Trainers and 'i' Trainers!

rolf_f

I have been mulling over the idea of getting a trainer for this winter knowing that the bleak West Yorkshire winter isn't encouraging to getting me out of the house.

So, I see all these fancy trainers that link into your computer and think they might help make me stick with it given the large numbers of trainers for sale on ebay with 'only used once' in the description.

However, I do have an imagination and it occurred to me that maybe I'd be better just getting a decent ordinary trainer, setting it up infront of the telly, with a race stage dvd and doing the i stuff manually - eg if there is a gradient, turn up the resistance and change gear. It seems like a lot of faff and expense could be saved to the same end but I was wondering if that is what people do.

I don't like buying things more than once so really the trainer I buy needs to be the one I keep!

inseine

You'll find lots of old posts on the subject, but briefly, I bought an i-magic and really got on well with it. They're about £400 so it's up whether you think it's worth the extra, but the interactivity does make training less boring and I find it easier to 'give it some'. If you have no problem focusing for an hour or so on a regular trainer you don't need one, if you think the small extra outlay is worth it for the feeling of 'great turbo training tonight!' then you'll love it.

rolf_f

I don't doubt that the interactivity helps - just wondering if you can do the interactive bit manually. There is also an extra bother angle in setting the thing up - I'd probably need to get a new monitor to hang on the wall of one of the bedrooms. Mind you, thinking about it it might be the thing I need to sort out the junk room and turn it into a multifunction everything room.

Bhima

How are the computer ones better?

Can you get them to analyze power/speed/gradient from data collected from a powermeter on a ride, so that it can use it to automatically alter the resistance for the trainer to emulate that ride?

Does such a thing exist?

Link all that to video timecode of the ride you've done, so it will show where you are on the virtual ride on tv and it would be an incredible product.

DaSy

I love my Fortius, 3 years on and I still use it extensively.

The Real Life Video part is very good, I have happily (?) spent 4 hours on it, toiling up the likes of Ventoux, Tourmalet etc. I have ridden all the cols I have RLV's of, in real life, and the Fortius does a pretty good job of emulating them. If you can ride them on the Fortius, you'll get up them in real life.

The fact that it adjusts the resistance automatically means that you get a realistic ride effect, doing it manually whilst watching a video would easily allow you to under estimate the amount of resistance when the going gets tough. The video's are in high def and shot from the rider perspective, so along with the gradient changing at the right time on the trainer, the effect is very life like and engaging.

The Catalyst program allows you to create interval programs etc based on HR, time or wattage, and this is the part I use most, it adjust the resistance to make sure you stay at the pre-determined wattage etc for the desired time. The wattage is not as accurate as say, a Powertap, but it is pretty close, and has worked well for me, my FTP has progressed well when measured via PT or SRM, over the last 3 years, and all my interval training being done on the Fortius using Catalyst.

It does need a decent video card and is best on a widescreen TV for the RLV's, but there is a lot more to it than just that function. If it broke today, I would definetly buy another.

The new Trainer software allows you to upload a gps route to it and re-run it on the trainer, the route is shown in Google Earth, and the resistance adjusted to suit the terrain.