Hello, I am relatively new to road biking (less than a year) and a few months into using Trainer Road. I also swim and run, focused a bit more on running at the moment as I am doing a half marathon in Feb (hope to do about 1 hour 50 min) and my first full marathon in May (just under 4 hours hopefully).
I am trying to keep some biking up though as I hope to try 1 or 2 gran fondos this coming summer. I am currently using a vintage cannondale CAAD3 R900 (free hand me down bike I got this year to see if I actually like biking) on a dumb trainer with Trainer Road and virtual power (wahoo combo speed and cadence sensor).
I want to get a new, used bike (new to me but a few years old) for this coming season that is a bit newer, maybe an aero style bike so I can also use it for triathlon.
My questions are:
1 - Should I plan on using my new bike for outdoor rides and keep the old bike as a trainer only bike? Or is it better to exclusively ride my new bike both outdoors and on the trainer as the new bike will be better in every way, I will be riding a consistent fit and set up, …
2 - I would also like to get a real power meter. I would also then like to be using the same power meter outside and on the trainer. I am aware of some pedal options (favero & vector 3) for power meters but crank based ones seem way more common and popular. However, if I go crank based I won’t be able to switch between bikes easily, or at all in my case maybe. This may not matter if based on the above question if the answer is to only use my new bike for both indoors and outdoors.
3 - For crank based power meters how do I know what will fit on my bike. I would like to consider the used market to save some money but don’t want to buy something that won’t work on my bike.
Training how you’re going to race is a good idea, except when the additional fussing about moving your bike between the trainer and road discourages training or messes up your routine. If you’re getting an additional upright road bike you can keep the fit the same and it’ll make very little difference moving between the old bike on the trainer and the shiny new race weapon on the road.
Power meter pedals are so easy to move between bikes; I can swap my PowerTap P1s in under a minute including changing the crank length (sigh) in the phone app. Swapping a crank is a bit more involved and crucially, your crank lengths must match which isn’t the case for my road and TT bikes (TT has shorter crank).
Crank based power meter vendors should have clearance guides on their websites. You’ll probably be ok unless you have chainstay mounted brakes (which are sometimes on aero road and TT frames). One vendor says that if you can fit a Kit Kat candy bar between your crank arm and the chain stays that their power meter will fit
If you have the same pedals on both bikes, similar groupset and the same bottom bracket it’s not that difficult to swap a crankset/crankarm based power meter either.
If you get a new bike, have you considered dedicating your new one as a summer bike and your old one as a winter bike? You could then use your summer bike on the trainer over winter while you still used the winter bike outside, then swap them over in the spring?
If they are set up similar it won’t make a huge difference which you train on indoors.
As for the powermeter - if you are changing between bikes I would definately have pedals at the top of my list. A set of powertap P1s or Garmin Vector 3s would be a good shout. So much easier to swap around than cranks and you don’t have to worry about different BB standards/matching cranksets etc.
Thank you @rjessop thinking about it I can see doing both indoor and outdoor rides in spring summer and fall but only indoor in winter so having old bike exclusively on trainer in spring summer and fall will save time and hassle and then if I want to ride the new bike on the trainer in the winter I can do that then when I won’t be needing to swap it out.
Pedals sound like the way to go.
Garmens sound finicky.
favero sound good haven’t read a lot about powertaps yet… Thank you
Thank you @AndyGajda. Pedals sound good, maybe one day I can get a triathlon bike withy 165mm cranks (I am also short so these may be better for me I understand) and just swap pedals
