First road bike for indoor training

skyric

Hi,

I'm pretty new to cycling...that's not entirely true I've followed the sport as a fan on TV for years but I haven't had a bike in ages. I'm looking to pick up my first road bike for use as an indoor trainer. The area I'm in is urban so I can't see myself riding it outside much if at all. Plus my wife runs on zwift and it looks really appealing.

I've read a few best first road bike type blogs that talk about how it's important to have a light bike with certain types of breaks but I'm wondering if I really care about these things if I'm riding indoors. Plus most of these bikes start at around $250 (or $500 at my local bike shop and none seem to sell used) and I'm wondering if I really need something like that to get training?

Would something cheap like the Kent 700c at Walmart for $129 be a decent start? Or is there something I'm missing, like maybe it doesn't have standard parts and wouldn't connect to direct drive trainers or I wouldn't be able to upgrade the seat or something like that?

Thanks very much for any advice!

Matthewfalle

If it's only going to used indoors all you need is a bike with no brakes, so anything will do.

Get as cheap as possible, strip off everything you don't need, strap it to the turbo and off you go. The front wheel doesn't even need to be true as all it's doing is keeping the forks off the floor.

In the past I've used a couple of bikes from the recycling area at the dump: scrub it clean, strip off everything you don't need and head off to recreate Boonen.

Bike, cables, degreaser and maybe a new chain should only cost a few Franklins all in.

stueys

I run my first road bike on my turbo (a 12 year old Spesh Allez), direct drive so no back wheel. I've got a decent saddle on it and decent drivetrain, everything else doesn't matter. Lots of people actually use a frame to support the front fork as it's less space than a front wheel.

I'd be tempted to pick something up second hand. Make sure the drivetrain all works and is quiet, nothing is more annoying on something like zwift than gears not working smoothly.

Matthewfalle

frame/wheel thing is a well good call: one for the memory banks.

grazie!

cougie

Avoid the supermarket bike like the plague. It will be rubbish.

Where do you live ? Even people living in central London can easily do bike rides and get out into the country.

If you've any mates who know about bikes you can go second hand from eBay.

If you're never going to ride outside then I feel sad for you.

Typical Analytical

The only thing I can think about that might be frustrating is lack of gears.

I am 100% indoor rider and have modified my bike nearly beyond the ability to ride it outside because I like indoor riding so much because of the controlled conditions. Weather is never really good here.