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Turbo trainer/rollers

D13exile

Ok, said I’d never buy one as they go against what I love most about cycling, ie out in the fresh air and enjoying the scenery, but what with COVID lockdowns and two recent close calls with black ice (didn’t come off the bike but went sideways for a second or two which set the nerves on edge!), I’m looking at buying an indoor trainer to maintain my fitness while the cold weather (it’s the ice that bothers me, not the cold) and COVID distance restrictions put a crimp on my spins.

I’ve been researching online and I’m stumped about what to get. Prices vary from €170 to thousands depending on what is available. Plus I can’t understand how some trainers look like you take off the rear wheel and slot the through axel into a contraption while others appear to use the rear wheel. The latter option evidently wears out the rear tyre quite quickly from what I can understand.

I could be wrong, but indoor cycling will never light my fire. But losing my cycling fitness doesn’t appeal either. So can you give me some advice on a good trainer, will I need a rear wheel with dedicated training tyre, will rollers be a better option etc?

Thanks

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BobbyT28

Cant find a flux s for love nor money anywhere!! Anybody know of any sites that have stock?

D13exile

I’m by passing the UK shops now as I don’t want to be hit for customs and other taxes. My last order from wiggle that I made before Xmas hasn’t arrived yet. I got an email yesterday saying it was “stuck in Irish customs backlog”. So an order I made before Brexit will now be hit for tax and duty:mad:

If you’re looking for EU based alternatives for cycling stuff, I also use Mantel.com who are Dutch based and Deporvillage who are Spanish. Reasonable prices and fast shipping from both. The latter was the only site I tried that had the Galaxia rollers in stock. I’d recommend both as they’ve never let me down and customer service is excellent.

irishrover99

sorry to jump in here but has anyone changed a cable in a magnetic turbo.
I was considering buying a smart turbo but reading many of these threads has changed my mind.
The cable snapped on my Halfords turbo a few months ago and I haven’t got around to changing it yet or trying.
Would love to know if it’s handy to do and is it a regular bike gear cable that would be used.

BobbyT28

irishrover99 wrote: »

sorry to jump in here but has anyone changed a cable in a magnetic turbo.
I was considering buying a smart turbo but reading many of these threads has changed my mind..

What changed your mind?

irishrover99

BobbyT28 wrote: »

What changed your mind?

Many reasons TBH.
Main one being that I was getting a great work out from my cheap turbo on zwift so why spend money on a smart trainer when so many others seem to get a good workout from dumb trainers also.
Also, it’s very hard for get a good agreement in the net on what is a good turbo within my price range.
Reviews seems to vary so much on turbos, more so than with other cycling equipment.

BobbyT28

irishrover99 wrote: »

Many reasons TBH.
Main one being that I was getting a great work out from my cheap turbo on zwift so why spend money on a smart trainer when so many others seem to get a good workout from dumb trainers also.
Also, it’s very hard for get a good agreement in the net on what is a good turbo within my price range.
Reviews seems to vary so much on turbos, more so than with other cycling equipment.

That’s fair enough, agree that there is so many different reviews it’s so hard to choose a turbo trainer. What trainer have you got? I was looking at the flux s

MojoMaker

Unless you want to participate in official events on Zwift a basic turbo is fine. You can 90% of the utility from the platform and the experience without any need for electronic controls.

That said, if you had any inclination in the future to get involved sanctioned Zwift leagues/competitions (which are gaining in popularity all the time) you wouldn't be ratified/recognised without an approved fully-smart trainer.

2020 skewed the market somewhat for turbos, in prior years there were always deals to be had.

If you can sit through 15 mins of focused reading I find DCRainmaker gives pretty detailed and objective comparos of the main models in each budget category.

BobbyT28

MojoMaker wrote: »

Unless you want to participate in official events on Zwift a basic turbo is fine. You can 90% of the utility from the platform and the experience without any need for electronic controls.

That said, if you had any inclination in the future to get involved sanctioned Zwift leagues/competitions (which are gaining in popularity all the time) you wouldn't be ratified/recognised without an approved fully-smart trainer.

2020 skewed the market somewhat for turbos, in prior years there were always deals to be had.

If you can sit through 15 mins of focused reading I find DCRainmaker gives pretty detailed and objective comparos of the main models in each budget category.

Thanks for the reply,

When you say a basic turbo is fine, what is a basic turbo, any examples? One without smart controls?

Yeah, 2020 completely ruined the turbo trainer market for deals! I read a good few reviews on trainers for DC and came to the conclusion that I would like to get the flux s, now trying to get one is another story altogether!

