New Turbo - Questions

ROK ON

Tonite I set up my new turbo (Tacx Satori) for the 1st time.

I have a few questions as a result of my experience.

(1) Can I use my original wheel skewer or do I have to use the skewer that came with turbo.

(2) There are 10 resistance settings with the easiest setting being number 1. The resistance at this level is higher than I would have thought. Is this normal?

(3) When I started ramping up my cadence the bike started rocking slightly. Again is this to be expected - I was surprised but I do suppose that that it is unrealistic for the bike to stay completely stationary.

(4) It is pretty noisy. I expect some noise but not a lot. Frankly it is pretty annoying. Need to probably drown out with music I guess.

Thanks in advance.

Raam

best to use the skewer that came with the trainer, otherwise the clamp may damage your own

Raam

On my one, you can vary how tight the wheel sits against the roller part. See if you have a similar control for this. It was located near the mechanism at behind the wheel.

yop

What sort of price did you pay for it?

Getting one for the Xmas but not a bean on what to get, I would appreciate you experience

Lumen

The Satori has high resistance, this is a selling point. You want a low wheel speed to keep the noise down.

"Thus you can generate 400 watts of power at a low speed of 27 km/h for instance"

CheGuedara

The OH uses a satori

1. Use the skewer provided - it has a better hold to the turbo than those that come with most wheelsets

2. You might adjust the pressure of the roller against the tyre as Raam suggests - it needs to be enough to ensure that the tyre won't slip under pressure any more and it's just excess to requirement

3. Yeah there's a bit of rock, not much but just a wee bit - nothing to worry about

4. Yeah, the telly does tend to be a few db louder when the turbos are going - it's not that bad though, def nothing as bad as the old fan resistance turbos

They're a handy unit in fairness - like it's ease of use more than my Flow unit and it packs away very very tidy

levitronix

I have the satori blue, you wana be a real horse to be able to spin at the higher levels, its all small ring stuff

fran oconnor

has anybody got any info on the dvd's that you can buy for these?,im just wondering from the point of view of following them,like as you're following the dvd does it tell you to put the resistance higher or lower depending on the situation..i was just looking on crc at them,your talking over 30 euro for some of them..

sorry for jumping on this thread by the way:rolleyes:..

greenrocket

Bought myself a Tacx a month or so ago. so no expert.

To reduce the noise i put the trainer on a old yoga mat that was lying about, reduces the vibrations between the floor and the trainer a little. You can get trainer specific mats but reckon they cost money. Mine is noisey enough and i doubt you could use it if you lived on the upper floors of an appartment block.

i didnt bother with any of the DVD's, have been using the training while watching the champions league. makes both a little less boring.

Raam

fran oconnor wrote: »

has anybody got any info on the dvd's that you can buy for these?,im just wondering from the point of view of following them,like as you're following the dvd does it tell you to put the resistance higher or lower depending on the situation..i was just looking on crc at them,your talking over 30 euro for some of them..

sorry for jumping on this thread by the way:rolleyes:..

The sufferfest ones are good, so I have heard.
http://www.thesufferfest.com/

Signal_ rabbit

I prefer rollers for the following reasons:

1) They help improve pedal stroke and upper body balance forcing smooth riding skills.
2) They do not wear out the back tyre.
3) You can still use the cycle computer to monitor distance and speed etc. as the front wheel goes round too.
4) Cheaper than trainers.

I have used trainers and find that time on the rollers seems to go a lot quicker than the trainers as you have to concentrate on balance, the work out seems more intense too. I found that the trainers are no difference to exercise bikes.

ROK ON

First proper go on the turbo tonite. 45mins including an attempt to measure LTHR.
It wasn't boring actually as I worked out a plan for the session and stuck with it.

Anyway the LTHR test involved a 15min high cadence TT at the max HR that I could maintain for the duration of the TT.

Some queries as a result.
Is standing a bad idea. Started to cramp a little so I tried to stand while spinning hard - the entire bike felt very unstable at that point.

Also my Garmin was able to record HR for the duration, but given that I was stationary I was not able to measure speed and "implied distance." Is there a way to measure speed/distance during the turbo session?

Finally it is significantly easier to do a proper war down on a turbo than it does on a raod session - that in itself is beneficial I feel.

For a bit of variety I am going to do some spinning classes. All I need now is some lofty goals for next year ;-)

100Suns

I wouldn't recommend standing as it is not stable and I get the impression that it places high torsional stress on the frame and rear wheel. An uninformed opinion though.

Fitting an odo to the rear wheel will measure speed and distance. However, I have the same turbo and you have identified the resistance issue with the rear wheel. As such measured distance may not tally with the effort expended and may not therefore be an accurate indicator of the quality of the session.

cantalach

ROK ON wrote: »

Anyway the LTHR test involved a 15min high cadence TT at the max HR that I could maintain for the duration of the TT.

How come you used a high cadence session to measure this? I'd have thought you should use the cadence at which your power is maximised for a given HR (or the cadence at which your HR is minimised for a given power). In other words, you should do the test at the cadence you would use to ride a TT or do a long climb and not some artificially high cadence you wouldn't normally use. I know that the sweet spot for my FTP is roughly 90 rpm. If I'm doing this and I downshift to use a higher cadence while trying to maintain the same power, my HR starts to head north and I die after a few minutes.

Is standing a bad idea. Started to cramp a little so I tried to stand while spinning hard - the entire bike felt very unstable at that point.

I stand on the turbo all the time and I weigh 83.5kg (well...I did before I spent the bank holiday weekend at my mom's house). I challenge any bloke to do a 60+ minute turbo session without standing for at least some of the time. Sure you'd lose all sensation 'down there' for hours! As regards stability, I tend to push a bigger gear when standing and turn the cranks at no more than 60-70rpm. It is undeniably less stable when spinning very fast and standing.

ROK ON

@Cantalach.
I chose a gearing/effort combination that would be a very hard effort (but not all out effort) that was sustainable for 20-30mins. This approximated my heart rate on some climbs that I have repeatedly tested myself on.
The cadence was high simply because the gearing and resistance suggested a high cadence.

tawfeeredux

Signal_ rabbit wrote: »

I prefer rollers for the following reasons:...
2) They do not wear out the back tyre....

100Suns wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend standing as it is not stable and I get the impression that it places high torsional stress on the frame and rear wheel. An uninformed opinion though.

cantalach wrote: »

I stand on the turbo all the time and I weigh 83.5kg ....I challenge any bloke to do a 60+ minute turbo session without standing for at least some of the time....

I'm resurrecting this thread cos there's a couple of issues touched on that i've been wondering about.

If using rollers rather than trainers, do you need to use trainer tyres/old road tyres, or is the wear rate the same as what you'd get on the road?

Would standing on the pedals when using rollers (once you'd mastered the art of using them in the first place) be easier/more natural than standing when using a trainer?

Ryder

As a rollers user for the last 4 months.....so pretty inexperienced........standing up leads to falling off as any forward momentum when, say sprinting out of the saddle, can lead to the front wheel jumping off the rollers. So far I have been using my good tyres (schwalbe ultremo) with no wear issues