Perceived effort turbo trainer vs outdoors

[dusand]

Bit new to this I just wanted to get some comments from more experienced riders on this issue. I have two bikes and also train indoors on a turbo trainer. One bike is heavier alu framed winter bike and other carbon framed lighter fair weather bike which I just started using again. All are well calibrated for iBike but I noticed that in terms of perceived effort for the same wattage they go from turbo trainer which seems hardest, to winter bike medium, to fair weather bike on which I seem to produce more watts and increase my speed as well. I just checked with Aaron and my profiles are all looking fine. What is your experience?

[NCH1]

This discussion has taken place many a time on the wattage list, and I think Alex Simmons has put the issue most succinctly on his blog. You can read it here:

http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2009/01/ ... ining.html

Nik

[dusand]

Excellent article. Thanks for the link!

[dusand]

Just another thought Nik, given the need for a bigger flywheel to match indoor/outdoor FTP outputs can anybody recommend such turbo trainer that is on the iBike supported list? Did anybody hear about and tried the British designed Wattbike indoor trainer?

[NCH1]

G'day,

Wattbikes are pretty expensive. They are about $6000 in Australia, and about 2-3000 British pounds, I believe. For the money, I think a Kurt Kinetic would provide both the best road feel and value- AU$600. The Kurt also allows you to do sprint intervals, whereas if you read the fine print of many other turbos, they strongly state that you should not do so.

Nik

[racerfern]

I have the Kurt Kinetic Pro Road Trainer that has the removable 12lb flywheel. I remove the flywheel for any kind of interval work and keep it on for a better road feel. I've never had a problem as the unit is about as solid as can be.

I see on the KK website where this particular unit has been discontinued so you should try and find one on eBay. There is a retailer on eBay that is an authorized KK dealer, I believe somewhere in the midwest USA.

The option now is to buy a trainer and a separate attachment for the flywheel which just makes things more expensive.

The power curve is not affected by the additional flywheel.

[dusand]

Thanks guys, I'll look into the option you mention. By the way Wattbike is £1865 here in the UK.