My 3rd smart trainer appears to be dying on me, and I'm contemplating buying a Wattbike Atom instead of investing in another trainer. I would love to hear feedback from others who have switched from smart trainers to a smart bike (e.g., Wattbike Atom, Taxc bike, Wahoo bike) for their indoor workouts.
The advantages of the bike as I see it are:
1) I am building a large, very nice home gym in basement. I'd rather not schlep my bike up/downstairs every time I want to take it outside or bring it back inside. I don't have a bulkhead and it's a tight stairwell.
2) I don't ride my TT bike outside enough. I hypothesize if I didn't have to get all greasy taking it on/off a trainer, I'd ride it outside more often, which would improve my bike handling skills.
3) My wife would probably use it. She kind of wants a Peloton, but she agrees the Atom would be a fair compromise. Sure, it would be cheaper to just buy a second smart trainer, but she's even less comfortable taking her bike on/off the trainer, and two trainers takes up more space, etc.
4) I'm ordering a Woodway 4Front, and I can get the Wattbike for 40% off ($1500 vs $2600 MSRP), so it's really not much more expensive than a new NEO 2T.
My concerns are:
1) Not being able to exactly dial-in my position, and thus the training would lack specificity or even worse lead to injury.
2) Not training "on my race bike" -- resulting in less comfort on the race bike in race position come race day.
3) Are these smart bikes "as good" (in terms of feel, precision, build quality, etc.)
Have Atom/Tacx bike, etc users found them to be a substitute for riding your race bike on a smart trainer? Or is it something you've found to be an additional tool (i.e. something you keep at your office or at a smaller summer home) but not a replacement.
One alternative option I've considered is just buying a cheaper/used version of my TT bike with cheap donor parts and leaving that permanently on the trainer in gym. But that doesn't solve the problem of my trainers dying annually and getting my wife something she can ride indoors while our son naps and I'm out doing long runs/rides.
The advantages of the bike as I see it are:
1) I am building a large, very nice home gym in basement. I'd rather not schlep my bike up/downstairs every time I want to take it outside or bring it back inside. I don't have a bulkhead and it's a tight stairwell.
2) I don't ride my TT bike outside enough. I hypothesize if I didn't have to get all greasy taking it on/off a trainer, I'd ride it outside more often, which would improve my bike handling skills.
3) My wife would probably use it. She kind of wants a Peloton, but she agrees the Atom would be a fair compromise. Sure, it would be cheaper to just buy a second smart trainer, but she's even less comfortable taking her bike on/off the trainer, and two trainers takes up more space, etc.
4) I'm ordering a Woodway 4Front, and I can get the Wattbike for 40% off ($1500 vs $2600 MSRP), so it's really not much more expensive than a new NEO 2T.
My concerns are:
1) Not being able to exactly dial-in my position, and thus the training would lack specificity or even worse lead to injury.
2) Not training "on my race bike" -- resulting in less comfort on the race bike in race position come race day.
3) Are these smart bikes "as good" (in terms of feel, precision, build quality, etc.)
Have Atom/Tacx bike, etc users found them to be a substitute for riding your race bike on a smart trainer? Or is it something you've found to be an additional tool (i.e. something you keep at your office or at a smaller summer home) but not a replacement.
One alternative option I've considered is just buying a cheaper/used version of my TT bike with cheap donor parts and leaving that permanently on the trainer in gym. But that doesn't solve the problem of my trainers dying annually and getting my wife something she can ride indoors while our son naps and I'm out doing long runs/rides.