Turbo

WarlKicken

Good Evening All,

Sad as it is, I am sitting in this Friday thinking about my 110km ride on Sunday. Longest I'll ever have been in the saddle, wish me luck...if you want.

My main question is this; the Autumn is closing, nights are darker when I get in so I am thinking of getting myself a decent turbo trainer. I was looking on Wiggle at the 'Elite SuperCrono Power Mag ElastoGel Trainer'. It's about £200.00 and I thought it'd be half decent to sit on.

What should I be looking for for a good, resistance based workout during the Winter? If anyone finds a particular trainer for around this price or cheaper, any good...please could you toss me the name?

As usual, your response is extremely appreciated.

WK

Garryboy

I have the cyclops jet fluid pro and really like it. Its my first turbo, so nothing to compare it to, but it has good level of resistance just using gears and not too noisy.

Boredom is your enemy indoors. I use sufferfest videos and trainerroad to ease the tedium, works well and gives some structure.

Good luck with your 110km ride

amaferanga

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price. Don't buy any turbo made by Elite.

Herbsman

Herbsman

amaferanga wrote:

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price. Don't buy any turbo made by Elite.

What's wrong with Elite turbos?

t.m.h.n.e.t

Herbsman wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price. Don't buy any turbo made by Elite.

What's wrong with Elite turbos?

Whats wrong with turbos in general? Since you like posting in every thread that mentions one.

hugo15

Been very happy with my CycleOps Jet Fluid Pro that I got a couple of years ago. It replaced a cheap mag trainer which was rubbish in comparison. The CycleOps Fluid 2 is slightly cheaper - no idea of the difference as I couldn't work it out when I was looking! (no stock of the Fluid 2 at the time). It also gets good reviews.

TONY.M

The KK turbo is possibly the best piece of cycling related equipment I have ever bought. I have the standard road version and could not be happier, it is 6 years old with thousands of hard miles on it and has never given a hint of trouble. After warming up for 10 or so minutes the power meter reading (comparing with SRM 7800) is surprisingly accurate assuming the rear wheel tension has been set correctly. Obviously this only counts when the power is steady as the reading is taken only off the speed of the rear wheel so accelerations are not accurate only steady riding is.

The only real negative with mine is that the frame was not welded perfectly and so is slightly out of line, using a small shim of card where the leg meets the main body sorts this out easily and perfectly. Also be aware that this is a turbo meant for hard training use and so has a downside of being very heavy so this could be a possible issue during transportation if you intend to use it for TT warm ups or whatever.

Almost everyone I know of who have used this turbo for serious training has been very impressed with it, they tend to keep on going with few failures.

If you plan to take turbo training half seriously then at least one powerful fan is a necessity and do not listen for one minute to anyone who thinks this is not the case (even in a very cold garage during winter). I have a stand built that fits over the front bike wheel for one 250W fan close to my face which blows directly over my head and torso and another fan to my side hitting the legs and lower down. If you search ebay or online then you will be able to get a good price on a secondhand unit but at least one 250W fan really is needed.

It is actually quite amusing when on the turbo perceived effort can be high yet power is low due to inadequate cooling, yet when the fans go on the perceived effort goes down and the power goes up! All this without even realising that you were too hot to perform well in the first place, make sure this does not happen to you and get a couple of powerful fans.

amaferanga wrote:

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price.

This may well be a good idea.

phreak

I've had a Tacx Flow for a few years now, and whilst I don't have anything to compare it to, I've been very happy with it. Must have clocked up a good few thousand km on it.

DaveL

phreak wrote:

I've had a Tacx Flow for a few years now, and whilst I don't have anything to compare it to, I've been very happy with it. Must have clocked up a good few thousand km on it.

Is it the multiplayer VR one? What's the resistance like on it?

Cheers

Dave

amaferanga

Herbsman wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price. Don't buy any turbo made by Elite.

What's wrong with Elite turbos?

