Mag Trainer Feedback?

prefrence my friend , prefrence.

tell your buddies to chipp in the rest 😄

stros said:

Ok, I've recentally gotten into the sport of cycling, and with the winter approaching pretty fast here in Michigan, I'm trying to decide on a trainer to get. I searched through some of the threads here and came across

cyclingforums.comt 367146 15 1.htmlOpen ↗

I read through all the 6 pages of the posts, and from what I picked up on was that the Kurt Knetic Trainer is a really good trainer. But the downfall is that it was a little out of the price range i was hoping for. From what I can tell is that its mostly $275 throughout the stores, I was looking at a price range of probally $200 Tops.

Now my question is, with my price range the trainers that seem to fall into that category are the Cyclops Mag, and some of the Minouras. How do you guys see the Mag trainers? Are they worth the money. ( In the above thread someone commented on the Cyclops mag, and said it was a pretty whimppy trainer). Is it worth getting a mag trainer at all? Or should I pretty much just suck it up and get a fluid?

Any and all comments and feedback are greatly appericated.
Thanks
Josh

I started with the Cyclops Mag trainer, and it's possible that I made the 'wimpy' comment in that other thread, although I think it was someone else's choice of words. Let me clarify:

I bought my mag trainer after I had been riding for 1-2 years, as a way to keep some fitness over the winter and get an early start on spring. It has an adjustable resistance, which I put on the highest setting, and I was quite happy with it for a couple more years.

The issue is that mag trainers tend to have power curves that are much flatter than fluid or wind trainers. The highest power levels will probably still be challenging for all but the largest or most powerful riders, but what I disliked was that I had to pedal so darn fast during my intervals that I was stuck in the 53x11 or 12 anytime I was doing an interval, and there was really no way to vary the cadence at that point. That was at a pretty normal cadence and there just wasn't enough resistance to really stand up without running on the pedals.

Having said that, I think that trainer is still a good value for beginners or smaller cyclists who are unlikely to be churning out 300-400w on a regular basis. Another option would be to go with a cheaper wind trainer, if you don't mind the noisy downside for those models. Many people find they simply do not like riding on the trainer, so finding a used or cost effective beginner model may be a wise choice to start. Good luck.

How would you compare the cyclops wind trainer to the Cyclops mag trainer?

What im kinda catching is that the wind has a better resistance factor, just the noise issue comes in? And how loud are you talking? Like completely blocking out a TV in the same room?

I don't have any personal experience with the common wind trainers, but noise is a commonly expressed concern in reviews.

You might also take a look at some different options within the mag arena. As shown in the bottom few graphs here: geocities.comtrainerpowerOpen ↗ , there can still be quite a bit of difference in resistance between mag models of different brands (ie, 400w @ 60 kph on Cyclops Magneto, vs. 400w @ 35 kph on Nashbar (Minoura) Mag 2 in bottom graph).

frenchyge said:

I don't have any personal experience with the common wind trainers, but noise is a commonly expressed concern in reviews.

You might also take a look at some different options within the mag arena. As shown in the bottom few graphs here: geocities.comtrainerpowerOpen ↗ , there can still be quite a bit of difference in resistance between mag models of different brands (ie, 400w @ 60 kph on Cyclops Magneto, vs. 400w @ 35 kph on Nashbar (Minoura) Mag 2 in bottom graph).

if anyone can succesfully explain the pages on the link about the Taxc flow I'll be very grateful. I have no idea what the hell the guy is on about...

BullGod said:

if anyone can succesfully explain the pages on the link about the Taxc flow I'll be very grateful. I have no idea what the hell the guy is on about...

Hmmm..... It appears that after conducting a carefully constructed and time consuming test, during which many graphs were created, the person arrived at the following conclusions:

Quoted post said:

Conclusions:
My particular Tacx Flow is whack.

Unless the coast down calibration or rider mass setting have a major impact, it does not appear this particular unit is capable of a good representation of the power that is set in ergo mode to the power required.

