[Closed] turbo trainers advice

The problem with cheap is they are often of the wind resistance type and/or offer too little resistance.
You will outgrow it very quickly.
I had the bottom of the line Elite. Mag trainer. I think it was about £90 - and I could outspin this in every gear & resistance level.
I bought a secondhand Elite Elastogel and this has been fab.

This *might* be worth a punt - but I would find a review or feedback first.
http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/TRSTBMT/stealth_black_mag_turbo_trainer

Cheers, just saw one of those on eBay thought they looked decent enough, do need it to be quiet if possible as I'll be using indoor a busy house. Just read another topic saying to avoid the fan ones, so are there 2 main types fan and magnetic?

Wind/Fan
Magnetic
Fluid/Gel/Oil

Avoid fan. Noisey.

Fluid type ones are supposed to offer a better ride quality.
But there are plenty of well-reviewed mag trainers.

Get a fan
Cover the floor with an impermeable mat
Cover the bike from sweat (corrosive stuff!)
Use a Garmin with cadence and HR - measure your efforts
Do an FTP test (using your Garmin).
Use a structured session ie. videos or turbo plan

Enjoy!

There are a few turbos now that use a cassette to drive them rather than a wheel/tyre; I'd look at those but pricey. They're all dull though - I use an Elite RealAxiom to help.

I've got a couple of mag ones. Like the variable resistance as it lets me do high power low cadence work.

A big fan is a must. Also worth checking out Trainerroad.com.

Edit: that Planet X one looks a good deal.

Double edit: also depending on what you want it for it may be worth checking out some rollers instead.

Like the variable resistance as it lets me do high power low cadence work.

supposedly better, for mtb training, than fluid for this reason.

I've just ordered one, Minoura V150 off Merlin (£155). I borrowed a Tacx T2650 for a a week to try out. It's a decent entry level one (£120ish), it was really good to use but I found that I was running out of resistance / gears on harder intervals (I'm no Chris Hoy). They do a "high" and "ultra" high power version also of the Tacx one. So I chose one with a higher power output. Also I live in a flat so higher resitance means I can get a workout without the rear wheel going at 50kmh!

So, you might might find (especially with a mtb) that you run out of resistance on the cheaper ones.

I've just set up a Tacx Bluemotion mag trainer, which was about £120 from Ribble. Even on big ring, I'm surprised at how much effort it is to get it spinning on the highest setting (ie not a great deal). I was expecting something I could use to mimic very steep 'struggling to turn the cranks over' climbing on the MTB, at least for short sections.

I bought a CycleOps Magnetic, pretty cheap at just over the £100 I paid for it.

It's fairly noisy though I have nothing else to compare it to, not really an issue as I don't really notice it over headphones. I'm set up in the garage, it's cooler in there and the noise doesn't bother anyone else.

I don't bother with the variable resistance, just set it up quite tough and flick through the gears using TrainerRoad to judge my efforts.

Few Sufferfest vids to make it a bit more interesting and you're good to go, really improved my riding fitness this year.

Martinhutch, get a bigger ring / smaller sprocket. You on 26" wheels or 700c?

Got a Minoura LR760 here and on max resistance with a 55/11 it's quite hard work!

26" - my problem is lack of cash to start buying new rings/cassettes. It's currently installed on my hack bike with whatever I could cobble together from old bits. So 42/11 is all I have handy.

Yeah, I think most turbos are tuned for 700c and road bike gearing. With 26" and 42/11 I'm not surprised resistance is a bit low.

I'm surprised at how much effort it is to get it spinning on the highest setting (ie not a great deal)

i thought this a while back - but tbh that's not the best way to train on the TT. i can do threshold effort a cadence of 50. any thing more strenght focussed is best done in the weights room imo.

It's fairly noisy though

put my cycleops on some of that interlock rubber floor - made a huge difference.

i thought this a while back - but tbh that's not the best way to train on the TT. i can do threshold effort a cadence of 50. any thing more strenght focussed is best done in the weights room imo.

You're probably right, just for the sake of my knees. I'll just have to research how to get the best out of a faster cadence session instead. And wangle a 48t ring onto it somehow.

I've been using it with a CX bike with 700c and 46/11 as the biggest gear. In the biggest gear the Tacx t2650 was tough going to sustain for 2.00-3.00 mins but I could spin it out for shorter blasts. I reckon with roadie gearing it would be plenty, but no where near enough on a mtb.

Pretty good deal here on an[url= http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_223837_langId_-1_categoryId_229901 ] Elite mag trainer[/url] for £98, even though it does mean shopping at halfords.

I use my 26" GT Mtb on a cheap Tacx TT and can adjust it to get the resistance tough enough to grind to a standstill in granny. You guys are clipping the roller up against the tyre aren't you ;0) lol

I picked up the Elite Mag Speed Alu from Halfords from the link above earlier today. Same price as Wiggle, and cheaper than CRC. If you're going to get one from a store though, make sure you reserve it online before heading down, as it's £119.99 in-store. Variable resistance with handlebar mounted control, and it's compatible with the virtual power feature on trainerroad.com if that's something you're after. Doesn't seem too noisy either from a quick spin.