RPK79

I spend all winter indoors on the trainer since riding in cold weather shreds my lungs (I can taste blood after half an hour and then I cough for days after) and I would consider buying this. Putting my own bike on a trainer is nice, but I'd rather put the wear and tear on something like this as well as the buckets and buckets of corroding sweat.

I guess if you don't do a lot of indoor training you won't see the point. Much like if your not a cyclist you won't see the point of paying more than $300 - $500 for a road bike.

Edit: I like the review on the link that gives it a 3 star and asks where in France they can buy one. Apparently they don't even own one, but figure it's only worth 3 stars.

kv501

That's actually one of the reasons I wouldn't want one. With my bike and a trainer it's nice because the only thing I put wear on is the cassette, tire, and chain. Tires for trainer use are ridiculously cheap, and cassettes/chains even less so if you spread it out per mile or hour.

I'd much rather not worry about whatever internals are inside some spin bike wearing out or how soon I could get them, and god knows how much they'd cost. as far as sweat, I just drape a towel over the bars and top tube.

raqball

I have a Sole SB700.. Great indoor bike for about $700

The reviews on the Sole is what made me buy it when I was looking for an indoor..

hhnngg1

I'm a bike+trainer (actually Kickr) user, but I'm almost certain that those trainer bikes have internal hardware much , much more resistant to wear and degradation than a regular bike chain+cassette. There is no weight penalty for parts on a dedicated trainer bike, so they can reinforce and armor the heck out of the mechanisms - there may not even be a spinning wheel at all within these spin bikes, since locomotion is totally unnecessary.

Basically, I definitely would not use the longevity of a road bike cassette/chain and assume these dedicated trainer bikes have similar lifespan. They are MUCH tougher.

jrobe

I live quite a bit further north than you and spend 4-5 months on the indoor trainer almost every day for 1-3 hours. I have tried most of these indoor trainer bikes and have even owned a Computrainer and Tacx Fortius. I much prefer by own bike, a Kurt Kinetic Trainer (cheap) and a bunch of Spinervals, CTS and Sufferfest videos. The "wear and tear" on the bike is a non-issue and a good fan and a towel on the top tube eliminates any sweat damage. I wouldn't take one of the TDF gizmos if they gave it to me but to each his own.

hhnngg1

You sound like a perfect candidate for the awesome setup I use of Kickr+Trainerroad (and video entertainment on top.)

The Kickr's ability to drive target power with in 1-2watts is amazing for training. Total granular control of your planned workouts. I am only a few weeks into my Kickr training, but it's allowing me to increase training targets/FTP by 2-3 watts reliably. Do that over a few weeks, and you'll have a much gentler improvement curve for more sustained gains.

The powertap+trainer combo is good for solid training, but if you are training indoors as much as you say, you will LOVE the kickr and you'll regret all the time you spent training without it.

contango 

It all depends on circumstances.

I've got an indoor bike with handlebars that are rather like road drop bars. I could put TT style bars on it quickly and easily. It adjusts from my settings to my wife's settings in about 15 seconds. My wife doesn't have a road bike at all and fiddling with an indoor trainer to cater for my 700c wheels and her 26" wheels ends up being a serious faff, not to mention farting around swapping tyres or wheels or whatever else.

For some people I'm sure it would make more sense to get a trainer. For others it makes sense to get an indoor machine. I guess that's why companies still sell indoor machines. To insist that one way is the only way and any other way is silly, as a universal statement, is itself rather silly IMO.

Number400

One of these just fell into my lap. I have given away my old Johnny G Spinner Pro and love the kooky, clunky and tilting awkwardness of this contraption. I have yet to sign up with ifit but might be mildly entertaining to make some maps to vary the workouts. Took under two minutes to enter in my cassette/gearing choices and I love the quietness and sti-like shifting. Blows my old trainer away. I like the power meter too. Not sure if it's accurate but it's something consistent to look at.

This thing is huge though and takes up a lot of space.

Kevin Wheeler

I have one of these things and so far no problems with the bike but a lot of people have. The new ones look more like a road bike but likely still have the poorly built inerds

The IFIT service is a joke. I have spent whole workouts getting it to work, never been able to ride more than 12 k before it locks up and at that it asks 3 or 4 times "workout over, continue" even though i'm not near the end of the map. I really doubt to many are satisfied.

The thought of being able to anywhere in the world is cool so just download google earth and put a key board on the handle bars a scroll along as you ride pretty much the same thing or just watch the hundreds of cycling videos on youtube. My rating half a star.

ncyue

I bought one of these off ebay locak pickup. The seat is just a tad high for me at the lowest setting. Do any of the current owners think it would be ok for me to find someone to saw off perhaps an inch of the seatpost at the bottom?

cb400bill

Thread moved from Road Cycling to new Indoor Cycling forum.