Is there such a thing? something that the forks clamp onto rather than using a front wheel?

I’m going to retire my old Planet X London Road as it has a small crack in the seat stay/seat tube weld but thinking I might still be able to use it on the turbo. Don’t need a back wheel as irs direct drive, but wondering if I need wheels at all??

Maybe I’ll need to make something out of wood.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Carrier-Aluminum-Release-Bicycle-Waterproof/dp/B07ZSHJSSV/ref=asc_df_B07ZSHJSSV/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=339671415049&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15324959815211425287&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046650&hvtargid=pla-925544786330&psc=1

plus a few pieces of 2*4?

what would removing the wheel save you though ?

I expect the thing you make would be more bulky than the wheel you take off.

what would removing the wheel save you though ?

Means I can sell a complete wheelset. It’ll never move once its set up.

Yeah that could work nbt, if I get it up to the right height. Cheers.

Easier and possibly cheaper just just buy / beg a cheap front wheel tbh

Sell as a pair and build/buy a cheap front wheel?

Neater option plus you’ll have the option to use a swivel riser block for a bit of movement on the front.

I’ve just bought a Tacx front wheel support stand. It usually bolts to their rollers set but I’m going to attach it to the front of a large baseboard and mount my turbo trainer to the rear. It will shorten the whole turbo setup by over a foot. Might try to cobble some sort of rocker board setup as well.

Actually thats a good point about shortening the set up. Thats another reason to not have a front wheel, space is limited.

There’s DT Swiss and Vision Team front wheels at Merlin for £65/80 respectively.

I cobbled my own up with a bit of wood and an old hub. THe advantages to me was it made the turbo fit into a smaller space when it’s location was space limited.It also was a tiny bit neat as with the front wheel you also need a riser. Just about worth the faff.

Do direct drive trainers need a riser though?

Do direct drive trainers need a riser though?

Normally I think. Mine came with one. But agreed, it’s hard to justify when. You are not going around corners so a lower pedal clearance is not an issue…

Guess it doesn’t really matter for the OP so long as the height is set correctly – maybe design some adjustability into it?

If you’re really flush you can get those gradient simulator addons.

I don’t do indoor training but I doubt that they add much to the experience.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/wahoo-kickr-climb-indoor-grade-simulator/rp-prod167006

then you get into the whole rocker board bobbins. I made one and it was crap – rocked the wrong way when out of the saddle. It made in the aero position style turboing a bit better maybe, but never got it dialed.

Yeah, was just wondering about it really. Thinking as I’ll have a spare frame kicking around I can just have a really basic set up as I won’t need brakes or wheels. Cheaper the better really, but space saving would be good also.

Might give it a go and see how it comes out with one of those amazon fork mounts. I’ll set it up with and without a riser to see what I prefer first. I haven’t used it for a year or so, but did use a riser before as I thought I needed to….

1m length of 1 1/8″ alloy bar & a couple of shaft collars, all bolted through a bit of 4×2

Now that’s what I’m talking about. Great bodging!!

If your turbo allows the bike to rock at all then whatever you bodge up also needs to allow this to avoid the frame getting twisting loads, so I’d be careful of the “bolt to a bit of 4×2” approach.
I’ve considered something like this myself, to make the setup a bit shorter but not come up with anything that’s worth the effort and expense of just having a front wheel on.

@snaps solution looks good. It doesn’t need to be bolted down to the floor, as per the first point some ability to allow rocking is needed.

It’s not bolted to the floor, only the 4×2 & that has carpet offcut nailed underneath so it rocks by a few degrees.

The whole set up cost under £60 for the hardware & s/h frame – I already had the turbo, rear wheel, finishing kit & some 9 speed bits in the spares box.

Seemed crazy to tie up some nice Lyriks & Hope front wheel just to hold the frame up!

@snaps – that sounds just about perfect.

Please share details of the shaft collars as this is something that I might well be looking to copy.

shaft collars

I turned the id on a lathe to suit the shaft & then just fitted as you would fit a fork.

I maked this

Just took up less space

Now that looks cheaper.