by As many of us begin to transition to indoor training, we are also faced with the increasing costs associated with it. That’s why Rouvy challenged me to buy the best possible indoor training setup for under £100. Let’s explore the options available.
You may have noticed that it is no longer summer. In fact, looking at the long-term forecast, I think last weekend might have been the last dry ride for a long time! Many of my riding friends have already turned to indoor training to maintain their summer fitness, and others just don’t think it’s worth the investment…
Well, I understand you! Indoor training is prohibitively expensive, smart trainers can cost four figures, some fans somehow cost more than all of my summer cafe stops combined, and then there’s the software itself. I doubt this is the first time you’ve heard of some Hear platforms drastically increasing their prices!
However, Rouvy believes it’s still more than possible to successfully train indoors on a budget. So they challenged me to buy the best possible indoor training setup for under £100, giving me a week to recreate my favorite summer ride in the virtual world. Let’s see what we can find…
The Setup (Software Price: £10.75)
It goes without saying that my preferred software will be Rouvy. Why? Well, because it offers more real-world routes than I can handle with a seatpost, and because it favors realism over gaming, which I find helps make the time go by a little faster when I’m cooped up indoors.
It’s also cheaper than most competitors, with an annual plan at £10.75 per month, which is quite handy for my budget. However, I think the main advantage is that you can pause your subscription at any time and the months will roll over at the end.
Since I attend a lot of exciting events and races in the summer, I don’t really train much with the turbo. That means I can pay for a year, take a break all summer and get two winter training sessions for the price of one. Happy days!
It’s also worth noting that you can actually use Rouvy for free, either as someone without a subscription or when your subscription is paused. The downside is that you are limited to 20 km per month.
That’s the software sorted, now I need to get some hardware and according to my calculations I still have £89.25 left to spend…
Turbo: Tacx Flow (£50 used)
I wanted to be ambitious and try to find a smart trainer who would make the most of the realism and augmented reality routes. Rouvy can be used with a so-called dumb trainer with a speed sensor, but I wanted to fully experience the interactive features.
I used Facebook Marketplace to see what was available used in my area, preferably from someone who actually had it…
That’s when I came across a Tacx Flow turbo trainer. Because it is a roller trainer, it is a little louder than a direct drive trainer, but it is “smart”. This means that when I hit a climb on a Rouvy route, the resistance increases and it becomes more difficult, just like in real life.
It was advertised for £65 but through very polite haggling I managed to pick it up for £50. There is some wear, but the lights come on when I plug it in, so it seems to be working. I guess we’ll find out later…
Fan (£10)
So £10.75 for a month with Rouvy and £50 for the trainer meant I had about £40 left. That’s when I decided I definitely needed a fan.
There are a lot of nice ones out there and I know I really like the Vacmaster fans, but my budget didn’t stretch that far. I checked again to see what I could get used and later got one for £10.
At this point I was pretty much there as I use either my phone or my laptop to run the Rouvy app. You could spend a few quid on a rubber mat if you need to protect your floors, but I go to the garage for turbo sessions and have £30 left.
The ride
Rouvy’s challenge for me wasn’t to just buy all this stuff, but to actually use my new setup to see how it works. So I decided to recreate one of my favorite summer rides. I got to ride some pretty cool places in the summer, but I think my favorite place was the Dolomites in Italy, so I chose that one.
Rouvy offers over 1,500 realistic routes from 45 countries, with more being added all the time. This means that if you’ve already ridden somewhere, there’s probably a route on Rouvy where you can recreate your favorite ride too.
Of course, you could also go somewhere you can only dream of in real life. Or in the latest update there is a training plan from Lidl Trek. Maybe I’ll try it this fall.
With my route loaded, it was time to try out my new setup. You can even download your routes so there are no disruptions when WiFi is poor.
Yes, the turbo could be better and I would have liked a direct drive just to make it a little quieter; But I’m in virtual Italy, driving my favorite car of the summer in high definition. There are also some new features since I last logged into Rouvy; Some cheeky guy just asked me to turn! I won’t invite him to my next event…
What does that show then? Well, it shows that you can do smart indoor training for little money. If you have a working bike, you’ll need a little patience to browse through some used bargains Rouvy subscriptionthen you too can recreate your favorite summer rides, take part in curated workouts and ignore the fact that the nights are getting closer and the British weather is absolutely miserable.
Click here Use code “ROADCC” to get your first month of ROUVY free (new subscribers only).
What changes would you make to your indoor training budget and what ride would you recreate on Rouvy? Let us know in the comments section below…
