Turbo Trainer Advice

The point is, if I'm borderline about training, one little hiccup will see me put it off - it's totally a head game these days. So remove as many delays, obstacles, etc and I'm more likely to make it to the bike.

Totally - Now that the weather is better, I'm really enjoying extending my run/ride home. I have to do the commute anyway, so I might as well turn them into a proper workout.

I am gonna buy a turbo again. new job means less spare time and will be away more at weekends to see the gf. has to be;

zwift compatible
direct drive 11sp
disc compatible

would also be nice if it could handle bolt thru when I inevitably upgrade my caad10. but I know this would really limit my options if going 2nd hand (something I am keen on). what is out there? tacx neo looks smart enough, but maybe a wahoo would be good as I use an elemnt

Elite Direto gets good reviews.

I think the Cyclops Hammer is the most versatile in terms of accepting a range of axle standards.

Read DC Rainmaker’s roundup.

even 1st gen kickr supports all that (which is what I have)

even bolt thru? did not know

sell me it

if you can wait ..

cheers I will do!

how long is a piece of string

"KICKR v3 has introduced some minor physical changes for mechanical compatibility – notably with their new KICKR-CLIMB unit; disc brake clearance and with thru axle compatibility (12×142, 12×148)."

?

well you can buy this for the V1: https://uk.wahoofitness.com/devices/accessories/kickr-142x12-mountain-bike-adapter

very good indeed

zwift absolutely rinses CPU on my 2014 retina mbp. cant understand why it is so power hungry. kickr is great though!

Been training on rollers for the past year but finding it hard to train above threshold with the limited resistance. Girlfriend wants to be able to train and couldn't get the swing of rollers. In the market for a trainer, figure I should just go smart. Literally spent all day yesterday investigating.

I can probably afford to just go for a wahoo kickr, but justifying the £1000 price tag is difficult for a twice a week occurrence. Probably won't use zwift for now mostly because my laptop won't handle it, so mainly trainerroad. Is it overkill for this?

Then saw the elite turbo muin Halfords are selling for £290 (£261 after bc discount). It's not fully interactive but does read power and cadence which is probably all I need for TR. Will I be disappointed I didn't go fully interactive in a few months?

Is the tacx flux a reasonable middle ground?

Have looked at going traditional wheel on too, is there anything better than the kickr snap? What about those bkool smart pro2?

I'd go traditional wheel on - kickr then becomes £500 but you get fully smart, and it folds away more easily when not in use

I got a 1st Gen kickr, 2nd hand and it’s great. Love erg mode and the momentum of the flywheel.

I have the Elite Direto, which is excellent and I would recommend.

Get a Direto as recommended above. My Flux is weak.

loving my kickr (1st gen). don't get a wheel on thing.. they just are nowhere near as good. never feels like you can really give it your all

+1 for Direto. Had a bit of an issue with the FTP testing on it, but the TRainerRoad customer service email support is brilliant and they explained exactly what to do. #csb

I just got a wahoo kickr and I'm using it with trainerroad. Very nice but I noticed that to do the FTP test I had to run in 53/11 to put any watts. Surely it's wrong, I'm not that strong.
Other niggle I've got is when I finish any interval the resistance just dissapears and let me spinning in the air, takes a fair bit to catch up and let me pedal at a recovery pace.
Will fiddle with it a bit more tomorrow, but any advice would be appreciated

It sounds like the resistance in ‘resistance mode’ is too low (where as mine was too high). Try this:

1. Open the Devices Tab of the TrainerRoad app
   
2. Click on your paired trainer to enter the Device Settings
   
3. Under "Resistance Mode", switch from ERG to Resistance
   
4. Now you can adjust the Resistance Level. Something between 20-40% resistance works for most people and setups
   

5. I would recommend testing your chosen resistance in a random workout to make sure that it will work for your test interval
   a. Keep in mind that you will need to shift when using Resistance Mode

6. Once you've settled on a level, go ahead and switch back to ERG mode. Your set Resistance will be saved and applied during testing intervals

After much deliberation I've ordered the bkool smart pro 2, Evans price matched crc at £333.99 and should have it in my local shop this afternoon.

The main reason for opting for it (aside from being one of the cheapest interactive trainers) is because the missus wants to be able to use it to, and I feel like because this one uses your own bodyweight to tension the wheel against the resistance unit it should be easiest for her to put bike on.

I dismissed the idea of a direct drive trainer as her bike is 9s, my winter road and mtb are 10s and my new road bike is 11s, and didn't fancy the faff of swapping cassettes around regularly.

There's very little info around the smart pro 2 online but dc rainmaker appeared to like the entry level "go smart" and felt it was within <5% of his Garmin vector, which is good enough for me as a training tool!

Will report back on what it's like once i get to try it out.

Sounds about right, I'll give it a go later, CBA doing another FTP test though. Cheers

I have the same issue with spinning at the end of intervals, prob not ideal, but I just slow my cadence right down in the last few sec.

You could try out the ramp test and see how it compares in terms of ftp. You can do it in erg mode and Trainerroad are going to start using it as their standard ftp testing protocol soon.

I really struggle to get my power/cadence right on 8 min tests as I run a 1x11 setup with a 56T front ring. I've embraced the ramp test because of that.