Wife might be thinking about getting one to use with her MTB . Doesn’t want to spend a fortune so advise please .

hateful things. you need a very good motivation to use one.

You can buy an expensive one that connects to others, gives you power and lots of other things or you can buy one that just provides resistance and you figure out the rest.

I have the latter, planet x jobby. About £70, works fine.

They are so horrible that they are always available second hand. Local facebook groups near me always have them on.

Depending on the quick release on the bike be careful of mounting – my new road bike won’t go on my turbo because it lacks the old skewer to mount it. Which is a bummer!

Just standard QR , I’ve also heard they shred tyres ?

Not really shred but they wear them down quickly. I just use old ones but if you need a slick one for a mtb and don’t have one you might as well get a special one as they are supposed to be quieter.

Mine came with a QR to use. Looks like a cheapo steel one – probably to stop people killing themselves using light weight Ti ones.

It’s like 25 degrees in my garage at the moment.

You’d need an industrial air con unit to get me on the turbo out there right now. You really do need a huge **** off fan or you’ll want to just abandon all hope out of self preservation before even the boredom kicks you off the thing.

There’s a lot of heat build up so normal road tyres begin to disintegrate – unless you want little bits of rubber spread around behind the turbo then get a turbo specific tyre.

As for boring – it’s training. Get a subscription to Zwift or Trainerroad and it’s not too bad.

Oh, I really wouldn’t want to be on a turbo in this heat – if you asked a prisoner to do it he’d have you up in the court of human rights!

They are so horrible…

Definitely a means to an end.

Loads of stuff you can do to make it less hateful. A great big fan for cooling. TrainerRoad or Zwift are good to give the sessions some structure. Tunes or iPlayer or Netflix to help pass the time. Make it part of a training plan and measure progress. A little table for drinks, towels, anything you need to keep in reach. A permanent setup is good too so you don’t have to get past the faff of getting everything set up before you can even start riding. And TBH a nicer, more expensive turbo, is usually a nicer thing to ride (cheap turbos can have a horrid feel to them, many reasons for this.)

If you do all these things it can mean the turbo doesn’t end up gathering dust or on eBay.

Can make large difference to strength. As above I use trainer road. Zwift and trainer road in the winter. Tacx vortex here. Mines setup permanently with road bike next to computer. Use BBC Iplayer and sufferfest to mix it up.

Permanent setup is easy to just jump on and go. Fan, drink, towel, sweat mat. Training program on and away you go. Summer I just use it to add quality intervals. In the winter I use it a lot more to avoid the bad weather. Quality IMHO is better than quantity especially for MTB. Trainer road has specific MTB training programs.

Don’t stick it in the garage facing a breeze block wall because you will die of boredom;-)

On turbos I started out with a freebie magnetic resistance one for three years. Changing to quality electric resistance turbo was a huge improvement. It controls the resistance, increasing and decreasing it as the plan or video requires. You train hard. In the winter I also MTB to keep my hand in, trail centres local trails etc. That’s still important.

I bought an Elite one from Halfords this past winter for use in the house, and the whole package cost me less than £100. It works brilliantly (it does nothing fancy but hold the bike up and offer resistance when I pedal!).

Yes, using it can be a pain, but I would rather that than to not be pedalling. And besides, I would never have watched the whole season of Jessica Jones otherwise.

One thing on turbo bike. It makes little difference what it is. The turbo controls the resistance. Your in one gear, no need to change.

Let’s assume your climbing on the programme at cadence 65 at @ 200w. You pedal at 65 rpm and the turbo ensures resistance is 200w. You could pedal at 95rpm. But the turbo will still keep the resistance at 200w. Hence gear changes not required, in fact positively discouraged.

The resistance is based on a % of your FTP which you find from the 20min test.

If you have a friend with a decent turbo get them to let her have a go. Spinning classes are another option. They can be fun in a group.

I started off with the normal road tyres the bike came with and switched to turbo tyre when I bought the Tacx. Big improvement as the road tyre tended to shed bits of rubber.

Doesn’t want to spend a fortune so advise please .

What’s a fortune to you?

My recommendation for minimum spec would be for a fluid trainer like a Kurt Kinetic Road machine or a Cyclops Jet Fluid Pro.

Normal road tyres do not disintegrate on turbos. I use an old Continental Ultra sport road tyre during the winter and whatever is on my summer road bike in summer (usually Contintiental GP 4000S)

Why does she think she needs one? As previous posters have said they are a means to an end. Best to have some sort of structured training plan to keep focussed and avoid any turbo session longer than 1 hr. Definitely consider a subscripton to Trainerroad or use YouTube vids from the likes of GCN.

