Turbo Trainers - Some quick questions

a900ss

I’m thinking about getting a Turbo Trainer for the winter months and would just like to know answers to the following:

How easy is it to take the bike off the Turbo for weekend road rides?
Do you need to have special tyres?
Does it ruin your bike?

Thanks

PS - With a budget of about £250, what's recommended?

danowat

I'd suggest borrowing one first, I am glad I did, saved myself £150 and countless hours of boredom

ut_och_cykla

Take off turbo for weekend.....Easy -ish - tho' it seems fidldy & time consuming probabaly not more than 5 mins total

Special tyres - don't use road best - an old road tyre will do or special training tyre.

I don't think it will riuin your bike - but beware of sweating all over it - not good for various metals.....
German road mag says forces involved on the road are more likely to wreck bike than those found on a turbo - altho' rear wheel is fixed in turbo frame teh frame itself sways and takes up a lot of the forces.

Good turbo use benefits from having a plan - for the winter and each sesion. most people probably can deal with 2-3 90 minute sessions of interval work if they're riding at the weekend. More often or longer is either counter productive or boring... in my opinion.
The suggestion to borrow is a good one

andyrr

Q1 How easy is it to take the bike off the Turbo for weekend road rides?
Should take less than 60 seconds, on mine it's a case of clamp to the rear wheel qr, tighten, then tighten the roller to the wheel.
When I'm finished Ioosen the roller against the tyre to make removal easier, I loosen by exactly the same amount each time.

Q2 Do you need to have special tyres?
No but some tyres can wearn relatively quickly on the turbo due to the small contact patch running against the metal roller which heats up so ideally have a spare wheel and tyre (s/h wheel maybe £30, tyre £25) the tyres last for ages, non-turbo tyres will square off in time.

Q3 Does it ruin your bike?
No, try to protect the bike from drips of sweat tho'.

I have a Kurt Kinetic turbo which I got from Planet X, not so east to source in the UK now but they are very sturdy with a heavy flywheel and good fluid-based resistance unit plus ability to add a computer which will show your power output, helps to have that to monitor to keep my motivation going (sometimes !).

For some people they can be totally soul-destroying so ideally get a loan of one for a few days and see if you will be able to put up with using it regularly.

Bronzie

If you are swapping on and off the turbo regularly, you'll benefit if you have an old spare rear wheel fitted with an old tyre that you can swap for turbo use only. Turbos tend to square off the tyre which is not ideal for road use.

If you have to swap the tyre over as well each time it soon becomes a pain.

Bronzie

Oh and if you do get a turbo, and it's helpful to keep a track of progress by using a rear-wheel speedo to give you a guide as to the intensity of your sessions.

brettjmcc

Bronzie wrote:

Oh and if you do get a turbo, and it's helpful to keep a track of progress by using a rear-wheel speedo to give you a guide as to the intensity of your sessions.

That was a question I was going to ask. I have got a cheap old Minoura off a colleague at work and plan to use my old steel bike on it rather than my carbon.

What do people recommend using to track progress say mph/distance if you haven't got a fancy Tacx? Do wired computers have enough wire to get the senor to the back wheel?

Anonymous

andyrr - I've put your questions/answers in the first post on the turbo training beginner's guide thread... Hope you don't mind!

Bronzie

brettjmcc wrote:

What do people recommend using to track progress say mph/distance if you haven't got a fancy Tacx? Do wired computers have enough wire to get the senor to the back wheel?

Provided you can get the set up (roller pressure on tyre, tyre pressure) of the bike on the turbo the same each time (harder with some turbos than others), you can fairlt reliably use rear wheel speed as a proxy for power measurement.

I use my Garmin 705 with a rear wheel speed/cadence sensor, but something like a Cateye Strada Cadence will also do the job for around £30.

bilirubin

NapoleonD wrote:

andyrr - I've put your questions/answers in the first post on the turbo training beginner's guide thread... Hope you don't mind!

Blimey Nap, you were a bit slow there, it's normally at this point in a Turbo thread that you point the OP in the direction of the Cycleops Jet Fluid Pro and then claim you are not on commisiion

Only joking mate, its my birthday in a few weeks and if the missus has not followed my instructions on how to navigate the Winstanley web site and ordered me one divorce proceedings will comence!

addicted to Langbar

If you want to save yourself £25.00 I just bought a wired Aldi computer for about a fiver and fixed the sensor/magnet to the back wheel. If you can then fit the computer as far along the top tube as you can you should still be able to see it whilst pedalling.

richard205

Got a tacx imagic, not had it too long so will give you my own findings.

Turbo trainer tyres are personally what i would always use, noise from non turbo tyres
resembled something like a drill going off. And bits of my tyre were litterally being left behind me.

Solid floor is essential, I have a suspended wooden floor and it doesnt help with the vibration. IF you are using it on such a floor you'll have to look at one of the mats.

A fairly substantial fan to blow over you, you wont believe how much sweat and how quickly it will appear.

Access to music, can get a tad boring with no music or podcasts etc if your not near the telly.

Got my tacx off of ebay so didnt pay full price for it. Works well, had a few issues setting it up but that was down to the other crap on the laptop
It works with my hrm too which is handy.

