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09-01-08, 09:14 PM
With shorter days just around the corner I will need to transfer a lot of my riding indoors in the next couple of months. I have a fairly old wind trainer- the kind that has drum that the rear wheel rests on and is attached to little turbines, an upright post with a cradle for the bottom bracket, and another upright that the fork clamps on to (kind of like the RacerMate, if anyone remembers those). I have lost the part that clamps the bottom bracket in place, but it still seems to work fine and the bike seems plenty stable. The bearings on the fan and roller unit are sealed and still spin freely. My question is regarding the potential for stress on the frame with these things (a Columbus SL Pinarello). Am I potentially causing undue stress on the frame, or am I risking alignment problems in using this? I notice that most of the new wind trainers (like the Kurt Kinetic) rely on clamping to the outside of the rear wheel and leaving your front wheel in place. Is this design favored because of easy storage or because the other design was found to cause frame problems? And, yes, I know about rollers and am considering getting a set, but like the aerobic benefit of the wind trainer.