indoor trainer

LukeS said:

thinking about getting a trainer for my trek 1000. is there a certain brand or type that is better than others? is there that much of a difference between the fluid ones and others? any help would be much appreciated.

If ya just need to ride indoors, the best for that is rollers. Simple, makes you ride in a straight line and most importantly, makes the time pass faster.

Forget the rollers - you'll be too worried about falling off them.

A fluid trainer is the most quiet, and also (I think) the most expensive. I have a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine and I'm quite happy with it. If you do a web search on this, you'll find this is probably the most highly recommended trainer out there. Check out their website for more info - I think it's about $375 these days, and you can buy the little power gizmo as well if you like.

There are cheaper ones and more expensive ones as well - depends on what you want to pay.

I have an Elite mag trainer. It's pretty quiet and i've had no problems with it

+1 on The KKR leak proof design with a real road like pedal stroke so no adapting between the road and trainer is necessary.

Yojimbo_ said:

Forget the rollers - you'll be too worried about falling off them.

A fluid trainer is the most quiet, and also (I think) the most expensive. I have a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine and I'm quite happy with it. If you do a web search on this, you'll find this is probably the most highly recommended trainer out there. Check out their website for more info - I think it's about $375 these days, and you can buy the little power gizmo as well if you like.

There are cheaper ones and more expensive ones as well - depends on what you want to pay.

Well, today I purchased a Tacx Satori and am very impressed. Heck of a unit, if you are into a relatively straightforward turbo trainer with little in the way of gadgets or electronics.

Get yourself a set of rollers or a trainer now. Then, somewhere down the road, get yourself a trainer or a set of rollers. You will then have the best of both worlds. I have a Kurt Kenetic Road Machine trainer and a set of Kreitler rollers.

I've never used a set of rollers with a fork stand but I have read that that gives you the best of both worlds also.

Probably not much help but something to think about.

LukeS said:

thinking about getting a trainer for my trek 1000. is there a certain brand or type that is better than others? is there that much of a difference between the fluid ones and others? any help would be much appreciated.

I just bought a Cycleops Magnetic for my wife (I'll probably use it too, but have an extreme prejudice against riding a stationary bike indoors when I could be outside running or xc skiing).

It seems to work well. If it is noisy (which is one of the main knocks on magnetic trainers), it is not very noisy. Certainly, she can watch TV at normal volumes and I can't hear it upstairs (it's in the basement). I wouldn't consider the noise to be a factor.

It seems well built and the brand has a good reputation.

FWIW, pricepoint makes a lot of difference on which type of trainer you buy. This magnetic trainer, on the upper end of the quality scale for a magnetic, was $160 in a local store. The cheapest fluid one from the same manufacturer was around $250, and the "good" fluid ones are = or >$300. Just something to keep in mind when folks say that you "gotta" get a fluid trainer, that they are superior. I don't doubt they are, but at a cost. The value may or may not be there depending on how much you use it. This magnetic trainer I believe will serve our purposes very well - maybe an hour or so a week at most as a rare supplement to outdoors activities.

I got a Kurt Kinetic Road machine about one month ago, I am am very pleased with the realistic resistance. It is also very quiet, except my new tires squeak a lot.

Xafod said:

Get yourself a set of rollers or a trainer now. Then, somewhere down the road, get yourself a trainer or a set of rollers. You will then have the best of both worlds. I have a Kurt Kenetic Road Machine trainer and a set of Kreitler rollers. -snip-

+1 I have both rollers and a Minoura fluid trainer. It's nice to be able to choose which one to use based on the purpose of the workout; the rollers are excellent for spinning and developing/keeping good riding form and technique, whereas the fluid trainer is perfect for hard workouts.
Also, having a set of rollers is nice to bring to races for warming up before.
So, deciding what to get depends very much on its intended purpose. (right tool for the job, eh 🙂 )

For what it's worth, I hated rollers. As mentioned, I spent way too much time worrying about falling off. And when you do fall off (because it will happen), it's all kinds of suck. I lost several days of riding because of a bruised nether-region after taking the top bar between the legs.

I sold it and spent about $75 on a Minoura Mag-850. Couldn't be happier. I can jump on, pump away, and watch a movie or something. Legs stay warm and worked out through the winter, and no worries or stress.