downtube42

RIght now I have my primary road bike on my smart trainer, and I'm considering getting a dedicated bike for the trainer. The rationale is to reduce wear and tear on my main bike, which is also pretty new. 11 speed stuff isn't cheap. I'm thinking anything that fits; since it'll never see the road a lot of things don't matter.

What are people doing?

Bald Paul

As long as the bike you use fits you correctly and the gears operate well, you're fine. Brakes don't really matter. And it really doesn't matter what it weighs, either. If you plan on using a direct drive trainer, just make sure your cassette and wheel spacing are correct. With a wheel on trainer, just get a dedicated trainer tire.

spelger

Or just an old tire, being free and all that.

genejockey 

A couple thoughts, based on my experience - if you're using a Smart Trainer, you'll want a bike with a wide enough gear range for the steep bits in the virtual world. You'll want a bike where you don't have to shift front chainrings often, because it NEVER works as well on a trainer as on the road. You'll want a saddle at least as comfortable as the one on your main ride, because you'll spend a larger percentage of your time seated. You'll want your bars maybe a little higher and closer.

One more thing I'd say - get a sweat shield AND a towel on top of that, to keep sweat from dripping into your headset, or getting into the stem/steerer junction, even if you don't think you'll ever take that bike on the road.

downtube42

I have a direct drive trainer, so no rear wheel or tire is involved. Wear is on the chain, chainrings, BB, pedals. Plus stress on the frame and sweat that might get into things despite protection.

downtube42

The one downside of a really old bike is stem adjustment is more involved with a threaded fork.

As for gearing, I think a 1x8 should give me enough gear range; I run my trainer in ERG mode; I've found I need to shift some, but not a lot.

oldwinger14

I was in the same situation as you. Beside wanting to ‘cycle’ in the Winter using my smart trainer, I wanted to be able to use the trainer when the weather was rainy during the warm weather months. I looked on craigslist for a used bike that I would permanently mount on my trainer, but either found junk or deals that made me think I was buying a stolen bike. I ended up looking at Facebook Marketplace and had much better luck. In about 2 weeks, I had 3-4 bikes that I was really interested in, and ended up with a 2016 Orbea Avant with an Ultegra groupset.

I took it to the shop where I had a fitting done on my road bike, and they fitted the Orbea to my specs and inspected/did what as needed should I ever decide to ride it outdoors. Only minor adjustments were needed. I use the same exact saddle (Brooks B17) on both bikes so the two bikes feel almost identical. The only difference is in shifting….my road bike has Ultegra Di2 and the Avant is Ultegra mechanical.

I paid $700 for the Orbea and have very happy with it. In addition to my primary outdoor road bike, I now have a dedicated trainer bike that could easily be used outdoors should my primary bike be out of commission for an extended time. You may not want to follow the path I took, but it’s worked well for me. Good luck!

unterhausen

If you switch stems a lot, get a quill adapter and use threadless stems. Most of my bikes with a threaded steerer have them. If you don't switch stems a lot, adjusting height is a lot less involved with a quill stem.

I have a early '80s centurion on my trainer and the problem with it is horizontal dropouts. Most trainers aren't built for a lot of pressure on the quick release, and the kickrs sure aren't. Just haven't had the energy to swap frames yet.

MinnMan

You can trash components on a nice bike on the trainer with sweat. Particularly vulnerable are the STI shifters.

If you use your primary bike on the trainer, make sure to cover the bars with a thick towel or similar.

blacknbluebikes 

I don't worry about the wear & tear on the trainer. Definitely less than what I would be doing to the bike outdoors. But I'm all in favor of having more bikes.

gthomson

Yup, agree with all the above and made the jump to a dedicated bike just before the pandemic hit which was great timing because pricing was much better and I could then dedicate a lot more time to Zwifting. Took my original bike which was nothing too special and mounted it on the trainer and then got something newer for outdoors. So much easier than having to remove from trainer, change settings, haul it out of my basement, etc...

The other recommendation I would make is an exercise matt beneath you to catch all that carnage.

adamrice 

This is what I've done, and I recommend it. My dedicated trainer bike is from the 90s, and I wound up spending some money to bring the drivetrain into the modern era, using Microshift derailleur and bar-end shifters. I didn't really know how I would use it, and in the end, I use it almost exclusively in erg mode. Had I known, I would have set it up as a single speed.

blacknbluebikes 

Definitely get a mat, you're going to make puddles. But don't get a Matt, those guys react badly to this kinda stuff. <snicker>

Redbullet

I use a cheap, aluminum road bike (around 400 EUR) for the smart trainer and it works perfect. It is a 3x8 speeds (instead of 2x11 on primary carbon bike) and has "second tier brand" components - Microshift and low Shimano. The bike is heavier (11.5 kg), noisier and just a little trickier with the 3x8 setup, but I really have no issues to use it on the smart trainer without "ergo", with a special tire on the back (the trainer is not direct drive). I also used it on the road for 1000 km when my primary bike was on service and it worked ok.
One more advantage is that I can easily adjust the saddle height for another rider, without stressing the carbon frame of my primary bike.
I definitely recommend a second (cheaper) bike for the trainer, when possible.

aspalmat

A dedicated bike for the trainer is the only way to roll!

tempocyclist

Having a dedicated trainer bike also means there's no faffing around when you want to train indoors. It's set up and ready to (virtually) roll right away!

You're more likely to jump on if you don't need to bother setting your bike/trainer up each time. I use my old road commuter. It's still a great bike in it's own right, but I am ok with it copping some salty indoor abuse.