Is a CompuTrainer worth the investment?
All you Computrainer owners out there -- would you buy it again? I'm thinking ahead to the off-season and wondering whether this would be a worthwhile investment. My weekday biking is always indoors year round. I only go outside for long rides on the weekend. I don't have power on any of my bikes so a Computrainer would at least give me power on indoor rides. However, I understand that the first 10 minutes of every ride is lost on calibration. How big a hassle is that? Thanks in advance for your inputs.
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The first 10 minutes is warm up anyways...and it really isn't a hassle because you will get the hang of how tight to get the pressure on the rear tire and the rest of the calibration is really just a stop, start, and stop with the press of a couple of buttons. So, you can get warm while the CT warms up. It has never taken me 10 minutes either.
As far as the training goes, I think anything is better than sitting on a standard trainer...then through in some real courses and some spin scan information and it will at least help you to change things up.
I say go for it.
Since I joined EN I only use it for the OS and the weekly intervals during the session using the ERG mode that allows you to program the watts you push and the CT adjusts the torque so that if you are turning the peddals, you have to push the programed watts. This means that you either do the workout as programed or you stop peddaling. You could just use the CT to do intervals as you would with a power meter and riding outside.
When I joined EN I bought a powertap which I use outside for training and racing.
If I was starting again, I would just buy a power meter that I could use it for all training and racing.
Happy to elaborate further if you want more info.
Cheers
Peter
I bought a CT in 2008) before I bought my PT (2010) (although I did ride with an iBike since 2006). So would I do it today, knowing what I know now?
Advantages: • precision in programming interval workouts - I just load a prepared program with the exact watts and time intervals I want to go. No cheating, no guesswork.
• SpinScan - helps to smooth out pedal strokes and teach evenness both in pedaling circles, and L vs R.
• There is a whole ecosystem of support for the CT: downloadable rides simulating every major triathlon, videos linked to changing "gradient" for many IM courses, packaged training programs, etc., add-on programs which enhance the value.
Disadvantages: • Both the hardware and the software are NOT state of the art - they seem downright 1980's to me, and this is now the second decade of the 21st century. A software upgrade has been promised for a year, but is still vaporware. They have not yet heard of wireless technology, either.
• It's still a small company, run out of a hole in the wall by two cycle/computer geeks in Seattle (I've been there for some repairs).
• The HR hardware has failed multiple times for me, I stopped using it.
• You need a Windows computer to make it work, or Mac with Parallels.
As to your concerns: Difficult set-up: When used by itself, yeah, there are about 5 different wires and things to be plugged in, attached to the bike, etc. Big hassle. Initial wasted time: no - I just do a standard 15 minute warm up, then spend about 30 seconds doing a little spin-up calibration thing. Its not a waste of time, you and the CT both need to warm up is all.
Bottom line, I agree that a PT and a top quality trainer would cost the same or less, and be a better investment considering the value of the PT on other training days and in races.
I like it. For crappy outside days, doing the Live Video courses is almost fun.
I also work in some of my weekday intervals indoors even in the summer because it's so much more time effective to use the trainer, so I think for your a CT would be worthwhile investment.
Definitely agree with Al though, I'm a software engineer and a techie so the archaic nature of some of the hardware and software irks me, but as I said earlier, I would not part with the thing.
I don't have a Computrainer, but the above statement is all you needed to say. Buy a power meter instead- you will get a lot more out of it because you'll be able to train inside & outside on it AND you'll be able to race with it.
What Nemo said.
If you eliminate the Computrainer vs. powermeter as a binary decision and focus only on is a Computrainer worth the money, i would answer yes. My user profile is very similar to you. I do all of my weekday rides and most of my weekend rides indoors. As others have already stated, the CT is an awesome tool for executing your intervals on a daily basis. I have the Louisville Real Course Video and honestly love to ride it. The time flies by and you get a really good sense of the course. I would honestly say it is fun to ride the RCV but I also actually like riding indoors. I have yet to compare the RCV to the real life course, so I can't comment on the extent to which it compares or prepares. I can say that I have a very good sense of course, the hills, when I have to take in nutrition, etc. I hear that the CT is harder than the real course and I am certainly hoping that is true! After using the CT, you will probably find that you want a powermeter for races, etc b/c you will begin to think in powergeek terms and want to translate that to your outside riding. As stated previously, a crank based meter might be the best bet for you then. Good luck!
Options:
I'm sorry, but at your current race performance and your stated goals to qualify for Kona, or 70.3 nats, I see a big disconnect between 3 sets of race wheels, international travel for you and your family to an international IM and you not having a powermeter for training and racing. Anyone here with power will tell you that you're leaving a lot of fitness and race day potential on the table, for your powertraining competition, by not having power.
And note I'm not saying this as a blanket statement to anyone, but specifically to a guy who has demonstrated an ability to drop $$$ in the sport, but, in my opinion, could spend that money in a way that would be more in line with his stated goals.
@ Rich - I know, I'm a terrible disciple; but the PM lingo and post ride analysis folks talk about makes my eyes glaze over.
@ Lori - you are reading my mind!
You don't need 3 cranks. You just need one crank that you swap between bikes. Matt Ancona is a the pro at this and there are videos on YouTube that can show you how easy this is.
In my opinion, the courses on the CT are a gimmick. There is no gravity or momentum in Computrainerland so the hills and downhills are not very realistic -- there is no softpedaling, not coasting at 45mph down the hill to Keene on the IMUSA course, etc. So if a course in the CT is about 10-15% "harder" than the real thing, then you're not really riding the real thing and getting a real simulation of the real course, are you...so what's the point?
In my opinion, the CT has two useful features:
That said, the world is full of CT owners who use the CT as nothing but a fancy whizzbang trainer that displays pretty pictures while you ride and encourages you to think that you're really riding "your" course when in fact you're not. If you buy one, we encourage you to do it right, which is to use it as a PM, not an entertainment device: test, establish FTP, peform intervals as a percentage of that FTP, retest, repeat.
I can't figure out how to embed the video but here is the step by step process of how to switch a quarq from one bike to another. Even with explaining each step it only takes about 2 minutes. There are videos on youtube and slowtwitch of the swap in a minute. http://www.viddler.com/player/9423ce5d/
Also, I can use the same SRAM S975 GXP Quarq on both my standard and BB30 bikes thanks to a $25 wheel manufacturing adapter.