Turbo Trainer buying advice

ricky1980

Hi All,
i did start a similar thread in the road buying advice, but seeing no replies want to try my luck in the training section.

basically i do 20 miles a day as commute for 5 days of the week. I find myself can't go faster due to traffic and constantly stopping for lights. I do go through some busy roads in London. I also find the commute not long enough of a journey to push my stamina. So i want to get a turbo and sit on it after work and during the weekend for a few hours. Reason for this, i want to build up a good stamina for next summer's sportive and also if i get the London 100 ride.

So the trainer I have been eyeing up is the minoura b60-r. before i commit just want to know if there is anything cheaper and does the same job. I definitely want handle bar adjustment so that i can vary the resistance on fly to simulate some uphill climbs.

thanks all

bobones

Decathlon are currently doing the Tacx Satori with mat, front wheel support and dvd for £129.99. The Satori has 950 watts of resistance so plenty! This really is an excellent deal as the RRP of the package (Satori Pro Ltd Ed.) is £355 and some LBS are trying to sell it at this price! The mat alone would cost around £60. Not sure what your nearest Decathlon is, but the Surrey Quays store has loads of them. More info here

ricky1980

Ya surray quey is the usual one i get my stuff from. Great thanks for that this kit does look like what i need

the review on the bikeradar forum says it twists when you put down the power that's not particularly good

bobones

ricky1980 wrote:

Ya surray quey is the usual one i get my stuff from. Great thanks for that this kit does look like what i need

the review on the bikeradar forum says it twists when you put down the power that's not particularly good

The Bike Radar review is a quite harsh IMO. I've found it's very stable and solid. The only minor criticisms I have are that it's a bit fiddly to set up initially as you have to connect the resistance unit to the frame and it is not completely silent in operation. Have a look at the reviews on Chain Reaction, Wiggle, and Evans, which are mostly excellent. Have no fear, snap up this bargain!

BowtomePhil

I use my Satori 4 times a week, no issues and I am still on resistance 1 and using the gears on the bike.

bobones

I've only had the Satori for a couple of weeks, but I find resistance level 4 or 5 is about right in terms of replicating the effort, cadence and speeds achieved on the road. I'm doing most of my sessions on level 5.

The Satori is also supported for Trainer Road Virtual Power which may be of interest to you. The graph of power vs speed published on the Tacx site is useful for extrapolating power figures for a given speed and resistance setting. You can use it to do a 20 minute test and get an estimate of your FTP as a baseline for measuring training improvement or doing short (virtual) power based intervals.

I'm using the Satori with a Garmin 500 which measures speed off the back wheel and have cadence and HR sensors. That's all I need for now, but I really do like the look of Trainer Road.

Herbsman

I have a Satori. It's OK but at the resistance level I use the most (level 5) it's very noisy. I don't think I would discourage anyone from buying it, especially if you can get it for £130 (I paid £50 for an ex-display model so am very happy with it despite the noise).

As for the Bikeradar review... the reviewer must be very powerful to get it to twist.

Look at it this way - would you prefer your bike frame to twist when you stomp on the pedals, or would you prefer the trainer to twist? Because something has got to twist, even if you pedal really smoothly. If the trainer twists then your bike will twist less than it would if the trainer was completely solid. This may reduce the risk of damaging the frame with repeated long-term turbo trainer use....

bigpikle

before spending, just make sure you are going to use it enough - I reckon turbos are probably one of the most bought and never used bits of kit out there!

That also means buying used is often a good idea although this time of year isnt the best for obvious reasons. I bought my KK Road Machine as a used bargain in mid summer.

Generally cheap and cheerful ISNT the way to go with a turbo. You want solid and heavy so you can give it some beans without any issues, ideally something like a oil filled rather than magnetic or fan resistance unit, and if you get a quality unit then you really dont need variable resistance as you can achieve that with your 21 speeds anyway. This does cost though, although the old saying of 'buy cheap, buy twice' certainly applies here...

