Trainer is dead....what's best?

Whew . . . I thought you meant the human kind of trainer.

I'll be going with the KK. I got a chance to do a work out on a Rock-n-roll and liked it a lot. The fact that it actually takes a little core strength to keep it level and with the bushings that make up the support, you can get a lot of feedback on efficiency of cadence..i.e. if you start bouncing around you know you are not being very efficient. The problem I have with it is the size of the footprint (a little large for my small living room) and the price. With that said, I'll probably just go with the standard KK in the end.

if price is no object, I'd go with the wahoo kickr. Their software is open source. Trainer road is supposed to work seamlessly with it.

I like my KK trainer. I have the standard one.

Get in touch with Cyclops first, they are great about replacing head units very very cheaply, unless you real want or need a complete new trainer .
One thing about cyclops is they really generaly stand behing their products, reguardless of age.
AS for a new one I like my cyclops Fluid Pro its pretty quiet compared to the fluid 2 and has stood up to 3 hard winters so far at 100 mile a week or so, but if I had lots to spend I would be looking at one of the sim units Computrainer ect,.

Edited by RRH_88 2013-06-23 9:16 AM

Wahoo trainer

Wahoo Kickr any day of the week I have yet to be bored with it. Combine it with trainerroad and a sufferfest video and its pure pain, err i mean pleasure.

TrainerRoad "fixes" the CompuTrainer user interface quite nicely.
Wahoo Kicker looks really good, just want a way to put an fixed gear bike on there.

We have a CompuTrainer and its sees hundreds of hours of use a year since 2005. Its done well over 1000 miles this year alone. Only problem was me coming off the rollers while next to it and breaking the communication cable. New cable fixed it. Other problem was lack of video of the get off. It was epic and in retrospect I wish I had it recorded.

Thanks everyone for the advice! I've contacted Saris, but I don't have the original receipt any more, so we'll see how that goes. I don't really want to spend anything! But $300 I suppose, to qualify it. It's kinda down to the CycleOps or KK, and I think with the KK being a smoother power curve and more accurate to trainerRoad, that's how I'll go if I don't get any love from Saris. Thanks again folks!

kk road machine for sure, i bought mine second hand after a fair bit of research and im very happy with it. cant really climb on it, but meh,i live in pancake land anyway

x2 CycleOps customer service is absolutely outstanding. I had a hand-me-over old (ancient) unit that began leaking a few months after I got it. They gave me the fluid 2 at virtually no cost in exchange. And I was honest about not being the original owner. I'm a customer for life.

+1 on the KK Rock and Roll. It free's you up from that locked down feeling.

Same just happened to me - I wouldn't say *nothing*, but it sure wasn't the cost of a new unit, which is what I'm getting. DONE!

I lucked out and got a Cyclops fluid for $70 at an REI "garage sale". Barely used. awe yea!

If you do end up buying a new trainer, you would be crazy not to check out DCRainmaker's blog before you buy. He has evaluated pretty much every trainer (or any other tech stuff related to Tri) out there and makes recommendations at each price point. It is such a great site. I steer a lot or people there for his reviews. (I may have a man crush or something )

ETA. I see your problem is solved. Very cool.

Edited by wannabefaster 2013-06-24 8:42 PM

I've heard a lot of good things about the Wahoo but not very familiar with it. What part of it justifies lets say $700-800 more than a regular trainer?

Funny you should say that. I do read Ray's blog often, but his price range is a little different than mine. He's in love with the KK and hasn't to my knowledge ever used a Fluid 2, at least not to review it. I'm aware that its power curve changes - getting steeper as it reaches warmup - but that only serves to make it a more challenging ride, which suits me fine. I use it with trainerroad, but I've found it consistent, which is the key for me. anyway. The power numbers themselves are meaningless for the time being. I'm planning on hooking up a Stages arm next year which will give me accurate power numbers anyway. And where did I decide on that power meter? DCRainmaker. Ray does a great job of objectively putting forth information - all of it - and while he draws a few opinions and conclusions, it's scientifically based, so you can't really argue with them. He's a true asset to the sport!

This user's post has been ignored.

I did...and the clincher for me was that the hardware itself didn't change, only the firmware, which is updated via communication between an iPhone and Bluetooth. That's a VERY smart implementation and tells me a lot about the company and the people who work there.

Wow, gotta sing some Saris praise here. Originally when I called them up they gave me a replacement for lets say 25% of a new one. Something got screwed up in their system and it didn't ship...so I called em up, they said "Oh snap! Our bad, hey, let's give it to your for 60% of that (for you math whizzes at home, that's now a replacement at 15% of the MSRP). Well, it didn't come, but I got charged. So I called again...they apologized profusely, the system is totally messed up, tell you what sir, we'll send you the new one tonight, at no charge at all.

Computers mess up all the time, but the people running them are what make the world go round. Saris, that's some A+ customer service there. You have a customer for life.