One the things that became kinda obvs when Zwift and then Wahoo announced the Kickr Core support of virtual shifting was that any frame (even, or specially a single speed) could become a dedicated indoor bike. I was kinda surprised that they had not leaned into that a bit more sharply -- little did we know...

Now $1300 get you a Kickr Core and a special frame, and that's that, a dedicated bike forever. This is stupid awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_BUk9FqLSU

https://www.wahoofitness.com/devices/indoor-cycling/bike-trainer-bundles/zwift-bundles/kickr-core-zwift-ride-buy

https://youtu.be/CZ8_2QpNuzM?si=oNi_tDS1s2wlTt7z
https://youtu.be/YTLXSerjJUs?si=nDvhysLsSF9OsR0r

That looks almost tempting

Wow this is so cool 

Veselka set up a a virtual Floyd Tuesday night race on Zwift. Would love to "race" together in Group B or C with you!

I like how the w/kg range for category D covers the range for all the other categories

GregHoge said:

I like how the w/kg range for category D covers the range for all the other categories

That's the women only field so covers the full range.

I am strongly considering getting a zwift ride... this last year I used the kickr snap wheel-on trainer which was great for me a first timer to indoor training. I swap out my normal rear wheel for a "trainer only" wheel each time. usually not too annoying, but I don't love all of the abuse going to my main outdoor training/race bike frame and the components. I'm mostly worried about the sweat in the components and the abuse the frame takes being rigid to the trainer over time. 

I considered just getting a kickr core and a used/old road frame, but with the other bells/whistles to get it to play well properly with zwift, it looks like the price is relatively comparable for something plug & play. 

N+1 rule has me leaning towards "get it!", plus I can resell my kickr snap here or outside the club... talk me out of it, or I swear i'll do it!

 

Yeah I’m in the same situation, except that I have a bike trainer already and would only need the frame. I wonder what it’ll cost compared to going through the hassle of finding a decent second hand dedicated zwift bike.

 @PatrickGrehan will know more but we've done group orders in the past on trainers and have gotten some great prices.

@BlakeFoster if you run your race bike on the trainer, just make sure to wipe it down, stay on top of basic maintenance, and drape a towel over the bars/shifters to stop sweat from easily getting into the headset and bar tape. Obviously N+1 is better, but finding decently priced components for a zwift rig can be a PITA depending on your price point/what the market is doing and as you said, can add up

I think this depends on how you're going to be riding in zwift.  If you're only doing ERG workouts, then any bike that can fit your fit numbers will work.  Just slap that baby in the the middle gear on the cassette and forget.

But like Matt says, if you cover everything with a towel and do a wipe down at least once a week, you shouldn't have issues.  I sweat a lot and never had issues.  I also go through ~1 gym towel per hour and have a regular towel over my bars at all times.

I am too considering moving to a Zwift Ride. A few quick comments. 

• As mentioned the Zwift Ride,  is zwift dependent, unless you only use erg on other platforms (not a blocker for me)
• You can potentially achieve the same with almost any frame you have around -- If you already have a a modern wahoo or zwift trainer, any frame will do. Get the zwift click ($40) or the zwift play controlers ($99) and off you go (you don't actually need the zwift cog, any cassette would do) -- Shane Miller had a video example of this, but can't find at the moment, makes me think he removed it, for almost obvious reasons
• Selling just the frame is on Zwift's roadmap -- it will happen but not clear when
• As @PatrickGrehan hinted, we will do a wahoo trainer order soon w/ ride brooklyn, not yet clear if the zwift ride can be included

You can see Shane Miller's set up here -- there used to be a more specific video, but you can get the gist, a frame, any old levers not connected to anything, a chain tensioner, the click or play controlers and off you go. 

I did keep up on maintenance indoors; towel over the bars always, separate towels for the workout, and ran a dehumidifier during and after rides to get moisture out of the air faster. 

Having done some more digging today (clearly being very productive at work), it looks like the Kickr with the Zwift cog is compatible with 8-12 speed drive trains. I had been concerned about using my commuter bike (a 1x8 drivetrain). The frame is steel.. I'd probably want to swap the bars to road bars, but that might be a better and more practical option. I had expected I might need to get a different derailleur or chain tensioner, which while not a huge pain, would mean my bike would be largely out of commission during the winter training season. 

