What’s the cheapest way to use zwift? I have a bike and PC, give me a list of things to buy so I can join in without spending huge amounts.

If you don’t already have a turbo

Tacx t2240 from Halfords. £170 ish depending on discounts availablr

Ant Dongle for PC
Ant Speed / Cadence sensor
Dumb Turbo Trainer

Or – what Jam bo said…

Presuming PC (laptop?) has bluetooth*: a 2nd hand bluetooth smart trainer (Tacx Vortex Smart), a bluetooth heart-rate strap. Enjoy.

*If not you’ll need an ANT+ usb-dongle and and ANT+ HR strap, most smart trainers these days are both ANT+ and Bluetooth

Is that so bad outside?

I already had this turbo (which I hated using before Zwift) and a Garmin cadence sensor

Elite Chrono Fluid Turbo

Just had to buy a speed sensor and an ANTplus dongle from Amazon. I’m using a Suunto one FWIW

Just make sure the turbo you buy is on the list of supported trainers on the Zwift site. The fluid trainer is much better than the magnetic one I had. I’d also get a mat and front wheel block – both available cheaply from Decathlon.

You don’t need a ‘smart’ trainer. A normal one is perfectly fine but you just need to weigh up if it’s worth the extra expense to have the resistance change with terrain. I tried on my ‘dumb’ trainer for a while and to be honest, it was fine. But the auto-resistance changing is better & makes it more immersive. Your legs also get a more realistic workout I reckon….

Other things you will need:

Check your laptop handles the min specs or thereabouts. Mine fails on the graphics spec, but still works fine. It stutters if a massive group of riders come past (race start for example), but 99% of the time it is not an issue.

Suitable Wi-Fi connection in your location.

Ant+ dongle

Ant+ speed/cadence sensor

I already had a HRM so use it, but you don’t need one. I like keeping track of my heart rate.

Wheel block if the turbo doesn’t include one.

Nice to have:

Towel thong for bike

Large pedestal fan….(especially with the weather warming up).

Forgot about the fan and heart rate monitor. Using my Garmin Forerunner 235 to transmit heart rate over ANTplus. Works fine.

I managed to do it for £25. I already had a very old turbo trainer from about 1995. Bought a Bluetooth cadence and speed sensor – Topeak Panobike – which I use with an iPad.

As above, you can do it on any old turbo, but when you factor in the cost of speed and cadence sensor (which is about £50 from Garmin!) it may just be better going for a smart turbo if you don’t have one already.

Having a smart turbo will control the resistance, giving a more real feel, but as it also doubles up as a power meter (and cadence sensor) it provides a bit more accuracy and credibility (your power meter status will be visible in Zwift).

As above though, be aware that PC specs are important. I went through 2 old PCs and had to upgrade OS and graphics card before I could get it to work. Zwift only runs on a 64 bit operating system and just dies on clunky old inbuilt graphics cards. It’s not just a case of it running badly. You need to meet some minimum requirements for it to run at all.

Not an important point but one that affected me was the trainer had to be quite so i can use it when my 4 year old has gone to bed.
i got a trainer where you remove the rear wheel, its virtually silent but still a dumb trainer.