Winter is nearly upon us. I was thinking of getting set up for Zwift as the last few winters I’ve simply been staring at the wall or my garmin through a sweaty haze.

Trainer I think I’ve decided on. The halfords one. But I think I’m also going to need a device. I have a nice PC , in the living room where it is staying. My turbo is not going in there! I hace a decent phone running android. I don’t have a laptop or Ipad. I have Ant+ HR and cadence sensors.

I’m torn between a laptop and ipad. Both are pricey. I guess an android device will be cheaper but who knows when the app will appear.

I’m thinking of refurb or cheap units. It seems a laptop would be better for me technology wise with the Ant+ and a garmin 800. But finding one of the right spec cheap is hard. ipads would be simpler both in spec and using while riding.

Anyone know of a cheap laptop that works or where you buy reliable refurbed ipad minis? May not even go down the zwift route long term. Other training apps are on the list to try.

Alternatively, is there some trickery by which I can set up the stuff I currently have.

Following with interest.
My dad is in a similar boat looking for a device

Apple UK do refurbed ipads. An iphone is another option and use a cable to connect to a TV.

You’ll struggle with iDevices and ANT. Either accept that and buy a Bluetooth HRM (the smart trainer will do cadence) or go with a PC (or mac) and ant+ dongle.

Hate. Wish I could block Zwift rides on Strava. It’s not just the feed getting filled up by the stuff but the annoyance that people are missing out on a perfectly decent day by riding indoors. Plus even when it’s cold it’s still fun, even wet can be fun…

… oh but then if you only do road… 😉

Winter is the same as summer for me. Just need lights when it gets dark and maybe actually have to wash the bike occasionally, that’s all. I don’t do winter rides. Don’t have a winter bike. I just ride.

Dell Outlet Inspiron for £275?

deadkenny – Member

Hate. Wish I could block Zwift rides on Strava. It’s not just the feed getting filled up by the stuff but the annoyance that people are missing out on a perfectly decent day by riding indoors. Plus even when it’s cold it’s still fun, even wet can be fun…

… oh but then if you only do road…

Winter is the same as summer for me. Just need lights when it gets dark and maybe actually have to wash the bike occasionally, that’s all. I don’t do winter rides. Don’t have a winter bike. I just ride.

I have a job, a wife, a child….etc… Which means me jumping on Zwift while my lad plays Xbox or with mates is viable, whereas going out and leaving him at home, isn’t.

Zwift is both convenient, simple, and effective.

The one thing I’d say about the choice between iPad and a PC is you’ll find it a lot easier to modify Zwift when using a PC. For example if today I wanted to ride Watopia, I can. If I want to ride London, I can. At the start sticking to the schedule was fine but after a while of knowing what type of ride I wanted each day was easier to achieve when you can change worlds. Want something mega tough, ride the three sisters today. Want it pretty easy with only one blast of effort, go ride London. Also when getting to know the routes having a map overlay makes things muuuuuch easier to figure out where and how to turn to make a good loop. A map overlay is very easy to figure out when using a mac/PC compared to iPad.

Dell Outlet Inspiron for £275?

exclusive of VAT though unfortunately (so 330 really to us)

OP have a read of Weekys’s thread loads of good advice in it and he just rode the SDW in a day for BHF and I’d wager he’d have struggled with that ride without the ZWIFT programme (FWIW totally beyond me, I’m tired by Cheesefoot including at least one stop!)

I don’t have anywhere I could set it up or I would be on it too.

Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

I can’t imagine using a small screen, the bigger the screen the better from an immersive point of view, otherwise I might as well just follow a line on trainer road

I use the Tacx Flow, Wahoo Tickr and an iPad air for Zwift. iPad air picks up the trainer and HRM through bluetooth and works fine (although my trainer is making that grinding noise after 500 miles).

