Hi. I'm new here and looking for information on a trainer. I don't want to ruin my tires, but I don't want to swap them out, either. I have a road bike and my wife has a hybrid. It would be a pain to swap tires on both to use with a trainer. I found a Minoura E-RDA-1050R-PM. It is a rim drive. It is magnetic, but has "PowerMatic" which is supposed to provide exponential resistance.

What are people's opinions of Minoura trainers and rim drive trainers. Please let me know. This model seems to fit my bill (price, features, etc.) but I don't want to get it if it's no good.

Thanks,
Alan

The Minoura E-105 is an awesome trainer for mountain bikes. I've used this particular trainer, and I've noticed that there is significantly more resistence than most other trainers. After talking to people at Minoura, they tell me that it is geared more towards mountain bikers, and people who pedal with a slower cadence. The exponential resistence is not there though. It does come with a handlebar mounted resistence unit, so you can adjust it as you ride, but I have not felt this exponential reisistence that they claim. It's not necessesarily a bad thing, it is still a very smooth trainer, and being rim drive, will be the quietest trainer you can possibly find. Seriously, it is super quiet too!

If you are a mountain biker, I would 100% recommend this trainer!