Turbo vs Indoor Bike (Star Trac)

springtide9

OK, I'm contemplating a turbo - just can't work out if it's worth it. Probably the wrong time of year as we are now coming out of the dark session and should be able to get those evening rides in again.

I have a gym that is very close to me (2 mins walk) which have a number of the upright (Star Trac) bikes. They also have a number of Spin bikes, but I generally don't use these.

I can see the advantage of the higher end turbo trainers compared to the indoor, but if you shop for a turbo on a budget is it worth it?
Have struggled with motivation at home in the past when I owned a C2 rower, as you really need entertainment while doing exercise (as well as a way of keeping cool).

At the moment, the main advantage (compared to a cheap turbo) of the indoor bike is that I have 'some' ability of tracking performance in the way of 'gym cals' or 'gym watts'. I understand that these two values are not that accurate compared to a powertap etc, but they do offer some feedback with regards to perceived level of effort compared to 'gym machine' readout.
The obvious main advantage of the turbo is that I'm cycling on 'my bike' rather than the 'upright affair' that Star Trac produce. Other advantages I guess would be the 'feel' as obviously the indoor bikes have no inertia.

I do own and train with a HR monitor which would obviously be very useful with a turbo. The biggest problem that I have is that the price of a turbo's are so varied (and I'm not familiar at all), so have no idea of what would be considered a minimum spend for something decent and worthwhile over an gym upright bike.

Sorry if this question has been asked before... and the most is a bit of a brain dump.

phreak

Depends what you're looking to train for really. I'm planning to do lots of European rides in the mountains this summer so 60-90 minute tempo sessions are my staple at the moment. It's very hard to do that on the road so I'm using the turbo to achieve it.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/tacx-flow-compu ... o-trainer/ is the one I have at home. Had it around 18 months now and have found it really useful.

dawebbo

contaminating a turbo? sounds rather unsavory! :-P

I train on rollers, and go mainly on perceived effort and occassionally glance at HR. Powermeters etc are better for tracking progress, I can tell if I'm pushing hard or not - amittedly it's harder to say what is 8/10 vs 9/10. But I can gauge how I'm progressing when out on group training rides.

Training dvds are great to add a bit of variety and keep motivation.

phreak

Yes, cyclingtorrents.nl is also a gold mine for video related goodness.

springtide9

Thanks for the info. Looks like a turbo might be on the cards... now to get this past the wife!

@dawebbo : Combo of poor spelling (or I could blame typing) coupled with 'Chrome spell checker' lol Corrected

@phreak : The Tacx Flow looks pretty good. Maybe I'll have to keep an eye out in the classified - thanks.

Goals:
2010 was basically weight loss (4 st) after having two children (as a dad obviously!)
I entered a couple of MTB races last year, and made a reasonable amount of progress, as went from being unfit to managing an 8hr MTB event.

This year... a few threads really...
MTB: Still carrying on with the MTB. Have entered two events so far, one in June the other Oct. Also have my eye on another event, but waiting for it to be advertised.
RoadB: Have entered the Bath100 event in a few weeks. Will hopefully do the Bristol Belter.
Triathlon: Have a friend who is into tri's, so looking at doing an event at some point. Started running a few months ago for the first time in about 20 years as I entered the Bath Half which I did a few weeks ago (just managed sub 1:40). Have to sort out swimming before committing to a Tri, as I fancy the Olympic distance (would hate doing a sprint!), so have work to do as it's a 1500m swim, but managing two lunchtime swim sessions a week - but these are mainly technique at the moment (and stretching!)

Think this year is going to be a bit of trial and error, and I am limited with time. Hence thinking about a turbo which I can do at home.

Next year I think I'll hopefully have a better understanding what I'll concentrate on, but wanting to get a reasonable amount of base fitness over the year. Think my tri friend has suggested that we have a go at the 'etape' next year.

Biggest issue for me is time - I have very little like most people with family commitments. Turbo's, Indoor bikes, Rowing machines are all pretty dull - but if this is all that is available to get the majority of my fitness, I'll use them - so that when I enter an event (or even have a proper ride), it's much (much) more enjoyable if you have the fitness.

Lightning

A turbo with some sort of powermeter (like the tacx flow, as suggested by phreak) would probably be the best option. It's really hard to stay motivated to train on a turbo if you can't measure power (although it's also hard to stay motivated when you're doing 2x20s at ftp+ and can't slow down because the numbers don't lie hehe).

phreak

Yes the power readout is invaluable. Naturally there will be some doubt over the accuracy of the readout but as long as it stays as (in)accurate consistently then it will let you measure your progress. It has a decent level of resistance as well so you can do hill work if you want.

springtide9

Thanks for the replies.

Thinking back when I had my C2 rower and the monitor broke, you are right that it was very hard to motivate yourself to train when there is no feedback on distance/speed etc.

Thanks again - looks like I'll be hunting in the classifies over the next few weeks looking for a bargain!