Vaseline the shit out of every bolt and every nook,crack,cable and moving part.
A buff on the head,towel on the bike and a strong fan.
I have a Stages SB20, so headset isn’t an issue. Sweat corrosion on other parts is an ongoing battle, and I need to take off the covers and do a good clean at some point, but am a little afriad of what I’ll find.
I ride around 10k miles a year, most of which is indoors, so taking care of the bike is very important. Prior to getting the Stages bike, I had to replace several things on my regular bike, like the chainset, cassette, and rewax chains on almost a weekly basis. It’s nice to not have to worry about those things, and is what led me to getting a specific indoor bike for riding.
I actually tried to buy one of these SB20s earlier, but I never got it working (electronics fried out the moment I set up despite doing it super carefully) and customer service is literally zero there right now - my credit card company had to refund my entire purchase (Eventually Stages contacted me just to have the bike picked up, not fixed.)
I’m actually pretty happy right now with my old frame on my Kickr. I do agree that it’s so much less worry and hassle to have a dedicated trainer bike or similar if you’re doing a lot of indoor training, wish I’d set up the separate bike earlier.
Grease is super important.
I use a marine grade grease on almost everything on my bike.
If it’s good enough for salt water and boat engines it can handle my sweat.
When you say it didn’t matter how many towels you put on top, do you mean on top of each other, or how many you use?
Haven’t ever had an issue with corrosion.
I try not to let any specific part get completely saturated as anything additional will drip through. Have a towel specifically just to cover the bars and have another on the top tube for wiping excess sweat from arms and face. Once one part is soaked then move it across to a dryer spot until the whole thing gets saturated, then change.
A 5/6 hour session for me will require usually 2/3 t-shirts/jerseys, 4-6 towels, 2/3 headbands.
A big help was using sweat bands pulled up just below the elbow, which reduces the amount of sweat that gets to the towel over the bars in the first place. This is a great spot also for when in TT position. Headbands are fantastic but also need to be squeezed out every 10 minutes or so.
Oh…and using fans is just cheating 
I rusted off a gear and brake line cable so far
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When you say it didn’t matter how many towels you put on top, do you mean on top of each other, or how many you use?
Haven’t ever had an issue with corrosion.
I try not to let any specific part get completely saturated as anything additional will drip through. Have a towel specifically just to cover the bars and have another on the top tube for wiping excess sweat from arms and face. Once one part is soaked then move it across to a dryer spot until the whole thing gets saturated, then change.
A 5/6 hour session for me will require usually 2/3 t-shirts/jerseys, 4-6 towels, 2/3 headbands.
A big help was using sweat bands pulled up just below the elbow, which reduces the amount of sweat that gets to the towel over the bars in the first place. This is a great spot also for when in TT position. Headbands are fantastic but also need to be squeezed out every 10 minutes or so.
Oh…and using fans is just cheating
I swap towels. I can saturate right through an entire standard bath towel laid across my aerobars in <45 minutes, probably <30 mins if I’m going hard. Sure, not the entire thing is saturated, but at the weight-contact points of my elbows and all around it where the towel is flattening out on the aerobars, it gets soaked right through pretty quickly. Even when I think I’ve been changing the towel ahead of time, AND have saran wrapped the headset it gets in. I even stuck a neoprene yoga mat under the towel at one point, not sure if it helped though.
Part of my problem might also be the design of my headset and cover. It’s not the standard small round top tube cover of a road bike - mine is. a big flat plate so lots more area for sweat to seep in through the sides and get stuck. Still, I’m amazed at how few people here complain about rusted headsets after all that indoor bike training - I’ve rusted headsets on my older Cervelo and now my Premier Tactical on pretty much an annual basis when they were on my Kickr, and this is with towels, etc.
It’s gotten to the point I cringe when I see pros doing regular training on their race bike on a trainer with only a small towel under them!
Maybe I am missing something - but if you are on a dedicated trainer bitch bike with a busted RD hanger, who cares if the headset starts rusting? The frame is likely trash, you might as well fill the headtube with cement and make it single speed so no cables at all…
Maybe I am missing something - but if you are on a dedicated trainer bitch bike with a busted RD hanger, who cares if the headset starts rusting? The frame is likely trash, you might as well fill the headtube with cement and make it single speed so no cables at all…
You got it right - I’m just asking about headsets out of curiosity. By having my broken bike on the trainer, I couldn’t care less if the headset is fused completely solid and all the cables are cut. I actually already cut all the RD/FD cables, just have brake cables left that I will probably remove at some point! And it’s already single speed since you can’t mount a RD on it!
But I do anticipate at some point in the future, probably nearing race day, I’ll start throwing my race TT bike back on it if I’m forced to do some long indoor ride due to conditions, just so I know I’m ready on my race bike position.
Any reason you can’t add some clipons, adjust the seat, and duplicate your race bike position on the trainer bike?
Any reason you can’t add some clipons, adjust the seat, and duplicate your race bike position on the trainer bike?
Actually my position is essentially duplicated. But still, I’d prefer to train long on my actual race bike leading up to race day, just in case.