No matter how hard you try, eventually icy roads and treacherous weather will force you indoors for winter training at some point. A good set of rollers or a cycletrainer are a must-have bit of kit if you don’t want to drop any valuable training sessions on the bike over winter.
Cycletrainers are quick and easy to set up in the comfort of your own home. In addition to churning out the miles, they’re great for drills such as single leg drills, can be used for strength training and measure your performance throughout a session. Some Triathletes we know, particularly those putting in the extra hours for Ironman training, ride steady for hours on their trainer whilst watching a dvd or even playing Xbox!
The Tacx Flow T1680 Ergotrainer is perhaps one of the most popular cycle trainers on the market (it’s Taxc’s best seller) and was recommended as the one to get by fellow Triathletes when we first started out. We’ve used the Tacx Flow T1680 for the last 4 years and it’s still going strong.
The Flow ergotrainer is a folding metal ‘cycle force’ frame with an electromagnetic brake and heavy steel flywheel and comes with a handlebar mounted computer display unit, and sensors, which you fit to your bike. It also comes with a ‘Skyliner’ front wheel support, to prevent your front wheel from moving side to side. The folding frame makes it easy to store.
When we first tried to set up the bike on the Flow trainer, it took a bit of fiddling but once you get the knack, it’s easy to do. You can use your normal rear wheel to attach to the metal trainer but we were advised to buy a cheaper wheel to use just for the trainer. We were also advised to get a trainer specific tyre so that we didn’t wear out our road tyres on the trainer – we got the Continental UltraSport Hometrainer tyre designed for trainer use only but Tacx also do their own trainer tyre.
Once on the bike, the Flow trainer is simple to operate. The handlebar mounted computer display measures heart rate, power (watts), speed and pedalling frequency (cadence) and you select the training information you want to display. By setting the power or slope resistance you can adjust your program to suit your requirements during a training session. You can also calibrate the brake to ensure accurate power measurements – we find it helps to check the calibration each time we set the bike back up on the trainer.
Note: When riding indoors on a trainer, you sweat much more than outside (no wind to whicker away the sweat etc). We make sure we have some windows open or use a fan to help keep us cool.
Accessories
There are a number of accessories for the Tacx trainers. We highly recommend the Tacx training mat to help protect the floor surface and the Sweat cover to protect your bike from sweat.
Rating: 8/10
Pros: A smooth ride and great cycletrainer for the money.
Cons: Unlike the Tacx virtual reality trainers, the Flow trainer only has a handlebar mounted computer display unit and doesn’t connect to your PC.
