I think this has come up a few times before but I’m struggling to find the thread, has anyone had any experience with cheaper end of the market(below £500)turbo trainers with a power function?

The power function is purely for me to try and track gains made over the winter and won’t be compared to a Power tap etc, so I’m hoping what I’ve read about the fluctuations in accuracy won’t be an issue.

I’m doing 90% of my training on the turbo (an old Cyclops mag, thanks Ton!) but fancied an upgrade as I’m on it 4 or 5 times a week, plus pre-race warm ups and thought the extra data might help track fitness better.

Any thoughts?

I have a kurt kinetic road machine, which is meant to have consistent power estimations. I think that fluid units are generally better for estimated power, but the kurt machines were designed with estimated power in mind.

I use it with trainer road.

I went through all this and decided the more flexible option was to use a std turbo and spend the money on a powertap instead, that way you can use it on the road too but the expensive turbo can only be used for the 1 purpouse. Also if the turbo packs up you haven’t lost your power meter too.

kurt ones have a meter I think – not sure how many models they do

There’s the Jet Black Dynometer Turbo Trainer.
And there’s also the new Elite Qubo Wireless.

The Jet Black got a bad review in the cycling press.
The Elite Qubo got a good review. It was within 10% for accuracy when measured against a powermeter.

Trainers at this level just use calibrated resistance curves to calculate power.
Power curves for most trainers can be found if you look on the internet – but the accuracy often depends on things like – rider weight, psi in the tyre and temperature of the turbo trainer.

The most important thing is consistency as a measure.

There is a very good alternative using a USB ANT+ stick and an ANT+ cadence device – called trainer road (subscription based).
It uses power curves of turbo trainers to display power.

If all you want if for is tracking gains, can you not simply use a cycle computer and try and keep the resistance (tyre pressure and contact) consistant.
The distance you travelled in a test would show how you’ve progressed.

Considering the cost you are talking about, you’re not far off getting a powertap and a cheapo (possibly secondhand) turbo.

^^^ and for power at any point in time – it would equate to your current speed on a power curve for you turbo trainer.

Edit – And don’t forget – it’s not just raw power but power-to-weight and how long you can hold it for being the most important.

Thanks all, lots to think on there. I’d not thought about just the Powertap option but agreed, you’d be getting close’ish to the cost and have twice the benefit.

What trail dog said, only simpler, just use the speed on a cycle computer and devise a consistent set of ajustemnts (e.g. 100psi in the tyre, x turns on the tension screw, and set the trainer to a consistent setting e.g. max) then ues the gears to adjust resistance. The speed reading won’t nececeraly be linerarly proportional to power, but at least it’s trackable.

That’s all trainer road does, it just measures speed then gives a power figure based on a known power curve for the graph.

DC Rainmaker has a good guide here Trainer Recommendations Might want to look at the BKOOL product

If you only want to perform a fitness test then agreed the above method will work. But for consistent structured training it’s far from ideal.

I picked up a Tacx Flow off ebay for £140 so nowhere near the cost of a powertap.

I’ll keep an eye out, the turbo’s do come up a lot second hand wise.

I just looked at the powertap hubs, I always thought they were £1000+
I dare say there almost affordable…..ish!

Tacx fortious here, including several DVDs. Not used it for 12 months £400 with steering rack, thing is heavy so pick up is preferred. I am in the midlands

Power curves for trainers can vary alot as they warm up. On mine the resistance increases noticeably over the first 20 minutes or so.

Before I got a powertap I thought I was just fading really badly in every turbo session….

Was thinking of selling my PowerTap Pro if that’s of interest? Will build into a brand new Open Pro…

njee – how much hub only. email in profile if you prefer.

njee if phil doesn’t want it I’ll be interested in it.

Tacx flow give power reading

Seen some debate on how accurate it is but as you only use the one machine it can track your power

Also adjusts to simulate hills/resistance
get one for sub £150 i assume on Ebay

Absolutely love my PowerTap for tracking progress and forcing me to train at the right level.

If you can’t stretch to one of those then the Kurt trainers and TrainerRoad software would be an alternative worth looking into.

I went through all this and decided the more flexible option was to use a std turbo and spend the money on a powertap instead, that way you can use it on the road too but the expensive turbo can only be used for the 1 purpouse. Also if the turbo packs up you haven’t lost your power meter too.

This seems the best option particularly since powertap units have reduced in price. Try to pick up an “old” SL+ model, I have one and it’s been great.