  Strongly magnetized accreting stars are often hypothesized to be in `spin
equilibrium' with their surrounding accretion flows, which requires that the
accretion rate changes more slowly than it takes the star to reach spin
equilibrium. This is not true for most magnetically accreting stars, which have
strongly variable accretion outbursts on time-scales much shorter than the time
it would take to reach spin equilibrium. This paper examines how accretion
outbursts affect the time a star takes to reach spin equilibrium and its final
equilibrium spin period. I consider several different models for angular
momentum loss -- either carried away in an outflow, lost to a stellar wind, or
transferred back to the accretion disc (the `trapped disc'). For transient
sources, the outflow scenario leads to significantly longer times to reach spin
equilibrium ($\sim$10x), and shorter equilibrium spin periods than would be
expected from spin equilibrium arguments, while the `trapped disc' does not.
The results suggest that disc trapping plays a significant role in the spin
evolution of strongly magnetic stars, with some caveats for young stellar
objects.
