I have a FitDesk 3.0 at home – not a smart trainer. It’s also not a typical dumb trainer (like the ones I see online) or an actual bicycle. I can’t link anything here but you’ll see what I mean if you google.
My question is whether I’d be able to set up sensors and use Zwift effectively on something like this? And do I absolutely need both speed and cadence sensors? Or can I get away with only the speed or cadence one to save a little?
Sorry for the possibly basic questions, I’m very very new to this and couldn’t find answers online (particularly for my FitDesk question)… and being a student I can’t afford to spend 100+ CAD if it turns out that those sensors would be useless for the kind of equipment I have.
Is it possible to get it to work via speed sensor and cadence sensor (probably). Would it be a worthwhile experience, im not entirely sure.
You want to look at options for spin bikes with no power sensors and look at the feedback of those types of users.
The cadence sensor is not required. For the speed sensor to work you would have to get access to the flywheel which looks like it’s hidden inside that housing with the plastic cover. There would need to be room in there for you to attach the speed sensor to the flywheel. You would have to get the sensor out periodically to change the battery. The flywheel is very small and probably spins quite rapidly which is going to make it difficult to calibrate the sensor which is intended to spin relatively slowly on the axle of a bicycle wheel. Looks like it would be challenging to make it work.
Thank you for the response. Yes, I was mainly worried about the fact that there’s no exposed wheel and whether that would prevent me from getting the best out of the sensor/Zwift. I’m not even sure how to remove that plastic cover but I’ll look into it and decide after work whether it’s worth the hassle, or if I should simply invest in another trainer (though money is a bit of an issue rn haha)…
Hi there, have you considered second-hand trainers? You might be able to find a second hand trainer which would give you a better experience, for less cost than speed sensors.
I don’t know where you are in Canada, but I just looked at Facebook marketplace for Toronto and saw a second-hand Tacx Smart Bluematic trainer for $75 CAD. That won’t replicate hills automatically (like a Tacx Smart Flow does) but would be better than speed sensors.
I got started with a second-hand Tacx Smart Flow four years ago and it was a great starting point for me. There are a lot more second-hand trainers around than there were then.
