Cassette for turbo trainer

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PeytonM
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by PeytonM

I’m setting up my first home trainer and need to purchase a cassette. Is there any advantage running a small ratio, say 12-25? I use 11-28 on the road but think the smaller jumps would be better indoors?

boots2000
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by boots2000

What kind of trainer?
Standard trainers do really well with as narrow of jumps between the gears as possible.
Smart trainer doesn't seem to matter at all.

That said- I thought the same thing and about an 11-25 11 speed Ultegra cassette for my Wahoo. I went back to the 11-28 that came with it.

If you want/need a lighlty used 11-25 Ultegra 11 speed cassette, let me know.

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PeytonM
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by PeytonM

It’s a neo 1 I picked up on sale.

Based on your experience I will try the cassette off my training wheels first and decide if I need the narrow jumps before I buy anything.

Thanks

TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

I prefer to use something like an 11-25t on the trainer with trainer difficulty set to 50% or lower in Zwift. For ERG in Zwift or TrainerRoad, a small range block is still nice if you're doing high intensity and you find that you're on the cusp of hitting the spiral of death. Shifting down can buy you a little extra time before ERG adjusts.

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onemanpeloton
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by onemanpeloton

I use 11-28 on my road bike normally, but prefer an 11-25 or even 12-25 for the turbo. It just makes it easier for me to find the correct cadence when doing cadence drills, rather than flicking between gears and resistance settings at the same time. My turbo is a direct drive dumb trainer so no erg mode.
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robertbb
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by robertbb

PeytonM wrote:
Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:04 am
I’m setting up my first home trainer and need to purchase a cassette. Is there any advantage running a small ratio, say 12-25? I use 11-28 on the road but think the smaller jumps would be better indoors?
On a trainer, small ratio is best.

I use a 12-29 on the road (campy) and an 11-23 on the trainer.

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Calnago
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by Calnago

11/23 for the win. Closer the ratios the better.
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kytyree
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by kytyree

On something like Trainer Road the tight ratios are nice, but if you're wanting to ride Alpe D'Zwift...

But that's on Zwift, as long as you're not racing knock off a few kilos till you have the gear you need. :)

TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

If you want to ride Alpe du Zwift, just set trainer difficulty to 50%. That turns your 11-25 into a “5.5-50”

RTW
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by RTW

TobinHatesYou wrote:
Fri Apr 26, 2019 7:20 pm
If you want to ride Alpe du Zwift, just set trainer difficulty to 50%. That turns your 11-25 into a “5.5-50”
Riding a simulator, why adjust it to make the simulation less real? Isn’t this setting for the lower priced smart trainers which cannot create enough resistance to simulate steep gradiants? There are some that will do up to 8% for example, but if you put the trainer difficulty at half setting, then you can ride a course and actually have the 16% incline feel more difficult than the 8% incline and use this slightly limited device.

Also, doesn’t it turn it into a 22 - 50?

TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

RTW wrote:
Fri Apr 26, 2019 9:00 pm
TobinHatesYou wrote:
Fri Apr 26, 2019 7:20 pm
If you want to ride Alpe du Zwift, just set trainer difficulty to 50%. That turns your 11-25 into a “5.5-50”
Riding a simulator, why adjust it to make the simulation less real? Isn’t this setting for the lower priced smart trainers which cannot create enough resistance to simulate steep gradiants? There are some that will do up to 8% for example, but if you put the trainer difficulty at half setting, then you can ride a course and actually have the 16% incline feel more difficult than the 8% incline and use this slightly limited device.

Also, doesn’t it turn it into a 22 - 50?
A lot of things to address here...

1) Even the heaviest flywheel on a smart trainer (CycleOps Hammer) does not translate into realism. 100% on a smart trainer will undoubtedly feel harder than real life unless you get into the truly insane grades >25%...Zwift doesn’t have that and only one or two trainers can even simulate >20%.

2) Not everyone rides for the sake of realism. When I’m indoors I want to work on my fitness and conditioning first and foremost. Sometimes I will do Alpe du Zwift for special events, but mostly The Zwift environment is background noise for me.

3) Trainer difficulty is most often lowered when people have small range cassettes and/or standard chainrings trying to climb steep grades. Zwift racers also reduce trainer difficulty because it changes the physiological loads on certain muscle groups. Increase flywheel speed = momentum = you can focus on downstrokes. Less flywheel momentum means you are activating your lower leg muscles more.

4) No, trainer difficulty works both ways. A setting of 50% turns a 6% grade into a 3% grade. Since you can also descend these grades, it virtually extends the range of your cassette in both directions.

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silvalis
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by silvalis

It also means you can tailor it to keep you in the middle of the cassette.
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