"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.
