It took a few weeks to gather everything I needed to make the change and get my MTB race bike into my trainer. I expected a few bumps in getting used to it but the first attempt was extremely rough moving from the old roadie on the trainer to the MTB. I anticipated the gearing change as well as the rolling resistance difference even with a rear slick.
I did a simple “Carter” and had a hell of a time settling in with power outputs and was all over the place and the gearing change killed my quads, but in all extremely happy that I made the change because it is NIGHT AND DAY difference.
Out of interest, as you have changed your set-up from Road to MTN bike did you retest your FTP. As discussed in other post’s if you make a significant change to your setup it’s recommended to re-test your FTP. Might make a difference in how a workout feel’s.
Made a similar change myself. It hurt too at first but well worth it in my opinion. In the end it should be a huge benefit on the trails. Even using flats with Five 10’s and seeing deficiencies in my pedal technique that clippless where covering up…
@GrahamH that is one thing I neglected to do. However I trained for the second time last night on the MTB and did a “McAdie” and it seemed about right with exertion. I think the first go round was so rough because of the big change, 42t sprocket to a 32t sprocket, I like to keep my cadence around 80 so it was a bit of a change and shifting gears in an attempt to match the power expectations.
When I did my first FTP test (Nov 6th) I had zero idea what was expected and kinda rainbowed the whole dang thing and did it wrong. Did the 20min FTP the following day after doing more reading and speaking to a few people and it recommended a FTP over 25 watts lower. I’m going to stick this block out till the Build phase (sustained power build mid vol.)
Ha I’ve got a MTB 1x11 and only use 2 gears for the meat of 90% of the workouts. 2nd to smallest cog covers so many watts with a cadence between 80 and 120. There’s always a target wattage that requires either spinning just too fast or too slow for comfort. Which is a condition you will face outside, so I’m not too worried about it. Though it would be great to have 2 extra cogs in there to stabilize cadence for desired watts. On a dumb trainer. Been wondering if it’s at all different on a road cassette.
I also swapped bikes recently, both mtb, and it feels way different. SRAM on one seemed to spin with way less friction. Now the XTR setup seems to have way more resistance but maybe it’s all in my head. XTR bottom brackets leave much to be desired.
