Turbo Trainer which one
- Thread starter harrybarry
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
rockyraccoon
Veteran
I've got an Elite Crono Fluid ElastoGel Trainer. I can't rate this highly enough.
Rob3rt
Man or Moose!
- Location
- Manchester
I've got a Cyclops Fluid2. Its pretty good, quiet and simple.
amaferanga
Veteran
- Location
- Bolton
I've got one of these. Takes an hour to warm up and stabilise and so you can't use speed to gauge intensity until then.
With £250 I'd have a Kurt Kinetic Road
Arsen Gere
Guru
- Location
- North East, UK
I have one of the first cylops fluid trainers and its about 12 years old, it's still working.
Whatever you buy, ask to try it out and see how noisy it is. This may dictate whether you can use or not.
Whatever you buy, ask to try it out and see how noisy it is. This may dictate whether you can use or not.
Fletch456
Guru
- Location
- North Hampshire
Am looking for a new turbo at the mo and am not sure what you mean by - "An hour to warm up and stabilise"?
This one takes an hour to warm up and stop moving about???
So you would say wanting to do a 45-60 min workout is a waste of time on it?
amaferanga
Veteran
- Location
- Bolton
I'm referring to the resistance. It works fine, but if you want to use speed to gauge your effort then for around the first hour you'll find yourself going faster and faster for the same effort while it warms up. or if you start off and stick to the same speed then it'll actually get easier and easier, which isn't really what you want in a turbo.
Fletch456
Guru
- Location
- North Hampshire
madpensioner
Über Member
- Location
- thornton/cleveleys (nr blackpool )
you dont need to spend a lot of money - mine cost £89 - it is basic - slightly noisy and not to smooth - however our roads are noisy and they most certainly are rough - if you need detailed info. on your turbo session - fix a bike computer to the rear forks - you dont need a riser for the front - use a house brick - you dont need a sweat cover - throw a towel over the handle bars - best of luck - leigh
smokeysmoo
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bolton, not very far from Nob End
None, get out and ride 
Often a turbo that does not run smooth is one that has not got a spring loaded roller, by this I mean the roller tension is set by a nut or bolt of some type. Now this really shows up any egg shape in the rear wheel, we adapted early turbo's by replacing the nut with a bungy strap attached from the roller to under the saddle, thinking back I am glad it did not go ping.
jay clock
Massive member
- Location
- Hampshire UK
I have one of these. http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cycleops-cl...oogle&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=uk&ctype=2
47 out of 47 reviews on Wiggle would recommend it to a friend... add me to that list.
47 out of 47 reviews on Wiggle would recommend it to a friend... add me to that list.
nmcgann
Veteran
- Location
- Cambridge UK
+1 to that. I find mine takes about 10mins to stabilise - the resistance increases gradually as it heats up. It's a good built-in warmup.
It feels the most road-like of the turbos I've tried (the others are magnetic). I reckon the Tacx Flow (my main turbo) is better for doing short intervals (5mins and under) as the resistance can be switched on and off quickly and finely adjusted with a combination of slope setting and gear chosen. The Fluid2 is better than the Tacx for just churning along and doing steady work. You do need to be fairly strong to use the big ring though if you have a narrow range cassette - I use my TT bike on the turbo and it's hard work on the big ring.
amaferanga
Veteran
- Location
- Bolton
Just a follow up to my previous answer. I recently bought a Cycleops Fluid 2 turbo - costs about the same new as the Elite one I have. Here's a couple of Garmin Connect screenshots - one from last year when I used the Elite turbo and another from yesterday with my new (used) Fluid 2:
Elite Supercrono Fluid
Cycleops Fluid2
Now each 20 minute interval was performed at roughly fixed Wattage - 284W/288W on the Elite and 302W/302W on the Fluid 2. There's a slight rise in the last few minutes for each as I upped the effort a bit, but what you'd expect and hope to see are nice level speed/power/cadence profiles. With the Fluid 2 this is exactly what you see so if you were to use speed to gauge effort then it'd work. With the Elite though, if you used speed to gauge effort and kept it constant the actual effort required (i.e. the Watts) to maintain it would be getting less throughout both 20 minute intervals. That's just rubbish.
Which leads me to the following conclusion - the Elite turbo is junk and had I paid full whack for it (instead of the £70 I did pay for one in as new condition) then I'd be pretty cheesed off. The Fluid 2 on the other hand is superb. Note also how the power profile is much less ragged with the Fluid 2 compared to the Elite - the Fluid 2 is much more enjoyable to ride.