If I swap bars on it it will be anyway, but I think I could get away with kickr/zwift cog, cheap road bars, and the zwift controllers for much cheaper than $1300. I'll have to re-cable the bike when I'm ready to ride again, but I think I can live with that inconvenience. 

I thought we recently established that your Canyon was only good for the trash

I personally like training on the bike I'm going to race/ride on. FWIW I've been clamping the caad10 onto an old school fluid trainer for 10 years and the only issue I've had with it is stem bolt corrosion because I didn't bother to cover it up the first year.

Thought I'd offer my two cents as I recently purchased the Zwift Ride and have started to use it. I've used a Kickr with my road bikes for the past 4 years as indoor training is the only way I can get decent training in especially on weekdays when I only have an hour or two (20 minutes just to get to CP). I've dabbled in Zwift but until now have preferred Trainneroad.

The reason I've moved onto the Zwift Ride is because it was the only practical way to make an indoor trainer also available to my wife and daughter in our cramped apartment. I plan to do more Zwift racing now because this is really what this trainer was designed for but other things I've gleaned in the past 2 weeks:

Positives:

-- the ERG mode is somehow far more accurate than with my old Kickr. If you are trying to maximize your intervals this is an advantage. 

-- no more replacing stem bearing rings due to sweat caused degradation.

-- the rubber platform for holding food/phone and the iPad holder accessory is very nice. No more sweat causing trainerroad workouts to freakout!

-- fit adjustments are a breeze. It really work for the whole family (assuming you are at least 5' tall)

-- frame is rock solid

Negatives:

-- quiet but not quite as quiet as the Kickr. 

-- Zwift controls are hard plastic and make the grip on handlebars a bit awkward if you are on top. I've had to wear gloves indoors (!) to keep from rubbing my knuckles on the controls. Handlebars just don't compare to a real bike. More cushioned tape will help. 

-- you are stuck with 170mm crank 

-- You can't share a Zwift account so each rider kind of needs their own account. My wife and daughter can share because they aren't racing or looking at their data (yet).

@AdamYaffe if the bars are that bothersome, I think GP Llama has a video where he walked through changing from Zwift Ride bars to any standard road bar of your choosing

David Yang said:

I personally like training on the bike I'm going to race/ride on. FWIW I've been clamping the caad10 onto an old school fluid trainer for 10 years and the only issue I've had with it is stem bolt corrosion because I didn't bother to cover it up the first year.

+1 I've been clamping carbon frames to trainers (rear wheel only) for 15 years with zero issues, and I used to ride that thing hard.

I keep a kickr in the basement for days (like today) I don't want to be outside or am time constrained; two fans, my only issue is the towel over the bars interferes with the ground fan's airflow so I end up with a moving t-shirt situation which isn't idea.

OK, I am reversing my plan, and going for a Kickr flagship as my training upgrade vs getting the zwift ride. The feet upgrade in the recent models gives it more side to side rocking action which alleviates some of my stress about thrashing my bike on a trainer. But I am doing the same things all y'all have been doing that you have reported no issues with, so I am going with the bike gods into the great beyond and continuing with my existing bike. 

FWIW, I have upgraded my fairly old kickr core with the Zwift Cog and those tennis ball feet things. Kind of gimmicky, but has certainly improved comfort on the training on rides above 45min. The Zwift Cog is nice because I usually use TrainerDay for Erg mode, so don't need mech. shifting anyways and the virtual shifting during Zwift group rides/racing is really quite cool. 

For some reason, having a cassette on the trainer would always slightly misindex my rear der, so putting the rear wheel back on the bike always required a bit of fuss before shifting was perfect again. 

I've also been curious about the Kickr move, but it seems like it will improve with future iterations.

That's a great point for the zwift cog and virtual shifting, Eric, my shifting on my kickr has always been a little off

On a related note -- I have a first gen kickr (2015) that I no longer use, fully functional. If anyone is interested I happy to sell it for $100 or best offer. 

(it will not work with the cog)

Aaand, sooner than expected the Zwift frame is available stand alone for $800

https://us.zwift.com/products/zwift-ride-smart-frame 

This is an example of the basic setup I've discussed, this guy, grabbed a single speed bike and turned it into a dedicated zwift bike -- you can achieve similar with a chain tensioner (btw, a derailleur is a chain tensioner) and/or the zwift cog, etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZL1ZJq4vcI

Kickr died today? Never seen this before, and no amount of unplugging or restarting seems to fix it. Ticket submitted.