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Computrainer Purchase

wareagledustywareagledusty
in General Training Discussions

 Hello all,

I'm a new EN member and have been contemplating the purchase of a Computrainer for quite a while.  With the focus on outseason training it seems like it might be a good time.  In general have y'all found a Computrainer to be a good tool to help you improve your cycling?  The computrainer is going to be an expensive purchase for because I'll also have to by a dedicated PC since all we have in the house are Mac's.  Is it worth $$$?

Comments

  • tgarsontgarson
    Dust, first welcome aboard.

    I am a CT owner myself and the first thing I would ask you is whether or not have a power meter on your bike(s)? If you do, and you are concerned about cost as it sounds you are, I would not recommend investing in the CT but rather use your existing power meter and a good quality trainer like a Kurt Kinetic. If you don't have a power meter, then the CT will provide a lot more value to you, however still it's a tough question because for the cost of the CT you could simply buy a power meter which would be of much greater use to you year round. Don't get me wrong, I love my CT and a lot of us here in EN own and use them... but it's just a lot of money no matter which way you look at it. If you can afford it, it's a great tool.

    As for the Mac, I'm an OSX user as well and the CompuTrainer will indeed run on your Intel Mac using parallels/VMFusion or just straight up bootcamp, you'll have to be running or emulating Windows XP in some fashion but you can get it to work. The catch though was the graphics in the 3D mode were not working perfectly the last time I tried it on my Macbook, but manual erg mode, Real Course Video and Ergvideo were all working. Another thing to consider is that RacerMate is supposed to be launching a major revision of their software in the near future called CompuTrainer One. It's supposed to be a huge overhaul and I'm hoping the situation for Macs will change for the better, that's always been a big gripe about the CT. So if you do go the CT route, I definitely wouldn't recommend dropping any decent amount of money on a PC to go along with it, I'd either go with virtualization on the Mac or pick up a very cheap / second hand PC to run it on.
  • wareagledustywareagledusty

    Trevor,

    Thanks for the great feedback.  I do have a powertap so maybe the CT isn't a must have now like I thought it would be back before I found EN.  I have a CycleOps Fluid Trainer, probably not as good as the Kurt but it does the job. 

    Hmm, sounds like I might need to wait for the SW upgrade if I decide to go the CT route!

    The CT cost is about the same as a Quarq so I am torn between putting a Quarq on my tr-bike and just using my powertap on my road bike. 

    Too many ways to spend the money!

  • niemsconiemsco

    Hi,

    I'm a new EN member also.  I have been using the CT for several years and also have a CinQo.  I also have a kurt which I've used with my CinQo when I've lent it out to someone... geez I've got too many toys.  In any event from what I've seen of the EN plans, I would think that using the quarq with a Kurt would be just fine.  You have all the tools you need to measure your power and do the workouts they prescribe.  The CT is nice in that you could actually program these workouts as .erg files and have the CT adjust the load for you to give you that extra motivation to ensure you don't cheat image.   The real courses and 3D course I'm a bit torn on those.  After using the CT for 4 years, I basically use it in .erg mode.  

    On the other CT features like spinscan, I haven't used those features in over a year, but did initially.  Lots of nice things about the CT but if cost constrained, from what I've seen of these workouts, the Kurt and power device would work just fine.  But of course I'm a newb to the workouts, so take that into consideration.   Best of luck.

    Scott

  • tuckermtuckerm
    Dusty, I have the same trainer and a PT and all has worked great. What lots of members do here is buy a wheel cover for the back wheel to make it a psuedo disc wheel but still have power on the bike. Rich and Patrick are big proponent of this.

    Now if you already have some slick race wheels I could see why you may want a Quarq. Maybe you could sell the PT to help finance the Quarq and just move it between bikes? Some members are able to switch between bikes in minutes.

    Keep throwing out ideas here, people love spending other people's money.
  • wareagledustywareagledusty
    Thanks guys. Nope no slick race wheels yet. I just bought my tri bike and had a little cash left over to play with. (not to mention that everything I own that isn't tr-related has been on craigslist to help fund my addiction...well almost everything)
  • Coach RichCoach Rich

    Our preferred set up is an on the bike powermeter + quality trainer + Netflicks subscription/rockin' playlist/stack of Tour videos, etc .

    If you have a PM on the bike, that turns the CT into a venue, not a PM. In my opinion, not worth it unless you have the dough to spend. But, whenever possible, We the Coaches try to help you not spend your dough. Can't say the same about some of the members

  • wareagledustywareagledusty
    Okay, so this really rocks. I join EN and the first thing the coach does for me is saves me $1700.... I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship!

    Since I have my PowerTap wheel already I can use that and drool over getting a Quarq one day.
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