What Trainer?

paulbox

With the dark nights drawing in and my waistline winning a battle against my belt, I have been thinking about buying a trainer to use in my garage.

So, what I would like to know is, what is a good trainer to buy for <£200? I've been scanning the adverts and reviews and I'm finding it hard to come to a conclusion with very little experience. I borrowed one from a friend for a couple of weeks, but that was about 15 years ago so I'm sure they've changed a fair bit.

Are they all suitable for both road & mountain bikes? I have a mtb with road tyres that I can use at the moment, but am thinking about buying a road bike next spring.

Resistance - Magnetic / fluid / other?

Is it worth spending more than £200? As always I tend to get carried away and started considering a £350+ Tacx because everybody was saying how good it is...

Any help greatly appreciated, cheers!

Zachariah

I'm sorely tempted by the Elite Cronofluid Elastogel trainer, due to the huge numbers of very positive reviews and (relatively) low price. Anyone here got one and can add their thoughts?

bigpikle

I recently changed from an Elite (entry level model) to a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine fluid model. The difference is significant - its a lot smoother, quieter (especially with the Vittoria trainer tyre) and much more solid and heavyweight. Having said that, its a lot more £££ (although I got mine used through here) and a basic model will still do the job...

I would say that if you plan to use it a lot for serious training (and dont want to be moving it around loads) then I'd spend the extra for a fluid model.

paulbox

Zachariah wrote:

I'm sorely tempted by the Elite Cronofluid Elastogel trainer, due to the huge numbers of very positive reviews and (relatively) low price. Anyone here got one and can add their thoughts?

That does look very good value, thanks.

Scrumple

there is a whole turbo thread somewhere...

some bleat about the cyclops jetfluid. It is similar to the Kurt Kinetic roadracer... Good feel, but can't return performance data unless you have a seperate system.

The Tacx flow is a magnetic trainer, but it does return data. Whislt the data is not necessarily spot on accurate (like a powertap) it is consistent. You can measure gain, as you improve.

Depends what you want from it. There are cheaper more portable ones for warming up etc. Any of the above are decent.

Do a search - all on here...

hugo15

I recently got a CycleOps Jet Fluid Pro. It was a touch over £200 from Ribble. It replaced a Tacx Mag trainer that I'd had for a few years and cost half the price.

The CycleOps is so much better than the Tacx. It actually feels like riding on the road whereas the Tacx felt like riding through treacle at best. Turbo sessions seem to pass so much quicker now. The slightly cheaper CycleOps Fluid2 won the grouptest in Cycling Weekly last week, though stocks seem to be low - Ribble told they they were expecting them at the beginning of November but I couldn't wait and got the Jet Fluid Pro instead.

max888

Zachariah wrote:

I'm sorely tempted by the Elite Cronofluid Elastogel trainer, due to the huge numbers of very positive reviews and (relatively) low price. Anyone here got one and can add their thoughts?

I've got one, even bought it from wiggle. The turbo is really great, easy to bolt the resistance bit on the the base when you first put it together. The gel roller is awesome, it's way quiter than the metal roller turbos I use at my club and it doesn't square off you tyres as badly as metal roller. I also find the fluid resistance more realistic than the magnetic turbos I've used, it gives a more progressive resistance. It also folds up almost flat meaning that it is easy to transport to races to warm up on. In all it's a really great piece of kit.

bilirubin

hugo15 wrote:

I recently got a CycleOps Jet Fluid Pro. It was a touch over £200 from Ribble. It replaced a Tacx Mag trainer that I'd had for a few years and cost half the price.

The CycleOps is so much better than the Tacx. It actually feels like riding on the road whereas the Tacx felt like riding through treacle at best. Turbo sessions seem to pass so much quicker now. The slightly cheaper CycleOps Fluid2 won the grouptest in Cycling Weekly last week, though stocks seem to be low - Ribble told they they were expecting them at the beginning of November but I couldn't wait and got the Jet Fluid Pro instead.

+1, had my jet fluid pro a few weeks and loving it.

must-tri-harder

cycling weekly has a group test of trainers this week, cycleops fluid pro comes out on tops i think, smooth with a big fly wheel and all that, cheaper than the kurt kinetic too which i thought was supposed to be the daddy in terms of road 'feel'.

chill123

This should be all you need: Cycleops Fluid 2 Trainer Review

Definitely go fluid over a mag. The resistance feels a lot closer to when you are out on the road. I can't fault my Fluid 2 at all.

paulbox

Many thanks for all your comments, Cycleops definitely seem to be the popular brand so far.

Does anybody have any experience of the Tacx trainers? I like the idea of the head unit displaying Speed, Cadence, Power Output, Heart Rate etc. I generally tend to train better if I can see progress, this seems to be an easy way of doing that.

Scrumple

I do - they are great.

My Tacx flow is spot on, and I can train with a power reading. And, massively cheaper than a fluid trainer and a powertap.

that_guy

I've got one, even bought it from wiggle. The turbo is really great, easy to bolt the resistance bit on the the base when you first put it together. The gel roller is awesome, it's way quiter than the metal roller turbos I use at my club and it doesn't square off you tyres as badly as metal roller. I also find the fluid resistance more realistic than the magnetic turbos I've used, it gives a more progressive resistance. It also folds up almost flat meaning that it is easy to transport to races to warm up on. In all it's a really great piece of kit.

I got this from wiggle two days ago as my first turbo trainer. I'm quite pleased with it- its smooth and quiet as Max said, but I was a bit disapointed with the amount of resistance and I found that I could spin my legs off quite easily, even on my highest gear. Having said that, it gives a really good workout and at sale price its worth it. I wouldn't have paid full price for it though.

paulbox

Thanks for all the advice, decided to go for the CycleOps Classic Fluid 2, Amazon are currently doing them for £179.99.

Here's to better peddling next Spring!