Need a trainer... Need advice

see this for unbias comparison: coachlevi.compros cons stationary trainers and rollersOpen ↗

i own a cyclops fluid 2 trainer and love how it works. it's quiet, progressive and infinite resistance curve and a road feel to it, but without the balance required for a roller. wind trainers are also very good, their cheaper, progressive resistance, but loud enough at lower speeds so you can't hear tv well at all, and only get louder the faster you go, so if noise is not an issue and money is get the wind job from cyclops.

make sure if you get a trainer or a roller to have a fan blowing directly in front of you to simulate road wind so you don't overheat yourself. and have water on hand just as you would riding a bike outside.

by the way, just two warn you of two things; riding indoors is [FONT=times new roman]extremely boring, so get a tv and a dvd player and play either movies or training films. and the other thing is to make sure your tension, if you get a trainer, is set correctly otherwise you will wear out tires fast. they do make trainer specific tires, but i just put old tires on, if you use old tires clean them first so you don't damage the roller-this applies to rollers too.[/FONT]

well Nashbar has done a good job imitating Elite's design´s for half the price...
anyway the main difference between fluid and magnetic trainers is how you set the level of resistance, with the magnetic-unit you choose the resistance manually, with the fluid-unit resistance is subject to your choice of gears on your bike.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by vspa [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

well Nashbar has done a good job imitating Elite's design´s for half the price...
anyway the main difference between fluid and magnetic trainers is how you set the level of resistance, with the magnetic-unit you choose the resistance manually, with the fluid-unit resistance is subject to your choice of gears on your bike.

not just gears but cadence as well with the fluid, but wind is the same way.

I know you said your budget is $200, but if you can spring for a bit more go for a fluid trainer. And the best fluid trainer on the market is the Kurt Kinetic.

I know you said your budget is $200, but if you can spring for a bit more go for a fluid trainer. And the best fluid trainer on the market is the Kurt Kinetic.

I know you said your budget is $200, but if you can spring for a bit more go for a fluid trainer. And the best fluid trainer on the market is the Kurt Kinetic.

I just had a triple - this one makes it a quadruple.

Not sure why 3 of them showed up though. Sorry about that gang.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll probably be looking at the fluid trainer and perhaps increase my spending funds a tad bit.
Yojimbo, thanks for the hat trick. It is about hockey time. Go Flyers.

I've been using the Fluid 2 trainer for 7 years. After reading reports about oil leaking I've haven't had one drop leak. After reading how loud they were, well they never rode a fan trainer because in comparison the Fluid 2 is far quieter, and you can watch TV without cranking it way up and it doesn't disturb others. Is is it dead quiet? Of course not, nothing is, but it won't drive you crazy as others would lead you to believe. Here's the facts regardless of which trainer you buy: 14mph=130 watts; 15 mph=145 watts; 16 mph=160 watts; 17 mph=185 watts; 18 mph=210 watts; 19 mph=235 watts; 20 mph=265 watts; 21 mph=295 watts; 18 mph=600 watts; 30 mph=700 watts, The Fluid 2 has a infinite resistance curve so it can more handle the above wattages. The unit also comes with a lifetime warranty, what more could you want?

If we're talking about trainer power curves now, here's the one for Kurt Kinetic.

kurtkinetic.comPower Curves419.Open ↗
pdf

The curve labelled "outdoor ride" is based on a theoretical fit using cycling models at analyticcycling.com and it's for a rider of a specific weight (I can't remember the weight) going up a 1% grade.

Spend a little more money and get a good fluid trainer like this.

All these power curves are based on the manufactures tests and not an outside source, thus the manufacture and mess with the testing to make their unit come out looking the best. To say the Kinetic is better then the Cyclops is just personal preference. Your going to find that most people like the one they bought. Both have [FONT= 'Lucida Grande']comparable technology a impellor in a fluid bath. They both have effectively infinate exponential resistance curves. They're both good for sprint training as well as endurance work. The KK has a bigger fly wheel thus the extra cost. The bigger fly wheel [/FONT][FONT= 'Lucida Grande']means that, undamped by a heavy flywheel, you have to work harder at the top and bottom of the pedal stroke on a trainer than on the road or track. On the road and track, your own inertia carries you over the dead spots, on a trainer, no such luck. This leads to a (maybe desirable, but unrealistic) extra load on muscles that don't generally have that much say in just how hard you're working, leading to earlier and unrealistic fatigue and the potential for a less effective training session. A big, heavy flywheel reduces this problem, and the Road Machine has a heavy flywheel. [/FONT]

