Turbo trainers

3 watchers

leejprice Mar 2013 10:17pm, 11 Mar 2013 11 posts	0 leejprice I would like to buy a turbo trainer as I have rather stupidly entered a middle distance triathlon in June. I seriously need to increase my bike miles and the quality of those miles. My local area is good for cycling, but really need some long and intense sessions. Anyway, can anyone reccomend a decent turbo trainer, currently looking at the Cycleops Classic Mag?? Ta very much
BanjoBax Mar 2013 10:05am, 12 Mar 2013 3,939 posts	0 BanjoBax Hi Lee might be something in this thread http://www.fetcheveryone.com/viewtopic.php?id=42073 , if not posting on there morelikely to get a decent response My only experience is of my cheap turbo amazon.co.uk which seems OK, suspect the pricier ones will be better
simbil Mar 2013 10:38am, 12 Mar 2013 5,790 posts	0 simbil I've got a Cycleops Classic Mag and its fine but not quiet - so OK for shed/garage. It sounds like a jet turbine when hammering it! Turbo's are really dull though, you'd probably be better off hooking up with your local cycling club's Sunday ride for some long stuff plus bike handling / group riding skills. Then do morning/evening hills and quiet road intervals for shorter quality stuff.
SlowSteph! Mar 2013 11:11pm, 14 Mar 2013 46 posts	0 SlowSteph! Turbo trainers have a magical ability to slow down time! Could you borrow one first to see if you'll actually use it? My only tip would be not to bother paying extra for a resistance control thingy (I'm no expert!) as your gears do that for you! I am rather jealous of a friend who has just bought one with watts, cadence and speed readouts though but she paid a small fortune for it.
BanjoBax Mar 2013 4:25am, 15 Mar 2013 3,945 posts	0 BanjoBax SS - if you already have one of the compatible Garmin devices Garmin do a bike speed/cadence sensor
SlowSteph! Mar 2013 7:58am, 16 Mar 2013 47 posts	0 SlowSteph! I was speaking to somebody yesterday about that actually. They had bought a cadence sensor compatible with their garmin for £20 off Amazon so im going to look for one of those myself. As for speed, you cant acurately measure speed unless you measure watts. You could put a speed sensor on your wheel (remember it needs to go on the back weel on your turbp - sounds daft but I made this mistake myself!!) but this doesnt know what wattage youre pumping out so it looks like youre going further and faster by sitting in a low gear spinning yuor legs round than in a harder gear really working. Does this make sense?
GregP Mar 2013 8:11am, 16 Mar 2013 65,686 posts	0 GregP It does. It is also not even remotely true. Explanation to follow on the home of Fetchland multisport.
Hertford Tiger Mar 2013 9:35am, 16 Mar 2013 42 posts	0 Hertford Tiger SS On a turbo you can't use speed/distance as an absolute measure of effort. It's like saying a mile downhill is not as far as a mile uphill.
Old Croc Mar 2013 9:41am, 16 Mar 2013 23,121 posts	0 Old Croc probably more useful to be a timed session using a HRM than a distance measure
SlowSteph! Mar 2013 2:02pm, 16 Mar 2013 48 posts	0 SlowSteph! HT that's exactly what I was trying to say but didn't put it as eloquently! You can only measure effort if you can measure watt output which means using a Watt bike, or posh SMR cranks, or a turbo with watt meter. Al of which are very expensive!!