Couple of questions for owners. I’m looking at buying either new or used but does anyone know:
Any upgrades for 2011 or 2012 that I would miss on an older machine?
What year they went from fixed to freewheel?
Do they having gearing or just a resistance knob?
If resistance know how do you know what gear the resistance reflects for say a spinervals workout?
I’ve found a few on CL for around $1.000 but at the same time don’t want to buy an outdated über used one.
Looking at REI’s 20% of one full price item sale coming up as well. Anyone know if they exclude the cycleops? If not that would bring down the price of a new one to $1920.
i’ve had 2 entry level models. sold first when i moved then got another later. i really like having the dedicated bike for bad weather days. no excuses.
i don’t know what year they went to free wheel but i’ve got the older ones. it’s really no issue. you get used to it very easy. i’ve never had a problem. if you are concerned about the wheel pushing your foot over that could be someting. but with any tension on the wheel there is very little help from the flywheel.
i don’t think any have ever had gears. just friction knob. the new ones all have a single knob on the TT. the old one had a ratchet on the end of the handlebars. that was much better. you could ‘shift’ easily during climbs and sprints. but i thiink they wore out easy. there is no real way to relate it to road gears. you need to go by intensity. gears mean nothing since you don’t knnow if it’s uphill/downhill/flat - windy - weight of rider. etc etc. it will help you learn to judge intensity.
my only complaing is the handle bars. the stock bars are pretty lousy. the optional road bars are very expensive. i use neither and instead found a way to mounnt my own bars so now i can put on any tri or road bar and train with them.
Hey, I’m in the market for the same thing, so I’ll be watching your thread carefully. You might find some useful info in the thread I started not long ago:
I don’t think anything is changing from 2011 to 2012. The big change happened about two years ago when they came out with the Pro line to replace the PT line.
I have the 300 Pro and I love it. No more farting around with swapping wheels, inflating tires, worrying about wear and tear to components/bike. I also bought the optional TT bars/pads to mimic my tri bike setup (not sure why though since I ride trainers in more of a road style kind of way). Everything adjusts very easily and it’s very well built. It’s much, much quieter than a fluid trainer like the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine. I like that I can use whatever pedals and saddle that I want. The resistance on the 300 Pro is controlled by the knob. It takes a little bit of experience in getting used to the resistance. You can get it pretty precise and into your sweetspot “gearing” with a little practice. The 400 Pro uses electronic resistance which sounds awesome but I wasn’t going to spend $500 more for that. I was able to get mine on sale for 25% off last year. It’s well worth it if you are willing to spend the money. Saves time and wear and tear on your bike.
There are some cons:
170mm cranks only. I ride 172.5mm so it’s not that big of a deal.
It’s ANT+ but it only sends an ANT+ signal to the Joule. The 300 Pro will not work with other head units (like Garmin) or with software like Trainerroad.com that uses an ANT+ stick. Supposedly the guys at Trainerroad.com are working on something. We shall see.
It’s pretty heavy so don’t think you’ll be schlepping it around your house or to a friend’s to do workouts.
I personally prefer the Garmin devices to the Joule but that’s just my opinion.
You shouldnt have any troubles pairing a Garmin with the 300PRO.
Care to elaborate because I think you’re mistaken. This is from Saris - “Our indoor cycles use a hybrid ANT+ signal. It has all the benefits of ANT+ with the exception of the ability to connect with third party ANT+ devices.”
There are also quotes on the trainerroad.com forums from Saris employees stating they thought it would work until they tested it themselves and figured out that not only could they not get the 300/400 Pro to communicate with an ANT+ stick (and TrainerRoad), they couldn’t connect to Garmin head units either. Trust me, I’ve tried to pair my 300 Pro with my Garmin 500/310/910 and not one of them picked up the signal.
You might want to call Saris and let them know how it’s done if you figured it out.