[inopinatus]

I train at home on a no-name steel frame I built up myself with spares scavenged or traded at a swap-meet, sitting on a second-hand (non-digital) Kurt Kinetic resistance unit, total build cost ~ $250, excl. my own labour and home workshop.

Honestly prefer training this way to the gamified Zwift experience, there's something deeply off-putting about gluing my eyes to a screen when I'm meant to be focusing on 4x5 intervals. I have a Wahoo Kickr; I hardly ever use it.

I didn't have any prior wrench experience, this was a project in part to gain some. All I had were some Youtube videos, a copy of Leonard Zinn's The Art of Road Bike Maintenance, and some basic tools. I did, however, already know my fitting dimensions.

The bikes I race on are what you'd expect though. More expensive than my car.

[walrus01]

What I've noticed is that if you want to build a dedicated indoor trainer bike from used parts, there definitely is some good opportunity now to pick up previous generation stuff for cheap.

As serious road frame design is moving to disc brake and thru axle, something like a 12 year old all aluminum Cannondale or specialized road frame and fork set for QR skewers and 130mm rear should be pretty cheap. Then add basic all aluminum components for stem, bars, seatpost, etc.

I'd still expect to spend $125-200 on the saddle if I want exactly the same model to match my actual on-road bikes.

[inopinatus]

For this build I acquired (from eBay) a bargain-basement second-hand test saddle of the same model I use in competition. Well, it was the alloy-rail version rather than the carbon-rail version, but otherwise identical in form. My butt was happy with it, which is what matters.

Can confirm it was still the single most expensive component of the whole bike build, more than the frame, wheels, or groupset even.

Test saddles aren't supposed to be sold to the public; I believe it was a liquidation sale.

[uzakov]

Is there a good guide one could follow?

[inopinatus]

The Park Tool “Big Blue Book” is very good. So is their archive of instructional articles and videos (https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help).

Since I built using mostly Shimano or Shimano-compatible groupset parts, their techdocs archive was a goldmine, particularly the dealer manuals and compatibility charts. The site navigation is horrendous but the information is essential.

I’d still recommend the Leonard Zinn but note the most recent edition is 2016, may have omissions for current wheels and groupsets.

[uzakov]

Thank you! Will check it out