Between 41 and 64 degrees? Brrrr… I can’t ride at those temperatures, which is why I have so many fans. If I keep the demand lower, I don’t sweat as much, obviously, but it’s also been cooler since I moved the ‘cave’. It used to be in a sunward part of the house, and it was a bit warmer. I never knew exactly how warm, but I sweat like a faucet there. It was nice having the sun, but yeah, heat. I can still leave a puddle now though, just smaller.
I just got the new Kickr bike as really didnt want to put my road bike throught the stresses and strains of another Zwift winter.
I do A LOT of indoor riding and sweat absolute buckets and noticied that sweat was starting to corrode some parts on my bike…just take a look under your hoods and see the corrosion…yikes.
Gonna be lovely not having to worry about that anymore and the general wear and tear of indoor riding which is greatly more than riding outside imo
As a general point I’d always recommend carbon bars rather than aluminium. I’ve seen the latter fall apart when changing bar tape as that was all that was holding them together
i’ve been riding on the same bike on zwift for more than 5 years. i don’t do a ton of cleaning of my bike, and i do sweat a decent amount. i have a kickr direct drive trainer. i ride a 2004 cervelo soloist inside, and have a different outside bike.
i haven’t had handle bar issues yet, but i have had these issues:
- most of the screws anywhere on the bike are rusty
- my front brake is pretty badly corroded, i doubt it will ever work again
- my front tire seem to get ruined by sitting in sweat on the mat on the ground
- seams definitely get gross. i ended up putting duct tape over the spot where the cables are routed into the frame. the bike shop told me that they couldn’t replace some of the cable casings because they were so badly corroded.
- there is salt accumulation everywhere. little specs of it on the cranks, on the frame, on the tires, the forks, etc.
- i try to bring the bike + trainer in for a “tune up” at the LBS at least once a year. i ask them to check the handlebars for corrosion when i do that.
- my aluminum frame seems totally fine.
based on all of this, it seems like a really bad idea to put an expensive bike on the trainer. it’s just a waste of the expensive bike. also, i wish i had removed the brakes from this bike before i put it on the trainer. it also seems like having internally routed cables is pretty critical here; if my cables were exposed, they might be ruined.
I know OP’s post is months old, but I’d raise an eyebrow at my bike shop telling me that I shouldn’t ride my $8whatever thousand dollar bike every day. The concerns people are having about indoor vs outdoor riding are legit, but ‘not meant for everyday use’ is bonkers to me.
I hope the managed to get that Isospeed bolt issue squared away. We had a Domane in the shop this summer, Trek had me super-heating a drill bit with a torch and inserting it into the back end of the bolt to try to remove it. Crazy.
Yeah, I put that one in the “opinion” box. There’s nothing from Trek HQ that I know of stating a consumer shouldn’t ride a Trek bike on a trainer. And the LBS statement doesn’t hold up… so a person could ride 6 hrs/week outside but the same amount of time indoors is somehow a bad idea?
By “Trek” do you mean Trek HQ or your local Trek shop? I’m surprised how many people are taking matters into their own hands without much, if any, mention of reaching out to Trek HQ. Sure, they will tell you to work through the LBS, but they should also be willing to provide a statement or position on quality control, which would give a person leverage with the LBS.
For the isospeed issue, I think some side to side sway is inherent to the oval design. A round cylinder is stronger than an oval one at the same thickness. I see it transfer down the seatstays. A loose (noticeably floppy) seatpost and/or a seatpost slipping down is absolutely something to pursue at the LBS and Trek HQ. So far the V2 bolt has improved things but it’s only seen 3 hours of riding. Ask me again in 2 weeks.
Sorry no, I mean that I work at a shop (seasonal, this was this past summer), and we had a Domane with a stuck ISOspeed bolt. We needed to replace the seat clamp (it’s a thing…they are up to I think v4 or v5 on those seat clamps…horrible), but the ISOspeed bolt wouldn’t come out. I found a Trek service bulletin about it–they used locktite that was too strong when they installed them. So the first solution was to heat up a drill bit to red hot (holding it with pliers of course), and insert the bit into the back end of the bolt in an effort to melt/weaken the locktite. Crazy.
It actually worked a little, I got the bolt to back out a little bit. But not all the way. The nut started rotating with the bolt, and started tearing up the carbon. We eventually had the frame warranty replaced. Customer was cool with the wait time though, so that’s nice.
I’ve had the same issue in the past. I went through 2 handlebars like this. The corrosion usually starts where the handlebars (and paintjob) were already slightly damaged, eg, where shifters are mounted.
I found it’s effective to completely wrap the handlebars in electrical tape prior to putting the handlebar tape on it, so that the wet, salty, tape is no longer in constant direct contact with the alloy. A cheaper solution than going carbon, and it seems to hold out pretty well.
PS: after 5 years of intense indoor use (> 60000km), the (dedicated) allow bike I use for the trainer is definitely no longer suitable for outdoor use. Lots of corrosion on different parts of the bike. Even if I would have it serviced, I think it’s beyond repair. I never had any issues with cranks though. The 105’s seems to be pretty sweat resistant. I haven’t serviced them once, and they still run as smooth as they ever did.
i have carbon bars on my indoor bike anyway but self amalgamating tape makes good indoor bar tape, would be great for aluminium bars since it’s waterproof. you don’t really need the padding, since you’re not moving, it’s waterproof by nature since it’s designed to adhere to itself and nothing else so it won’t leave residue on your bars, and it’s really grippy. and, most importantly, it’s about £3 for a 10 meter roll