UKC

If you were in the market for a turbo trainer what would you be looking for? I trained previously on a borrowed turbo trainer, but that was quite old and probably not a high spec model to start with.

I want something nice to use and ideally something that gives some feedback on speed / distance, but max budget is probably around £300, not £1000.

In reply to The New NickB:

A good place to start is here

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/11/2014-winter-trainer-recommendations.html

Something to keep me on it would be a desirable!

In reply to The New NickB:
You can probably get a simple but effective setup for around the £100 mark if you apply a little lateral thinking.

I've got a very basic one with magnetic resistance ( the adjuster is broken so it's on max resistance and have to use my gears to vary the resistance). I have a Sigma wireless computer (BT 12.16) with the speed and cadence sensors mounted on the rear stays. I suppose I could get a separate cheap HRM if I was bothered about training properly.


You'll quickly learn that the person who invented turbo trainers was in league with the devil and you need to be seriously in to your training to justify spending a penny more than you can get away with.

In reply to The New NickB:

Decathlon have various models starting from £100. Might be worth a look if there is a store near you.

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

I'd get a cheap one on the grounds it'll spend much of its time folded up in the garage
Mine's a very simple fan - change gear to alter the load - but does the job. Put a cheap bike on it or protect your nice bike from the sweaty unpleasantness. Mine was great when the kids were young and I could batter myself for 30-40 mins whilst looking after them.

In reply to The New NickB:

Get some good training videos as they are boring as sin. Sufferfest (http://www.thesufferfest.com ) do some good ones that are brutally hard, and actually keep you interested. You will care less about what speed / distance you've done on those and more about just staying on the bike and not collapsing.

Apart from that, it depends how much you want to spend - I spent c. £130 on mine, an elite supercrono elastogel that is (reasonably) quiet as it uses oil and a fan to provide resistance, and I was very happy with it when I was cycling more seriously. You change gears to generate more resistance so it feels more natural, and there is theoretically no upper resistance limit. You could get an all singing / dancing one for £300 if you really wanted.

Stay away from the cheaper magnetic ones and the fan based ones as they either don't provide enough resistance or sound like they are going to take off.

TBH, mine is just gathering dust, where are you based? Could let it go for £80 (if the mrs agrees).

In reply to The New NickB:
I've done plenty miles on a turbo, so I'm well aware that it can be a bit dull and I know from when I had the loan of one that I will use it.

What I don't know is do I want mag, fan or fluid resistance. Are the ones with a digital read out worth the extra, or should I just rig something with a spare bike computer.

What does the extra expense buy? Build quality, quieter, smoother or is it just gadgets?

In reply to The New NickB:

Fluid gets my vote - it gives an effectively infinite resistance curve, so you will never 'top out' at a level that is too easy for you, and is relatively quiet. Wind resistance fan turbo's are crap due to noise. I've only been on a cheap mag one and it was pants, the resistance felt choppy, but i'm guessing thats more due to the fact that it was cheap one than a comment on the tech.

The digital read outs are really up to you - if you can get motivated by tracking those metrics then yes, it's worth it. I don't have them and personally I don't miss them.

The more expensive generally the better the build quality - stability is important if you are sticking your carbon framed baby on top of it, second to that is durability, however obviously it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.

In reply to The New NickB:

If you have the garmin GSC 10 speed and cadence fitted to the bike your using (£30 ish) have a Suunto Movestick ANT + USB stick plugged into your laptop (£20) along with a sufferfest subscription (£6.50). You'll have training plans and all the read outs you need with approximate power output and cadence etc and HR if you already have a HR monitor.

Just add a few sufferfest videos and you'll be away.

I have the elite as above too, works well for what it's worth. If I had a designated area for a turbo to live then I would invest in a TACX that you can download routes from google maps to and it changes the resistance to the terrain. But I don't! So therefore have to move everything in the conservatory every time i need or want to use it.

In reply to The New NickB:

I'd not worry too much about the turbo trainer itself. Maybe if noise is a real issue think about elastogel but they really are simple machines.

In terms of readout, Trainerroad (not sufferfest as mentioned above) is a great bit of software that you can put on your laptop & for les than £50 you effectively have a power meter to train with. If you are going to go down these lines then just make sure you get a trainer that TR support - there's a very long list on their website.

I've found following a workout on TR way more motivating than I'd expected and it made a big difference to my fitness last winter.