Macy0161

I would suggest if you don't want to participate in events, than there's better platforms than Zwift for just training. Zwift is really all about Sim Mode/ Events/ Racing imo, and the main reason you'd use it for training above other options is to minimise subscriptions.

Pre-covid, I did the majority of my training on hybrid rollers. When the belt snapped on my smart turbo a few months ago it was really hard to go back to non-smart training. The cognitive load of keeping on power target, finding the right gears was a complete pain in the ass over ERG mode. It's probably something if you never had, you wouldn't miss, but I definitely missed it!

dinneenp

BobbyT28 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply,

When you say a basic turbo is fine, what is a basic turbo, any examples? One without smart controls?

Yeah, 2020 completely ruined the turbo trainer market for deals! I read a good few reviews on trainers for DC and came to the conclusion that I would like to get the flux s, now trying to get one is another story altogether!

Very briefly:
A dumb trainer- rear tire presses against a roller & you have X amount of gears. Need a speed sensor & cadence sensor (optional).

A smart trainer- changes resistance if you're going up/downhill accordingly. Rear wheel detaches & not needed (on most I think)

MojoMaker

It's more nuanced than that. You can have a "wheel-on" trainer that is smart, and likewise a direct-drive trainer that is semi-smart or even dumb.

Personally, the best experience is with direct drive turbo trainers where you remove your rear wheel and attach to the hardware. They can be fully smart but the best value is in the semi-smart variety - such as the Elite Turbo Muin II - maybe €300 new and a nice quiet trainer that has sensors built in so you can use the various gaming platforms, you just won't get ERG mode - but enough people forego ERG to be honest, and many don't like it.

I think the first choice is really wheel-on or direct drive. personally there's no comparison, direct-drive all the way, but slightly more expensive (but not crazy).

If you do go DD, get a fluid-based one.

Macy0161

I had a Muin before going smart - the sensor was consistent, but not at all accurate when I compared it to a power meter! It is quiet - basically drive train noise.

When the TrainerRoad podcast have discussed it, they've always said that direct drive has less variables - wheel on it can depend on tyre pressure, how tight you lock it down etc (assuming you don't have a power meter and are using some form of virtual power from speed and cadence sensors).

lissard

IMO ERG mode is a truly useful feature for training. The trainer resistance is effectively independant of the gear chosen. If your training program says it needs you to put out 250W for an interval, a smart trainer will *automatically* adjust the resistance until your power output matches it exactly. This means there is no escape! You can't shift down to a lighter gear to ease the load. I have only used two triainers, the Wahoo Kickr (direct drive) and the Kickr Snap (wheel on). The direct drive one is definitely quieter and power transitions happen very smoothly. It does cost a lot of money though (~€1k). I have a wheel-on Kickr Snap at home, getting the roller attached to the wheel with the correct amount of pressure is the main thing to get right. Too loose and the wheel slips on the roller - this becomes obvious when you are pushing against high resistances. Too tight and there is too much resistance and it's no fun. Having used it for a year I know now that two twists of the tightening knob gets me the optimum contact. There is none of this faffing about with the direct drive trainers.

BobbyT28

Anyone here got any experience with the Flux s? Good choice or is there other Smart trainers for similar price that you would recommend over this one?

dinneenp

lissard wrote: »

IMO ERG mode is a truly useful feature for training. The trainer resistance is effectively independant of the gear chosen. If your training program says it needs you to put out 250W for an interval, a smart trainer will *automatically* adjust the resistance until your power output matches it exactly. This means there is no escape! You can't shift down to a lighter gear to ease the load. I have only used two triainers, the Wahoo Kickr (direct drive) and the Kickr Snap (wheel on). The direct drive one is definitely quieter and power transitions happen very smoothly. It does cost a lot of money though (~€1k). I have a wheel-on Kickr Snap at home, getting the roller attached to the wheel with the correct amount of pressure is the main thing to get right. Too loose and the wheel slips on the roller - this becomes obvious when you are pushing against high resistances. Too tight and there is too much resistance and it's no fun. Having used it for a year I know now that two twists of the tightening knob gets me the optimum contact. There is none of this faffing about with the direct drive trainers.

For Zwift to be accurate you're meant to have the perfect set up-
Different resistance level, depending on what make & model of dumb trainer you have
Roller resistance level-I have no idea if mine (Tacx Blue Motion dumb trainer) is too tight or not. Is there any way to check?
I'll upgrade to a smart trainer at some stage.

Calahonda52

km991148 wrote: »

Other fitness in these times are important too.
Body weight core excercise is useful to replace the indirect core workout you miss by not having hours in the bike (for example).

It's usually my upper body that goes to sh!t in these times and find it hardest to get back.

Could you pen a few lines please on some basic exercises to do for the core?
Thanks.

