Does Trainer Bike affect performance on actual Race bike?

[Replenish]

Hi everyone.

I am considering to get a dedicated road bike for my Wahoo Kickr trainer and stop using my main bike on it

However, my main concern is that it would affect how I ride my main bike, particularly the way my muscles are activated and utilized.

I've always had the idea that if you use your own bike on the trainer with intervals, over/under etc, you are training your body and muscle group based on the geometry of that bike.

So my question is if I get a cheap budget bike for trainer, with a completely different geometry and etc, will my training actually be counter productive when I ride my main bike again?

[stoney]

Just make sure a few points are the same between the 2 bikes: crank length, saddle height (from bottom bracket), and saddle setback (from bottom bracket). If those data points are the same then you are training the leg muscles the same.

[Tifosiphil]

Essentially, no. I train on a different bike and don't seem to find much change as I adapt quickly. I actually switch between 3 bikes (all with different groupsets), all with the same reach and saddle height but different crank lengths and it takes me less than 5minutes each time to adapt to the bike.

The key thing will be to try and find something as close to your current setup as possible. There are a lot of sites on the internet where you can compare geometery and likely find something similar, or adaptable enough, to transfer your fit over

[BenjaminHuffy]

Yes.