Advice on turbo trainer (first time)

[Dez]

Hi!

Big cycling enthusiast but generally just a fair weather rider, I live in Swiss so we generally have pretty nice summers and in the winter i train a bit more in the gym to sort of offset my lack of bike time.

I've kind of been sucked into this whole Zwfit idea and would actually like to maybe get a proper indoor setup and do some training over winter but the only thing holding me back is that I basically sold all my other bikes and put my eggs in one basket and got a new s-wroks venge at the start of the summer season and my main worry is maybe using my only really good bike on a trainer and it getting damaged or causing problems by doing that. I've done a fair bit of reasearch but it didn't help too much as it ranged from people saying it's totally fine to others saying that it puts unforseen forces on the chain stays and they crack and it does unseen damage and I wanted to know if people had any feedback on it and what they thought? The other option is just get a cheap cross bike and potter about on that over winter but I really like the idea of a structured indoor trainning routine that you can guage yourself against others!

I was looking at the Wahoo Kickr as they have a deal on them right now at my local shop.

Cheers for any advice or view on it.

[AJS914]

You have a Specialized. In the US they come with a lifetime warranty. Is that not the case in Switzerland?

In any case, I've been riding my bikes on trainers for 30+ years. I've never had one break or ever heard of a friend's bike breaking because of a trainer.

I'm not saying that it cannot happen but if you use common sense I think you'll be fine. By common sense, don't attempt crazy out of the saddle sprints where you put side to side forces on the bike. Or, think twice about high torque low cadence type of drills (like standing and mashing the pedals in your 53x12). I'm only speculating but it seems to me that higher cadence work on a trainer would be safer for the bike. Since the bike is fixed on the trainer you have to use a riding style that complies with that which is different from what we can do on the road.