Show us your pain caves! What's your indoor training setup look like?
Here's mine:
The essentials:
The nice-to-haves:
Comfort:
Total investment (excluding the bike): probably around $2,500 over 3 years. Worth every penny considering I do 8+ hours/week indoors from November to March.
What's your setup? Any essential items I'm missing?
My setup is in the garage and it's gloriously ugly:
The real hack: a second set of handlebars on a shelf with hooks. I swap my indoor bike between road bars and clip-on aero bars depending on the workout. Having them pre-wrapped and ready means I actually use the aero bars for TT training.
Also — dehumidifier. In my garage in Portland, the humidity would be 80%+ without it. Makes a massive difference in perceived effort and sweat management.
Mine is much simpler but gets the job done:
The game changer for me was a dedicated TV/iPad at eye level. Staring down at a phone on the floor while doing threshold intervals is genuinely demoralizing.
Oh, and earplugs if you live with someone. Not for the noise — but so you can blast your music without disturbing anyone.
I'm going to be the person with the budget setup:
Total cost: maybe $250. Is it fancy? No. Does it get the work done? Absolutely. I've improved my FTP by 35W on this setup.
Sometimes I think the cycling industry has convinced us we need $3,000 worth of indoor gear. You need a trainer, a fan, and structured workouts. Everything else is gravy.
Stockholm apartment pain cave checking in:
The CLIMB is genuinely game-changing for Zwift. Having the front wheel physically tilt up and down on gradients adds so much immersion. It's overpriced for what it is, but I use it every session.
Missing from everyone's list: a dedicated sweat towel AND a bike-mounted sweat guard. Sweat will destroy your headset bearings, bartape, and eventually your frame if you don't manage it.
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