Presentation of my virtual bike setup

I have been asked to give more details of my virtual bike setup which I usually call “My Pain Cave” as many others do. Why “Pain Cave”? Well mainly because when you practice a sport and put some efforts in, it makes you suffer a bit as for the cave it is just so true in my case because as you can see on the picture below it’s located in my basement 😉

Here is the description of each element composing my virtual bike setup :

1. A bike, yes part of the experience is virtual but the efforts are real and so is the bike 😉 Mine is a Btwin Facet 3, a road bike which I bought second hand. As you can on the picture, I’ve removed the rear wheel, find out why just after.
2. A smart trainer, a device that can mesure things like power, cadence and can also modulate the level of resistance (difficulty of pedaling). When coupled/connected to the right software, it can then simulate the terrain grade that is displayed on your screen, this is all these interactive part that makes it “smart”. Mine is a Elite Direto X.
3. A computer in my case but it also works with a tablet or even a smartphone coupled to a riding simulator software, in my case Zwift but there are other on the market. I chose Zwift because of the social aspect that allow to interacte/ride with other people which makes the whole experience more fun and enjoyable.
4. A fan because you’re putting a lot of efforts into pedaling but you’re not moving and such it can become very hot very quickly, I wouldn’t even consider riding indoor without it. Mine is a Wahoo Kickr Headwind which can be controlled remotely from an app and/or coupled to my heartbeat rate but in the end, it’s the remote control possibility which is important since you don’t want to have to much air on you when you’re just starting but you do want a lot of air reaching you if you’re putting a lot of efforts in 😉
5. (Optional) A big TV screen to make the whole experience more enjoyable, I didn’t have it when I started and have using only a tablet (instead of a computer) for a while at first but the more and more time I spent in my pain cave wanted me to improve things.
6. (Optionnal) A decent audio system which can be a good bluetooth speaker for example because it’s nice to listen to your favorite tracks when you’re suffering especially on a long training sessions.

Well I think that now you know it all, feel free to ask questions if you have some using the comments feature below!