CantGetNoSleep

BobbyT28 wrote: »

Anyone here got any experience with the Flux s? Good choice or is there other Smart trainers for similar price that you would recommend over this one?

I had the original Flux for years but at the time I wasn't heavily using the trainer.

Performance wise it is fine, they used to come up on sale for not far off 450€ back then. The main issue with them seems to be reliability, I'm in a Facebook group and there seems to be nothing but problems (I am also in groups for other brands and don't see anywhere near the same level of issues).

I've since moved to a Wahoo Kickr Core (had sold the Flux after the first lockdown & the change was partly because I have a very small area to fit the trainer in between a sofa and a wardrobe and the Flux is bigger)

I'd recommend it if you can get a good deal (you won't get the 2018 prices anymore unfortunately) and if you can buy new from somewhere that will cover warranty & keep the receipt! If the price is going to be closer to 650-700€, I'd probably consider an Elite Direto XR or Wahoo Kickr Core instead.

BobbyT28

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

I had the original Flux for years but at the time I wasn't heavily using the trainer.

Performance wise it is fine, they used to come up on sale for not far off 450€ back then. The main issue with them seems to be reliability, I'm in a Facebook group and there seems to be nothing but problems (I am also in groups for other brands and don't see anywhere near the same level of issues).

I've since moved to a Wahoo Kickr Core (had sold the Flux after the first lockdown & the change was partly because I have a very small area to fit the trainer in between a sofa and a wardrobe and the Flux is bigger)

I'd recommend it if you can get a good deal (you won't get the 2018 prices anymore unfortunately) and if you can buy new from somewhere that will cover warranty & keep the receipt! If the price is going to be closer to 650-700€, I'd probably consider an Elite Direto XR or Wahoo Kickr Core instead.

Thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

that’s a pity about all the issues your are seeing on that group regarding flux s. The Elite Direto XR or kickr core is slightly more than I wanted to pay but if it means more reliability I would probably bite the bullet and go for one of them over the flux s

CantGetNoSleep

BobbyT28 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

that’s a pity about all the issues your are seeing on that group regarding flux s. The Elite Direto XR or kickr core is slightly more than I wanted to pay but if it means more reliability I would probably bite the bullet and go for one of them over the flux s

Yeah I had bought mine second hand and didn't have a receipt so one of my concerns was that it would give up. This was part of my reason for selling it, I even had to warn the seller that there was no warranty (it was working perfectly - I never had an issue with it).

I would buy one again at the right price, but only buying new with warranty. In that group though (it is called Tacx Flux owners group I think), there seem to be many on their second or third return and especially with supply the way it has been for the last 9/10 months, a warranty replacement could mean missing a lot of the value from the trainer. I've only started using mine heavily since November, and I'd hope to pack it away at the end of February.

Macy0161

Any of those groups are going to mainly be the problems, rather than necessarily be representative. I only go on the one for my turbo model when I have an issue - a noise, or looking to do maintenance. Bigger selling models have more noise.

themighty

The elite zumo and elite suito might be worth a look. Both get decent reviews on DC Rainmaker. The Zumo isn't as powerful as some of the other direct drive turbos and only seems to be available in Halfords.

The suito is the next step up, comes with a cassette as well. I know there were belt issues with the earlier batches released, but hopefully resolved now.

Agent_47

Anyone have info as to where I can get a Tacx Flow Budget Smart Trainer either online delivered to Ireland or via click and collect from a bricks n mortar shop. Supplies of most trainers appear out of stock. Halfords do Tacx but the Tacx Flow Budget Smart Trainer does not seem to feature.

Cheers

D13exile

Is this what you’re looking for? I’ve bought from them many times. Fast shipping and good prices
https://www.deporvillage.net/tacx-flow-smart-roller-trainer

ifeelabreeze

I've just bought an Elite Direto off of Chain Reaction Cycles, surprised to find they had some left in stock.

MojoMaker

Uh oh...

ifeelabreeze

MojoMaker wrote: »

Uh oh...

a_squirrelman

Hi all, I'm looking for a cheap and cheerful setup on rollers. I'm looking at the Elite Arion as it's cheap enough, I can get it for about €160 where I am. Does anyone have experience with it?

MojoMaker

ifeelabreeze wrote: »

??

From their UK warehouse?

ifeelabreeze

MojoMaker wrote: »

From their UK warehouse?

Indeed, but I contacted customer service and there's no additional costs.
Just going to be a bit of a wait.

BobbyT28

ifeelabreeze wrote: »

Indeed, but I contacted customer service and there's no additional costs.
Just going to be a bit of a wait.

I’m pretty sure your gonna be charged customs on that