I still ride a very elderly Elite Volare turbo with an even older Giant TCR bike on it. . I have ‘upgraded’ to a set of single sided power pedals though.

I ride to power/heart rate and spend much of the winter (Dec to mid Feb) on board here in the U.K. when doing intervals I ride bloody hard on it though and like the simplicity of not faffing about, just me, some tunes and a small bike computer.

Briefly used Zwift, found it uninspiring but I’m sure it would have been better with a smart trainer.

The main reason for still using it is cost, I don’t earn a fortune and can’t justify the cost of a ST, prices are coming down though so maybe get one at some point.

I really don’t feel I’m missing out and that other people with ST’s have advantage, my bike times are at the sharp end of my age group.

Can't ride a trainer because of the wobble but rides rollers lol.

I picked up a Saris h3 back in May when it went on unadvertised sales. I got it for $450, otherwise I would still be on my fluid trainer. I heard some got it for as low as $400.

Erg mode for workouts is nice, and I swear my ftp increase is because its making me take a better ramp test. Otherwise Fluid is nice. I really dislike simulated gradients when I'm not in workout mode, even with 50% trainer difficulty on.

My ST is being repaired at the moment - and heaps of fun that it's throwing up. Appears to be a bunch of pre-production parts in the machine...

That being said, back on the rollers and rather enjoying it. Makes it a bit more of a conscious experience when doing a workout - needing to try and match power and rpm is a bit more like driving a non synchro box vs. a nice seven speed auto.

You get the added realism of high resistance/load when climbing steep hills. So when you're on a zwift 15% hill, it can actually provide enough resistance such that you can be doing very low rpm (like 40) and still getting high watts, which is pretty much impossible on fluid trainers where you have to lift the cadence even at max gearing to get those watts.

Zwift also does allow you to 'reduce realism' where 100% is feeling the full hill, whereas 50% will flatten it out to half its steepness (and compensate in making its length longer in real-time) or 0% realism where it's basically completely flat (and you will have to ride longer to finish the segment so all is fair). Can be useful, like if you have a foot injury where you can't put a lot of load on the foot, so you want low-hill hi-cadence spinning.

Zwift isn't perfect, but I've found its as close as I can get to doing high-quality indoor rides at all lengths (even the 3hr ones) sustainably long-term. Between the races for short hard stuff, workouts for fixed hard efforts, and fondos and open rides (super nice to have other people on the courses), it works great.

I will add that a lot of folks who aren't convinced by Zwift just don't have a good setup for it. A good computer definitely helps, and a good space and screen (I use a 50" TV) makes things actually quite fun and nice, even if you're on it for hours and hours, month after month. All those 'luxury' things you think aren't essential, start to matter once you're riding the trainer a ton, over months - avoiding mental burnout is very real for heavy indoor training.

I think Kurt Kinetic Road Machine with Pro Flywheel add-on has much better and more realistic road wheel and longer coasting time over any smart trainer I’ve used (Kickr, Neo, Direto).

Adjustable $99 on XMAS sale fluid trainer...still in use. Still like new actually--just get a Vittoria trainer tire & you're good. Identical to this picture. Easy storage...plenty of entertainment on cable, catch up on the stock market, news, etc.

Ya...I am on the lime green Kurk Kinetic Fluid Trainer too. I am currently leading a winter bike focus training group for a dozen people on my Triathlon team and they ask me about what mode they are supposed to be riding in for different workouts. I had to look up the modes for the smart trainers since I have never used one and advised that they could do most of the interval work in our workouts in ERG mode but that they would have to do the explosive sprint in standard mode and that they would have to do power testing in standard mode. We about 25% of the group had problems doing the power test to where they were trying to in crease power and the resistance adjusted to where they couldn't and they had to retest but to the smart trainer not doing what they though they had programed the workout to do. The power numbers come across really clean for the people on smart trainers that adjust the power levels for them. I am wondering about their ability to pace and their ability to select gears for out door riding but I guess the electronic gearing, that I also have never used, does the shifting for them outdoors like the trainer in ERG mode does indoors. I like the dumb trainer, but I have never used a smart trainer so all I can say is yes, I am still using a dumb trainer and that I don't have any desire to change because there are a dozen other things that I will spend my triathlon budget on first. I am not spinning by feel though. I got cheap speed/cadence sensors for $25 and so I get power reading through my indoor bike trainer ap.

No trainer still. I have an old Spin Bike, TV, swim clock, that's it. I do HIIT, and that is it. Never more than 50 min.

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Emilio De Soto II
Maker of triathlon clothing, T1 Wetsuits, & Saddle Seat Pads and AXS since 1990
emilio@desotosport.com http://www.desotosport.com