I ride 2-3 days a week indoors and its a back up beater bike. Unfortunately my main beater bike broken down recently, and this was unusable. So had to ride wife’s 48cm for a while (I ride 56-58). I do clean it down after use, and have a small towelette on the bars. SO my advice is dont use your race bike indoors! Do you do anything to prevent this kind of damage?
I’ve been doing indoor training for years, heavily, and it always breaks my bike. I think it would be better if I took that same bike outdoors 1-2x/week to loosen things up, but nope.
I’ll add to your list: seized headset (most common, surprised you haven’t gotten that), seized front brakes (permanently, needs replacement).
It’s so bad despite towels, covers, etc, that I’ve relegated myself to having an only-indoor training bike frame, that never leaves the trainer.
I don’t think you can avoid this if you’re training on it several times a week and sweating a ton in the process. Not as bad if you’re riding mostly outdoors and only lightly indoors.
The worst part is that even a small amount of sweat getting into things can do a lot of damage - if left for a long time. So you can wipe everything done meticulously after each ride - and your headset might still be seized at the end of the indoor season. Again, riding outdoors seems to combat this by loosening things up before they seize.
If my current road bike alu frame corrodes completely on the trainer, I’m going to get the zwift frame.
My wife sweats a lot and man it just east the shit out a bike. Last bike (which was an older road bike) is pretty much unusable other than it pedaling and even then the chains last like six months b4 rusting out. I got her a new Tri bike this fall and make her use towels and fans on hi.
Personally, I have two fans going all the time but with remotes so I can start em low and increase them as I get warmed up. I like the heat and sweat, but I’m not going to ruin a bike so that I can feel like I’m just getting a good sweat in. It’s gross!
Ok, I’ve put thousands of ks on the dedicated trainer bikes in the years. Level 65 zwift.
But I use the tacx sweat cover and other than a couple of GXP BB’s then they have survived. I do have an awesome 3 fan tower, train with the door open (even in winter) and the paint is all bubbling on the alloy frame, mechanically they’ve been fine. The TT bike suffered more from just been put on the rack for a year and not touched than when it was on the trainer for a winter. In that case the brakes did seize and I needed to replace the cable noodle.
Don’t get me wrong, lots looks ugly as fk, but operationally it all works. Chain now way better since I started using wax as opposed to dry lube.
Ridden my current bike ~3x per week indoors for the past 3y, never had a problem with this. It’s also my race bike.
I’m not really taking any deliberate precautions to prevent damage, though some things I do primarily for comfort probably help – double or triple folded towel around the bullhorns and elbow pads (also covers the stem), and fans running pretty much every workout. I also always wear some kind of jersey or top so torso sweat never drips down. And I have hand towels nearby to wipe down face/arms during rest intervals if they start to bead up.
At the end of a workout my clothes are always very sweaty but I hardly ever see sweat droplets/puddles on the bike or floor.
Are other people just splashing sweat everywhere or something?
Yes. I can’t imagine doing workouts without sweat splashing down/everywhere on anything except the very easiest of rides.
And I have a cool garage (typically 50-60F), and TWO blower fans when I’m working out. Even with my core feeling cold, I’m still leaving giant puddles of sweat under me.
There’s a pool of sweat on the floor so I would say it’s more dripping than splashing. Strangely my bike has been fine thus far, but my shoes are corroded/rusted/unable to be loosened or tightened now.
I will add that having a FRONT blowing fan helps as it blows the sweat back away from the headset. Unfortunately, if you’re riding aerobars like I am, it’s not enough to prevent the sweat onto the headset, but on a road bike it might.
I have managed to completely destroy my Trek Madone which became a dedicated indoor trainer bike. I live in a hot climate and sweat bucketloads but despite the use of numerous towels and frame protectors etc it destroyed so much of the bike.
Now have a Kickr Bike and certainly so far so good after a summer of training on it. Certainly likely to be more robust to corrosion damage although won’t be immune from it.
40 000Kms on zwift, on the same bike that I also use outside and to race. Absolutly no issue.
1/ Fresh and big towel. Even on 4 hour session, no drop touches the bike. My hands, elbows etc nothing touches the bike : the towel covers everything on the front.
2/ Carpet drying fans always on
3/ Open window and humidity control within the room
4/ Clean it once in a while…
The bike is good for another good 40 000K. Don’t allow sweat to touch your bike.
Same, I’m an extremely heavy sweater and no sweat touches my bike. I do regularly go through about 3-5 towels a ride though, constantly wiping myself,and this is with aircon on and two fans.
Dripping sweat on your bike is what’s destroying it and it’s avoidable. Why are you choosing to sweat on your bike?
I have a SeatShield draped over my bike. The headrest part goes over the cockpit. The upper side is fabric which makes it comfortable in aero position but it has a waterproof liner on the underside which doesn’t allow any sweat through. It’s big enough to cover the whole bike, so not a single drop gets on any cables or bearings.
Thanks mr obvious, the mitagation efforts are detered as sweat can drip around. Those saying they are getting away with no sweat damage are you going hard enough? I have a blower in front and fan in back. The only thing it helped is letting me go harder so the temp rise is same regardless (+30*) with open windows . For sure incan see a=c environment helping , but i dont have that.
Are you formerly Synthetic? You say similarly… questionable stuff.
Yes I go hard, tough guy. Yes I sweat a ton which is why I created this setup. No, sweat doesn’t have any way to get around the cover I have to reach any cables or headset bearings. My bike is mechanical. Also don’t have AC, just fans.
Here is my setup. As mentioned, the cover is waterproof. Its clipped tight to the seatpost and half way down the seat stays to block the seat clamp and RD/cassete. It drapes over and around all other frame parts. I also added a plate above the BB to prevent any sweat from flying on the BB, FD, or chain. It sits above the chain with just a few mm on each side from the crankarms. A puddle collects in the low point and drips on the ND side away from the bike.
Some rides are mostly/entirely Z2 cruising, sure. But also the typical mix of tempo and VO2 workouts.
I do get some drops coming off of my face, particularly if I don’t have the fan turned up very far, but those land on the towel. Similarly sometimes I can’t towel off my arms before a drop or two comes off of my elbow. But certainly not enough to form puddles.
I think I would need to be doing extended z4/z5 efforts, with no fan, in a hot room, without toweling myself off in order to produce as much airborne sweat as described by some folks here.
