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Trainer question

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verdemujer
verdemujer Posts: 1,397 Member
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I started riding that new trainer the hubby bought and its awful! I find that within one mile I want off so bad. My seat hurts like heck (more than when riding outside). I'm in the lowest gear I can have on my bike and barely able to push past 7 mph and struggle to maintain that speed. I'm lucky if I can stay on for more than a 1.5 miles before I'm off. I'm struggling to get to 5 miles. The front stablizer is at the flat incline. I can't imagine riding my bike in this torture mode for more than 5 let alone 30 miles (48 km plus a bit). Now - if I go to a spin class, I can do more than 10 and am in total happy mode. But everyone says I need to ride my real bike if I'm going to be use to the saddle and the miles for that century in June. But I hate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And riding outside is not really an option right now. Its way too cold and since I seem to suffer from mild Raynaud's Syndrome in my fingers due to over exposure while living in Alaska, I really don't want to ride my bike outside. Is there anything that makes these sessions easier?

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  • matsprt1984
    matsprt1984 Posts: 181 Member
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    What kind of trainer ??
  • tmcowan
    tmcowan Posts: 322 Member
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    If you can find a group of people that do it together, it's not as bad. We have a Trek bike store that does trainer rides after store hours on Tuesday nights. They go for an hour based on HR. It's pretty rough but I have a hard time being on my trainer at home by myself so it does help to have a group. Afterwards we would go next door for tacos and drinks....we earned it !:laugh:
  • verdemujer
    verdemujer Posts: 1,397 Member
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    Its a Kinetic Fluid - an older one than what they sell now. I rode it on Saturday. It took me two hours to ride 10 miles. I tried several YouTube videos - spin music which seemed to be mostly electronic. I like electronic dance music but not a steady dose for spinning. I tried a spin class one and and that didn't work since I can't stand up on the bike while riding it in the trainer. So then I watched a video about riding down the Oregon Coast (10 min), a video about riding in New Zealand (17 min) and a video on riding the whole of Japan (48 min). I was suppose to ride for 20 miles on Saturday but at that point I said, enough. 10 was all I could stand doing at that point.
  • sufferlandrian
    sufferlandrian Posts: 8,236 Member
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    Something doesn't seem right about the trainer. A fluid trainer shouldn't be so hard to push. You should be able to push 15mph without much trouble. If it's a progressive trainer you should still be able to ride easy at lower speeds and as you speed up it will get harder. I would have it checked to see if it's functioning properly. Fluid trainers should be quite and easy to push at speeds below 12 mph.
  • TheBigYin
    TheBigYin Posts: 5,683 Member
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    I'd check to see that the roller pressure on your rear tyre is set up correctly... if it's too tight against the tyre, it'll be increasing the drag massively as not only is there the trainer resistance, but the energy needed to deform the tyre inwards...

    normally you'd set the bike up in the trainer frame with the tyre not touching the wheel, then (certainly on the newer kinetics) you gently wind up the roller to touch the tyre. At this point give the tension screw between 2 and 5 further turns - as low a number as you can get away with without feeling the wheel "slip" when you pedal standing in a low gear.

    annoyingly Kurt don't seem to have manuals for older trainers online, but there's one for the current one here - http://www.kurtkinetic.com/documents/Manuals/T2200_Manual2013.pdf and I doubt that they'll have changed the entire methodology... It may give a few clues anyway :shrug:
  • davidmulligan
    davidmulligan Posts: 7 Member
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    The gear your bike is in will drastically change the resistance of the trainer. Fluid trainers have an exponential resistance curve, which means that the resistance varies with the wheel speed. The lower the wheel speed the lower the resistance and the higher the wheel speed the higher the resistance. Lower your bike's gears to the lowest they will go and try again.

    The tightness of the tyre on the trainer is definitely worth looking at.

    Does your rear wheel of your bike spin freely? The brake is not mashed into one side or something silly like that is it?

    The trainer could just be broken. If it is not spinning easily enough take it back to where you got it or just take it to a bike shop and ask someone there if it feels right. Kurt Kinetic has a lifetime warranty, check it out at http://www.kurtkinetic.com/warranty.html

    My favourite way to do trainer workouts is with TrainerRoad. Pick a training plan and they scale their workouts to your fitness level. Check it out at http://trainerroad.com
  • budkid
    budkid Posts: 50 Member
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    I know the trainer could get realllllly boring without a goal. If you have a heart rate monitor, try doing some intervals. Go hard for 30 seconds off the saddle, then recover, then go for it again. If you are looking to just get mileage, watch a movie. Just make sure you stay in a certain HR zone.
  • Jakess1971
    Jakess1971 Posts: 1,208 Member
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    Wow sorry to hear your not enjoying it, not tried a fluid trainer but I'm surprised it's sounding like a bit of a grind, the kickr has been pretty smooth and it's very much like real riding without the ability to sway as your stuck rigid. Might be worth exchanging the trainer if its a slow grind, should be smooth! Interesting you mention the seat though, outdoors I'm comfy and hardly notice it, indoors it's not so much, weird how this can be, I'm thinking of tinkering with it.
  • verdemujer
    verdemujer Posts: 1,397 Member
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    Yeah - I was suppose to ride it last night and I couldn't bring myself to get on. I will check the brakes on the back for drag and to see if the tire is sitting to 'hard' on the roller. The roller height isn't adjustable on this one like it is on the newer ones. This is part of the issues with buying something second hand. My husband is ever so lucky to have a brand new model since the guy he bought his from was a prat about how he packed it and it broke in shipping. His model is the top of the line and being brand new is very different than the one I have. Lucky bugger. I may just have to gear up for outside riding in February and hope our weather goes to milder temps. Its the pollution that gets to me though at this time of year plus the cold temps.
  • davidmulligan
    davidmulligan Posts: 7 Member
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    You have a working trainer in the same location? Please, take your bike and put it on your husband's trainer. That will tell you where the problem lies.
  • verdemujer
    verdemujer Posts: 1,397 Member
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    To all who have offered advice - we did put my bike on the new trainer and that's such a difference! He has decided he's going to sell the other trainer on to the next person and let me use his for this winter. We might trade off on it or something. Yeah! Those Elite Fluid one is very nice! I rode it this weekend for both days. I just have no way to prove it to here except to say I did it!
  • sufferlandrian
    sufferlandrian Posts: 8,236 Member
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    Glad the new one is working out well. :smile: :smile:

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