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Right currently near deaths door with man flu so not ridden for 2 weeks and tbh had a poor few months before that....
So if I was to look at plotting my way back to fitness and the turbo route appears to be a necessary evil
Turbos are a bit boring yes?
Therefore looking at ways of spicing up a bit so thinking the options are:-
1 trainer road
2 a b'kool or tacx interactive
3 suffer fest only and deal with it
Any views welcomed based on experience ( esp B'kool)
Help on good basis for a trainer road set up would be good too as my turbo is a very basic one that I'm thinking of replacing- got a road bike to put on - budget for everything is £300 ish all in
Cheers
Trainerroad works great with a relatively basic turbo. I use this one -
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/elite-crono-fluid-elastogel-trainer
+
ww.wiggle.co.uk/elite-elastogel-front-wheel-riser-block/
It doesn't feel too great once you get above 300Watts, and you can't ride out of the saddle, but that still leaves you £145 quid
You also need
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/garmin-speed-cadence-sensor/
£95 quid left
An ant+ transponder
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/garmin-usb-ant-stick/
£60 quid left to buy a trainerroad subscription and some sufferfest videos
Cheers Ian
Also forgot to mention laptop is a MacBook but would like to hook upto ipad if possible
Should all work fine on a MacBook. An ipad is a different kettle of fish though. Trainerroad have an iphone app, that will run on an ipad. But the ipad/iphone doesn't have usb/ant+ support so you need to go through a bluetooth to ant+ bridge.
Wahoo make a HR monitor strap that will do this, so your ipad/phone talks to the HR strap which then talks to you ant+ speed and cadence sensors.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wahoo-Fitness-Monitor-iPhone-Android/dp/B00INQVYZ8
Never tried it though..
Decathlon ant+ speed and cadence sensor is only £17 http://www.decathlon.co.uk/ant-speed-rate-sensor-cycle-computer-accessory-id_8181211.html
You can also get genuine Garmin ant+ USB sticks on eBay for ~£15
Trainer road and the bottom of the range elite rollers here. Much less boring than turbo with the benefit that its a 2 second job to unfold the rollers and plonk the bike on.
Ive got the turbo suggested by IanMunro
That's currently a very good price, not been that cheap for over a year now. Very good turbo for the money.
Thanks chaps- looks like trainer road may be the way to go as I'm a bit worried to spend lots on something too gimmicky and tbh 1 hour at a time will be my max
In regards to iOS, unfortunately we do not support bridging at this time. If you have a Bluetooth power meter you can use the native iPad BT or you can get an ANT+ dongle for the iPad ([url= http://support.trainerroad.com/hc/en-us/articles/201618914-ANT-Connectivity ]http://support.trainerroad.com/hc/en-us/articles/201618914-ANT-Connectivity[/url]). We're hoping to have the iPad optimized app out soon, but the current iPhone version works great on the iPad as well. Let me know if there are any other questions I can answer for ya!
-Trevor from TrainerRoad
ticking this for future reference as I'm thinking of delving into turbo training
Bit of a shame about not supporting bridging with the wahoo HR strap, I was thinking about giving that a try. Is that something you are working on Trevor?
Hi
I have a BKOOL
I bought this as I knew with my limited attention span, if I'd bought a simple turbo I'd only use it a couple of times and it would be a waste of money, a bit like any previous gym memberships I've had
When it's properly bad outside its a pretty good alternative, I have it hooked up in the garage with a spare PC and monitor, it's pretty quiet* and easy to use
*appart from the dirty base tunes 🙂
Edit: Double post
[url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tacx-T2200-Flow-Ergotrainer-With-Skyliner-Support-Turbo-Trainer-BRAND-NEW-/171619328976?pt=UK_SportGoods_CyclAcces_RL&hash=item27f54f23d0 ]Tacx flow ergo[/url]
Bought one of these the week before Christmas,brand new in box & received it two days later.£149 posted was far cheaper than anything else I could find.You could then even go for the [url= http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/tacx-vr-upgrade-flow/rp-prod33160 ]VR PC upggrade[/url] & with the £15 off offer still have a few quid left for a few drinks to celebrate your new bargain