Do you use your primary bike in your indoor trainer or a lesser bike that is dedicated just for that purpose? Is your trainer bike a road bike or a tri bike?
i bought a used frame on ebay and built it up out of the parts bin rather than putting my r3sl on the trainer. Many will say you’d be fine putting your s3 or KOM on the trainer but i’d just assume not. And I just built up a road bike that was nearly identical in setup to my r3sl - i’ve neer been able to get comfortable riding my tri bike on the trainer (flame away)
I would only change back wheel and maybe the chain (if you have some super-hollow light-supreme). And for the bike depends how do you want to train. For overall endurance training it probably doesnt really matters. In other case train as you race - different bike-fit different muscles.
Same mentality here, I took my wife’s old steel frame (1980’s schwinn something), fitted with used longer quill stem ($5) and gnarly long-ass steel seatpost ($15) & clip-ons left over from my first couple of Tri’s and, voila! A dedicated sweat-machine for the trainer. Never leaves the trainer, probably would be a bit dangerous in terms of handling on the road, but the contact points are all spot on for garage riding - really all that matters.
I’d never put my Guru tri-bike or Bianchi 928 on the trainer - they’d probably buck me off in protest!
I have ridden my “good” bikes on the trainer, including my TT. But, always with the heavy winter wheels and cheap tires.
I recently bought a frame for crits and built it up with old parts and Rival shifter. This winter, I expect it will set extensive use on the trainer.
Early in the year, I’ll use my race bike on the trainer some of the time to re-tune my position again after the off-season, as well as it still being too crappy outside much of the time. Meanwhile, I’ll take the trainer bike out for the occasional longer outside ride.
Once the season gets going and the weather’s nicer, I’ll swap so I can use the race bike for most of my ‘real’ riding, while the trainer bike is set up semi-permanently in the basement for watching the Tour early in the a.m. before work or the occasional evening recovery spin, etc.
Can anyone confirm that riding carbon frames on trainers is harmful to their longevity…or is it an urban myth?
I ride only my Tri bike on the trainer, with the rear wheel switched out. That Conti trainer tire is worth it’s weight in gold. After doing an entire off season on the tri bars, on the trainer, I found my flexibility and comfort in the aero bars way improved. Just my 2 cents.
I’ve had my Trek 5200 set up my trainer for years now with no problems. I only ride my tri bike ouside.
Beater bike I don’t care about sweating on. Keep it in the basement with the trainer and pull it out come indoor training season, November to March here in the frozen north.