turbo trainer v outdoors cycling

[Pblakeney]

I pretty much loath indoor riding but it's a necessary evil to maintain cycling fitness and in winter when I do most of my turbo riding I can sort of get into it enough to make it OK.

100% prefer to ride outside but I draw line at current shite weather hence yesterday was turbo. I've tried Zwift and it just doesn't do anything for me, just cannot get into it. I use downloaded videos from Youtube of real world rides coupled with training metrics and find that's good enough for what I need.

You want Rouvy or Fulgaz.

 

[Binky]

Yes I've seen those and tempted to give a go. Maybe next winter.

 

[fossyant]

I pretty much loath indoor riding but it's a necessary evil to maintain cycling fitness and in winter when I do most of my turbo riding I can sort of get into it enough to make it OK.

100% prefer to ride outside but I draw line at current shite weather hence yesterday was turbo. I've tried Zwift and it just doesn't do anything for me, just cannot get into it. I use downloaded videos from Youtube of real world rides coupled with training metrics and find that's good enough for what I need.

For occasional use, and without the outlay, MyWhoosh is OK. Very similar to Zwift, but free. I used to be a Zwift user when I was regularly using it and paid the subs, but not worth it now. I also have a lot less space for my previous set up - dedicated PC, two screens, music. Given the expansion in camping gear and an extra bike, I currently have the bike on my smart turbo, and use my Lenovo Yoga in tablet mode on a tablet holder bolted to the bars. There is an old 42" smart telly in the garage currently, but no-where to put it.

 

[VinSumRox]

I quite enjoy the turbo, using Zwift, but only use it when weather isn't pleasant outside, so usually dump the subscription in the summer. I tend to go much harder for 30-60 minutes on it than I would riding outside unless doing a short blast ride. So good for keeping the fitness up.

 

[yello]

Last time I road outside in the UK, it was enough to send me back indoors in search of a trainer. Just saying. It's another factor.

I can ride mile after mile here without stopping (except for a pee, or perhaps a boulangerie stop). There's next to no traffic and roads are pretty good quality (some are worn perhaps but mercifully free of the craterous pot holes that seemed a feature of UK roads) In that context, the home trainer is even less attractive.

 

[CXRAndy]

Last time I road outside in the UK, it was enough to send me back indoors in search of a trainer. Just saying. It's another factor

I'm not afraid of outside riding, just prefer nice dry conditions.

I just prefer the ease, convenience of interaction of indoor Zwift-ing

 

[Binky]

Last time I road outside in the UK, it was enough to send me back indoors in search of a trainer. Just saying. It's another factor.

I can ride mile after mile here without stopping (except for a pee, or perhaps a boulangerie stop). There's next to no traffic and roads are pretty good quality (some are worn perhaps but mercifully free of the craterous pot holes that seemed a feature of UK roads) In that context, the home trainer is even less attractive.

Nice although last month been lovely here in UK. Cracking weather, dry roads and if you chose your route carefully there was limited traffic.
I had some of my best rides for years last few weeks. Unfortunately all changed now with weather.

I'm fortunate to live in a quiet rural/coastal area so as long as weather decent being outside is great. And in fairness local council authority pretty good at maintaining roads although still get potholes etc.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Where I live I have ~15km of suburban slog before I get to pleasant cycling country. That means I don't do any outside rides shorter than about 40km. So if I have a less than a couple of hours to spare I'll head off to the shed and ride up a simulated mountain. More than that I'll go outside.

I did try commuting by bike, but I hated it.

 

[yello]

15km of suburban slog before I get to pleasant cycling

Ooof. Yep, different contexts mean different turbo needs/usage. Me, I'm out the gate and on rural roads.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Since '18, when I got my first turbo, I depend on them to get me through from around November until at least early March, whenever proper spring weather (dry and approx 14C) arrives.

Mixing it up, free rides, workouts and races.

Besides commuting, I'll only ride outside over winter if we have some exceptional weather.

Once spring arrives, I'd usually be outside, but since long covid there's been a lot of times when I'd be very unsure of my energy levels and so the turbo has got far more summer use in '23 and '24. Far less hassle to give up in the cave than ~10+ miles away from home!

Hopefully that will change now I have the ebike, which has only had a longest ride of 5 miles so far in a week, hoping to do try 20+ miles today with lots of assistance!

 

[Legs]

I'm also out of the gate and on rural roads. But having young family, and working, means that Zwift is much more convenient because I can do it at oh-dark-hundred hours before the kids come down for breakfast, and it doesn't take an age to dress up for in the winter time. I mostly do racing and hard workouts on Zwift - I can't really bear the boredom of doing long, steady turbo rides.

As the summer is on its way, I'll be able to get out a bit on my roadgoing bike in the mornings and evenings.

 

[HLaB]

Watts. As I said I don't have a power meter but those that do can ride at say 200w inside or out and effort should be pretty close.

Depends how good your indoor setup is. If it's a good set up, well cooled etc it could be pretty close, but if it's a 'sauna' inside it'll be nowhere close. That's just one factor simplified there'll be many.

 

[Wheelspinner]

While it's a lovely spot for walking round here, the riding leaves a bit to be desired. I do some limited road and trail miles, but most of my bike time is indoors now. I had one of the old dumb trainers which I loathed - 30 mins was the absolute limit of my tolerance. That thing was also seriously hard work - I ran a speed and cadence sensor on it and even tweaked ideally I still found it almost impossible to average 20 km/h. It was definitely a LOT more effort to ride than out on the road. But 4 times harder? Arguable.

For a bunch of reasons in 2021 I bought a Neo 2T, thinking it was worth a try. I only ever do the filmed outdoor rides on the Tacx Training app, and find it very realistic in terms of effort. It's really not significantly different from outdoors real world riding from that perspective at all.

And I like it. I've done about 12,000 km on it in the 4 years it's been in the shed, and I'd consider it the best cycling money I've spent in all that time.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Riding at 200w should be exactly the same whether inside or out.

Due to insufficient cooling it’ll likely be much harder indoors, than out. Certainly true in north Europe.

 

[Binky]

That can be mitigated by fans, open windows, AC etc so yeah it is possible to make a good comparison if putting out same power.

However, for most the perception of effort is highly likely to be more indoors as for most - again a generalisation but it seems to be case - as usually enviroment much more pleasant outdoors than in.