ShutUpLegs

<shudders>

ricky1980

Bigpikle wrote:

before spending, just make sure you are going to use it enough - I reckon turbos are probably one of the most bought and never used bits of kit out there!

buy twice' certainly applies here...

not sure i can justify spending £200-300 on a trainer based on my level and also i don't really need the fancy software etc. but certainly i will be using the trainer at least 4 times a week on a alternating days. won't be wasted space that's for sure

bigpikle

buy rollers then - unless you're pushing out monster wattages and tearing up the peloton, a good set of rollers will be fine. More fun, interesting and possibly better training (although we could argue that as well no doubt)

springtide9

Seems a great price for the SATORI PRO T1830... £135 delivered

Worth a punt and will hopefully mean I can cancel my gym membership and it will pay for itself.

jamienorton

Ive just ordered one of the satori's from decathlon, i thought i missed out on it, but seems like a load more have come into stock, at Stockport at least. Was also looking at the new Elite models on one of the german sites, bike discount or rose i think, they looked decent for the price.

cyco2

I have used several types and and the only one that is worth having is one that gives a wattage output to your efforts. Probably not accurately but working with watts is far superior to using HR as a guide.

Herbsman

Pffft.

springtide9

cyco2 wrote:

I have used several types and and the only one that is worth having is one that gives a wattage output to your efforts. Probably not accurately but working with watts is far superior to using HR as a guide.

On that note, I'm thinking about turning my cyclecross / hack bike into a semi dedicated turbo... but with my PT Rear for measuring power.
I assume that I can swap the wheels without an issue, but what about the cassettes? My road bike with the PT is 10 speed, where as my cross is only 9 speed.

Obviously 9 clicks into 10 gears will not work, but are the cassette widths the same so that I could put the 9 speed cassette on the PT Rear wheel? Or maybe is the spacing between gears are the same, and I would leave the 10 speed cassette on, but wouldn't get the easiest gear? Anyone know? If not or the answer is complex, I'll ask in a more appropriate (new) thread.

Herbsman

Yes, the cassette widths are the same. You can interchange 9/10sp cassettes.

bobones

cyco2 wrote:

I have used several types and and the only one that is worth having is one that gives a wattage output to your efforts. Probably not accurately but working with watts is far superior to using HR as a guide.

With a magnetic turbo, such as the Tacx Satori, there is a simple linear relationship between wheel speed and power input at a given resistance setting. Tacx publishes a dynamic chart on their site so you can calculate approximate power with a rear wheel activated speed sensor. You can therefore convert power based workouts to speed based workouts if you are consistent with resistance setting, tyre pressure, clamping force etc. Similarly, you can work out your FTP from average speed on the turbo. Trainer Road software uses this concept and calls it Virtual Power

ricky1980

i think i have decided to go and get this turbo this weekend. Found a Minoura but with out riser block for 85 on flebay but the idea of new out of the box and also the matt for an extra 20 pounds does appeal to me...decision made...

ricky1980

i actually went to surray quay decathlon and tried out the trainers there. I bought this http://www.decathlon.co.uk/crono-mag-fo ... .html...it is super quiet! and only £99 quite chuffed was on it at setting 3 for 30min...quite a good work out. it does wobble a bit, but i don't consider that to be a problem as someone said previously it's either the turbo wobbling or the frame is sustaining the stress rather the former.

troy45

Can anyone help with some advice on turbo's I'm considering for winter training and while I start to kick off a more structured fitness plan? planning to use a garmin or similar to monitor hrm's and cadence, and so far power measurements etc aren't a high priority for me.

Intention is to get a fluid unit and don't want something too noisy - initially I'll probably be using it in the garage but if I can squeeze enough space free in the spare room then that's tempting as there's a spare tv in there I can hook a dvd player up to. Seem to have narrowed down the bewildering choice to these:

cycleops-jet-fluid-pro-trainer-plus-winter-training-kit

Elite-Qubo-Power-Fluid-Elastogel-Trainer

Elite SuperCrono Power Fluid ElastoGel

The cycleops is the more expensive unit, and I'm not sure if the Qubo is an updated version of the Superchrono or not.

Thanks in advance

Herbsman

Apparently the CycleOps one is better, due to constant resistance at a given speed

In some others the resistance drops over time as the unit heats up due to friction

Simmotino

I have a CycleOps JetFluid Pro and it's pretty good in terms of noise. It's not cheap, certainly, but it is built like a tank, is easy to set up, and seems to be consistent in the resistance it provides.

I don't foresee me needing to buy a replacement any time soon!

troy45

Thanks everyone - that ties in with other topics I've managed to find on here.

Just hunting for best deal now