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Comment by evanagon | Hacker News Reader

The thing I don't understand is that you can already do this for much less money and arguably in a more fun way. Get a nice-ish real bike ($1,000), some rollers or a trainer ($200), and a subscription to Zwift ($14.99/month). Zwift allows you to create a biking avatar that rides around virtual racecourses with other bikers who are also using the service (usually there are thousands of people riding at any one time). You can do races, talk to other people, and more, for a fraction of this cost. Plus you have a real live bike you can take outside and enjoy.

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I got a trainer for winter riding, and it ate my tires. Also a good spin bike does a better job at keeping momentum which makes it feel more like a normal ride outside.

I think like most things the amount of use really determines what you should do. If you are going to ride outside most of the time, and just want an indoor option then a trainer is a great choice, but if you are going to be riding daily, spend the extra money and get a real spin bike.

> I got a trainer for winter riding, and it ate my tires.

A tip I got from someone is to switch your rear road tyre for a special trainer tyre so you don’t have to worry about wear-and-tear. Something like this:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/vittoria-zaffiro-pro-home-trainer-ty...

You can even get a professional level Wahoo Kicker for $1200 (no tire wear), have money for a mid-range bike and still save a ton of money month to month with Zwift over Peloton's monthly cost...

Or buy a cheap training wheel and a $400 power meter and spend like $100 on the trainer.

Why spend more for a spin bike when you can use a real one with just as good or better power controls and feedback?

Point is Peloton is expensive indoors or out...

What PSI were you running on the trainer?

I destroyed a Conti GP 4k II on my trainer this winter too because I was running it around 80 PSI. When I noticed how destroyed it was I did some googling and learned that on the trainer you should really be using the max PSI supported by your tier (i.e. 115-120).

I ended up getting a trainer tire to put on a spare wheel and have been happy with that so far. But if you run a hard tire like Gatorskins, those seem to be fine at a high pressure. Any sort of racing tire will definitely be used up quickly regardless of pressure.

> Also a good spin bike does a better job at keeping momentum

With smart trainers this is no longer a thing. They can more reliably control the resistance to mimic the elevation percentage and rolling stop/downhill feel. If you are serious in anyway about riding there is no reason to not have a smart trainer at this point.

My bike cost like 4k (scott plasma), and my trainer cost 1k (wahoo kickr). Peloton is a "cheap bike" for me. I don't think I am that abnormal in the tri community.

(I actually sold my kickr and tri bike to fund my startup, but 5k on bikes is not much in the tri world)

You don't need a 4K bike to use a Kickr w/ Zwift. You're on the other end of the riding spectrum.

Sure! But I had the 4k bike to also use for races. It's not like I would buy a 4k bike just to sit on a trainer...

But a "cheap" but reasonable bike is at least 500-600, and with a $1k kickr.. you are pretty close to Peloton prices

I haven't used Zwift, but riding virtually with other people on virtual roads where you can chat as you ride is totally different from a typical spin class.

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