Turbo trainer or rollers

kamil1891

As mentioned in the topic, I will be going to buy a rollers or a turbo trainer (because the weather in the UK forces me to!!). Money to spend is around 200gbp. I have never used either of them so I would be very pleased if you could recommend any specific model etc.
Can you also use road bike on rollers? As far as Im concerned it mostly for fixed bike use.

Cheers

edited: and also, which of these gives more tyre wear?

One Man And His Bike

This is a very personal issue or choice.

Rollers by far for me, much better training imho, core work out as well as good for your cadence and pedal stroke, feels far more natural and you have to focus and concentrate.

Road bikes can be used on rollers, you use your gears to alter resistance.

Tacx Antares are decent, and in your price range, I use some CycleOps metal ones which are a bit more than what you wanted to spend but they are awesome.

I'd say Turbo's wear your bike more than rollers, not just the rubber either, I'd say turbos cause more stress on frame and such because you bike is locked into the machine

I hated using the turbo I bought, but I don't mind my rollers so much.

kamil1891

Thanks for your reply. Sounds very objective. I also thought that there is less wear on the rollers and I like the fact that you have to concentrate on the ride more rather being a bit bored on the turbo trainer.

Monty Dog

One Man And His Bike wrote:

I'd say Turbo's wear your bike more than rollers, not just the rubber either, I'd say turbos cause more stress on frame and such because you bike is locked into the machine

The evidence is to the contrary - the stresses on a bike are greater when ridden at speed, despite the cop-out disclaimers that makers seem to put on everything these days.

I suggest you look at Tacx Flow - I run mine with no load with a fixed gear bike, or alternatively, in ergo mode you can train within a specific 'power band' to simulate sustained efforts - you can't do this with any roller. Rollers are great for developing smooth pedalling and for warm-ups, but simply aren't as flexible

Alibran

I'd recommend the i-magic. I bought a second hand one last year, and it motivated me to cycle even when I couldn't get outside. And you don't need anything special in the way of a computer to run it. I use a 7 year old pc that certainly wasn't top of the range when I bought it.

One Man And His Bike

Monty Dog wrote:

One Man And His Bike wrote:

I'd say Turbo's wear your bike more than rollers, not just the rubber either, I'd say turbos cause more stress on frame and such because you bike is locked into the machine

The evidence is to the contrary - the stresses on a bike are greater

What evidence?