Quoted message said:The boss completed her first triathlon today, yeah for her! Not so yeah
is that she found out the hard way what I told her when she bought her
bike; that a machine with loads of suspension, tires widths comparable
to those commonly found on jet airlines; does not a fast bike make. So
this means that she wants another bike. Her fitness instructor's got an
old OCR 2 that he wants rid of and it's the right size for her so she
may get that.
What is good is that now I can get another one too, seeing as she's
currently got six wheels and I've only got two ;-)
She also wants a trainer so she can crank out some k's while watching
telly. I'm clueless about trainers, any pointers?
windtrainers are the cheapest, they're noisy, but they offer realistic
road feel (they have exponential resistance)
mag trainers are mid-price, some have rimdrives which are great for
wearing out rims instead of the crappy old tyre you put on the crappy
old wheel you use on the spinner 🙂. Mag trainers have adjustable
resistance, which seems like a feature, but it's really there to
overcome the bug - being that they don't increase resistance
exponentially with speed. Mag trainers are a lot quieter than
wind trainers.
Fluid trainers are the best, exponential resistance and
lower noise than wind trainers - they're also the most expensive -
my fluid-2 cost me around $500 with a good discount from my
LBS. They tend to have decent flywheels which smooth out the
"road" better than the other types. They're also heavier which
may be a factor if you're carrying it around a lot - I used to carry
mine to club spinner sessions in winter on my back strapped to
a backpack on the roady. Not much fun.
Things to look for :
The heaviest flywheel you can get - this
makes a big difference to the feel of the trainer.
A stable base that will work on uneven ground.
Robust clamping arrangement - the clamp is under a lot of
stress and if it's made cheap & nasty and you use it a lot, you'll
soon be getting a new one after the bike falls out of it!
Rim drives are only useful if you want to use the trainer with
knobby tyres - you're much better off with an old wheel and old
slick tyres anyway.
