Looking for an Indoor Trainer

[Bec]

I'm looking for an indoor trainer for the winter. I dont' ride too much during the good weather as it is, so a middle of the road trainer would work well. What hsould I look for

[aj1152]

Blackburn, CycleOps, and Minoura are good bets for trainers. There are plenty of other companies, but I only have experience with CycleOps and Minoura. I've done a lot of miles on both and have had no problems with either, but the Minoura is a bit louder.

For what you're using it for, you'd probably save a bit of money if you went with magnetic resistance instead of fluid resistance. Thermodynamically, fluid trainers result in consistent resistance at multiple temperatures—you’d have to go pretty extreme to have this be important and besides, a mag trainer doesn’t have this problem

Also, you don't really need too many levels of resistance or the ability to increase resistance without getting off the bike: if you've got limited levels of resistance, all you need to do to make it harder is shift gears on your bike and it'll get harder to spin your tire faster. Once you find a level of resistence that's good for you, you'll probably stick to it for several weeks until you're able to spin it out without much trouble.

The weight of the flywheel is somewhat important (the heavier the flywheel the more it's like riding a real bike (e.g. longer spin down time with a heavier flywheel makes it so you can coast longer), but as long as you're just doing a pretty generic workout (pedaling mostly at a consistent cadence), you don't need to worry about the flywheel weight.

Also, the larger the circumference of a roller (or whatever the part is called that your tire sits on and spins), the less wear on your tires there will be. Again, if you're just using it recreationally, a set of tires will last a year on a trainer; pro's would go through 3 or 4 sets on the same roller circumference.

And, speaking of the roller, materials vary. Some manufacturers claim that there's less wear on tires with different matierals, but again: if you're using the trainer recreationally, you shouldn't fret over the material of the roller.

Hope this helps,

Alan

[cranky]

Trainers. The Elite brand has no tire tension adjustment, making it quick on and off. Very quite with elasto-gel tire roll. Fluid resistance. The probably most reliable would be the Kurt kinetics road machine. The reason is the fluid is separate from the axle making for no leaking. Both trainers are at NDBS.

[dastud]

I would always say quiet is key if you are using it for indoor winter training. If it is so loud you are battling to hear the TV over the trainer noise you will ride less no matter how smooth the resistance.

[sean]

I've got the Kinetic fluid trainer...love it.

[Bec]

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. I didn't know they were so complex. Now I've got some good points to make a decision.

Bec

[administrator]

Bec,

Please check out http:/www.northdivision.com

Right from the home page, you can click on the image of the trainers, and there is a list of all the trainers we carry including prices, features, and accessories.