Tangent Trainer Review

 

Hard Data

 
Having quickly established that I felt faster on the rollers, I was keen to get some actual data down on how the Tangent Trainer might have effected my power output. I certainly wasn’t expecting miracles but a small change would have been great.
 
First up I looked at my fitness test results. Though not conclusive, as obviously there are many factors which can make you fitter, it does appear that Tangent Training has made a difference. In the screen grab below you can see my FTP score just before starting to use the Tangent Trainer device.
 

 

 
You can see that my power output was 300.1 watts in motion (i.e. whilst pedalling), 299.1 while climbing (the actual test part) and 304.3 normalised (compensating for changes in conditions to give more accurate, realistic average power outputs).
 
Below are the results after a decent period of Tangent Training. As you can see there is a marked improvement.
 

 

 
You can see that my power output post Tangent Training was up from 300.1 to 312.5 in motion, up from 299.1 to 312.5 while climbing and up from 304.3 to 314.7 normalised. It’s far from conclusive but looks promising.
 
As you can see from the following screen grabs, I then looked at certain workouts that I did before I started Tangent Training and the compared them with the same workouts after the period of Tangent Training. Again it is not definite proof but there is something noticeable…
 

 

 
Here you can see that my power output for this strength session, prior to Tangent Training was 215.9 in motion, 392.9 while climbing and 291.2 normalised.
 

 

 
The key thing to notice here is the change in my power output whilst climbing, as this is the actual work part of the intervals; this extra power could well be a sure sign that the Tangent Trainer does as promised, as after Tangent, my power output was up from 215.9 to 228.1 in motion, up from 392.9 to 411.1 while climbing and up from 291.2 to 298.3 normalised. The improvements aren’t huge but they are definitely there and especially looking at the impressive gains ‘while climbing’ of 18.2 watts, are well worth having.
 
I should stress that my total training load did not alter that much over the period, apart from the added usage of the Tangent Trainer.
 
The main thing aside from the data is that I felt different or, more to the point, my legs felt different; I still feel that my pedalling action has gotten more fluid, as if I was back on a fixie again on a regular basis (which I am not). Doing Tangent 20-minutes, three times a week seems to be a good volume of sessions, enough to make a difference. Definitive proof of what that difference is will only come from proper laboratory testing but I will be continuing with further regular usage and will gather more data for further progress reports.
 

Conclusion

 
So in conclusion, it’s not without issues as described on the first page but, based on my experience I’d have to recommend the Tangent Trainer to any racing cyclist looking to eek out that little extra advantage; as long as you stick with it, the Tangent Trainer is a worthwhile addition to your training regime.
 
I will post some video footage of the trainers in use once it’s edited.
 
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Tangent Trainer Website