"Dej" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:gday,
anyone got non product specific websites for info on mag / indoor
trainers?
Quoted message said:i'm finding it hard to get out in the cold & rain for a ride of late🙁
i went to a gym last night to check out what they have to offer. The staff
member spent 15 mins showing me around and 25 mins trying to get me to pay
up on the spot.
So are these things useful? Any gotchyas to look for when purchasing? I'll
probably go for 2nd hand to hopefully save some cash and hopefully reduce
risk of verbal assault from wife for spending more money on bike gear🙂
Resistance trainers are really useful for complementing your road riding.
They allow you to train at specific intensities without the influence of the
environmental factors that exist when training out on the road.
For example a recovery effort at which you would want to be operating at or
around LT (Lactic Threshold) heartrate to get the maximum benefit. If you
were to try this on the road you would find it unbearably slow in terms of
bike speed. You would almost certainly not be able to remain disciplined
enough to go this slow. Factors such a hills and wind would make this even
harder as they serve only to increase your heart rate. On a resistance
trainer it is much easier to maintain a constant heart rate and cadence and
hence a more effective workout.
As to what type of trainer to use will depend on what type of training you
are planning to do. If you plan to do High Power Low Cadence work then
steer clear of the Rim type trainers. They do not cut it. (I used to have
one. The rubber wheels loose traction with the rim). If it is just low
power (ie < 200Watts) spinning they are ok but you will still probably find
that your pedal stroke is not as fluid as it could be. I think this is due
mostly due to the mag unit's flywheel being relatively small.
If you are after something that will give you a good feel you will need to
be looking at good quality Fluid or Mag resistance units that have a large
heavy flywheels. If you anticipate you will be doing High Power Low Cadence
(ie > 300Watt) workouts as well as Low Power High Cadence (Spinning) then I
would be looking at Mag units and "Adjustable resistance" Fluid units.
Examples to these would be the Tacx "CycleForce Swing", the Elite "Volare"
or Minoura "Hypermag 1200".
Rollers are a good option if you are after a spinning type of workout. It's
not too difficult to maintain a specific heart rate on rollers but you will
find your HR will be a little higher for the same output power (due to the
increased demands from the muscles of the upper body for oxygen) when
compared to a stationary type trainer. If you use a road bike on the
rollers you can easily change your resistance on the fly by moving through
the gears. You cannot do Low Cadence High Power on normal rollers.
Personally for training I use a "Senator Ergo Frame" (see
www.rickleonard.com) fitted with a Tacx resistance unit of the same type
that is found on the Tacx "CycleForce Swing" trainer. This combination
gives a realistic roadlike feeling.
I use Rollers for pre/post race warming up/cooling down when it is just not
possible to justify transporting the Ergo to a race. I also have a Tacx
"CycleForce Swing" that my wife uses, with her bike, for her indoor
training. She used to think that the Minoura Rim trainer was good until she
started using this. I have tried a High Power Medium Cadence power workout
using the Tacx "CycleForce Swing" with my road bike just to see if it felt
any different from the same workout on the ergo. The feel was reasonably
similar, as expected, with the exception of one thing. The flexing of my
road frame under load (est. power of 420-480W). This amount of flexing I
did not see as being too good for the bike frame so I decided that the Ergo
was definitely the better platform for this type of effort. There are other
Ergo trainers out there, (eg Perkins, Evans) but they all seem to use air
for their resistance method. These air resistance models are quite noisy
when in use. Noise is also an issue to keep in mind when considering "fan
type" resistance trainers
There are some bargains to be had on the 2nd hand market. "Ebay" and the
"Trading Post" usually have listings for resistance trainers. Hopefully
there will be something that meets your requirements. But if you are after
the ultimate, however less portable, solution go for the ergo style trainer
where you don't use and abuse your road bike.
If you go the Ergo option and get a QR seatpost clamp. Your wife will be
able to use it as well by moving the seat to a height that suits her. You
could even have a second saddle and seatpost set up if she did not like your
saddle. Then you can say you didn't buy it just for yourself.
PS: If you thought you had problems justifying spending money on bike gear
try convincing your other half that you MUST have a $2000+ carbon disk wheel
for pursuiting next track season when the track bike already has two more
wheels than it can actually have fitted at any one time.
