I’ve had one of these for some years.

Ok it does nothing fancy, but it feels very realistic and is quiet. You change gear to alter resistance, and there is plenty of it.

I paid £140 for it a few years back, in more recent years its been about £160.

The only downside is that the rear wheel is not fixed so out of saddle sprinting can mean the wheel jumps off the roller.

I’m tempted to get another just as a spare !

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/elite-crono-fluid-elastogel-trainer/?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&sku=5360217108&kpid=5360217108&utm_source=google&utm_term&utm_campaign=UK_PLA_Accessories&utm_medium=base&utm_content=mkwid%7CstzfZiRgs_dm%7Cpcrid%7C67090793462%7Cpkw%7C%7Cpmt%7C%7Cprd%7C5360217108uk

+1

I’ve used this for 18 months now.

Excellent trainer in terms of feel, my Dad has had one for years.

One small thing to be aware of – due to the floating design forcing the wheel onto the roller it means resistance is proportional to body weight. A by product of this is that for lighter riders (Dad is around 63kg) it doesn’t offer enough resistance to do big gear (60rpm) intervals.

Does he not just need to soften the tyre off a bit?

Nah, its just a minor limitation of A) the design, and B) fluid trainers in general.
Sure a softer tyre will make slightly more resistance, but we are talking a shortfall of 30W, and Dad isn’t that fit (quite fit for 60+ though). I’m even lighter than he is, and stronger, so more like 70W short on resistance for me.

Generally fluid trainers are designed to give very road like levels of resistance, and if you went out to do big gear intervals on the flat you’d also run out of resistance. For example I use a 2% slope that’s always into a slight headwind in 50-12 or 50-11.

But aside from that 1 minor thing, its been a great trainer, very good ‘feel’ to it and perfectly reliable for 3-4 years so far.

What is the drift like on that turbo do you know? Getting a bit fed up with my blue motion so thinking of changing it – heard anecdotally that some fluid trainers drift quite significantly as they warm up, but don’t know if it is generally the case.

Drift is not too bad at all on the crono fluid, certainly much better than my Cyclops Fluid2 in that respect.

Is there any decent fb pages to recommend for buy/sell of road bikes?

Moderately tempted now that I actually have a bike with “standard” rear axle, but it’s my hardtail so has moderately knobbly tyres.

Will I really want to build up a new wheel with slicks for the turbo, or for occasional use will it be okay?

The only downside to a knobbly tyre really is noise… it depeneds how much that bothers you.

I’m considering one of these, thanks for the PSA.

I have no experience of turbo trainers, my goal would be to improve my explosive strength and power primarily. In addition to the trainer itself, what would you recommend to get the most out of the training in terms of bike computers, heart rate monitors etc? Cheers

Will I really want to build up a new wheel with slicks for the turbo, or for occasional use will it be okay?

Just get your wife to do some chain sawing while you’re training so the noise isn’t so noticeable.

Yes it’s that bad – forget about TV even with headphones on max

I bought the cheapest shimano wheel and don’t bother with a disc.

Ehrob – I use Trainerroad, have some sufferfest videos that I use on conjunction with trainerroad.

I then have a HRM and cadence sensor, paired to my laptop via an ant + USB.

Other people use Zwift.

You could manage without a cadence sensor or HRM but I you would be guessing at what you need to do.

Knobblies don’t work, even a road tyre with the slightest grip on becomes annoying.

On this turbo I just use the cheapest slick tyre I could find… which was about £3.99

Not so stealthy ad but I have a used one for sale with riser block, it’s not had much use, £50 collected from Ely, not sure how much postage will be.

Thanks for the info.

cheers_drive – PM sent, interested in yours if its in good nick and you could post.