Tripleshot Cycling

Since I've become incapable of waking up early more than once a week, I'm looking for something to do with my legs while I watch TV and eat Hawkins Cheezies® (which are synonymous with wholesome goodness, don'tcha know).

Do you have a trainer you'd swear by? Or one you hate? Some stuff to help discussion:

This is a previous thread started by Chris Watt asking the same question.

This is a mag trainer from MEC with a tension-adjusting lever: $369.

This is a fluid trainer from Kurt Kinetic which I know a bunch of you guys have: OBB for $479 (pre-TS discount).

Things I care more about: stability, durability, resistance manipulation. Things I care less about: noise, portability, adjustability (I only got one bike!), data, price.

Thanks...

Go for a better alarm clock and show some discipline


If you are getting a trainer, take fluid over mag....

I'm thinking of going to rollers simply for the sheer adrenalin rush when you loose focus for a moment...

I get to bored on trainers, so i bought a set of mec rollers. I really like them, but stability will be an issue. I recently found out it is very difficult to watch seinfeld off an ipod and ride at the same time.

Luke

I know a triathlete who does six hour rides on a trainer.

But when we live in the most rideable city in Canada, it does seems like drinking instant coffee when you could have a double americano.

Lister Farrar wrote:But when we live in the most rideable city in Canada, it does seems like drinking instant coffee when you could have a double americano.

Point taken... but now take that instant coffee and imagine enjoying it in the comfort of an IMAX theatre with something way more entertaining than an IMAX film in front of you, and compare it to sipping an americano with cold wind on your face and nothing to look at but traffic and occasionally another solo rider.

Okay, screw the confusing metaphors. You're absolutely right: riding outside wins every time. But I suspect that by cleverly disguising solo exercise as something undertaken contemporaneously with, and incidental to, something pleasant (like watching The Wire and enjoying one of Canada's few remaining trusty sources of orange trans fats), I may slightly compensate for my failure to make it out at 6 a.m. on a Tuesday.

What's your address Rolf

see you in the AM you are only 3 blocks from the start point !

<crunch, crunch> Hmm... looks like I should go set an alarm. Thanks for all the great advice on trainers, guys.

ok ok, if you really want advice from a guy who doesn't use one much, here's what I know.

Cheap ones seem to mangle quick releases. Buy a cheap qr and use when you're on your trainer.
The new roller style with the sliding mechanism looks ideal to me, more movement, more interest factor, but they don't fold, and weigh a lot. (Mike Lawless has one. But I think it's dirty, so maybe ask if he wants to sell it.) Maybe wait a year or so until the lighter folding models come out? http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/03/ ... ers_208643
There's a middle step, the kinetic. http://trisports.com/kiroroprotr.html Expensive though
Get resistance adjustment you can reach from the bike.
Look for plastic parts that might break, and avoid them. I have one like that.
How you set the tire tension affects tire wear dramatically. I wore a tire out this winter in about an hour and half by not having it pushing hard enough on the roller. Left a lot of rubber on Eric Simonson's classroom floor. Looked like i was riding in a circle of black dust. Trainer tires are available. I'd buy one. Maybe a wheel just for the trainer so the qr thing is ok too?
Have a sweat management plan. I have a donated frame with a big rusty patch where the previous owner dripped on it. And alu can corrode too, it's not just steel. Dunno what carbon fibre does, but you're not in immediate danger of that are u?

Others?

Oh, I'll try to answer the actual question.

What do I think about my indoor trainer? I despise my indoor trainer.

But it's not the trainer's fault. (CycleOps Fluid 2). The fluid trainer is relatively quiet and I like the resistance it offers. I've never had a moment's trouble from it and I have put about 1000 km on it this winter. It's tough as nails and doesn't seem to mind being hucked around from garage to car to Coach's Pain Cave and back. Never a hint of a leak, which I'm told some older fluid trainers did.

My limited attention span does not tolerate solo riding on it at all, even with a movie to distract. Your mileage may vary. I do find that having team-mates around makes it all much more bearable. If I *must* ride indoors (I draw the line at gales >50 km/h or ice on the road, ever since the B-Ride's Excellent Adventure that Friday morning in November) I fire up a Sufferfest video and let them taunt me into sticking it out.

Hope that helps,

Kate

Thanks, Kate. It does. And thanks, Lister; as usual you're a goldmine. "Sweat management"? Yuck. Good thing I don't sweat. Only horses sweat. Men perspire. (And women glow.)

From succumbing to the peer pressure above and making it out for a painful B ride this morning, I learned:

(a) posting this thread was a subconscious cry for help; and
(b) I didn't actually need a trainer, I needed an intervention.

But I'm still going to buy one, so thanks for your comments.

I have a Kinetic. It works well, is very smooth to pedal. My key recommendation would be to go for a fluid trainer over a mag trainer.

Magnetic--I use my Kinetic waaaay to much these days. That, a trainer tyre, and some good video have been lifesaving in this work compromised approach to riding forced on me this winter! Smooth, relatively bomb proof with a lifetime warranty against leaks.