unterhausen

I'm thinking about making a trainer bike and adding steering.

Looking at the SB20 and thinking having the front wheel powered would be nice. A kickr won't work backwards though, will it?

unterhausen

I guess I could mount the trainer upside down and run the crank backwards. Have to watch the pedals to make they aren't unscrewing that way though. Unless I can find a tandem crank.

himespau 

I have a Sterzo Smart. I only use it, hmmm. I guess I sort of use it when doing Repack Ridge, but that doesn't recognize the smart functionality of the Sterzo and relies on the gyroscopes in the device I use for the Companion App to recognize when I'm turning the handlebars on the Sterzo. I haven't used the steering feature in a free ride or race in nearly a year. I guess I did use it the one time I tried Grand Theft Auto V Bike Mod. Other than that, nope. I wouldn't go too far into the weeds looking to add steering when it's not something I use at all often. I had wanted to by an Elite Rizer which would give tilting functionality along with steering (I have an Elite trainer), but I've decided that as little as I use steering, I'd probably activate the tilt feature just about as often. While it would be nice to mimic real life, the tilt would probably be a disadvantage in race situations, which is where I do most of my hard riding.

unterhausen

You use zwift right? From what I have seen, you can take a better line through corners with steering on zwift.
It's mostly just a silly idea, but I figure I want the handlebars to move and then thought I should add steering. I did think about using it to make the bike tilt, but I think that might feel funny on a stationary bike. When I'm bored on the trainer I think about how to add active springs to my rocker plate. I have an excess of rotary encoders in the junk pile.

himespau 

Yeah, I use Zwift. When free-riding, you can get a better line through corners, that's true. My Sterzo Smart has a hard time connecting with Zwift. When I do get it to connect, most events have steering turned off, so I just ignore the steering functionality most of the time. I do wish Zwift would do more with it (or if you crank the bar all the way, let you choose routes with it).

The other annoying thing about steering in Zwift is, if you have it enabled, you don't automatically get routed past/through people to get into the draft. You have to manually wait for a gap in the pack to slide behind someone to get their draft. You can't force them out of the way the way the pack dynamics automatically make you do if you're riding without steering enabled. Again, if you're just riding solo and need something to occupy your mind, it's not a problem.

I do notice that turning the bars a lot causes my trainer to move a little bit. The Sterzo does auto-center the wheel (due to springs, I think) and it does provide some motion. Basically, I got it on a massive sale (I think it was $25 or so) and thought of it as something that would provide a little motion until I got around to buying/building a rocker plate.

Sy Reene

Sterzo user here. Works fine, though it needs to be turned a bit too much. Actually can experience toe overlap on my bike, which would never happen in real life at the Zwift speeds of 20mph or whatnot.

Zwift has recently said their intent is to make steering available in all their rides, but they're going about it very strangely. I don't think they have yet 'allowed' steering even in their massive own Tour de Whatever group rides. If their goal is to get more adoption, you'd think making it available in their rides would be a natural starting point.

unterhausen

It's weird they don't want to have it in group rides, but I guess they don't want to model crashes.

When I was thinking about it, the two situations where I would use it would be passing a lone rider and when I stop. I hate riding through another rider on an open road, and whatever algorithm zwift uses does that all the time.

PeteHski

My Kickr Bike has steering in Zwift (left/right button operated from the hoods) but I rarely use it. I actually find steering a distraction in Zwift and don't think it's very well implemented. Maybe it would be slightly better with turning bars, but I don't think it would feel very natural anyway. What could be fun is the ability to lean into corners (I've seen one smart bike that can actually do that - see link below). However I do find the climb tilting function on my Kickr bike very good. It gives a more realistic bike position on steep climbs and is quite fun riding a series of rollers and descending in the drops. I use this feature on every ride.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/this-...ook-like-a-toy

Sy Reene

I find the Elite Rizer to be the most attractive way to go, and avoids any toe overlap issue. Unfortunately a horrible price in the US, and I wonder how a 40lb shipment from Europe would hold up with their carrier, though it'd save over 40%.

himespau 

I can definitely see how the climb tilting would make free riding around a lot more realistic/fun. It's just that, since most of my hard rides are races, for me, it seems like, in a race tilting would put me at a disadvantage because it would make me feel like I have to get out of the saddle on steep climbs. Without the tilt, I can stand when I want to, but don't feel I have to and can just sit and grind/spin and that flexibility provides an advantage in racing (just like lowering the trainer realism so I can pedal more on downhills). If I were just using zwift to make rides as close to the real thing, I would totally have gotten some sort of tilt device by now (and set the trainer realism to 100%).

Does that tilt thing you linked steer by tilting or is the tilt just sort of a built in rocker plate?

Sy Reene

I can see the tilting thing being nice for sprinting or out of the saddle climbs. Using something like this for steering I don't think would be natural though. Since you're not actually moving, you wouldn't have centrifugal(?) force keeping you in the saddle like you would on a high speed cornering lean, right?

Barry2 

unterhausen
IIRC, aren't you a Wahoo Kickr Bike owner ?
Steering is built in.

Barry

unterhausen

I have a 1st gen kickr with an old bike that doesn't work well on it because of chromed horizontal dropouts. So I keep thinking about what I want to put on the kickr instead.

PeteHski

I don't personally find the climb tilt an obvious disadvantage in Zwift races, but I always race at 100% setting anyway to make it more realistic. Of course that makes it hard work when going over the top of a climb when all the jokers are still putting down unrealistic power with their 0% setting. I find it more natural riding out of the saddle on steep climbs with the bike inclined. Feels more like it does in real life, which is the whole point of it for me.

I have no idea about the details of that tilting bike I linked to. It's just something I came across while researching smart bikes before I bought my Wahoo bike. I thought it was quite cool, but I wanted a climb tilt much more than a cornering tilt as I was training for alpine climbing events.