Quoted post said:Originally Posted by MintID [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]
I'm looking for something to train seriously on during the winter....
My money is kind of tight, so I can't really decide between a mountain bike or a good trainer/roller..
It really depends on how you'll structure your winter training and how bad the weather gets outside where you live.
If you're doing long steady rides as the basis of your winter training then it's going to be tough to rack up the desired hours on a trainer, perhaps a bit easier on something like the emotion rollers and whether you can get those sort of rides outdoors depends on how icy it gets, how cold the temps typically get and your access to suitable trails or low traffic roads when the conditions are grim.
If you're basing your winter training on more of an SST/L4 program and the weather is pretty bad where you live then I'd lean heavily towards the indoor option like I did when I lived in Wyoming and temps stayed below freezing for months on end with a lot of ice on the roads, shoulders covered in snow drifts and debris and deep snow on most trails. Some of the local riders got snow bikes with huge tires and rode on compacted snowmobile trails but most of us stayed indoors till the worst of the ice melted in the spring.
The magnetic resistance unit on the emotion rollers provides plenty of training load for 400 watt intervals and its free floating design makes it much easier to ride normally including out of the saddle efforts, sprints, etc. Trainers like the Kurt Kinetic are great and can handle the sort of power you're talking about but the feel is much less road like and trainers are generally more mind numbing than rollers for extended sessions. If you go with standard rollers (as opposed to the emotions) then make sure they have some form of resistance unit with magnetic models being quieter than fan units and expect to go through a longer learning curve to get comfortable on them before trying things like standing up to stretch while riding, pretty spooky for new comers to standard rollers but no big deal on emotion floating rollers.
Tough call, but if the weather isn't too terrible where you live and you can ride at the best times of day (as opposed to before and after work in the dark) then a decent used hardtail mountain bike or better yet a cyclocross bike set up to match your road position would be a great option. Since I've moved to Seattle and warmer but very rainy winter conditions I've set up a dedicated rain bike for the winter months and do as much training outdoors as I can only getting on the indoor trainer when forced to by freezing temps and icy roads or lack of daylight. My favorite rain bike is a cyclocross frame setup to match my road position, geared a bit lower with compact cranks, mounted with full fenders and lights and capable to taking full cross knobbies or even studded tires if I really wanted to train on the icy days. It's a great time of year to pick up a used cylocross bike as the season is winding down, tons of them available on ebay at least on this side of the pond.
Good luck,
-Dave
