Elite Muin Turbo Trainer known knocking noise issue- would you buy one?

dinneenp

Hi,

Is the Elite Muin TT one that people would recommend or steer clear of?

There's one available 2nd hand (obviously) for €300. However I've read a bit about known knocking noise issues, which could put me off buying one.

Anyone with thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Pa.

dahat

I had one that I gave a right going over for 3 years & no knocking at all. Sold it here for way less than €300 as well. It’s a great unit but I would pair with a power meter myself rather than the mini sensor.

fat bloke

300 quid sounds like a lot. I've a muin 2 and I'm pretty sure it only cost me 350 ish new about 3 years ago

Weepsie

Mine has the knocking noise. Still works though.

I put it up for sale at 250 but was up front about the noise, but that was priced to stop the adverts chancers offering you a swap for an iphone 4 and a tenner bud.

Ended up keeping it.

dinneenp

Weepsie wrote: »

Mine has the knocking noise. Still works though.

I put it up for sale at 250 but was up front about the noise, but that was priced to stop the adverts chancers offering you a swap for an iphone 4 and a tenner bud.

Ended up keeping it.

How noisy is it? Mildy irritating/quiet or loud?

harringtonp

Have had mine nearly 4 years and still as smooth as butter.

I use a PM on the bike and don't bother with swift etc but if if you are looking for a smooth ride they're hard to beat at that price point.

They are heavy at 20kg but that's part and parcel of the road like feel

dinneenp

harringtonp wrote: »

Have had mine nearly 4 years and still as smooth as butter.

I use a PM on the bike and don't bother with swift etc but if if you are looking for a smooth ride they're hard to beat at that price point.

They are heavy at 20kg but that's part and parcel of the road like feel

Cheers. I already have a Wahoo speed sensor & cadence sensor so I'd be sorted.
To be sure if using Zwift this will change the resistance automatically if the gradient changes on my cycle?

Weepsie

Nope, it won't change anything automatically . It's a dumb smart trainer. It was when launched a brilliant (in my opinion) direct drive turbo. It's still a good one.

Power is not accurate, some people have been luckier than others. Mine wasn't that far off up to a certain point. But it's good at the right price.

As for the noise? The knocking didn't bother me, and it only started after I probably went a bit too mad on it. My newer turbo trainer is fairly loud too so.

G1032

Weepsie wrote: »

Nope, it won't change anything automatically . It's a dumb smart trainer. It was when launched a brilliant (in my opinion) direct drive turbo. It's still a good one.

Power is not accurate, some people have been luckier than others. Mine wasn't that far off up to a certain point. But it's good at the right price.

As for the noise? The knocking didn't bother me, and it only started after I probably went a bit too mad on it. My newer turbo trainer is fairly loud too so.

Great turbo but if you want to train with power on it you'll need your own PM
Power curve is miles off but worse still isn't consistently off either.
Have mine just over a year. Was €300 in Halfords (had 10% discount voucher)
No knocking noise (touch wood it stays that way)

dinneenp

G1032 wrote: »

Great turbo but if you want to train with power on it you'll need your own PM
Power curve is miles off but worse still isn't consistently off either.
Have mine just over a year. Was €300 in Halfords (had 10% discount voucher)
No knocking noise (touch wood it stays that way)

Thanks for the replies. I already have a dumb trainer, want one that'll replicate different graidents/up/downhill. So I'm better off saving up & going for a smart TT so.

Weepsie

There's someone selling a kinetic r1 for 600 on adverts I think..now it's loud as modern trainers go, and also has power issues and kinetic havnt updated firmware in a year, but it's simulates up to 20% and though not for everyone, and takes a bit of adjustment to the trainer legs to get right for your own comfort the rocking is brilliant I find.

Macy0161

dinneenp wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I already have a dumb trainer, want one that'll replicate different graidents/up/downhill. So I'm better off saving up & going for a smart TT so.

The muin definitely isn't "smart", so it won't do that. As others have said, €300 seems steep for it too.

dinneenp

Weepsie wrote: »

There's someone selling a kinetic r1 for 600 on adverts I think..now it's loud as modern trainers go, and also has power issues and kinetic havnt updated firmware in a year, but it's simulates up to 20% and though not for everyone, and takes a bit of adjustment to the trainer legs to get right for your own comfort the rocking is brilliant I find.

Hi,
I can't find it on Adverts or DoneDeal. If you can find it, could you post the link please?

Thanks,
Pa.

MojoMaker

As an FYI, for many cyclists ERG mode (which is the 'smart' element) isn't particularly interesting or useful. Not knocking it, but the core value in training on a DD (with sensors) is there already without needing ERG for anything other than subjective realism.

That said, Zwift racing is configured these days by most social organisations to pay close attention to supported machines only, and the Muin won't get you into a CI or TI racing event (if that's your bag). However for regular solo power-based training it's a grand trainer with a better action than some with higher price tags.

I wouldn't pay €300 for one making funny noises, but as you're realising the TT market is totally messed up at the moment so in or around 300 to get onto a nice quiet fluid-based DD trainer with the relevant sensors built in sounds alright to me in 2021.

Macy0161

I wouldn't be without erg mode. Not necessarily for the hard intervals, but for sweet spot down to be able to put on a race/ series/ movie and not have to worry about staying on target is great.

