I’ve been using Jet Black Fluid turbo trainers for warming up and cooling down at races for the last couple of years and have been very impressed with their performance (says a lot, I’m extremely anti turbo training!). The Australian made hydro-gel rollers make riding feel very smooth and quite, and there are plenty of options for easily adjusting the the resistance. Despite feeling a lot more stable than other turbos I’ve used, they’re extremely easy and quick to set up or pack away – very important, I think if turbo training is hassle a lot of people wouldn’t bother!
Anticipating a cold, dark winter in Switzerland this year a set of Jet Black rollers seemed ideal for keeping things interesting when stuck inside, they arrived just in time for a 2 week spell of -10c (now over thankfully!). They take 30 seconds to set up, simply unfold the already assembled unit and pop your bike on top. The aluminium rollers mean they’re very quite and don’t build up friction when you use them indoors so riding feels very smooth. I found them surprisingly easy to learn, the non-slip coating on the rollers mean they feel very stable so it only took 10 minutes of bouncing off the door frame before I was able to balance unaided, take my hand off to have a drink and do some high cadence sprints. I’ve mainly used them for high cadence riding but the resistance good enough to ride at higher power.
They are perfect for very specific and time efficient workouts with the major advantage that you have to concentrate and use a lot of core strength to balance (especially when sprinting!) so it feels far more like riding a real bike than with a turbo and you’re not counting down the seconds until the end of the session. In fact its actually great fun, I sit in my bedroom with the windows wide open for blasts of chilling air and the occasional faceful of snow whilst watching videos of world cup races and listening to Velobeats on full blast! god knows what the neighbours think…
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