Postby sb944 » Tue Mar 05, 2013 5:26 pm
After a bunch of googling, I decided to get a trainer, and move a big chunk of training to it. I got a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine, spare wheel, trainer tyres and ant+ usb.
For the trainer, it seemed resistance is what cheaper models lack, which means you'll go past it's maximum power in short bursts quite easily. Even the well respected Cycleops Fluid 2 can be pushed past that point apparently. The Road Machine and Cycleops Fluid Pro have bigger flywheels and avoid that. If you really want a sprint, there is a Pro flywheel upgrade for the Road Machine, but I haven't read of people buying that.
To those asking about tyres, there are countless examples of people chewing through normal tyres, nearly no examples of people upset after buying a trainer tyre. I bought a spare wheel and cassette (old cassette will go on the trainer wheel), and will swap the road wheel with the trainer wheel when I use the trainer. Either way, I'd advise to add that to the cost of getting properly setup on a trainer, it seems like it will pay off in the long run if you continue to use the trainer.
Power. A quality unit will give predictable resistance at different speeds. So as long as the bike is in the trainer in the same position, and the tyre is the same pressure, you should be able to accurately estimate your power efforts. Another alternative to that mentioned above is a subscription to trainerroad.com and get the ant+ stick. That will then show you current power statistics on your laptop, which is what I'm going to try. It works for most trainers. If the website doesn't offer anything else I care for, I'll probably just write my own power app for windows for the road machine, if there isn't already a freebie. This may not be 100% useful for use on the road or comparing with others, but it will help your current training, as you can get your FTP tested often, and train using that on the trainer.
Now it's just the usual wait from UK hopefully.