I know it seems early to consider the coming winter, but I absolutely need to have some sort of indoor trainer set up this year.

I was wondering if there are any particular details that would make a frame more suited for trainer duty?

I have kept an eye out for an aluminum frame but haven't found a cheap one yet, so I could use one of the steel project bikes I have pilled up.

My usual ride is a 58cm road bike with a french fit. I know I would want to have my contact points to generally match what I usually ride, but beyond that is there any reason to use a 58cm road frame? It seems like a smaller road frame, or a mountain bike frame would be work as well as an exercise machine.

The other choice would be what wheel set to use? I've got plenty of 27 and 26" wheels but not that many 700c sets to work with. I've seen "trainer" tires in 700C, but have no idea if that's realy necessary verses wearing out a set of cheap 26" or 27" tires. Brakes aren't necessary on a trainer, and there's no pedaling through the corners, so I assume I could put 26" wheels on a road frame, or 27" on a mountain frame. If I needed to cold set a frame, alignment would be less critical, so there's plenty of Lego possibility's there

I'm also not clear about how gearing makes a difference on a trainer, or at least a "dumb" trainer. If your resistance is variable it seems like you could have a single speed and adjust you resistance to the cadence you want to keep, or maybe just run 5-6 speeds on the back?

Another consideration is whether I will try and use Zwift for S+G? I've got cadence, speed and heart rate monitors, but have no idea how the "game " works, or whether I would need 10 or 12 speeds to enjoy playing.

Kind of a random question and realistically, I can just park a functional road bike on the trainer this winter, but I'd be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts. Thanks, Woody