Zwift, Chromecast connected to cheap projector($60).
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [bufordt] [ In reply to ]
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What projector is that? Do you just project it on a wall?
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [mickison] [ In reply to ]
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mickison wrote:
What projector is that? Do you just project it on a wall?


It's a crappy low rez LED projector I bought for Halloween stuff. I think it's a DB Power T21, but it might be the T20.

It's not bright, but after dark or with the shades pulled it works fine projected on the wall. It's not true HD, although it supports 1080 as an input, I think it's 800x480, so if the text is too small, it's unreadable, but for Zwift or Rouvy it's adequate.
Last edited by: bufordt: Oct 13, 18 12:14
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [mvenneta] [ In reply to ]
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mvenneta wrote:
I would get a $400 laptop and a $200 TV from Amazon. Plug the TV in via HDMI cable. (Or you can do Apple TV for cheaper than laptop, but then you don’t have an extra laptop!)

Plug a ANT+ USB dongle into the laptop

Buy yourself two lasko fans

I’d also get a hospital bed rolling table that you can rest your laptop on, water bottles, phone, etc

I can send you amazon links if you want me to for all this stuff.

Which $400 laptop can run Zwift reasonably? (I know Apple TV seems to work already)
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [mvenneta] [ In reply to ]
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mvenneta wrote:
I would get a $400 laptop and a $200 TV from Amazon. Plug the TV in via HDMI cable. (Or you can do Apple TV for cheaper than laptop, but then you don’t have an extra laptop!)

Plug a ANT+ USB dongle into the laptop

Buy yourself two lasko fans

I’d also get a hospital bed rolling table that you can rest your laptop on, water bottles, phone, etc

I can send you amazon links if you want me to for all this stuff.

Is this the lasko fan your referencing? https://www.amazon.com/...507&ref_=sv_hg_6
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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Elite Direto with a PC and an ANT+ dongle. Works great.

___________________________________________________
Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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If you cannot do both go with the TV and buy the dongle to mirror it. TV gives you the option to get Apple TV or something else down the road to keep you occupied.
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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KICKR Core and Kinetic R1 trainers both look great to me. Kinetic also has some new ones being released soon I think.

Though I haven't used a Kinetic, I think the motion it allows would make for far more comfortable trainer rides. I think once trainers are dead quiet, allow motion and have accurate power there won't be a whole lot to improve them.

-------------------
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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  • I have an Elite Direto and Zwift running on a Macbook Air.
  • USB Ant+ dongle.
  • HR coming from Garmin Fenix, but Garmin 935 works just as well.
  • I have 3 fans plugged into a power strip with an on/off switch. I turn them on with just a flick of that switch as I'm getting ready to get on the bike.
  • One of the fans has a remote, so I can turn it on or up after the other two aren't working well enough anymore.
  • I also have a ceiling fan and light directly overhead. I can turn them on/off just by reaching up.
  • I have a large screen TV a few feet in front of me, so I can port the video from my laptop to it no problemo.
  • I have a hospital bed table directly in front of me that I put the laptop on.
  • A wireless mouse that lives on that table/desk, keeping me from getting sweat into my laptop.
  • I have a the laptop power cable and the TV video cable clipped directly to the table, so I don't have to fish around for them.
  • A treadmill off to the left which I hang lots of headbands from the arms.
  • Trained my wife to quit putting the headbands in a dresser and in a big tupperware bin next to the bike instead.
  • A small coffee table off to the right where I put water and fuel bottles.
  • One of my fans is pretty small, and I put it on the floor in the doorway to the hall and point it upwards into the training room. It takes cooler air from low down outside the room and pumps it upwards to the top of the training cave. Then the ceiling fan pushes that cooler air down on top of me from above.
  • Have I mentioned it's stupid hot where I live? (Texas)

I credit this setup with boosting my FTP from 270 to 320+ over a few months because of a great biking environment. I can grab some bike shorts, fuel and water, and be biking with all the fans and whatnot in just minutes. I got irritated with constantly re-setting up the bike stuff, so I figured out how to set it and forget it, so it's already and always there instead.

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Last edited by: ZenTriBrett: Oct 13, 18 22:20
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Re: smart trainer--what is your set up? [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks all. I have a wall mounted TV in there, apparently my Apple TV is a bit dated, so will get a new one in there.

I like the fan set ups some of you have. The motion aspect of Kenetic would be cool.

REI has the core for MSRP of $900. Dividend of $90, and sign up for REI card gets me another $200 gift card.

I think boy has the dongle thing figured out.
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