Cadence has a major impact, so it must be always kept the same to even use the device as a relative measurement. This would also indicate that gear choice would likely have a larger impact, as gear choice can impact wheel speed greatly.

I'll keep the Power Tap equipped bike on the trainer, as the power setting ergo mode appears to be of little value setting a power requirement, and less so in giving actual power feedback.

Charles was right...buy a Power Tap and a regular trainer.

Seems pretty straightforward. 🙂

I just bought the Kurt.....suggest you save up a little more money - it's pretty good, especially with the pseudo-power meansurement it has.

Ditto!

Yojimbo_ said:

I just bought the Kurt.....suggest you save up a little more money - it's pretty good, especially with the pseudo-power meansurement it has.

stros said:

Ok, I've recentally gotten into the sport of cycling, and with the winter approaching pretty fast here in Michigan, I'm trying to decide on a trainer to get. I searched through some of the threads here and came across

cyclingforums.comt 367146 15 1.htmlOpen ↗

I read through all the 6 pages of the posts, and from what I picked up on was that the Kurt Knetic Trainer is a really good trainer. But the downfall is that it was a little out of the price range i was hoping for. From what I can tell is that its mostly $275 throughout the stores, I was looking at a price range of probally $200 Tops.

Now my question is, with my price range the trainers that seem to fall into that category are the Cyclops Mag, and some of the Minouras. How do you guys see the Mag trainers? Are they worth the money. ( In the above thread someone commented on the Cyclops mag, and said it was a pretty whimppy trainer). Is it worth getting a mag trainer at all? Or should I pretty much just suck it up and get a fluid?

Any and all comments and feedback are greatly appericated.
Thanks
Josh

I too was just getting into cycling when I bought my cyclops magneto trainer. For an entry level rider (now riding for 4 years), it satisfies my need for keeping up some conditioning during the winter months. I have yet to reach a level of skill where this trainer is obsolete. I was also working with a budget closer to $200. By saving the extra bucks, I was able to get other equipment that I needed. No regrets.

Regarding the previous link to the power curves. If you want your trainer to simulate real riding conditions, then the best curve is supposed to be the one that matches the natural power curve (red solid line) as closely as possible. That would indicate that the trainer most closely simulates the real world riding situation; your wheel speed closely matches the actual resistance experienced when pedaling.

My needs were more to get a resistance that matched my target cadence range. To me, it didn't matter what gears I was in or the speed of my rear wheel. With my trainer, the resistance felt while accelerating and up-shifting the gears to that point may not resemble the real world situation, but that really didn't matter to me. I spend little time accelerating when in the trainer. Pedaling resistance at various cadences mattered more to me and that can be achieved by shifting into various gear combinations. I'm sure other rider's needs differ from mine and I can accept that.

I used magnetic trainers for years I thought they were smooth and just as good as the KK but I can't do more than 15 minutes of L4 on the magnetic and I can do 60 minutes on the Kinetic fluid. So I don't use the magnetic for anything more than a warm up due to its irritating pedal stroke now. I wasted a lot of workout time trying to adjust to the magnetic.

I have used the Elite Elasto Gel Mag trainer over the Australian "winter" - a lot of the time doing various Spinervals workouts. The remote resistance adjustment is essential for mag trainers and I found I did most on level 3 resistance or sometimes level 4 if there was out of saddle / big gear stuff.

I found the resistance plenty hard enough and could do some fairly high intensity sessions on the trainer.

Recently I purchased Cyleops fluid trainer and am still adjusting too it - high cadence is a lot harder and I need to use 21, 23, 25 / small chain ring to get upwards of 90 rpm - the mag trainer was easier once you cranked it up. Out of the saddle work is also better on the fluid and once you get big gear going on the mag trainer you can spin the gear out and are looking for more resistance.

Especially If you do some spinervals sessions, the KK trainer would be best choice as all participants use these trainers and cadence , gearing used is based on these trainers.