Hi,
I was wondering which treadmill in under $1000 range would work best with zwift?
Thanks for your help✌🏾
Any treadmills works with Zwift if you use a footpod.
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I got a pro-form treadmill for under $600 on sale at walmart online a couple years ago and I’ve been very happy with it. The important part was getting at least 3hp motor and as wide as possible, I think I got 22". Once I started using it with a Stryd I haven’t had any complaints. I don’t think the smart treadmills have hit the price/performance point yet.
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I would agree, you need 500mm (20") minimum to run, especially if you are looking to go say 12 to 16 kph (8 to 10 mph). A Zwift run pod is pretty good, generally it is within +/- 0.2 kph for me which is fine and it is cheap. The other plus of the Zwift pod is the reading is pretty smooth, I’m pretty sure some of the other runners I see are using the Stryd, which looks amazing but the thing is so sensitive the speed seems to vary up and down every stride. I reckon a run pod is the way to go, I thought a smart treadmill might be good but the run pod gives speed and cadence just fine. Bonus of the Stryd might be the run power data but again this is in the future.
I made up a bracket for my treadmill which I have mounted a 24 inch PC monitor that sits over the top of the treadmill console and I run with the iPhone connected through the lightning to HDMI connector. This makes an amazing run experience, very immersive and I can easily see runners in front of me and figure if I can catch them. From what I can see smart treadmills are way overpriced and give no benefit. In fact I have seen the odd run where the Zwifter has just got off the treadmill and his speed is still there but the heart rate has dropped (could just be one of those speed to bluetooth apps). The game changer will be when you can send your incline back to Zwift but that’s not there yet. I would love Zwift to tell me what incline to set and I can feed back to Zwift that I have done that.
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Got mine for $100 on Facebook market place. Works awesome.
Just get something and run.