Sorry, that should have been fluid turbos by Elite. The resistance varies too much with temperature and the clamping design is just ridiculous.

amaferanga

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price. Don't buy any turbo made by Elite.

What's wrong with Elite turbos?

Whats wrong with turbos in general? Since you like posting in every thread that mentions one.

Every thread? Really? So if I do a search for "turbo" I'll find that I've posted on every turbo thread? Must have been doing it in my sleep then. So why are you reading every thread about turbos and only posting pointless questions?

Perhaps since you've noted that I post on every thread that mentions turbos then you could find where I have said anything against turbos (apart from the usual that they're not exactly fun compared to riding outdoors which I think most people would agree with)? Again, must have done that in my sleep because I don't remember.

I wouldn't say I love turbos, but I spend >6 hours a week riding mine through the winter.

jgsi

amaferanga wrote:

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price. Don't buy any turbo made by Elite.

What's wrong with Elite turbos?

Whats wrong with turbos in general? Since you like posting in every thread that mentions one.

Every thread? Really? So if I do a search for "turbo" I'll find that I've posted on every turbo thread? Must have been doing it in my sleep then. So why are you reading every thread about turbos and only posting pointless questions?

Perhaps since you've noted that I post on every thread that mentions turbos then you could find where I have said anything against turbos (apart from the usual that they're not exactly fun compared to riding outdoors which I think most people would agree with)? Again, must have done that in my sleep because I don't remember.

I wouldn't say I love turbos, but I spend >6 hours a week riding mine through the winter.

Don't think he was referring to yourself

amaferanga

Confused :?

Herbsman

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price. Don't buy any turbo made by Elite.

What's wrong with Elite turbos?

Whats wrong with turbos in general? Since you like posting in every thread that mentions one.

I haven't even posted in half of the threads that mention turbos, and there's nothing wrong with them in general.

amaferanga

Herbsman wrote:

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price. Don't buy any turbo made by Elite.

What's wrong with Elite turbos?

Whats wrong with turbos in general? Since you like posting in every thread that mentions one.

I haven't even posted in half of the threads that mention turbos, and there's nothing wrong with them in general.

Ah so its you that's the turbo HATER

phreak

DaveL wrote:

phreak wrote:

I've had a Tacx Flow for a few years now, and whilst I don't have anything to compare it to, I've been very happy with it. Must have clocked up a good few thousand km on it.

Is it the multiplayer VR one? What's the resistance like on it?

Cheers

Dave

Nope, just the regular one. I generally use mine for 1hr tempo sessions so I'm not concerned by resistance so much as I just use my gears for that. I've used it in the past for low cadence/high resistance work though and it seemed to do ok. For a few hundred quid I've been very pleased with the investment.

t.m.h.n.e.t

Herbsman wrote:

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price. Don't buy any turbo made by Elite.

What's wrong with Elite turbos?

Whats wrong with turbos in general? Since you like posting in every thread that mentions one.

I haven't even posted in half of the threads that mention turbos, and there's nothing wrong with them in general.

Then why post pics like above in them?

wacka

Garryboy wrote:

I have the cyclops jet fluid pro and really like it. Its my first turbo, so nothing to compare it to, but it has good level of resistance just using gears and not too noisy.

Boredom is your enemy indoors. I use sufferfest videos and trainerroad to ease the tedium, works well and gives some structure.

Good luck with your 110km ride

I agree, I've also a CycleOps Jet Fluid Pro, you do need a trainer tyre to save your road ones, Continental is quite good.

I do like Chris Carmicheal's training dvd's to work with, they are very motivational, cycling for cadence is a good leg and lung buster, i've nearly fainted and been sick twice!!

Herbsman

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Buy the Kurt Kinetic turbo that someone is selling in the classifieds at a bargain price. Don't buy any turbo made by Elite.

What's wrong with Elite turbos?

Whats wrong with turbos in general? Since you like posting in every thread that mentions one.

I haven't even posted in half of the threads that mention turbos, and there's nothing wrong with them in general.

Then why post pics like above in them?

Use the thing in the skull