It started with a.. Stages SB20 Smart Bike

 I'm not new to indoor cycling.
I started training on a smart trainer more than 2 years ago. It was a classic "wheel-on" trainer, but it was very nice to use because it allowed me to do some hard sessions without bothering about the kind of streets, the lights, the cars, the smoke, etc. I just had to open an app and ride my bike.

After a few months i found Zwift and it was love at first sight!
Also, i got more interested on the data-analysis such as watts, watt/kg, rpm and power-duration curve. 
I decided to take Zwift seriously and i bought a "direct-drive" smart trainer. It took me to another level. Training became easier and smarter because it was all linear. There were even less problems on the riding: the smart trainer was perfect and it gave me any kind of simulation i wanted, both on climbing feelings and watts. 
Of course i trained as much as i can, for at least 11/14 hours per week. In fact, i started as a B rank Zwift and i moved fast towards the A+ rank mark. 

A few weeks ago i wanted to raise my pain cave to another level. Not in terms of "visive-quality" (i still ride in a very small, a bit dark room), but in terms of quality. 

"Smart Bikes are the next generation of indoor cycling." 
I bought the Stages SB20 Smart Bike. 

1) Setup Speed and Maintenance

Wheel-on trainers are fast, you just have to mount your bike and ride, but we all know that they are not precise and the wheel requires double maintenance. 

Direct-drive trainers are faster, they are precise and can simulate almost any kind of effort/climb. High quality trainers have the same precision of any Smart Bike. However they require a bit of maintenance and also their gears depends on your bike. So the poorest your bike, the poorest the quality of your training/racing.

Smart Bikes are even faster, their precision is similar to high quality Direct-drive's but they have some advantaces: ZERO maintenance and almost INFINITE gear combinations. So you really have to jump on them and ride, then you finish the workout, clean a bit of sweat and go home. 

2) Virtual Gearing

On the Stages SB20 you can chose your favourite gearing. You can select from a few combinations or you can just simulate a massive 50-speeds rear-gear. Then you can jump up to 10 gears per click or you can move 1 gear at time. 
This means that you can easily jump from a very light gear to a too much intense one in a few clicks (yes, it's click because there are buttons).