Kurt Kinetic Trainer: Flywheel weight



AdamW

New Member
Mar 28, 2005
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So, I'm thinking of purchasing a Kurt Kinetic Trainer. They have the older models with the 3 pound flywheel on closeout. I'm very interested in hearing viewpoints on what differences can be expected in the 3 lb and 6 lb flywheels. I've heard about longer coast down times but what does this actually translate to? Any other advantages/disadvantages? Thanks everybody! Just found this forum and I'm looking forward to sharing.

Adam
 
I bought Kurt Kinetic trainer late last fall from www.BicycleBuys.com It is the "Road Machine" model and has the 6.25 flywheel. BicycleBuys had it on sale for ~$280.00 which seems like a prety good price as the Kurt Kinetic site lists it for $330.
I don't have experience with the 3 lb flywheel so I can't comment there. However I can say that the KKt is allot better than the magnetic unit I had before. It offers a lot more resistance and CAN BE nice and quite. I've read on http://www.roadbikereview.com where some people felt their units made excessive noise.
Because of the high resistance the KK can produce you need to have the risistance unit tight against the wheel or it will slip if you really push (the KK manual suggests 2 full turns on the knob). With this much tension between the wheel and resistance unit any out-of-round will produce noise when you get things spinning fast.
I use an old bike as a trainer and it has an old wheel on it that isn't very "true." When I started using the KK I noticed noise that followed the wheel RPM. After mounting a newer, more true wheel, the noise/vibration went away.
I never had this problem with the old Mag unit as it wouldn't produce enough resistance to slip so the resistance unit didn't have to be as tight plus the unit make so much noise itself any noise due to an out-of-round wheel would go unnotice.
I also bought the KK Power Computor. It works fine but really is just a bike computor that is calibrated to read out watts based on the resistance of the KK unit as compared to an "average" (170 lb?) rider on a flat road. If you have a good bike computor you really don't need this.
 
RonTom said:
I also bought the KK Power Computor. It works fine but really is just a bike computor that is calibrated to read out watts based on the resistance of the KK unit as compared to an "average" (170 lb?) rider on a flat road. If you have a good bike computor you really don't need this.
RonTom,
Can you give me some details on the power computor? What data it provides and how/where it's installed. I have the same Kinetics you do and have been very happy with it, but I would like a computer to give me a better sense of what I'm achieving.
 
details on the power computor?
What data it provides and
how/where it's installed?

You attach the actual readout to your handlebar similar to a outdoor bike speed-0/computor. Then you attach a small magnet to a spoke on the rear wheel of your bike (simple, using a screw driver) and attach a the "pick-up" sensor on the down-tube running from the seat to the rear axle. The sensor must be about 1 to 2 mm away (about the thickness of butter knife blade). The sensor is attached with simple "zip" ties (platic pull/lock straps). The only tool you'll need is a screw driver, everything else is supplied.

The readout gives you current bike speed, average speed for the workout, workout time, current watts (power), average watts for the workout, distance. To calibrate it to your bike, you need to enter the tire diameter, but the instructions are pretty clear on how to go about this. Go the the KK site and click on the "Accesories" tab for all the features.

You could probably leave it on your bike when you ride outside as a speedo/odo etc. But I'm not sure how waterproof it is. I have a speedo attached to my front wheel so I'll take the KK unit off when I get ready to ride outside - I'm in Ohio :(

If I were to do it again, I'd just move my old speedo/comp to the rear wheel and use that. I could measure power indirectly by monitoring speed. But if you don't have anyway of measuring your speed I recommend it. I paid about $50 from BicycleBuys.com