Turbo...fun??!

SteveR_100Milers

I was pursuaded by some madmen posing as friinds that a Tacx flow would be significantly better than the fluid2 trainer I currently don't use, and worryingly I agree with them...I have just for the first time in my life managed more than 5 or so consecutive minutes at anything remotely around race effort; I have always struggled to get my effort level up (HR and PE) before, whereas on this thing its (well almost) as easy to smash myself as any road or track ride. I haven't done a 20 minute ftp test yet (did 60 miles at the velo yesterday) but cowardly did a 2 x 15 session at a fixed power setting. The numbers might not be absolutely correct, and there may even be some power misalignment with cadence / wheel speed, but at last I can experience the joy of real physical pain instead of mind numbing torture and sense of failure that I have got accustomed to!

Lightning

It's a great turbo. I don't use the fixed power setting (ergo mode) since it's not really consistent though. The power might not be right but if you always inflate the tire to same psi, keep the "knob" on same place and calibrate after a set amount of time (I usually do 10 mins warmup and calibrate after) it's great and reliable. Have fun! :twisted:

nmcgann

Another vote for the Flow - it's much nicer to "ride" than my no.2 turbo (Tacx Sirius). I just use slope mode since I measure power with a powertap. The adjustable resistance range is pretty wide, so I can do everything on the big chainring with warmup from -4 progressing up to the main session resistance at +1 (or +2 for really hard efforts). That's maybe only 2-3 actual gear changes.

There's a good trick when doing intervals in slope mode - pressing the set button jumps to power mode which defaults to a low value so you don't have to change gear for recoveries. Press set again and the resistance is back on for the next interval. Very useful.

SteveR_100Milers

I spent an hour on it tonight, and did a controlled (well as in measured numerically rather than any physiological control) 20 minute threshold test. I am in some pain at the moment, it hurt! I have never gone remotely as hard as that for so long on any kind of indoor trainer, ever!

spokegeezer

My tacx flow needs at least 20mins warm up before doing an FTP test for reliable comparable results. If I just do a 10min warm up, do the calibration and then do the FTP test, after doing the test I then immediately do another calibrate and I find the calib figure usually goes down by 2. This results in a slightly higher reading in wattage!
So for comparable results when doing an FTP test on my machine I find its best to do at least a good 20mins warming up, then do a calibrate then the ftp test.

SteveR_100Milers

spokegeezer wrote:

My tacx flow needs at least 20mins warm up before doing an FTP test for reliable comparable results. If I just do a 10min warm up, do the calibration and then do the FTP test, after doing the test I then immediately do another calibrate and I find the calib figure usually goes down by 2. This results in a slightly higher reading in wattage!
So for comparable results when doing an FTP test on my machine I find its best to do at least a good 20mins warming up, then do a calibrate then the ftp test.

I'll try the same comparison. Anything to reduce the target levels for each zone is welcome...The only comparison I had was HR, which I know well after several years of training and racing with one. I was about 3-5 bpm down all the way through on a 10 effort, I reckon I managed a 25 TT effort over 20 minutes, so over-estimating the numbers probably isn't so bad.

Gav888

What is the run down time like on this turbo, mine is only 3 seconds from 20mph and its a slog everytime I use it.

spokegeezer

from 20mph i guess about 10secs but ive not put the stop watch on it and it obviously depends entirely on the brake setting! the roller is generally much more fluid than my old wrongly named Chrono fluid which was anything but!

Gav888

Would that be the Elite Crono Fluid?