Who uses indoor trainers ?

[CharlV]

Hallo All

I need some opinions on indoor trainers , should we be buying these gadgets or not? I stay in the rustenburg area and we have very few real "Argus like" hills to train on ,unless you turn around every 10 minutes and train on the hill towards Swartrugens of course. i was thinking on doing my speed and endurance training on the road and beef up my strength/power training on the indoor trainer. The trainer I am refering to is a normal Giant trainer which you hook your bike on to(think it works with a magnet of some sort)

 

your pearls of wisdom please..................

CharlV

[pastapouch]

IDt = tough. Mentaly as well as physically. Very effective depending on your discipline. Do intervals and have a DVD to watch nearby. IT GETS BORING!!

[AuctionLamb]

I use one often...sometimes I work late or weather does not play along so I jump on one. Boring but it makes you strong!!! Play some lekker tunes while riding, this will help with the boring part.

[CharlV]

thanks gonna hit it this afternoon ,salesman tells me I should think of using a second tyre just for exercise ,as the trainer causes huge heat build up on the rear tyre causing it to perish quickly.........?

[timM]

You can download spinning podcasts at http://trihardistpodcast.blogspot.com These can be used with either a trainer or a spinning bike. Great workouts - different themes like cadence, hill-work, endurance etc.

[canfan]

Getting bored is the biggest problem as the other guys have said. But if you want to make it work and you get over the mental issue of it, IDT's are great. They make you strong as you have to work all the time.

[Wil6]

Nothing compares to the open road but you can get a nice work out on a trainer doing intervals,but more than a hour on the trainer it gets reeeaaal boring!

[SwissVan]

Been using IDT's of various types (rollers, A frame,CAteye 1000, Spinning bike) for about +10 years.

 

Currently using a Cyclops Indoor PT300.

 

http://www.cycleops.com/products/indoor-cycles.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=171&category_id=7

 

Great spinning bike with Cyclops power tap n all...only 2 things I dont like about the cyclops or any other spinning type bike are:

1. Fixed cog, rear wheel does not free wheel.

2. Difficult to replicate the actual gear ratios you have on a real bike.

Hence this winter I'm looking to change back to a more conventional trainer that uses the actual bike I ride with, if I can find one that is quite enough not to disturb the neighbours...

 

There are pro and cons to to every type of IDT you can get and has been discussed plenty on the hub, try do an archive search.

[AuctionLamb]

I bought an old back wheel from a cycle shop, put one of my old clusters on and also bought a Continental indoor trainer tyre(ugly yellow one). When I hop on the trainer I just swop the back wheel.

[Eldron]

Brilliant training tool.

 

No stop streets, corners or hills to interupt an interval session - you can choose exactly how hard to go and when to go.

 

Any serious rider should have one.

 

Some advice - buy one with a rubber/neoprene roller so it doesn't chompp the tyre as much - a training tyre is also a must.

 

Buy a fan - set it on FAST and place it in front of the the trainer otherwise its a huge sweatfest.

 

Make sure the front wheel is as high as the rear - either a few old Ride magazines or the proper front wheel stand should do fine.

[MaxUmis]

I use one of those Giant ones.

Use it with good thumping tunes or with some sport on TV...

 

However, I find that IDT sessions "sit" in the muscles for a LONG time...

So I try not to have a tough session on the IDT when there's less than 8 days to an event I want to do.

[scotty]

Boring at times but not as boring as not having one and its pouring rain outside, then you'll wish you had one.

[Jono Waddell]

Awesome training. I use mine a few times a week winter. I agree with the sales person, they chew through tyres. Saw a tip in the Bicycling mag about using insulation tape over your wheel. Not sure it if it works but if it saves the cost of spare wheel, cluster, and tyre its worth a try.

[CharlV]

Thank you "Ma-Gents"

Nothing negative in there except "dicipline to be added for real success" so Fereed will be making a buck out of me agaiiiiiiiin this week .

by the way has anyone thought of posting a string where we can keep track of each others progress over the season ...........say by comparing your last three years results on the same races i.e Dome2dome; Telkom Satelite ; Lost City; 94.7 ; Argus ; etc, shurely some peer pressure can only help us improve ,especially for us Rookies to see if we can catch the "Ou Manne"

 

CharlV

[FrancoisO]

I train all winter on the indoor trainer, but try to do outside training on the weekends. I use a Tacx Flow. Make sure you have a fan(remote one) if possible and a TV to watch movies(action movies, you do not have to listen), because it can get hard. There is also a lot of training DVD's(Chris Carmichael, Coach Troy etc.)

[Ha Ha Kieran]

Dude! You have a monsteer climb up behind Waterfall Mall!