tsto

I am wondering who in the group has any experience training on a wattbike and can share any specifics on workouts, programming, etc.

I just picked one up second hand and it definitely has it's quirks with programming workouts and recording data.

carleton

Jimmy Watkins used a Wattbike in his training leading up to the Olympics.

Blog Post - Wattbike UK
Blog Post - Wattbike UK

I've seen photos of Sarah Hammer using one. Not sure if they were promo shots or if it was actually an integral part of her program.

I trained on Cycleops bikes for a season with great results (even as a sprinter). I didn't lift weights that season and my on-bike strength and power went up. But, that was due to having a great program written by my coach.
https://www.cycleops.com/products/indoor-cycles.html

So, I definitely think you can achieve any goals you want using a Wattbike. What to do on the Wattbike is a BIG question. Most "spin bike" workouts aren't track-specific, meaning that they may not train the energy systems in the way that you need to at the particular time of year that you need to train those things...basically "Programming".

If you want, I can recommend a world-level coach that specializes in training his athletes with spin bikes.

Quinn8it

I can't speak specifically about the Watt Bike, as I've not used it, but I do have the Predator Ergo and I do a ton of training on it.
October through March I do 5hrs a week on the Ergo- about 60% of my bike time.
April through September I do 2-3hrs a week on the ergo..

IMHO- it is possible to do equal or better quality Lactate training on the ergo Vs the Track.
That assumes that you can deal with Stationary training.. I can.

So that would cover accell style efforts- ridden from the Blue line,I do everything from 250m to 2Km

for those types of efforts you can basically replicate your track workout..
Ive gone through and done Test Efforts at the Track to determine effort time, average power and cadence for each effort, then I attempt to replicate the effort on the Ergo.

The weakness of Erg training would be replicating Speed Work.. Although flying 200 type efforts that I've done do have a similar power profile as on the track- but they don't feel the same..

carleton

The funny part about training on a spin bike all winter is getting the "willies" when you get on 44deg banking for the first time in 6 months

"Feeels like the fiiiirst time. Feeels like the VERY first time!!"

gtrob

What is the benefit of these ergo trainers over a road bike + trainer? Or is it just for the built in power reading?

Ill be setting up the training + roadbike for another season of "pretend I actually ride the trainer in the winter" shortly.

carleton

- The nicer ergo bikes can handle strong standing starts (+2,000W)
- They are available as fixed gear.
- They have heavy flywheels that better simulate inertia (50lbs for the Cycleops)
- You can control the resistance like a mag trainer, but with mag trainers you can't get high torque (think for a standing start).

gtrob

Sounds like a good balance between fluid and mag then. I had a mag, hated it as I had to max it out to get any resistance, but then it felt like riding through mud (no momentum). I also couldn't get anything over 700w out of it.

carleton

Yup. The only mag trainer that you can get good resistance out of to do standing starts is the old Cateye CS1000. I actually have a modern Cycleops Mag trainer and it isn't good for much outside of long grinding efforts 30" or longer.

Don't get me wrong, a mag trainer is great for track training because you can more easily dial in the right torque/cadence ratio to suit the effort using your track bike. To get the right torque/cadence mix using a road bike you have to play with the gears...but then you are on the road bike :-/

So, if you had to get only 1 trainer for track training out of rollers, mag trainer, or fluid trainer, I'd suggest a quality mag trainer. But a high-end spin bike brings the really heavy flywheel and the really low end torque for efforts 5 seconds up to 30 seconds...which is the bread and butter of sprint training.

gtrob

I guess it depends what you want out of it. The fluid is nice for those long TT efforts, if you are the sick kind of person who can do that, the fluid is nice to cruise on.


Have you ever used resistance rollers? Obviously you cant do the standing efforts on them (without amazing balance I suppose!)