Which of the kids is your favourite...Turbo Trainer or GPS?

hatbeard

Ok so with a little help from some unexpected cashback from quidco yesterday I have about £220 of play money and I'm in a moral dilemna as to which of these two options I should go for and input would be appreciated...

option A) Buy a cycleops jet fluid pro turbo trainer

pros:
I am new to cycling and this time of year isn't the best for going on nice quiet evening rides to try and build up my stamina/leg muscles for the commute.

I also signed up with a triathlon group in my area last week to train with them running, swimming and cycling and they do a turbo session every weds, this would allow me to attend this until I feel ready for a big 'outdoors' training run with them.

cons:
A lot of people say trainers are boring. might get fed up with it quickly.

I live on the top floor flat and my landlord lives underneath and I'm worried a turbo used at home will be too noisy the floor below.

option Buy a forerunner 305 w/ HRM, bike speed/cadence add-on, bike mount and have money left over for some Torm baselayer/jersey type goings on.

pros:
I run a lot already and am getting fed up with the GPS on my iPhone.
Gives me speed/cadence info (don't yet have a bike computer)
HRM will be useful across any/all exercise I do

cons:
won't really be much use if the winter weather is preventing me from training outside.

Cafewanda

Surely only icy roads or driving rain would prevent you getting outdoors? I have it on good authority skin is waterproof and pubs would welcome the custom on whichever route you choose

Or swap flats with the landlord

cjcp

Turbo. Makes you a stronger cyclist. End of.

:twisted:

Note to self: practice what you preach :oops:

BenS999

I live on the top floor flat and my landlord lives underneath and I'm worried a turbo used at home will be too noisy the floor below.

Just turn the music up REALLY loud and your landlord wont hear the turbo spinning away!

Seriously though, i have had a turbo for a few years and it gets used very very seldom, much better to get out the house and ride. However if you can be disciplined to use it and setup some sort of schedule, they can work wonders.

cyclopsbiker

get a turbo. I've got the same one yr looking at, purely because its coming up to winter and the road bike isn't going to be used as much. bad weather = less outdoor fun rides. (I do still commute on MTB come rain or shine in winter).

which triathlon group you signed up to?

re: noise - turbo isn't that noisy....and as long as you're not blasting away at 2am there shouldn't be a problem anyway

jonginge

I, too, live in a top floor flat. Most turbos are noisy even with rubber mats put down. I sold mine (a cycleops fluid 2) after using it only a handful of times. Unless your walls and floor are really solid you'll probably really p!ss your neighbours off.


I bought another one after my miserable ride in the marmotte but that's staying at work

hatbeard

cyclopsbiker wrote:

get a turbo. I've got the same one yr looking at, purely because its coming up to winter and the road bike isn't going to be used as much. bad weather = less outdoor fun rides. (I do still commute on MTB come rain or shine in winter).

which triathlon group you signed up to?

re: noise - turbo isn't that noisy....and as long as you're not blasting away at 2am there shouldn't be a problem anyway

Greenwich Tritons.

So far though I've only been on one running session with them (this tuesday just gone) but they seem like a decent bunch of people.

I'm leaning towards getting the Turbo (although I do flip-flop between the two about every other minute) because it's the higher ticket price item and I'm by no means well off so this may be the only opportunity in a long time to get one and while the gps is going to be very useful for my running as well after my 10k this sunday I don't have any races lined up until next year so I can probably scrape together the money for that (1/2 the cost of the turbo) much easier after xmas.

il_principe

Given your budget I'd say the TT. Garmin wise you'd be better off saving for an Efge 750 or 800 which offer proper mapping facilities and can be very very useful for long rides.

cyclopsbiker

my other half (usually) goes to the G-Tritons running sessions on Tuesdays....its a bit hard core for me

get the turbo. you know it makes sense. like you've said, you don't need the garmin right now. and you could always ask Santa for vouchers or some of your other smaller items.....

hatbeard

Il Principe wrote:

Given your budget I'd say the TT. Garmin wise you'd be better off saving for an Efge 750 or 800 which offer proper mapping facilities and can be very very useful for long rides.

because I'm a runner as well I think for convenience I'd forgo the mapping aspect in favour of the convenience of being able to strap it to my wrist and run with it. the edge units seem to be much more bike-centric. whereas the forerunners are running centric but crossover to cycling quite well (from what i've read).

don_don

Buy the turbo. You can manage without the GPS for now, but the turbo will super-charge your fitness over the winter for not much time investment.

I would whole-heartedly recommend training to the Sufferfest videos on your computer / iPod if you have one. They cost about £8 each to download, but are superbly motivating. I couldn't turbo-train without them.

cyclopsbiker

I don't know much about the garmins but my other half who's a runner swears by the 305. when his breaks he'll replace it with the same model.

hatbeard

Just called to reserve the turbo trainer at my LBS. will pick it up either tonight or tomorrow morning

Am price matching it for £211 but does anyone know of anywhere selling it cheaper online?

Alphabet

neither, get this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/fixed-wheel-531-b ... 3361ae753b

you can never have too many bikes and a fixie is good for winter, sod the turbo trainer - low maintenance and your legs act sort of like ABS in the wet stuff.

hatbeard

don't start confusing me...

LBS called to say they can't find the TT in the shop

waiting on call back from another shop but that would mean a mad dash at lunchtime on the tube

londonlivvy

I have an upstairs neighbour who has a turbo and it's really loud and somewhat antisocial. His early Saturday morning sessions annoy me the most - so loud it wakes me up and then I feel tired AND guilty about not riding.

I would suggest speaking to your landlord to find some times of day that would be workable for him.

hatbeard

londonlivvy wrote:

I have an upstairs neighbour who has a turbo and it's really loud and somewhat antisocial. His early Saturday morning sessions annoy me the most - so loud it wakes me up and then I feel tired AND guilty about not riding.

I would suggest speaking to your landlord to find some times of day that would be workable for him.

he gets home quite late most weeknights and whilst not ideal I could ride it on the top floor in the spare bedroom which is above my own living room but there no access to tv/dvd etc up there so it would make for tedious sessions unless I jury rigged my laptop up or something if i had to.

plus I'm never up early on saturdays so that's alright

redjeepǃ

Hmm.

Aren't the two choices a bit like. Do I

a) Paint the spare bedroom or
b) Go down the pub ?

If you seriously want to improve your fitness then you'll buy the turbo (assuming you've got somewhere to use it), if you just want a great gadget to play with you'll buy the Garmin.

I've got both a turbo and a Garmin, and love the Garmin more than is healthy and hate the turbo, but if I had to choose which was the most help in building fitness, then it's the turbo. Everytime.

nich

Don't buy a turbo, buy a cheap mountain bike and thrash it during winter, maybe even commute on it with big nobbly tires if you want extra training

hatbeard

Redjeep! wrote:

Hmm.

Aren't the two choices a bit like. Do I

a) Paint the spare bedroom or
b) Go down the pub ?

If you seriously want to improve your fitness then you'll buy the turbo (assuming you've got somewhere to use it), if you just want a great gadget to play with you'll buy the Garmin.

I've got both a turbo and a Garmin, and love the Garmin more than is healthy and hate the turbo, but if I had to choose which was the most help in building fitness, then it's the turbo. Everytime.

thats the crux of it really.

I want to get fit but I also love a good gadget.

I just hopped on the tube to spitalfields evans and picked up the Jet Fluid Pro. the box is a lot bigger than I was expecting. should be interesting trying to transport it back on PT tonight. *wibble*

edit: and I will have to make do with runkeeper and cyclemeter on my iphone for GPS style shenanigans for now.