Originally Posted by
topflightpro
Why buy a backup bike? Why not buy a new bike and make the current one your backup?
But really, if you just want a bike for the trainer that sometimes gets ridden outside, don't even bother with mechanical Ultegra. Save some money and go with Tiagra or 105. You don't need electronic for a trainer bike.
(I do agree that it is very nice to have wheel and speed compatibility across bikes for easy swapping as needed.)
The bike I have now is new and pretty nice. The idea with the backup was to have something else I could beat up on the trainer all winter long and take out in a pinch if needed (or if the roads were really crappy one day).
Good points on the groupset though and others have made good comments on the wheels too. Not sure though if I'd actually replace one of my deep section carbon rims on my main bike with the basic alloy rims likely to come on the backup, vs. just taking the backup out.
I should also probably be real with myself in accepting that I actually don't do much work on my own bikes so having all the backup parts might not be as helpful for me