Definitely budget for a big fan. They are required even in the depths of winter.

DC Rainmaker is the definitive source for all things turbo

I have a kickr.

You definitely need motivation.

Zwift does help, passes the time much better than netflix. I just wish that whale wasn’t always in the samne spot…

If you are disciplined then zwift has a few workouts of about an hour involving intervals – worth doing and then you see the benefit on the bike outside, and that will keep you going.

Make sure the bike fits well as it is more critical – I still can’t get to an hour without numbness.

Thanks for the replies , should have explained a bit of background . She’s had a broken leg followed by a knee replacement over recent years . She enjoys cycling with me but is happy with about 20 miles a couple times a week . She’s looking to supplement this indoors during Winter / inclement weather .

I have one that I quite like using from time to time. I find short, intense interval/HIIT stuff works best and generally use one of the 20 or 30 minute sessions on the GCN YouTube channel. The duration also means I’m not sat on there for hours on end.

My current trainer is this one from Planet-X. The sell for me is that it’s very quiet and the fluid resistance makes it feel quite real to ride. You just use your bike gears to vary resistance. Tyre wise, I have a dirt cheap Halfords turbo tyre that cost me £10, I’ve used normal road tyres without too much trouble in the past too, just an old tyre that I don’t mind squaring off.

short and hard is what I go for as well. I once managed a 90 minute session but normally they are 50-60 minutes and high intensity. I suppose you could just sit there turning the pedals if you are watching a dvd?

I love my turbo trainer , really good tool for getting faster and it’s quite nice to have an hour away from the kids in the garage watching sky sports news whilst swearing at high volume . Tacx bought second hand , with trainer road .

A few years ago I’d have said, don’t bother getting one, the boredom will kill you (her). However, these days of iplayer etc, you can just watch some telly while pedalling along. Or use one of the training apps, they are better than nothing.

She’s looking to supplement this indoors during Winter / inclement weather

then Id suggest something connected to the internet like Tracx vortex and Zwift/Trainer road

Boredom? Just means your not using Sufferfest, Zwift or BBC IPlayer, films, or DVDs.

Having borrowed a couple of turbos from friends, I picked up one of these recently

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/blue-motion-pro-pack-turbo-trainer-id_8315768.html

I’m using it as I’ve had a minor op on my toe – the originalm reason for getting a turbo was to allow Mrs NBT to keep up fitness as she recovered from (in the first instance) a broken arm, (in the second instance) a broken hip and later a hip replacement (the break didn’t heal properly)

we REALLY noticed the benefits of using a turbo trainer, even for short amounts or time – Mrs NBT normally does a 20 minute session, 4 or 5 days a week, and when she got back out on the bike proper her fitness was hardly decreased at all.

My workout’s a bit more strenuous than hers, I push a lot harder so I’m dripping with sweat by the time I get off, though again I only do a short session. I’ve set up a small TV/DVD in front of the turbo and bought the Black Books box set, I do a 25 minute session while I watch an episode

We’re running an Inbred on the turbo with 3*9, and we’re using a slick road tyre (Continental Gatorskin PolyXBreaker 28mm). Contrary to Pawsybear, Mrs NBT always uses level 1 resistance and sets her desired gear on the bike. I use a combination, getting up to big ring and the top of the cassette before increasing resistance.

As above, ours is a permanent setup in the spare bedroom and we’re lucky in that we can both use the same bike.

tl;dr. Executive summary: they can be useful but go gor fluid resistance, slick tyre, lots of cool air (big windows or a fan), mat under the turbo /bike and towels aplenty to collect sweat, water to hand and something to occupy your mind like tv/radio/training program/wildlife to watch through the window

enjoy 😉

edit: on the note below about resistance, Mrs NBT only ever uses Level 1 – I’ve only reached 3. Max is 10, so plenty to go at yet.

If she’s using it with a MTB, then check that it has enough resistance to make it worthwhile, especially if she doesn’t have a big ring. So to speak.

Mine is constantly in the biggest gear (42-11) and that’s enough for me on a mid-ranking (in resistance terms) machine. If I only had a chainring in the 30s, I’d be spinning it out.

I bought one when we had our little one with a view to using it for short sessions to keep on top of my fitness etc. I hated the bloody thing, even watching stuff on my iPad didn’t help.

It made realise that being outside is a bog part of what I enjoy about cycling. I’d rather go running than use my turbo.