Cycle computer / Kurt Kinetic Road machine combo ?

kmcd21

I have decided on a Kurt Kinetic Road machine turbo trainer for winter.

The Garmin 800 is my current cycle computer. Having shelled out a a substantial sum for this, I am extremely reluctant to buy another unit just for the turbo trainer.

I am interested to hear what anyone else is using ?

As far as I have read the Kurt Kinetic wireless unit is pretty mediocre.It Cannot display cadence and power simultaneously.

wombar

Buy a cadence sensor for your Garmin 800. I'm assuming the sensor is the same as the one I have for my 705. It's a dual sensor which also does speed by attaching a little magnet to one of your rear spokes.

Currently on sale at Amazon for £30.

BTW the Kurt Kinetics are great trainers. Just bought a Rock N Roll as it was on offer. Haven't spent a massive amount of time on it yet as the weather is still pretty reasonable, but nice to know its there when winter arrives.

manxshred

I have a Rock n Roll which I bought when I broke my thumb. I love the trainer. I also just use my Garmin 500 with cadence/speed sensor to get the speed, then I use the charts on the Kinetic site to estimate power.

twotyred

Good choice. The Road Machine is solid, reliable, has a good road-type sensation and is simple to use as there's no phaffing with resistance settings - if you want to suffer more just change up a gear

I used my Road machine all last winter with my Garmin 500 and the Garmin speed/cadence sensor and the combo worked well. Cadence sensor is good for high cadence pedalling sessions and using speed is a good rough approximation for power.

If you want accurate power on any non-power meter equipped turbo then then Powertap or SRM on the bike is the only way.

weenyd

I set up my turbo with http://goldencheetah.org/ to give me the power output, and to log the ride. It took a bit of setting up to work with my Macbook, but if you want to spend hours analyzing your workout and calculating stuff like FTP, then it's great and free!

Carrying my laptop into the garage for each turbo session proved too much, so I've simplified down to using a Garmin FR50 with the speed/cadence sensor, and the Kurt Kinetic computer for the power display, and then look at the results using http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/sporttracks/, which has also got a nice plugin to convert speed to power.

The Kurt Kinetic is a great machine by the way.

kmcd21

Nice to hear so many positives about this trainer.

Seems my best option is to get power information, converting speed.

Powertap or SRM is too much of an outlay. Weighing it up, it will not give me any great benefit, considering the cost.

sungod

adding my vote for the kurt

if you use their power vs. speed curve it'll be close enough, consistency is more important than absolute accuracy

if you will use it regularly, it's worth getting a cheap wheel and fitting it with a trainer-specific tyre and the kurt qr - turbos are hard on tyres