Can anyone help a clueless wife please?

[Annie25]

Firstly, please forgive my ignorance as I have no idea what I'm talking about or if I have posted this in the right place.
My husband has been mountain biking for a while but has recently taken up road biking for fitness and to get to work and back.
He expressed an interest in getting one of those stand things that you can put your bike on indoors to lift the back wheel up and ride on the spot - he does not get out as often to ride in the evenings as he'd like due to looking after the kids while I work.
I am hoping to get him one for Christmas but there are so many different variants depending on lots of things I don't understand!
I presume he' ll want to use it for his road bike but his mountain bike is a Mondraker tracker r I think and his road bike is B'twin Triban 3.
If anyone could be kind enough to point me in the right direction I would really appreciate. I've been looking on Amazon but just don't know what I'm looking for. Thanks in advance.

 

[Annie25]

Oh and there was lots of talk of needing to replace skewers to use them??

 

[Kies]

The piece of kit your referring to is a "turbo trainer" . They start at £70 and go upto several hundred pounds. The decent ones will come with a skewer. The idea being, you remove the skewer from the rear wheel on the Triban, and replace it with the one supplied with your turbo. This then helps to cradle the rear wheel.
The cheaper magnetic ones, give a very notchy ride in my experience, so look at the fluid filled ones.
Lots and lots of reviews (and opinions) here and elsewhere on the intersuperbusway

 

[smokeysmoo]

Hi and welcome.

It would probably help to let folk know your budget as you can buy them from around £60 to many hundreds of £'s

Also where it will be used might help as some are much noisier than others.

I can't recommend any myself as I don't honestly like them, but plenty of others do, and with the extra info I've suggested I've no doubt recommendations will be forth coming.

Hope you get sorted

 

[GuardTwin]

I will admit I have not had one but I looked at loads and asked about as this is part of my career path and I've been asked about it by clients before, I was told from a specialist pretty much what Smokeysmoo said about the quality and price range, some places that sell do offer a demo as the higher they get in price the more stable it is, simple setups and higher for intensity.

If I took this situation into my own, I would either show the person what I want and how much it is so either putting money towards it would be great if it was too expensive so whoever might buy it for me will know what they look like and where to get it. Basically I would do the shopping and direct to the best deals and let them decided to either go for it and buy it or put money towards it.

I've done that before, shown my parents what I was after and the first time they was not too sure so they gave me money inside of a card with a nice note mentioning its for what I'm after or i could save it for later on..... there has been a time I saved it and later on I bought it cheaper in another deal.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Hi Annie,

I've just got myself one of these

http://www.questadventure.co.uk/bkool

It's a top bit of kit and will allow him to spend hours riding in a virtual reality world ..he'll love it!

Oh yes..replacing skewers is no big deal. This Bkool set up came with replacement skewers which stay on the bike for use inside or outside on the roads. It's a five minute job to replace them.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Firstly, please forgive my ignorance as I have no idea what I'm talking about or if I have posted this in the right place.
My husband has been mountain biking for a while but has recently taken up road biking for fitness and to get to work and back.
He expressed an interest in getting one of those stand things that you can put your bike on indoors to lift the back wheel up and ride on the spot - he does not get out as often to ride in the evenings as he'd like due to looking after the kids while I work.
I am hoping to get him one for Christmas but there are so many different variants depending on lots of things I don't understand!
I presume he' ll want to use it for his road bike but his mountain bike is a Mondraker tracker r I think and his road bike is B'twin Triban 3.
If anyone could be kind enough to point me in the right direction I would really appreciate. I've been looking on Amazon but just don't know what I'm looking for. Thanks in advance.

Do you have a particular budget in mine, Annie? (For the record, I recently bought a turbo trainer - Elite Crono - on Wiggle, it's one of the fluid ones and surprisingly quiet,or at least the neighbours downstairs still smile and say hello, £150. Skewers included. So that's about twice the lowest price but it works, it's quiet and stable. I changed the tyres over but I'd imagine that, unless hubby has thrown the original tyres away, they'll be better on a turbo than on a winter road anyway.) Prices can be lower or far higher but that's the limit of my experience.

 

[Tyke]

Hi Annie,

I've just got myself one of these

http://www.questadventure.co.uk/bkool

It's a top bit of kit and will allow him to spend hours riding in a virtual reality world ..he'll love it!

Oh yes..replacing skewers is no big deal. This Bkool set up came with replacement skewers which stay on the bike for use inside or outside on the roads. It's a five minute job to replace them.

This looks like a great bit of kit but might be overkill for the OP as a Crimbo gift. You can get turbos without the VR for far less as other posters have already said, or maybe rollers as an alternative. I cant say what the best option is as never used eighther but I have just ordered a set of rollers after many reviews and think this will be much more like riding the bike.

 

[Annie25]

Thank you for all the very quick replies.
I was hoping to spend only about £100 but could push it up a bit. Perhaps I'm better leaving it for him to choose and give him the money towards it. Won't quite be the same on Christmas morning! It will mainly be used in the lounge I guess in carpeted wooden floors.

 

[Globalti]

Hi Annie,

I have a Tacx trainer, which uses a simple fan for resistance. This is the cheapest option but also the noisiest. I've tried to find it on the Tacx website but can't find it; it looks as if they have discontinued it in favour of the more expensive but quieter fluid or magnetic resistance units. To my mind, for an occasional user if noise doesn't matter the fan units are perfectly adequate because you simply use the bike's gearing to increase the fan speed and the effort required. The most important point is that any trainer is fairly meaningless without a heart rate monitor so that the user can guage their effort. It also makes the training sessions a little less boring because you can introduce warm up, then sprints then cool down sections into your session.

So what I'm suggesting is that you buy him a budget trainer AND a basic heart rate monitor. Basic fan trainers can still be had from Machine Mart:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/080210001 have a look also at the variable resistance fans from them, they are made by Clarke and I've had lots of Clarke stuff from them and it's all good quality. I know Decathlon have some budget trainers as well.

A basic HRM is something like this one from Polar: http://www.polar.com/uk-en/products/get_active/fitness_crosstraining/FT1

I really don't think he will need a top-notch HRM at this stage.

A couple of notes on turbos: he will sweat like a good 'un so will want to use the trainer in the garage or somewhere un-heated. He will need a towel to wipe the sweat away and protect the bike from salty sweat; a fan would be brilliant to create a cooling breeze. If he has to train on a carpeted floor, a mat to catch the sweat drips will be a good idea. Keep an eye on him or arrange a call system because you can easily overdo it and I think using a trainer alone is a tiny bit risky, just my paranoia.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

I have the Kurt Kinetic Rock and Roll trainer which permits the bike rock side to side, so the experience is a little more natural. You can pick it up for around £400

 

[vickster]

The OP said her budget is £100...maybe you could sell her yours for that

 

[Annie25]

Thank you for all your help.
Would this one be ok? Reviews seem ok on other sites.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/hometrainer-satori-pro-pack-id_8164386.html

 

[Peteaud]

Halfords are doing the Elite Voltare thing for £100 in the sale.

Mines been good.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

I'm making the assumption you're near a Decathlon with him having a Triban3 (ok mail order, but fingers crossed it was store bought) The do a few different Turbo trainers and seem to be quite laid back in their sales technique and letting you have a chat and look at stuff. also good VFM