I ordered the "official" Cycleops skewer, but it turned out to be an ordinary skewer with metal conical end cap to fit the trainer's adjustable retainer. I could have used my Ironman's existing skewer, but I'd need to replace the fancy shaped anodize end cap with a conical end cap. The Ironman's original Suntour GPX group included nice looking blue-grey finished cam lever and end cap -- nice looking but impractical for a trainer like the Cycleops.

After seeing the Cycleops skewer I just ordered a batch of generic steel skewers with old style cam levers and conical end caps, so I have extras if I misplace one.

Basically, the Cycleops won't work with the lightweight aluminum external cam lever skewers that come with some lightweight carbon fiber bikes.

This video pretty well demonstrates the skewer and mounting. Unfortunately there isn't a good, short (3 minute or less) demo video that clearly shows compatible and incompatible skewers, replacing the skewers (I've discovered some folks have their bike shop do everything and don't even know how to fix a flat), tightening the skewers properly, and installing the bike on the Cycleops. You can get the gist of it from watching several videos, but I'm surprised there isn't just one comprehensive tutorial that covers it all in only a couple of minutes.


With the appropriate amount of pressure on the adjustable clamp, the bike may rock slightly in the Cycleops but shouldn't come loose even when standing to pedal or doing intervals with high cadence.