Hi Everyone,
Whats your reviews ? I will be purchaseing one of them.
I want to improve my bike splits. I am a B rider. What one would benifit me?
Thanks Kas
as a C’Trainer use I will say that I love my CT
the lovely Mrs Avago gave it to me back in '02 when I was training for the Nice L/C Worlds. ( a fantastic race btw ) the CT allowe me to create courses that were impossible to replicate in Sydney, such as 30 km climbs with a gradient ranging from 5-15% … after a few months of that I found the course in Nice doable.
anyway, fast forward to '06 where there is a far greater choice, I would be going for a PT built up on a good wheelset that suits your usage, tri or road race, a fluid trainer for the interval work & throw in some Spinerval discs for the days when you don’t want to be a slave to the numbers…
Currently I am in Doha, Qatar & brought an old magtrainer along with my bike. Given the weather here & that most of my riding has been indoors, well what little I have done, I really wish I had brought a my CT. ( the mag trainer is lousy at the spinervals sessions )
happy shopping---- get the PT Avago
If you plan to race then the PT is the only way to go. If you only plan to train, and only plan to train indoors then the CT may be better just to reduce boredom.
The real advantage of power is to take into a race what you’ve learned in training. After 5 years of plateau (or longer) the last 8 months with a PT have improved my cycling by leaps and bounds - especially climbing and pacing.
My 2c
I have both and it is a luxury to have them since both have been good to my bike splits. However, the PT has been FAR more important to my bike splits. The CT gives you good control over your stationary workouts, but the PT will give you good control over all of your workouts. Supplement the PT with a good fluid trainer. Perhaps the biggest benefit of the PT is race-day pacing, particularly in long-course races.
my 2 cents…
i am lucky enough to have both, i think ashburn is correct…PT can translate out onto the road and races…and is a huge help. CT is also very very good, but cannot be applied to a race directly.
both have helped me improve on the bike…now if i could just shake the injuries…
if $ are a tight go with a used PT and a trainer…if not go whole hog and get both…i think it was the venerable Tom D who advised on a similar thread that CT is an amazing tool but also and amazing motivator…i concur with that too…being able to race against a previous performance or that crazy silver guy is a great motivator.
search previous threads too…there are good thoughts and experiences there.
Like the previous two posters, I too have both…
If you ride outdoor most of the years, get the power tap (and a coach to teach you how to use it in training if you don’t know how). If you ride several months of the year indoor (like we do in Montreal), then get the computrainer.
The computrainer makes indoor training much much much funnier and easier. But even the best computrainer ride does not beat riding outdoor.
A great advantage in having both is to compare calibration and to know when time has come to send the computrainer load generator back for calibration.
Francois in Montreal (who will soon be back on the computrainer)