Recommended Turbo Trainer?

Hi everyone,
I am hoping to buy a Turbo Trainer and have been looking into various brands/models etc. Ideally I want one that displays training details such as cadence, distance , time, speed etc as without these I think the sessions would be fairly pointless.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Chain reaction cycles have a special (€207incl delivery) on the Tacx Satori Pro Trainer but although it comes with a mat, DVD and front wheel support it doesn't appear to come with any diaplay information?

Can anyone recommend a decent trainer for me?

Thanks :-)
Louise

Hi Louise,

I don't have a fancy turbo myself because I hate the thing, but when using a turbo you shouldn't be too worried about distance & speed.

Sessions on a turbo would be more often based off time & heart rate or time and power. I'm guessing that you'd be paying top dollar for a turbo that also displays power so a more cost effective way would be get a normal turbo trainer and buy heart rate monitor (Lidl for eur15 would do). You could also get a cadence sensor if you really wanted to...
Alternatively, you could get a garmin that could be used out on the road too and that could display everything you wanted.

I'm not sure what level you're at but If you go down the heart-rate monitor road, to get the most out of it you should go and get a test done in a sports lab and they will tell you what zones your heart rate should be in to get the most out of your sessions. Eg - do 10min warm up @130bpm, 3*10mins @160-165bpm, with 5mins rest in between (or whatever!) You can get those tests done in Trinity, Sportsmed, Base2race....among other places. If you don't know your zones then you're just guessing really.....

But be warned, the turbo trainer is an absolutely horrible piece of equipment and no matter how good your intentions are you might never actually use the thing. Some people grow to love them and it is a really time-efficient way to train so it's great if you do.

BA.

Hi Louise,

I have a Tacx Satori myself and it's a fine device and does its job admirably. As Brian has already stated the power and/or heart rate outputs on a turbo are going to be expensive if built in. If you already have something like a Garmin watch or an Edge series bike computer then it's all the display you'll really need. There are some models of turbos that come with a gaming feature added but those things are well over twice the price of the Satori. Also, power output readings from a turbo will not be consistent, therefore useless for structured training purposes.

Regarding testing for heart rate zones you can try to get in contact with Lucy Soden. She's doing sports science research in Trinity and might still have a need for some volunteers who are willing to suffer.

As for training plans and exercises on a turbo, a lot of people like The Sufferfest videos.

One more thing, training indoors doesn't give you the cooling effect of air rushing around you like when cycling outdoors. For this reason a big fan or two is a very useful addition to a turbo.

Hi Louise I noticed that Aisling is selling a trubo trainer on the forum a few entries up from you and although its not the make you mentioned it might be just right for you. i will take a commission from both of you as "corkage"!!!