Done the cartalige in my knee and will be needing to do some daily static bike work. What should I be looking for in a turbo trainer. I have no idea where to start!

We’ve done lots of different ones and firmly believe that Cycleops are the best out there.

I’m using a Fluid 2 which is brilliant, if you don’t need it to be interactive it’s all you need. If you don’t want to spend that much, the ones lower down the range beat the competition too. At each price point you get what you pay for so cheaper ones tend to be noisier and/or give a less realistic ride feel, and max out at lower upper resistance levels.

How much do you want to spend and (related to this) is this just for short term recovery or for a much longer period of training?

Have a read of these threads…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/does-turbo-training-tire-you-out
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/a-quiet-turbo-trainer

We’ve done lots of different ones and firmly believe that Cycleops are the best out there.

🙄

Which turbo to get really does depend on your requirements. Depends also on what you’re training for. Eg a time triallist will likely prefer a different turbo to an XC rider, requirements in terms of turbo feel are very different.

If you’re looking for a Turbo then I have two for sale 🙂 Sorry to hijack the post when you’re just enquiring, buttttt if you’re interested (One is the CycleOps Fluid 2 and another is a Elite Voalre Mag trainer, then just drop me a mail to: woolymonster@hotmail.com

YGM!

Fluid, so Cyclops fluid2, Kurt Kinetic..etc unless you want variable resistance so Tacx Vortex up to a Wahoo Kickr. Google Rainmaker or something, he reviews turbos.

I’ve got elite mag one….it was cheap but it does the job with 5 settings and it’s quiet….last year I thought I would treat myself to a cycleOps wind trainer…the fast you pedal the harder it is….sweet I thought

But the thing was so bloody noisy I couldn’t hear my music ….and I didn’t think the resistance was great….

So anyway …BIG THUMBS UP for the cheap elite mag…..it does everything you need and it’s quiet!!

Elite Mag here too, Halfords on offer at £50 IIRC,

It does the job.

For me, quiet…
After that never got on with adjustable resistance as I have gears for that.
Something that works well with trainer road would be the other thing for me.

Which turbo to get really does depend on your requirements. Depends also on what you’re training for. Eg a time triallist will likely prefer a different turbo to an XC rider, requirements in terms of turbo feel are very different.

Absolutely. Which is why I didn’t recommend a specific one from the range, but rather gave some general pointers as to what to look for.

Don’t think there’s much wrong with giving a brand recommendation though…

I have the cheap Elite Mag one from Halfords. With a trainer tyre and the loose plastic cover taped down it is (now) reasonably quiet. However, even in the highest gear I have 44/12 and the highest resistance setting I can quite easily pedal all day long at a steady cadence (say 70 rpm). The only way to raise HR in the toughest setting is to pedal faster. I can get to 130+ rpm in top gear in the hardest setting for short bursts. Not sure if this is just my turbo or a feature of the cheaper Mag ones??? Or maybe I need taller road-bike gearing??

I have a fluid ops 2 and the bike on it is a 26″ mtb with slicks. In top gear, 70 rpm would not be what I call easy to maintain. I personally really like that is the gears that make the resistance.

<snip.. a long boring post about turbos>

If it’s a good price just get that Fluid 2 that woolymonstetr was selling. A pretty decent fluid turbo will do the job nicely.

Though I’d try and get hold of a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine (here) with their InRide gadget. The trainer is a really nice fluid one. You can get a bigger “pro” flywheel for it if you want even more of a “road” feel to it. And the InRide basically does what “virtual power” does (derive a power number from wheel speed) but can be calibrated and will be more accurate.

If you want to play with Zwift and you want a properly Smart trainer (an electronic one that’ll vary the resistance to the terrain of a virtual course) then just get something like a Tacx Vortex Smart.

I’d avoid a mag one. They can be pretty cheap but they feel quite un-natural. You’d notice it if you rode a fluid/air and a mag back to back.

All this is assuming you don’t want to spend too much cash and you don’t have any other specific requirement (e.g. needs to be really quiet, needs to be direct drive, needs to have a super wide resistance range, etc.)

Edit… also if you have knee trouble you might want to factor this into turbo choice. Low inertia ones need a bit more effort pedalling through the dead spots, this might put more of a strain on the knees. A bit like always riding up a slope.

I’m happy with my elite mag, with 10% british cycling discount from halfords it’s a bargain, and with the myetraining app and a bluetooth speed and cadence metre gives some nice numbers to load into goldencheetah (8pounds for a years subscription to save and export your workouts, the free version lets you see your current workout, but doesn’t save it). I find the resistance just fine mine on welshfarmer, but I have got a proper chainring 🙂