Anatomy of an Indoor Cycling Smart Trainer Setup

I recently got all of the equipment required for an indoor cycling smart trainer setup. It took a tremendous amount of research to figure out all of the pieces I needed, so I decided to create this blog post and video to show you everything I picked out, and explain why I chose it.

In case you’re not familiar, this kind of equipment is used to get a cycling workout indoors. A “smart trainer” is a piece of equipment that you attach a regular bicycle to, and it basically turns it into a stationary bike. The word “smart” is in there because it can connect to training software that will change the resistance. So if you’re using bike training software and a virtual hill is in front of you, you will feel the grade of the hill as you turn the cranks.

There are a few reasons why I wanted an indoor cycling setup. I want to stay in shape. The older I get, the more I want to be fit. I like riding my road bike outdoors, but I simply do not trust drivers, so I’d rather get the workout in the safety of my home. Another big reason is that I wanted to try Zwift, which is an indoor cycling software platform. It’s kind of like a a video game. You ride a virtual bike around in virtual world. It’s pretty neat.

Right around the time that I bought all of this stuff, Zwift completed a round of funding to grow their company. They raised 120 million dollars. The CEO Eric Min did some press, and he was quoted in several publications saying that he wants to make Zwift “…the most affordable, accessible sport there is.” Dude. You have a long way to go.

I’ve been curious about Zwift for a long time, and I have to say, getting into it was the least affordable, least accessible thing I’ve ever encountered. I’m always curious how much “friction” there is to get into something, like downloading and using new app for the first time. How easy is it to do? How much friction do you encounter that keeps you from doing what you want to do?

The amount of friction involved with getting into Zwift is immense. The bike is expensive. The trainer is expensive. The sensors are expensive. The thing you run the software on is expensive. It’s super noisy. It’s very difficult to set up. It’s absurd! I’m sure the people at Zwift are well aware of this and that they do a lot to make it less difficult. But, geeze. What a pain in the ass. Most affordable, accessible sport there is? That’s just whacky.

Okay. Enough rant. Let’s get into it…

Wahoo KICKR Trainer Floor Mat

So, starting on the floor, I decided to get a Wahoo KICKR Trainer Floormat. It’s a mat. It’s on the floor. Not much to it, really. You can get away with just using a cheap yoga mat for an indoor trainer, but I decided to get a real one. I wanted a real one because I like how it looks (side note: my wife hates how it looks). Plus, it was designed to help cut down on vibration noise. I strived to have a low-noise setup.

Wahoo KICKR Core

This was the big ticket item. My smart trainer is a Wahoo KICKR Core. There are a few good smart trainers in this price range, like the Elite Direto and the Tacx Flux. The thing I liked about the KICKR Core was that it was nearly silent in operation. The room I work out in is right next to the room where my two little kids sleep, so quietness was a top priority for me. Plus, I just like the Wahoo brand for some reason. Unfortunately, some of the things I like about it have turned out to be a letdown. The cool-looking chevron stickers on the flywheel often unpeel themselves when the trainer is being used. Plus, I’ve had a lot of trouble with the Wahoo Cadence sensor, so it’s a real bummer that the KICKR Core doesn’t handle cadence natively.

Shimano C-SR 7000 Cassette

This one is simple. I bought a Shimano cassette because it’s the exact same cassette that’s on my road bike.

I also bought a bunch of other stuff, including tools to install the cassette, mounts for my phone, a TV, a TV stand. All kinds of crap. I was planning on writing about it all, but now I’ve decided to go to sleep instead. This is a blog, after all.