Looking for a smart trainer to replicate Strava segments.

Tier_One

I'm looking to buy a smart trainer and the most important feature for me is to replicate Strava segments. Specifically, I want to train on Strava mountain segments but I am not interested in any KOMs or virtual segments. For example, I would like to "ride" the mountain stages of the TdF or Giro for my own benefit. Zwift has its appeal, however, I want to compete against myself up those Alps. So far, it seems that the Wahoo Kickr is only one that will do this, however, at $1200USD, I want to be sure. Anyone have any experience with this? Are there alternatives?

Cheers!!

frisbee

The Kickr doesn't directly do it, there used to be an app but it was withdrawn. You can create and play routes on a Kickr with an Elemnt.

But I'm sure there are a number of other much cheaper ways of doing it. Have a read of the DC Rainmaker site:

link

meanredspider

It isn't precisely clear what you want to do but the Tacx Neo (and possibly other Tacx trainers) will replicate "routes" directly from some Garmins. For instance, I can "ride" a route on my Garmin 1000. It alters resistance based upon grade/gradient. It would be pretty easy to set up routes that are the climbs/segments you want.

Alternatively, to make it slightly more interesting (and expensive), you can buy videos of the main Alpine (and other) climbs and download to an iPad or PC and "ride" those in the same way - the video matching your position on the climb. The older Tacx trainers back to at least the Fortius could do this with DVDs so you don't need the Neo - though the Neo is very good.

gnave

My Kicker Snap does just that when paired with Wahoo element. I can load any Strava segment or a route I previously road and the trainer will replicate just that

js14

If you want the most realistic experience, watch out for the maximum slope that the turbo can simulate. Some of the low cost trainers can't generate more than a 5℅ slope. The NEO can do something more like 20℅.

hambini

I have found my kickr snap to be very poor at power regulation however the tacx neo that I tried was much better.

Additionally, for good road feel, you want something with a heavy flywheel or one that simulates a heavy flywheel

davidof

meanredspider wrote:

The older Tacx trainers back to at least the Fortius could do this with DVDs so you don't need the Neo - though the Neo is very good.

The software I wrote (www.wattzap.com or https://github.com/davidzof/wattzap-ce) will play the Tacx RLV and TTS files and I've ridden a few of the alpine cols on it - always quite close to my real times too. However I don't support smart trainers as I don't really see the point in over-complicating things... but wattzap is open source so anyone could add the smart trainer control if they wanted.

You can also load a gpx file into wattzap and reride it.

slowbike

Bkool do turbos and simulator software - you can upload your own routes which get converted to 3d rides - you can load in bots and ghosts to race against - ghosts are your previous times.
Only just getting into mine - seems pretty good - not as slick as Zwift - and certainly not as social - but you do get to ride your own routes.
I think you can run the Bkool sim on other turbos as well - don't have to get theirs ...