According to Roadiedvm on Bikeforums.net: [FONT= verdana]I've used 3 trainers: 1UpUSA, Cycleops Fluid 2 and now KK Road Machine. Used the 1Up for about a year put about 1500 miles on it and the resistance pad broke down. 1Up is a great company and replaced the 1Up trainer with a KK at no charge. The KK was so loud and the resistance so much higher than the 1Up that I tried a Fluid 2, liked it and returned the Kurt. I put 2500 miles on the Cycleops last winter and this until it started leaking. Cycleops will replace it at no charge but I still need a trainer while I'm waiting for the Fluid 2 to come back so I bought another Kurt hoping that my experience with the first one was a fluke. Well...Kurt has a nice power curve[/FONT][FONT= verdana] [/FONT][FONT= verdana]diagram[/FONT][FONT= verdana] [/FONT][FONT= verdana]showing how well the Kurt wattage correlates to riding on the road at a particular speed; I think what the Kurt wattage computer does is simply convert speed to wattage based on this power curve. My experience hasn't borne that out. Using a Power Tap, I find that my speed on the Kurt at a given wattage is about 2 mph slower than the chart says it should be. Put another way, to maintain a given speed, I have to expend 60-80 more watts than the chart states I should. This Kurt, like the first, is much noiser than the Cycleops. My unscientific opinion is that the Cycleops approximates road resistance more closely than the Kurt and perhaps I'll have the opportunity to test that when I'm able to get on the road again.[/FONT]

Also Cyclops is made in America while the Kurt Kinetic is made in China, I would rather, if at all possible, buy an American product and keep Americans working.

I don't recall writing that the KK is better than your preferred trainer after you identified your preference. I just provided a power curve and some related information.

Apology accepted.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by Yojimbo_ [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

I don't recall writing that the KK is better than your preferred trainer after you identified your preference. I just provided a power curve and some related information.

Apology accepted.

Apologize for what? I didn't say yours or mine was better just different. So I have nothing to apologize for...and neither do you!

Read your post again - the one you posted in response to my power curve post.

The second sentence implies that I have claimed the KK is better than your preference. You then go on and include a quote from somebody who prefers your trainer.

You're doing a lot of defending when I didn't make any claim.

My neighbor lent me some rollers that I'm going to give a try. They are older but in working order. Thanks for the charts, graphs and expert opinions. Anytime you guys needs the heads up on passenger train HVAC systems give me a shout. Only kidding. I guess all the knowledge gained from text can't replace good old fashioned experential knowledge.

I just got an Ascent fluid trainer, and if this is what all fluid trainers are like, I am not sure I will be doing mutch rideing on one. It don't feel like I am on the road riding at all. It was only $99. so maybe I got what I paid for.

Wild,
How does it feel pedaling? Is there a lot of resistance there? I sort of took a spill on the rollers last night. I was leaned over with shoulder on the kitchen table at a 45 degree angle an unable to unlock my right foot from the pedal. I had to call for my wife for help. Afterwards I got rolling for a half an hour but my fingers were completely numb and quit. I must say that it was a good workout, but I don't really care for the rollers.

The KK trainer has a reasonable road feel although I find it more difficult than being outside.

The reason is that the power curve fits a theoretical rider going up a 1% slope and not everything outside is equivalent. The resistance increases the faster you pedal so that replicates the outside experience pretty well.

It's also pretty quiet and very reliable.

Do some searches for reviews.

I don't know about $99 fluid trainers - are you sure it's a fluid trainer?

Well it says it is fluid trainer, it was on sale for $99. reg $199. from Performance bike. it has gotten easer to use since I losened the tention to the wheel in the instructions it said to bring it up to the wheel and go 1 1/2 turns tighter, only going 1 turn it is easer to ride. I am using a comfort bike on it with a 1.95 slick A Jamis Explorer 2.0 I might hook my Fuji Absolute 1.0 to it to see the differnce, but the Explorer has the lower gear.