I reckon that for your use case a decent indoor trainer and linking it up to zwift for example would be great to help keep yourself active over the wet months. I've been using a Tacx Flow T2240 like @fossyant for the past 2 years, mostly during the winter months, but occaisionally during the spring and summer when the weather has been particularly atrocious. I've just changed jobs however and will be using an indoor trainer with greater frequency - so I've pulled the trigger on a Tacx Flux from Halfords as they have them up for £400 presently for their black friday offering, which is an excellent price for what they are.
Best (not most expensive) turbo trainer
- Thread starter Skibird
- Start date
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- Tags
- turbo trainer
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Oh no - why did you tell me that?? I've been contemplating at £450, but that extra £50 has swung the balance. I'm not at home, but my local Halfords has one in stock and I've ordered one. Will collect tomorrow evening when I get home. Hopefully I'll get another 10% with British Cycling, taking it to £360 - well into the territory for the better wheel-on turbos.
Yep, that's what I did this morning, £359.99 with BC discount - don't forget that you now have to go online and download the discount voucher - you can't just rock up with the card anymore. I just emailed myself the PDF download and they scanned the barcode off that, so not really that much of a problem.
Just need to tidy up the spare room so I can assemble the thing. Now I just have to justify the purchase to Mrs C when she gets back from her parents
Skibird
Senior Member
- Location
- Brighstone, Newport
Thanks for the reminder of the BC discount, I've never used mine as I always forget about.
nickAKA
Über Member
- Location
- Manchester
Buying a turbo is a bit of a leap of faith initially. You don't want to spend a fortune in case you hate it, but if you buy something cheap and decide it floats your boat you'll end up buying twice. My advice would be to go mid-range - the better the quality of the turbo, the better the resale value will be if you decide it's not for you - but plan to use it at least over winter to get some value out of it even if you find it a godawful chore.
A smart trainer teamed up with zwift works for me but there are lots of alternatives, most smart trainers come bundled with software so you don't need to dive straight into a monthly subscription service.
Sorry - my setup is the elite qubo digital smart b+, running on Apple TV, an iPad or my (android) phone in beta. All work great, and at £250ish new it's reasonable, but yup you can pick them up cheap on ebay. It's done a few thousand virtual miles and still functions as it should. When it eventually dies I'll be going big on the next one...
A smart trainer teamed up with zwift works for me but there are lots of alternatives, most smart trainers come bundled with software so you don't need to dive straight into a monthly subscription service.
Sorry - my setup is the elite qubo digital smart b+, running on Apple TV, an iPad or my (android) phone in beta. All work great, and at £250ish new it's reasonable, but yup you can pick them up cheap on ebay. It's done a few thousand virtual miles and still functions as it should. When it eventually dies I'll be going big on the next one...
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Globalti
Legendary Member
Not true! Night riding is fantastic, get an LED light and get out there. It's probably safer as well because you and cars can see each other much more easily.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Off road night riding, even better'erer ! Turbo is handy though.
- Location
- Inside my skull
Mtb turbo in the woods
T.M.H.N.E.T
Rainbows aren't just for world champions
- Location
- Northern Ireland
At night, with no lights
Globalti
Legendary Member
Night MTBing in the SNOW is even better. We once went up to Darwen tower in snow and bright moonlight on a freezing crisp night. My cleats kept freezing up and wouldn't engage with my SPDs. The moonlight was so bright on the snow that we were able to ride without lights. Absolutely magical!
- Location
- Inside my skull
Mtb n snow is like riding on velcro. Utterly brilliant.
gmw492
Veteran
Just noticed this thread and your reply,looking at the same myself Tacx Flux from Halfords but pretty new to the smart trainer stuff, does it auto adjust if you go uphill on a course and is it worth buying any good, thanks
nickAKA
Über Member
- Location
- Manchester
It's a 'proper' smart trainer so adjusts resistance within whatever app you're using, early versions of the flux had some technical issues (based on what I read online, not personal experience) but they seem to have ironed out the kinks & like most of the top-end trainer manufacturers they have good customer service.