I've got another set of wheels because the conti turbo tyre is a right sod to get on, once was enough. So you might to think about that.

Oh and either one of those tight things to cover the bike, once you start sweating it will be like dipping your bike in the sea if you either dont clean it off or have it covered.

Elston

I've got my turbo in the shed. No power in there so I can't run a fan, and although I sweat a lot I find it manageable. My sweat protection system consists of lengths of that foam pipe-lagging stuff you get in hardware shops. A piece over the cross bar, one over the stem. I also drape a towel over the crossbar and one over the handlebars. Never had a problem.

I have a spare wheel for the turbo and it takes only a minute or two to set up or reverse for road use. In order to keep track of my sessions, I use the same tyre and roller pressure each time and measure cadence with a Cateye. I design progressive sessions varying time/resistance/gear. This keeps it interesting along with my Walkman 8)

In my opinion, a turbo is one of the best things you can buy so long as you use it properly.

manxshred

For some structure, try TurboTraining

For some videos: Sufferfest

1_reaper

Tried the turbo and just cant get on with them so going to get a set of rollers to see if they work for me

Teach

Just bought a second hand turbo and it had no instruction. Got on with it fine and had a really good work out. Looked at that website that keeps being mentioned on here Do you change the resistance on the turbo or do you change gearing? It's an elite turbo and I had it in setting 3 and worked up and down the gears to make the work out harder or easier. If you recommend just changing the bike resistance what gear do you use ( I know we all have different gearing)

Bronzie

Teach wrote:

Do you change the resistance on the turbo or do you change gearing?

Both depending on what I'm doing in the session.

Steady state workouts like 2x20 I can leave it in 53x19 and use the variable resistance on my ancient Tacx unit to swap between work interval and recovery.

Other sessions may require me to go up through the gears as well whilst leaving it set to full resistance.

chezzacad

Hello All
New to this forum. I'm looking for a turbo trainer for my husband early Christmas present. Any good ones out there? :shock: Looking at £250 tops
I have no idea about bikes and bits but want to cheer him up and surprise him!
If anyone has any bright ideas or links please let me know.
Cheers

Anonymous

Cycleops Jet Fluid Pro is my fave...

Out of stock at the moment here but a google search should reap rewards...

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... 5000000000

Neil Buckley

If you think turbo training is boring, go download the sufferfest vids, then come back and tell me the same, ive just been using them for the last six months out here in Afghanistan.

sirdjango

today i did 60km++ group ride. along the route i encountered a very torturous steep hill. a continuous 7 hills up and down. i failed 2 of them as it was damn steep and i shamely have to push my bike. this is my first time doing this hill anyway. my question is does a turbo trainer really helps us doing well in hills? besides than doing the hills more often which is not likely due hard to find free time.

Bronzie

sirdjango wrote:

my question is does a turbo trainer really helps us doing well in hills?

Yes............if you do the right sessions on the turbo

sirdjango

Bronzie wrote:

sirdjango wrote:

my question is does a turbo trainer really helps us doing well in hills?

Yes............if you do the right sessions on the turbo

care to give some tips??

Bronzie

Plenty of threshold work (2x20's @ Level 4 or solid Level 3 tempo sessions) to lift your sustainable power.
5-8 minute Level 5 (VO2 max) intervals to lift your VO2 ceiling and simulate those 5-10 minute climbs.

gingerdog

Just got a tacx sirius soft gel to replace my cycleops mag trainer as it was way too loud and i never got on with it. Buy cheap... buy twice.

With the sufferfest vids can you download them and then they stay on your computer as a file? How does it work?

Bronzie

Yes, you can download the Sufferfest video into iTunes and transfer to your iPod or run directly off your pc. I've actually copied mine onto DVD off the iPod as I have a TV and DVD player handy by my turbo.

gingerdog

Cheers for the info. I was thinking of getting one of those DVD's before but they are really expensive!

chill123

I've just bought a CycleOps Fluid 2 (thanks in part to NapD!!) and i'm more than happy with it which is in your price range.

There's quite an in depth review here.

sagalout

I've just resumed my turbo sessions for the winter. I don't bother with a turbo tyre - I just accept it's going to trash the normal road tyre over winter.

For watching sufferfest and other videos, I download to the iPhone then use the Apple AV lead to watch on a big TV. Saves copying to DVD and is also useful for taking on holiday if you have a TV in your room!

Gav888

sagalout wrote:

I've just resumed my turbo sessions for the winter. I don't bother with a turbo tyre - I just accept it's going to trash the normal road tyre over winter.

Ive been using my normal road tire for the last 6 months and its squared off somewhat now! Once its knackered I will swap it for the front

chezzacad

Been trying to get one of these for my husband for Christmas! Been told CycleOps haven't release them yet and probably won't but I can get individually bits which will be cost OVER £300!

He has a Ridley orion carbon bike will he have a problem if I just buy the trainer? Will he need a special tyre?
Has been suggested, I get him a cycleops mag plus and all the extras? Are they any good?

Any other suggestions on trainers!
He's never used a turbo trainer. In winter he used to run but has an injury which has stopped all this, so usually goes out on bike but with the dark nights and cold wet conditions it puts him off!

I'm not a cyclist so don't go to technical on me! :!: :!:
Thanks