Adjusting a 9 speed bike to work an 11 speed smart trainer

[slowsteady]

Hi everyone,

Looking to leverage the collective brains trust on here and hope this is an easy one.

I've recently bought a smart trainer that is direct drive (not wheel on) and it comes with an 11 speed cassette. I've got my current road bike which is 11 speed and I have a spare road bike that is 9 speed.

Putting the current road bike on the smart trainer works well. Putting the spare bike on there causes the chain to slip when it gets into the high gear and it doesn't go into the lowest gear.

Can I get away with some minor adjustments (adjusting the indexing or the barrel) or does it take something much more than that?

Thanks!

[Duck!]

Replace the cassette on the trainer with a 9-sp. one. You'll also ned a 1.85mm spacer - which should be supplied with the trainer - behind the cassette to compensate for it being shorter than the 11-sp.

[ironhanglider]

Find a gear that works and ride it as a SS.

Cheers,

Cameron

[CoffsGal]

I agree with Duck. If you don't plan on using the 11 speed bike on the trainer, then fit a 9 speed cassette to the trainer and use the 9 speed bike a dedicated trainer bike.

I have a Tacx Neo and use a dedicated bike to avoid the need to spend time fitting bike to trainer each time I want to use the trainer which is most week days. I also replaced the front wheel with a home made fabrication, to take up less room and avoid needing to inflate a tyre periodically.

[slowsteady]

Thanks for the responses everyone.

Sounded like it wasn't an easy fix so I have put the 9 speed cassette onto the trainer and I'll use it that way.

I had wanted to have both 11 speed cassettes in play as my main outdoor ride was an 11 speed, I guess the trainer will just have fewer gears so I'll train harder indoors and have more gears to choose from outdoors which should make it easier when I'm out for a real world ride.

Cheers everyone!