Works fine as a basic system that I can pack away again as my laptop isn’t powerful enough to run Zwift and I can’t move the trainer upstairs where the computer is. I got the iPad from the Apple refurb (expensive but my old one needed replacing anyway and it get used for more than just Zwift)

I’m with weeksy. I’m looking after my lad for a couple of weeks now and there is no way I can get out. Zwift is perfect for me at the mo. I use an old laptop and plug it into an old TV. Its in garage and i was using a wifi extender which worked but wasnt perfect. I was getting buffering and all other riders were disappearing so I’ve just bought a 15m ethernet cable and run it into the garage. Perfect now. I dont bother with the ‘ride on’ or messaging. I’ve got a Tacx Vortex and ant+ dongle on an extender so its next to the trainer motor.

If you can wait a couple of months they’re in beta for AppleTV.

Secondhand PC or laptop – you can get something fairly decent quite cheap (I’d suggest some sort of refurbed Lenovo if you can get one with good enough graphics spec). If going with a laptop it’s easy and relatively cheap to plug in a bigger screen.

Dell outlet has been mentioned. I would prefer a laptop because I think it would be more useful. Where do you buy a second hand laptop from? Ebay would be one option but anywhere you’d go for a bit more piece of mind?

greentricky – Member
I can’t imagine using a small screen, the bigger the screen the better from an immersive point of view, otherwise I might as well just follow a line on trainer road

This, for me. I’ve got a laptop with 17″ screen and that’s ok, but to be honest if I could afford to get a large monitor on the wall, I would do.

I’m not sure it would feel the same on a small screen.

Regarding the negative comments about Zwift – similar reasons to weeksy led me to trying it; full time job, young family etc. It’s dead easy to get into the garage, particularly through the winter and get some decent riding in, whether ‘free riding’ or following a training plan.
During the winter I won’t go out on the road if it might be icy, so a stint in the garage is preferable to a broken limb going down on an icy road…

Kit-wise, I use an old Acer 17″ laptop, Garmin sensors that came with my Edge 500 and a Flow Swift trainer. If buying again I’d probably buy a more expensive trainer.

Not used Zwift, but have used trainerroad. How intensive are the graphics on Zwift, i.e. is a s/h laptop going to struggle? I could never get ant stuff to work with a phone/tablet so ended up with a laptop plugged into a TV.

OP have a read of Weekys’s thread loads of good advice in it and he just rode the SDW in a day for BHF and I’d wager he’d have struggled with that ride without the ZWIFT programme (FWIW totally beyond me, I’m tired by Cheesefoot including at least one stop!)

Whilst I don’t doubt the efficiency of training on a turbo, that’s over egging the pudding somewhat! Plenty of people rode the SDW in a day before Zwift.

I’m not sure it would feel the same on a small screen.

I have done it on an iPhone (way too small) but usually use an iPad Pro which is 12.9″. Totally immersive, get tunnel-vision and don’t even notice the size of the screen. IME as long as you can see/read the details it’ll be fine.

That said I might look into a massive telly/monitor when the Apple TV app comes out!! 🙂

Remember when buying a laptop/pc there is a minimum requirement for the graphics card/driver. The budget end of laptops i found were all below spec and couldnt be changed as the were all integrated. I now use an ipad with the tacx trainer from Halfords and its perfect, you can also pick whatever course you like if you change your ipad date to a date in the calendar that had your venue running that day. Ipad is also much easier as you will no doubt try to jump on a race at the last second and thus dont have to wait an age for a laptop to boot up.

Whilst I don’t doubt the efficiency of training on a turbo, that’s over egging the pudding somewhat! Plenty of people rode the SDW in a day before Zwift.

I was one of them 😉 HOwever, i am without doubt faster/fitter/better thanks to Zwift.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

Not used Zwift, but have used trainerroad. How intensive are the graphics on Zwift, i.e. is a s/h laptop going to struggle?

blader1611 – Member

Remember when buying a laptop/pc there is a minimum requirement for the graphics card/driver. The budget end of laptops i found were all below spec and couldnt be changed as the were all integrated.

