Curious how many people own a second trainer. I know, spendy enough owning a first one. Part of me after the last nine weeks on my third trainer, would like to have one on stand by in case of any issues. Any belt, power supply or general failure, swap it out, keep working out, ship the other off to be repaired if you can’t do it in house when you have time.
My Road Machine has been completely maintenance free for the 5 years I’ve had it. So, nope, no need for a backup.
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I just had a belt break on my original kickr. Luckily I have a spare Kurt or I would have been screwed. I bought two belts so I have back up. I think if you ride enough it is worth it to pickup a used Kurt on Craigslist for $100 bucks just in case.
I have a spare cheap air resistance turbo that can get me by in a pinch (like just recently). If you already have a smart trainer then a power meter and cheap trainer are more than enough back up.
As it happens we also just picked up a tacx flow for my wife to use so that’s now three trainers total!!!
I have several trainers and a set of rollers. I am a bit of a collector.
Obtained in reverse order of listing:
- Kickr 2017
- Hammer
- Magnus
- PowerBeam Pro
- Road Machine
- DIY Motion Rollers
- ancient Minoura wind trainer
Saved for testing and different use cases, not purely for “backups”, but they do offer that option as well.
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I will forever keep my Kinetic Road Machine as all the smart trainers are still in their infantcy…on my second Snap in two months, I dont trust it as far as I could throw it.
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KickR and a set of rollers.
Worst case I use the rollers and reschedule a workout while a replacement is bought or stop-gap sourced from a club member.
I do have a second PM though. P1’s and a P1S. Sent the P1’s in for a warranty claim, there was a quick turnaround which I knew of but I also wanted a spare for any failure and also to tide me over. Picked it (P1S) up cheaply enough 
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Using a Tacx Neo now.
Have a first gen Kickr, a KK RocknRoll, and a KK Road Machine in the basement. Also have a Schwinn spin bike…
As others have said, the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine and RocknRoll are super reliable and still great trainers.
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I have a bit of an indoor training equipment fetish:
- Tacx Neo
- Tacx Vortex Smart
- Kurt Kinetic Road Machine
- Elite Arion Smart B+ smart rollers
- Tacx Galaxia dumb rollers
- Kurt Kinetic Z rollers
The Neo is my daily driver, the Vortex is set up for wife’s use. The Road Machine mostly just sits in a corner and collects dust, though it has gone to the occasional race and sometimes gets loaned out to friends. When I’m wanting to “just spin” I often reach for rollers, usually the Galaxias. The Arion is nice but I only have them because I got a screaming deal and I just don’t use them much. They probably need to get sold. The Kurt Z rollers are on long-term loan to a friend.
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I tried the cycleops H2 and considering it was 20db louder than the Kickr, it went back to the kickr. My local store has been very good about just non stop swapping out these devices. All in all, I’m on my fifth trainer starting tomorrow morning over the last nine weeks. Two failures, one swap cause I was gun shy of another failure and then after the H2, I went back to Kickr. So, five in total but have yet to pay anything extra. I’m so close to picking up a second, just rotating them out after two months use, make sure if they’re gonna fail, they’ll fail.
Just a Tacx blue motion that i was using before my Kickr
I never kept an old trainer around when I was using dumb trainers as they are not prone to catastrophic failure plus they’re both cheap enough and available enough that I could pick one up at lunch in an emergency. But I just recently got a smart trainer and I am going to keep my old Road Machine around, at least for a while. Unlike dumb trainers, they can stop working totally in the blink of an eye I have room to store it and its both a nice insurance policy if the smart trainer is down for maintenance plus I might now and then take it to a race to warm up.
I would never buy a back up but if you already have one, might as just well keep it around if you have storage space.
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I do have two. Not on purpose. The in-laws bought one for me Christmas. Perhaps, a nice way of saying I looked fat?
Both cycleops. Don’t remember which. The second one is in the box. Haven’t had to use it.
FWIW, I still look kind of fat.
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I personally have one the one device and I am very dependent upon it. I’ve pretty much given up running for now, so I went all in on cycling. If it fails and I have to send it out for four weeks, that’s four weeks of not riding. I don’t have the time during the week or an additional bike to ride in the pouring rain. I guess what bounces around in my head, is it worth the second investment, big investment but I’ve got quite a bit invested in the bike and trainer now. I think my local shop will put up with me coming in every month when the current one fails which is an option but I’m really trying to stay away from that one. My faith in the new hardware is lacking…
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I kept my old CompuTrainer for just such a purpose. Say what you want about all the cables and antiquated design it never failed me. Upgraded to Kickr Snap so I could use wireless devices.
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I’ve got a few…
Gen1 KICKR
InsideRide rollers
An old set of aluminum cycleops rollers
My old cycleops super magneto pro (wife uses it sometimes now)
Sportcrafters omnium (the pre-feedback version, I keep it in my car for race warmups/travel)
Usually I’m using Tacx Neo and Elite Quick Motion rollers with road bikes and Tacx Galaxia rollers with 29er MTB, but sometimes I use my old Tacx Vortex Smart, because it has not simulated flywheel.
I am solely dependent on my Cyclops Fluid 2 and 4iiii Left sided power meter.
I think if I were to upgrade I would probably sell the ‘dumb’ trainer. However, I’m more than happy with what I have and can think of plenty of other things to spend £1000 on!
I’m using the vector 3’s with no issues, been great in my opinion. With that said, I did remove the band for the cadence since I have the duotrap speed and cadence sensor as the vector 3 already has cadence. I recently had a ride where the vector 3 batteries died and didn’t have the speed sensor as a backup. (this all ties together with backup equipment). The one thing I did like about the h2 was the built in speed sensor. If the vector 3 quite working, it should fail over to the speed and power of the h2. (did not like the 73db to 79db sound level)
Now, where I’m going with all this. (lets see if I can figure this out) I’m going to put the cadence sensor back on, yes, it’s another battery that last years, no big deal, TrainerRoad should pull the cadence and power from vector 3. If the vector 3 quits working, I have a backup from the Duotrap for cadence and power from the Kickr.
I think I just like having backups just in case.
I am keeping my mag trainer, as my Tacx Flux weighs 50lbs and is not foldable… also in case of repair issues, the Flux has had issues w/ QC.