Shopping

Yes, it tis the season to be shopping and we have been shopping for a new garage door among other things. Hopefully the new roof will be in place by the end of the week. The weather sure has come to work out in favor of the roofers. And surprise, surprise, surprise, the county golf courses will be open today and tomorrow. Sunburst Ski Resort is also open from this weekend.

Our new garage door. Hopefully we will do a complete repair of the garage next summer. It was snowing but nothing stuck. December is always better with snow.

I went shopping the other day with my wife. It was more a recon operation than a mission of acquisition. We stopped by one of my favorite bicycle-fitness shops, “Emery’s”, and checked out some prices on trainers. The good news is the days of $4,000 computerized trainers are gone. The bad news is they are still expensive. From all my research I have a simple analysis of those computer trainers that let your ride virtual courses from all around the world. Only one is fairly free of software problems, the computrainer; the most expensive. Their software also is a bit more complete in the total information one can gather to assist in their training.

Tacx is an exciting brand from Belgium, and according to my market sources very popular in Europe. One of the exciting things about Tacx is they have a steering component to their virtual reality trainers.

Elite is the most affordable in the virtual racing trainers, but the comments about software issues seem to be the greatest, though some say they have excellent customer support. You can find the Elite brand online in the $700 range. Emery’s has the Computrainer in stock and can get you Tacx within a day or two. They have a trainer testing station where you can take the systems for a trial run.

Of course there are plenty of trainers that do not have the virtual reality element. They can be much cheaper and it may be the option I must take this year; going with CycleOps. Also in stock at Emery’s. Another review suggested that a trainer will last you three Winters of good training. Something to consider in your financial planning and/or budgeting.

So Computrainer has set the bar high, set the standard, as far as software. Tacx sits on the leading edge of creating a truly realistic virtual experience. You can find a cheaper virtual experience, but with accessories it may still run you $1,000. You want a pad and sheathing to protect your floor and bike from sweat. Or an old school high end trainer with accessories could run you $500. The highest end Computrainer and Tacx will run nearly $2,000 with accessories. If you buy from a bicycle shop you could get  bicycle maintenance included for under $2,000.

I just wonder why these trainer manufacturers have not gone in with Play Station or X-Box. With the Kinect and other motion reading systems one could have a real bicycle derby. Wielding broad swords and battle axes, slaying werewolves and other creatures, or ones competition, along a mountain bike route would truly expand the bicycling cause.