My laptop is several years old – I think I bought it in 2010/2011.
It’s got integrated graphics and is one level below the min spec required for Zwift.
But it works fine – I think I have the graphics set to the mid-setting.
When you get a load of riders on screen at once, like if a race start comes past in the opposite direction then the frame rate slows down a lot. But, it soon sorts itself out once they are past.

I’ve done one fairly busy group ride and multiple riders on the screen wasn’t an issue.

If buying new, I would go for the best graphics performance you can get, but was lucky that mine works OK as it is. As blader1611 mentions, integrated graphics can’t be upgraded realistically on a laptop.

Ipad is also much easier as you will no doubt try to jump on a race at the last second and thus dont have to wait an age for a laptop to boot up.

Also the app will update in the background so you shouldn’t miss the start of a race because of it needing to update when you start it up!!

My laptop was one spec below the minimum intel hd 4000 graphics card and zwift wouldnt even allow me to download the app, it ran a check on my card and said its too old, i assume it was referring to the card and not me!

If you have a decent spec pc..

Then the mobile link app will connect to your trainer/HRM/power meter and transmit to your PC via wifi. http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/computer-accessories/mice-and-keyboards/keyboards/logitech-k400-plus-wireless-keyboard-dark-grey-10135387-pdt.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istItemId=laqlwimlt&istBid=tztx&srcid=198&cmpid=ppc~gg~0000+%28PLA%29+ACCESSORIES~0000+%28PLA%29+ACCESSORIES+ad+group~Exact&mctag=gg_goog_7904&kwid=GOOGLE&device=c&ds_kids=92700022436923612&PLA=1&tgtid=0000+%28PLA%29+ACCESSORIES&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6Pykisu41QIVXF8ZCh3U_wduEAkYAiABEgJb-_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CKOui47LuNUCFWKHUQodwpAOtQ will allow you to control the PC.

Then you just need something to show your pc screen, something like this? http://www.gearbest.com/digital-antenna/pp_452930.html?currency=GBP&vip=760164&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg5Pa38q41QIVS2cZCh23tgYKEAkYBiABEgI7TPD_BwE

nathb – Member
If you have a decent spec pc..

You might be on to something there – I have a PC that can run zwift.

I have a Chromecast, I have an old VGA monitor. I will try and wire them all up. Buying a wireless keyboard may be by far the cheapest option!

What about the bluetooth talking with the PC though?

Zwift mobile link

Cheers. This looks like a cheaper place to start!

Will Zwift work with Chromebook?

weeksy – Member 
I have a job, a wife, a child….etc… Which means me jumping on Zwift while my lad plays Xbox or with mates is viable, whereas going out and leaving him at home, isn’t.

Fair play in cases like that. As the only option just because it’s winter, maybe less so 😉 .

What gets me is a number of people I follow have no kids / family and plenty of time, nice day outside but instead they’re on Zwift!

Just doing a turbo is one thing, but there seems to be a lot of attraction to the competition elements of Zwift/Strava that’s a bit like playing on an xbox rather than going out for a ride, IMO 😉

What gets me is a number of people I follow have no kids / family and plenty of time, nice day outside but instead they’re on Zwift!

The very cheek of it! People spending their free time doing something they enjoy!

Maybe they’d stop if you cried and told them how hurt you are by the whole thing? 🙂

BTW if you’re using an iPad and want to change the course just change the date on the iPad to a date with the course you want? 😆

The whole real life vs Zwift has been done to death, if you have an issue don’t click into Zwift threads and unfollow those that Zwift. Life’s too short.

I use Zwift a lot as my wife works shifts so it enables me to train whilst the baby is in bed which is great. My set up is Tacx Flux hooked up to a HP laptop which is 4 years old but works absolutely fine, downside is it takes a lot longer to load up compared to iPad/IPhone so I get changed whilst it’s doing that. I’ve got a Garmin Ant+ doggie plugged in to pick up the device. Only thing I would like is it on a bigger screen.
Worth a note – I believe that if your using the Ipone in particular, if messages come through whilst your riding and reply and your in a group ride or race, you loose where you are on the map. Happened to a mate so he can’t reply to texts.