It appears I’m unlikely to be able to ride until Dec at the earliest so I fancy trying one of these out.

Recommendations? I have no idea what to look for, would need to work with a hardtail mtb, I’ve got a spare slick tyre to use.

budget?

I have a tacx flow and it is ace. cost £200 from decathlon (rrp is 250 i think.) worth paying for the variable load and power readout
fluid is quieter,
prices from 100-2000 depending on how trick you want to be
good names:
tacx, cyclops, elite…
air fan ones are VERY noisy.
worth getting turbo specific tyre for noise and vibration. will kill you road tyres very quickly so not really a money saving to use cheap road tyre.

Hope that helps a bit?

Kurt Kinetic
http://www.thebikechain.co.uk/store/search/brand/Kurt-Kinetic/

http://www.kurtkinetic.com/

budget?

I have a tacx flow and it is ace. cost £200 from decathlon (rrp is 250 i think.) worth paying for the variable load and power readout
fluid is quieter,
prices from 100-2000 depending on how trick you want to be
good names:
tacx, cyclops, elite…
air fan ones are VERY noisy.
worth getting turbo specific tyre for noise and vibration. will kill you road tyres very quickly so not really a money saving to use cheap road tyre.

Hope that helps a bit?

Obviously I don’t want to spend loads as hopefully its only for the next couple of months …I was looking at a tacx flow

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/Bike+Shop/Training/Trainers/Tacx+Trainers/Tacx+Flow+Computer+Trainer+++Skyliner+Support_T1680.htm

How long would a road tyre last? Training tyres seem to cost a bit, plus being one armed at the mo makes tyre changing a bit impossible!

I’ve got a flow and it is really good.
try decathlon though, I paid 199, and i think they have them for 249.

In fact my girlf bought the same one.

needs mains power, but gives variable load, power, speed and all the readouts you could want.

tyres tend to get kanackered as the bead isn’t designed for the point loads they see on a turbo, and the rubber is different. but try it and see how long it lasts!

I also looked at an elite fluid one, but really pleased with the tacx..

Have discovered a new level of sweating, doing thsi inside…

st john st cycles have one for 75 quid, its a variable resistance magnetic.
avoid fan ones they’re REALLY noisy.
a cheap one does the same as an expensive one, it provides resistance to pedalling forces.

I’ve got a Taxc I-magic. Brillient peice of kit, the one where you race the computer game/video of famous (road) race.Has all power-meters etc built in. USeful feature is ‘race yourself’, you can save sessions and use yourself as the opponent next time. It’ll be coming out of storage when the clocks change again, be interesting to race the ‘Feb/March me’

Horrendous price new, got it with the steering gadget etc for £300 from ebay. A lot to shell out for a few months use, bu it’s still worth that now if it goes back to ebay (it’s older but the new price has shot up to £silly) so won’t depreciate like a lesser new one would.

I’ve got a Tacx Satori you can have for a suitable price if you’re near Poole.

I’ve got one of these recently:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Elite_Crono_Fluid_ElastoGel_Trainer/5360026397/

It’s really quiet too, like quiet enough to sit in a room watching telly with someone else on it. No power meter or adjustable resistatnce though, other than your own gears. I use a HRM to keep me in the zones I need to be in anyway.

Very impressed so far, and with a road bike always on it in winter, its easy for either me or my Mrs to jump on & have a quick burn.

As someone else said above though, I have also discovered a whole new level of sweating. Next investment is a fan..

Make me want to slash my wrists.

Turbos are why we invented goretex, road bikes and singlespeedsnwith rigid forks. And…. Failing that alcohol!