2 users on a Turbo

craigus89

I know a wattbike may suit our needs better, but I don't want to sink 2K into one.

Me and the Mrs are both keen to use a trainer through the winter, how much of a faff is swapping out a bike on a direct drive unit like a Wahoo Kickr? We can store the bikes next to the turbo with rear wheel already off to speed the transition up, but if this is much more of a faff than I'm anticipating then maybe it isn't an option?

Does anyone else share their turbo?

jpj84

We both use my old Defy frame on the turbo, size xl. She's 5'3"

Sloping geometry, and qr seatpost clamp ftw. Sort of.

pblakeney

I don't have a permanent setup so I always have to take a wheel off and put my bike on the turbo. Takes about 10 seconds. Very little faff once you learn what gear* to have your bike in and which cog to put the chain on the turbo.

*I've found small ring and mid cassette to be the best combination of slack without falling off but I always have the bike right way up.

joe2019

I don't see how it could take more than a minute to swap bikes over.

bobmcstuff

We share a bike on the turbo. I replaced the seatpost clamp with a quick release version, which makes it quicker. Bike's an old Defy, M.

We are only a couple of inches apart in height though.

Taking a bike on and off the Kickr is pretty easy, so I wouldn't be too worried about that. However I like to keep my turbo as close to use as possible - anything which reduces the barrier to going for a ride

joeyhalloran

It's as quick as swapping a wheel, so depends how competent you both are at that. For example, I find it very easy but my partner struggles and find its very frustrating.

Just try changing wheels 3 times in a row, if you both find it easy and not frustrated then pull the trigger.

thistle_

pblakeney said:

I don't have a permanent setup so I always have to take a wheel off and put my bike on the turbo. Takes about 10 seconds. Very little faff once you learn what gear* to have your bike in and which cog to put the chain on the turbo.

*I've found small ring and mid cassette to be the best combination of slack without falling off but I always have the bike right way up.

I'm in the same situation.
I find putting the bike on/off a direct drive turbo less faff than a wheel on trainer.
If the OP can store the bikes ready without the rear wheels then it's even easier.

i.bhamra

I do this with my Mrs (2 bikes 1 Kickr) not a big deal, although it does take a little bit longer now the 2 bikes are both disc/thru axle as there are a lot of threads to unwind off the modified QR to slide the axle out. Also both bikes in this case have frames that accomodate different shaped thru axle ends so need to switch out the adapter on the QR too. Still no more than 2 mins to switch.

voicycle

i.bhamra said:

I do this with my Mrs (2 bikes 1 Kickr) not a big deal, although it does take a little bit longer now the 2 bikes are both disc/thru axle as there are a lot of threads to unwind off the modified QR to slide the axle out. Also both bikes in this case have frames that accomodate different shaped thru axle ends so need to switch out the adapter on the QR too. Still no more than 2 mins to switch.

I don't find thru axle to be a barrier at all, but it would definitely slow things down if using bikes with different axle types.

My road bike is also my trainer bike and has a thru axle without any kind of a hand lever on it - I ended up buying a separate 6mm T-Handle Allen key just for the trainer. Got the bright blue (overpriced) Park Tool one so it's always easy to find and I never have to go looking for my full set of allen keys. And I find with the T-Handle one I can get enough torque just by using the long end, which provides extra simplicity. It's just a small workflow thing but it does make a difference in terms of convenience and, as bobmcstuff says, it removes one more barrier to riding!

slowbike

We use the one bike permanently on the turbo - with a QR seat post clamp, two seat posts and two saddles - as she doesn't like my saddle and I don't like hers ...

i.bhamra

alexfthe said:

I don't find thru axle to be a barrier at all, but it would definitely slow things down if using bikes with different axle types.

My road bike is also my trainer bike and has a thru axle without any kind of a hand lever on it - I ended up buying a separate 6mm T-Handle Allen key just for the trainer. Got the bright blue (overpriced) Park Tool one so it's always easy to find and I never have to go looking for my full set of allen keys. And I find with the T-Handle one I can get enough torque just by using the long end, which provides extra simplicity. It's just a small workflow thing but it does make a difference in terms of convenience and, as bobmcstuff says, it removes one more barrier to riding!

The problem is specific to the Kickr modified QR for through axle, there are a lot of threads on the end of the axle to wind off to switch bikes (I think it's deliberately long to allow use of MTBs with wider spacing. A conventional thru axle would be quicker but I don't think the Kickr (at least not my first gen one) will accept one.