Ten years on: how the hardware around training has completely changed

Promotional feature in association with Zwift

Indoor cycling has never been more accessible, affordable and enjoyable – turbo trainers work straight out of the box and no longer cost four-figure sums; smart bikes make it easy for multiple people to use the same trainer; and training apps have revolutionised how cyclists work out, race and even socialise.

But you only have to turn the clock back a decade to return to indoor cycling’s dark ages: rollers in garages; wheel-on setups that would slip with any sudden efforts; those dreaded blue tyres. 

Back then, going on the turbo wasn’t something you looked forward to, and was the preserve of a certain type of masochist. “I never looked forward to it. It was a tool,” says 2005 British national road race champion Russ Downing. The ex-Team Sky and JLT-Condor rider started on rollers as part of the junior Team GB track set-up before splashing the cash on a TechnoGym Spintrainer after turning pro at age 19.

“My good buddy Chris Walker used to have one. They were a lot of money – like €3,500. I'd go over to his house twice a week in his garage. I actually got hold of one that I think was Chris Boardman's. That was one of my biggest investments as a bike rider. I think I paid £1,000. That was 1999 and I got rid of it last year. It was a great bit of kit but wasn't compatible with anything now.” 

A glorified wheel-on turbo trainer you would also mount your bike’s fork to for “sort of suspension”, the Spintrainer looks rudimentary now but was a key part of Downing’s training. “I did five hours on it back in the day. I had it in a garage. The odd time I watched a [Spring] Classic but I mainly listened to music. Now it's a different story. There's so much going on; you never get bored.”

A new age

The dawn of the indoor cycling revolution came in 2012 with the launch of the Wahoo Kickr. While 2010’s LeMond Fitness Revolution was the first direct drive turbo trainer – where a bike’s rear wheel is removed and the drivetrain is attached to a cassette mounted to the turbo’s flywheel – the Kickr was the first to truly disrupt the indoor cycling space.

“That changed the game and laid the foundations for a platform like Zwift to exist,” says Zwift’s Chris Snook. He concedes that the audience was still restricted to a minority of competitive and enthusiast cyclists who were very into their training – “that was connected partly to the cost of that hardware, but also the complexity and that you needed to get your head around ANT+ and Bluetooth and all of that”. But the Kickr and the variety of third-party training apps that sprung up in response to its open-source protocol showed there was an alternative to slogging (and slipping) away with a wheel-on trainer in your garage or spare bedroom.

Increased accessibility

The Kickr launched an arms race in the indoor training hardware space, with Tacx, Saris, Elite and other manufacturers developing their own direct drive turbos which each promised the most realistic ride feel. But with all focused on the upper end of the market, it remained a specialist pursuit out of reach of most.

Wahoo shifted the dial once more – this time downwards – with its release of the Kickr Core in 2018. A streamlined and more affordable trainer than its top-of-the-range model, it was significantly (£300) cheaper and only sacrificed some of the technical features.

But the disrupter soon became the disrupted.

“As the discipline has evolved, more people want to get into indoor cycling, and we've seen particularly since 2020 more recreational cyclists coming to want to use a platform like Zwift, but that hardware has then become a barrier in that it's been too costly, it's been too complicated to understand,” says Snook.

Zwift’s answer was the Zwift Hub. Launched in 2022, the turbo trainer was a direct rival to the Kickr Core, but came pre-fitted with a cassette and most importantly cost £449 – becoming the first direct drive turbo trainer to be launched under the £500 mark. “Being able to offer something that worked from the box was huge for us. Since the Hub was introduced, pricing has come down significantly across the board, which I think is great for customers,” says Snook.

The company has since released the Zwift Cog, which removes the need for a cassette completely, is quieter and easier to set up, and the Zwift Ride – a dedicated smart bike that doesn’t require an actual bike to use and is a fraction of the cost of the alternatives from Wahoo and Tacx. The Ride has also made things much more simple in terms of setup and ease of use compared to rival smart bikes, particularly for those completely new to indoor training, while a Smart Frame only is an ideal upgrade for those already using a Zwift equipped smart trainer.

“We've long been believers in smart bikes. They're clean, they're quiet, they're designed for you to sweat on, and they're also suitable for multiple users in the house. They've come at a cost so a big thing for us with Zwift Ride was being able to offer all those benefits that come with a smart bike but at an affordable price,” says Snook.

Indoor revolution

In addition to turbo trainers and smart bikes, the last decade has seen other developments such as gradient-simulating hardware (Wahoo Kickr Climb and Elite Rizr), while the additions of fore-aft and lateral movement on high-end turbo trainers have improved comfort and realism when riding inside. “One of the big innovations was the Tacx road feel, where you can ride over gravel surfaces or one of the wooden bridges in Watopia and you can feel the rumble as you're going over – that brings that new level of immersion,” says Snook.

While the low entry price of hardware means that indoor cycling is no longer limited to those with the time and money to invest in specialist equipment, the upgrades in convenience and immersiveness have revolutionised the experience for the original turbo training die-hards.

“I first got on Zwift in 2015,” says Downing, who now owns a Zwift Ride and has his own pain cave complete with a 120” projector and curved wall. “I jumped on there this morning, did 35 minutes at quarter past seven, and 10 minutes later, you're back in life. It doesn't take you all day to bloody do a workout. It’s a game-changer.”