Weepsie

dinneenp wrote: »

Hi,
I can't find it on Adverts or DoneDeal. If you can find it, could you post the link please?

Thanks,
Pa.

Think it's gone. Had a look for it there. Surprised it was there for as long as it was in fairness

harringtonp

G1032 wrote: »

Great turbo but if you want to train with power on it you'll need your own PM
Power curve is miles off but worse still isn't consistently off either.
Have mine just over a year. Was €300 in Halfords (had 10% discount voucher)
No knocking noise (touch wood it stays that way)

I use power on the bike and never bought the add on gismo for the turbo. However I'd imagine it works by measuring drum speed and mapping it to watts from there.

I've noticed when first using the turbo that cadence in a particular gear is high for a given power. As I keep cycling at that steady watts the cadence reduces and eventually levels. I've always assumed that as the fluid in the drum heats up if offers more resistance for a given drum rotation speed.

The uptake of this for anyone doing power based intervals with the sensor is that you want to give the fluid enough time to warm up.

Even using the pm on the bike I find it harder to hold watts when warming up. Part of it is me warming up but some of it is being uncomfortable with a higher cadence for the power output. I could switch to a higher gear but I tend to just live with it as it's very short term

dinneenp

Call me stupid bit what exactly does 'train with power' mean? I have speed and cadence Wahoo sensors, by kit having a power meter what would I be missing out on?

Is it the TT adjusting resistance to replicate the gradient or more than that?

harringtonp

dinneenp wrote: »

Call me stupid bit what exactly does 'train with power' mean? I have speed and cadence Wahoo sensors, by kit having a power meter what would I be missing out on?

Is it the TT adjusting resistance to replicate the gradient or more than that?

Read the first paragraph of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_power_meter and you will get the gist

dinneenp

harringtonp wrote: »

Read the first paragraph of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_power_meter and you will get the gist

Thanks. Kind of does. So for basic Zwift riding, racing etc. I don't need a power meter. The power meter will help me if I want data on intensity levels etc.

G1032

harringtonp wrote: »

I use power on the bike and never bought the add on gismo for the turbo. However I'd imagine it works by measuring drum speed and mapping it to watts from there.

I've noticed when first using the turbo that cadence in a particular gear is high for a given power. As I keep cycling at that steady watts the cadence reduces and eventually levels. I've always assumed that as the fluid in the drum heats up if offers more resistance for a given drum rotation speed.

The uptake of this for anyone doing power based intervals with the sensor is that you want to give the fluid enough time to warm up.

Even using the pm on the bike I find it harder to hold watts when warming up. Part of it is me warming up but some of it is being uncomfortable with a higher cadence for the power output. I could switch to a higher gear but I tend to just live with it as it's very short term

You're spot on. It's the same on mine. Takes almost exactly 10 minutes every time, regardless of temperature in the garage, for the oil to warm up. So for a given warm up watts, like you say, my cadence needs to drop over the first 10 minutes for the power to stay the same. No big deal really for me.

I did a calibration, well a rough one anyway, to see how accurate or otherwise the Muin virtual power curve is. It's actually not far off down at low watts on my turbo. 200 watts is pretty much 200 watts. But then higher than that it starts to get very innacurate and the virtual curve reading can be higher or lower than actual power depending on what watts you're at.

G1032

dinneenp wrote: »

Thanks. Kind of does. So for basic Zwift riding, racing etc. I don't need a power meter. The power meter will help me if I want data on intensity levels etc.

Well, I'm not on Zwift, so don't know the finer details of it, but Zwift calculates watts per kilogram. It needs to know your weight and your power output. Whether that power needs to be measured from an actual PM or whether a virtual power curve is acceptable, I don't know. Others here will be able to answer that for you.

ratracer

Depending on what you want to do/ get out of your training.......

I bought one of these wheel on trainers a couple of year ago, to replace a normal, cheap, dumb trainer:

https://www.mantel.com/ie/tacx-vortex-smart-t2180-turbo-trainer

I used it with just my garmin speed/ cadence sensors ( same as your Wahoo) and Zwift, and it worked perfectly. ERG modes puts the resistance on when needed. My training was consistent as long as I used the same sensors/ trainer/ tyre pressure.

When I bought a power meter crank for my bike, I then used that all the time as the power measurement on Zwift. It reads ~10-15% lower than the turbo trainer, but I presume it is consist with my power on the road also.

You don’t need to spend the guts of €1000 on a turbo to have fun/ train hard. Regardless of the power numbers, you can still get huge benefit out of consistent training.

Macy0161

Most direct drive (at least of that time) you're supposed to calibrate after it has warmed up. My Hammer is the same - it's ok then for a while once the temp is the similar (I train in a shed, so I calibrate at the start of the week and/or if there's a big change in temp.

G1032 wrote: »

I did a calibration, well a rough one anyway, to see how accurate or otherwise the Muin virtual power curve is. It's actually not far off down at low watts on my turbo. 200 watts is pretty much 200 watts. But then higher than that it starts to get very innacurate and the virtual curve reading can be higher or lower than actual power depending on what watts you're at.

That was my experience too. I still haven't hit the "FTP" I got on ramp tests when training with it before a power meter.