[Closed] Turbo recommendations?

Road.cc reviews here, they suggest Brand X or Clarks at that price point. If you want it to link to Strava then you'll need speed and cadence sensor, and something to pick it up, a Garmin will do it if you already have one, if not then an Ant+ sensor in the laptop and some appropriate software (likely costing you more) to show the data.

http://road.cc/content/buyers-guide/174294-best-cycling-turbo-trainers-%E2%80%94-buyers-guide-15-best-trainers-and-rollers

This is the right time of year to be picking up a second hand decent one that has been sitting unused in a garage somewhere since October.

If you're planning on using it anywhere near junior, a fluid trainer might be a better plan.

At that price point you're going to struggle for anything high level unless its very secondhand.
If its of interest I have a brand new Tacx hanging on the wall in the garage.
Bought to recuperate after my last collapse but I can't use it.
Depending on how far you are from Hants I am happy to take a drive out.

If you want to relieve the boredom then some form of structured training is very useful, I can manage about 20mins just on the turbo but with a program then 90mins isn't much of a problem. There's several available, a few on here including myself use TrainerRoad. (There's a very big thread on it)

As such it's worth checking their list of supported turbo trainers to see if what you intend to get will work with the program. Basically they use speed and cadence sensors along with the resistance profile of the trainer to create an estimate of the power you are producing.

Thanks for the thoughts.

hammyuk - Can you drop me an email please to possibly talk about your Tacx.

Cheers

I really like my Minoura V270.
It's reasonably quiet, with different levels of resistance from a bar mounted lever (I set it on 3 and use the gears).

There's also a (hugely expensive for what it is) Minoura ipad/iphone app that links up to a speed/cadence sensor and from that, and the level, it can work out your estimated power. You'll need an ANT adapter for the ipad/phone as well, so it's a fairly expensive route. I got all of it from ebay though to keep costs down.

+1 for the videos, I 'enjoy' the Sufferfest ones, def help an hour or two go by.

One further point on apps like Zwift:
Specifically with the v270 I had problems with running out of gears.
The power profile they have for that turbo is from the L (low) resistance, which is barely there. So with legs flying round 120rpm+ I'm only pushing 400w, which isn't a lot for a sprint.

(it was very close to the Minoura apps power estimate too though)

Something to bear in mind, though I'm not sure how you'd check this.

http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/tacx-proform-blue-motion-t2600-yellow-jersey-skyliner-exercise-mat-cycling-dvd-475907/wg_id-106

Got this at Christmas. Really happy with it so far. A little over budget though but worth it for the mat and block plus heavier flywheel imo.

OK, its a whole world I never took the time to delve into before. More research required.

Cheers all

you may want to budget for a trainer tyre as well.

I managed to break that Halfords turbo in the first link within about 3 weeks doing high res sprints, I could suddenly smell a lot of burning rubber/plastic and it sounded awfully rough after that..... 😀 Got it replaced with an elastogel elite one at a discounted price, works fine.

Don't bother with a cadence meter, just count your revs, and the training videos on gcn's youtube channel are good to keep the boredom at bay, especially the spinning one...... Budget on getting a good riser block, the cycleops ones hold your front wheel a hell of a lot firmer than the standard cheap plastic risers the turbos normally come with.

An issue I came up against when wanting to use my turbo following surgery - my lovely new road bike has discs and a bolt through - no longer fits on a turbo, which was really annoying! Are there other turbos out there (aside from rollers I guess) that can take bolt through hubs?

Thanks all.

gibbonarms - thought the halyards one was an elastogel?

Cheers

Your link was to the regular one, here' the elastogel bundle:

[url= http://www.halfords.com/cycling/turbo-trainers/trainers/elite-magnetic-cycle-trainer?_$ja=kw:skimlinks_phg|tsid:40392&cm_mmc=Affiliates-_-PerformanceHorizon-_-skimlinks_phg-_-TopLink ][/url]

Its ok, but if I was buying again I'd probably go for a Cycleops fluid one secondhand.

The Elites are fines, bought one in October used it through winter with Zwift, for the money you may get a second hand Cycleops Fluid2 of Gumtree which would be better, they have a none linear power curve so avoid the spin out problem.
Realistically your not going to need more than 450w+ in training so it not a big issue.

Zwift etc will make it more intresting, add another £50 for ant+ sensor, speed, cadence and HR sensor to get going minimum, presuming you have a laptop already.

You won't use any of it unless you have a bike set up all the time or at least a wheel dedicated to the trainer.