Planning to upgrade my indoor setup to direct drive. However, currently I use my very old (2x6) Miyata on my wheel-on trainer. I like that fact to have a cycle that is always on the trainer to avoid unloading and loading the cycle on trainer, however easy that little step is.
What would you do? Try to upgrade the Miyata? Buy an older used bike with a relevant gear solution that fit to a direct drive? Or maybe even a Zwift bike? Or some solution I have not been thinking of? I do use Trainerroad so do not know if a zwift bike and or zwift cog is even relevant?
When riding outside I use either my TT or my Cyclocross.
I assume your Miyata uses a 6sp screw on freewheel/cassette?
Direct drive trainers usually come with a Shimano HG11 freehub mount for cassettes and you can’t buy 6 speed HG cassettes. However 6 and 7 speed cassettes have an almost identical sprocket and spacer thickness, so you should be able to use your Miyata on a modern direct drive trainer fitted with a 7sp cassette +4.5mm spacer, you may have to fit a slightly narrower 7 or 8sp rather than 6sp chain. You just won’t be able to use the 7th gear.
edit: If you do have friction shifters, just fit a chain to match whatever speed cassette the new trainer comes fitted with.
I have a late 90’s Giant TCR as my dedicated trainer bike. I use ERG on my direct drive trainer 99.99% of the time for TR workouts. The crank spins fine, thou it might at well be 1x now as the front derailleur is frozen. The chain is changed every couple of years and the rear derailleur sorta works but I don’t change gears so it doesn’t really matter. I love the setup.
If I was you…
I would use the bike you got
Get a direct drive trainer - Kickr, Tacx, H3
Follow what Jon says above about the cassette
Get a comfortable seat
Make sure to have a fan
Yeah, this will be the problem (please check this, I did check the gospel of Sheldon Brown but may not be 100% right) from what I know most 6 speed frames will be either 126 or 120 mm spacing. I don’t know of a direct drive trainer that will go below 130 mm. As XCO says, you can spread a steel frame by 4mm with some gentle persuasion but you’d then have to work out how to get an appropriately sized cassette on there.
Ah. Interesting about 6 and 7 speeds cassettes. Didn’t know. That surely sounds like a really good idea! I have a little to little knowledge about mechanics in common and cycling and spacers in particular. What to specifically buy and how to actually mount it. But now I know what questions to ask my local cycling service store. The shifters i classical ones, a couple of cm long piece of alu that is pulled forward och backward for shifting.
Thx for pointing me in a really good (and cost effective) direction and also what to look out for!
Actually. It is a 7-spd. So in theory, i could demont the exisiting 7-spd cassette from the back wheel, add a spacer a try to use the same 7-spd cassette on a direct drive trainer? Right? Given that the cog std is the same of course.
No. Direct drive trainers basically replace the rear hub, and none support freewheels Technically speaking, a 7-speed cluster of cogs is called a freewheel, not a cassette.. A cassette refers to a cluster of cogs that mounts via a freehub. Direct drive trainers only support freehubs, not freewheels. This webpage describes that : Freewheels (Thread on Type) for Bicycles from Harris Cyclery
This is exactly what I was thinking. An old Miyata steel frame could comfortably be cold set to 135mm spacing, especially if it’s a dedicated trainer bike. Then the Zwift Cog and virtual shifting clear up everything else. At worst, maybe chain line would be a hair off, but the Cog has plenty of lateral movement to keep things from.getting too noisy.
Yeah, the Zwift Cog would work exactly the same as a cassette in ERG mode. The only thing you would have to do is adjust the chainline with the cog to minimize noise.
Virtual shifting is the only thing that wouldn’t work in TR as far as I know (not currently subscribed), but would work just fine in non-ERG mode on Zwift if you were doing your TR workouts there.
I do use Trainerroad so do not know if a zwift bike and or zwift cog is even relevant?