Hi,
I recently purchased a Zwift Hub but have found my 1x12 mountain bike does not fit with the 12speed cassette supplied as the cassette lockring rubs on my dropouts.
I am currently considering whether to buy a dedicated bike for the ZwiftHub as I have read that my bike won’t work all that well anyway due to the 32T front chainring. I want something as cheap as possible as it’s only going to be used for Zwift but I also want it to have a half decent groupset/drivetrain.
I have been looking at road bikes, gravel bikes and retro mountain bikes and was wondering what you think the best option would be or whether I should try to make my bike work with the Hub?
Thanks in advance.
If your existing bike has a SRAM drivetrain then it’s probably not going to shift well on the Shimano cassette on the Hub. That issue, combined with the 32t chainring, could make the Hub a poor choice for you. You do have the option of using the QZ (qzfitness.com) app with the Hub to increase the resistance so a 32t will work. If the bike has a Shimano drivetrain and you figure out some way to space the cassette away from the dropout then adding the QZ app could make it OK. To me this all sounds like a nuisance that is best avoided by getting a more compatible trainer or bike.
I think a used road bike with 8-10 speed drivetrain (either Shimano or SRAM) provides the best value for use with an indoor trainer. Almost any road or gravel bike with a 2x drivetrain should be fine on the trainer, though if you are a strong rider you may need to think about how big the high gear is on a gravel bike in relation to your max sprinting power. If the high gear is 46x11 or 48x11 that’s probably fine for most people but big power riders may find it too small. A retro mountain bike will probably be about the same. I’d go for a road bike with a 50t large chainring or bigger.
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