providencebikes

Hi so its 5 degrees out and looking to get an indoor trainer. There are a lot of options but im trying to stay well under 300 USD and get a powertap hub . i guess that would be the best bang for buck . so can you suggest a trainer that is really good resistance wise. I want to be able to put out at least 1000 wats power at the highest and around 300 average ...

caloso

Basic fluid trainer from Nashbar or Performance.

Esthetic

Kinetic Road Machine is one of the better fluid trainers on the market.

They also offer a flywheel upgrade to a 14lb one as an option, down the road....

https://www.eriksbikeshop.com/KINETI...hoCEPsQAvD_BwE

speedlever

The link is to a USED trainer. Just curious if that was intentional? Nothing wrong with used necessarily. But I thought it was new at first until I looked a little closer at the description.

Esthetic

Its a very good fluid trainer. I purchased my Kinetic from them online, and saw they had that demo unit discounted. It is 'Smart' in that it can communicate with Swift too, so that along with the power meter and you are set.

Its normally in the $350-$400 new.

Drew Eckhardt 

Kurt Kinetic Road Machine with the Pro flywheel upgrade.
Kurt Kinetic Pro on left with 18 pounds (6 standard +12 pro upgrade) of flywheel, 3000W maximum resistance, 5.2 cm roller to limit slippage.
Performance Travel Trac right with 3 pounds and 1000W maximum, 3 cm roller.
No comparison - I returned the Travel Trac to get an open box Kurt for $100 more.


Versus other units: The increased inertia feels better, and may make indoor power numbers closer to outdoor. The resistance is more stable with temperature, leakage is less likely with a magnetic coupling to the fluid resistance unit not a shaft with a seal that can leak, and it's more stable.

The resistance is calibrated to match a 165 pound rider outdoors on a 1% grade, and allows accurate power calculation from speed which they provide with the included smart unit.

highrpm

I bought a used Kinetic Road Machine on craigslist for $150. And I got the Kinetic inride sensor for $50 on Amazon. That got me up and running on Zwift.

providencebikes

Im not really into zwift just yet just looking for something with power rpm and distance readings for the cheapest amount.

hubcyclist

Nashbar Smart Fluid Trainer - Nashbar this is a new offering by nashbar for $250 (basically using Elite's misuro sensor on a nashbar trainer) might be decent enough to get you started

Esthetic

+1

The hardware is top notch.

speedlever

I found a used KK fluid trainer locally for $50 on Craigslist. It's an older one and is painted dark gray instead of green. The owner said it's been in his basement and he's rarely used it.

It came with an extra, larger flywheel (11 lbs on my scale). I had to buy a skewer for it, and need to get a riser block and a mat to put under it. I think it's a good intro into the world of fluid trainers... at least I hope it is. Little risk for that price though.

providencebikes

Any reviews in the nasbar
https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/elite-qubo-digital-smart-b-459855?currency=5&delivery_country=191

sdmc530

K. Kinetic here too, very good! Love mine and I am a zwifter. Watched used they seem to be easy to find and reasonably priced too.

pesty

I'd look around on Craig's List. I've seen a few in my area (Dallas) and found a pretty good Elite fluid trainer with very little use that retails over $300 for $70. If you're using a stand along power meter, probably find something good for $100-150 or less. I've seen Tacx interactive smart trainers (IE: Flow or Vortex) in good condition on CL for under $300, so if you're open to buying something with a little use already on it, might be worth looking into.

For me personally, I have a cheap set of aluminum rollers from Performance Bike and an array of magnets near one of the drums for extra resistance. I've done +600W pulls on it in the saddle (about 30-35mph wheel speed), not sure how high you could take it with more magnets, but the resistance ramps up pretty predictably. That's what I use for my Zwift days.

roogie

I found a CycleOps Fluid 2 Trek edition for $80 on FB Marketplace. Was missing a couple bushings on the lockdown mechanism but CycleOps sent me what I needed after a call to them.

roog

gettingold

I have a Cycle-Ops fluid trainer I am very pleased with. Solid and dependable. My daughter found one used on CL for about $100.

gettingold

The Kurt Kinetics are also great. My club has a bunch of those at a winter training facility.

InOmaha

Here are some power curves for some of the trainers out there. Power Curves - PowerCurve Sensor

GGDaddy

This is an AWESOME resource--thank you for posting! Really appreciate that, though I don't have a power meter, I can approximate where I'm at based on the curves on the website (since my model is included).

OP--that's a Travel Trac, $139.99 on Amazon. Really really happy with it, and it gets a good review in the powercurvesensor.com writeup, but it's currently unavailable on Amazon (might be able to find it elsewhere).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

InOmaha

I have the Travel Trac Fluid Comp that replaced a failing magnetic trainer. It works good and was cheap new. I put it on my Amazon wish list and it showed up as a birthday gift.


I don't like riding on a trainer and go outside as much as I can, so I didn't want to spend a lot. But negative temps and really negative wind chills have been too rough. Some of the better versions have equipment and software and videos and apps, but all that stuff costs and takes time to learn and operate. My heart rate monitor and activity watch are all the electronics I want for now.


The power curve seems to line up pretty well with what my heart rate monitor is telling me I burn after I do all the conversions back and forth between watts and calories/hr.

SouthFLpix

That's the one I have. It's great, but it has the same flaw that all trainers have; It's not as fun as riding outdoors.

Springdog

+1 for the kinetic

speedlever

Exactly. Glad I didn’t spend much on the trainer!

providencebikes

I ended up gettin a tacx saturi smart well under 300 it does speed power and i can swap it out for the booster in the future the booster is said to do over 1000 watts resistance . i have totally embraced indoor training the benefits are numerous . less wear on bike less chance of flats or crashes . i ride out side every day but it takes a good 3 hours to do my training rides so it should be cool to have a bike ready to go at any time . and improve my numbers