Specific Question re: Trainers, Buying Soon

This winter I road an exercise bike in the basement when I couldn't ride outside. The big negative is that I couldn't make the adjustments to have the fit of the road bike. Now that trainers are on sale, I'm thinking of making the purchase now. My shop has both the fluid 2 and kinetic road machine.

My question is based on how I want to use a trainer during the riding months. I want to use my road bike on the trainer without swapping tires or other parts, for convenience, in the situation where it's raining and I still want to ride. I'm even thinking of keeping the skewer that comes with the trainer on my road bike (not too heavy?) so it's not a big deal to switch between road and trainer. So, does either of the above trainers have advantages over the other in terms of using the skewer when riding on the road, tire wear, etc?

I also care about long-term benefits, which I've read about, but wondering if one is better than the other given what I've described.

I'll be buying in the next couple of days, so a quick response is appreciated.

 

I own a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine. The skewer that comes with the unit is a standard steel quick release....I wouldn't recommend using a good skewer because the holders don't have any sort of insert. I like the very solid feel of the unit with the supplied skewer.

As for tire wear, I haven't noticed any unusual amount. I bought a heavy training tire (Performance GT2, $8) with a smooth center tread. I've put about 1200 miles on this setup and the tire is fine. I don't switch the bike out as I have an old bike set up on the trainer, but I can mount/dismount the bike in about a minute, if necessary. The trainer is very quiet.

I've never used the fluid 2 trainer, but from what I can tell, it would be similar in use to the Kinetic. One thing I can say is that the Kinetic is very close in output to riding on the road. I am within about 1 mph of my road speed when I ride the trainer. In fact, riding on the road is a little easier than riding on the trainer. So, in that respect, the Kurt is easy to use...you won't need to change your gearing to use it. My wife has a Perfomance fluid trainer that is significantly easier to ride than a real road ride and it requires her to ride in different gears than she normally would.

As far as construction, the Kurt is built well and was easy to assemble.

I would suggest using a sweat net/sweat stop over the top tube of your bike, as you will be sweating quite a bit. CycleOps actually makes the better sweat stop because it has pockets for a remote and a cell phone. A cheap (Performance, $6) wheel riser will help make the bike level while riding.

Hope this helps.

 

I would recommend against this. Trainers are known for "squaring off" tires (my trainer has made a neat worn stripe on the tire I use), plus higher-quality road tires tend to wear much faster on a trainer. If you plan to do this often, it may make sense to buy a spare wheel and cassette for exclusive use on the trainer.

 

After posting this thread I decided to give the rollers one more try. A neighbour gave me them a while back and I only tried them once, but I wasn't comfortable at first so gave up. This morning I set it up in the garage so I was between the wall and car, at first I was all over the place and had to use the wall for support, but eventually I got it down. I went about 40 minutes with no problems. It was a good sweat, great for improving my pedalling, and was better than nothing.

So I've decided not to get a trainer right now.

 

You can certainly use the same tire set up on the trainer as you do on the road, but as mentioned above your tire will wear rather quickly. I have a cycleops fluid 2 and It is an excellent piece. Good road feel and really quiet.

 

I have a Cycleops mag trainer and like it.I use the supplied steel skewer to save marring my good skewer.Continental sells a clincher tire specifically for trainer use...but not to be used for road riding.My advice would be to set up a rear wheel for trainer use only.

 

You might want to check these out. www.insideride.com

I bought these two weeks ago. They are a dream. I rode rollers in the past but they were a little boring and not all that safe. The eMotion rollers actually move forward and back and mimic a real road ride. They have a magnetic resistance unit that lets you set different wattages. They look a little expensive but hell, I spent almost $300 on a fluid trainer last year. These are really something else.

http://www.insideride.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=36

 

I have the Fluid 2. The KK gets rave reviews. Most who have used it love it.

It shouldn't be a problem with either trainer. Generally the skewer will be of lower quality and weigh more than what comes with boutique wheelsets but it's not really going to make a bit of difference when you're out on the road. I leave my trainer skewer in as well. No real world difference.

I wouldn't use expensive tires on the trainer though. As some have stated they tend to wear the tire differently than riding on pavement. Just be sure the tire doesn't get too worn for safety purposes. Keep the worn ones around for Winter use when you are exclusively riding the trainer and squeeze a few hundred extra miles out of them.

There are numerous posts here on both the Fluid2 and KK trainers. You may find some helpful information via a search.