Hello,

I'm looking for a trainer and I came across one made by Ascent that Nashbar is selling for $89.95 (https://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...g%20Essentials)

Obviously, the price is very attractive for a college student looking for a basic trainer. Is it worth the money? Thanks in advance.

I guess this isn't a fun topic.

Hey, for that price buy it and find out. If it falls apart, send it back and spend a few more bucks on a better one.

I do not own one but I have had some limited experience with one that belongs to a friend. It's a low-end trainer. It's hard to say whether it's "good" or "bad" in any absolute sense. It's certainly adequate, but it was kind of noisy. It's limited to 3 levels of resistance. The clamp-on resistance thingy was broken on my buddy's, leading me to think it might have been fragile.

But, all of those potential problems are easy to work around. I think it would be a great unit if you're on a budget and can deal with its shortcomings (as compared to other trainers).

A couple of friends of mine have used them for 2 years now (2 years ago they were on sale for $59.00). They get used about 40 hours a year and haven't had any issues so far.

(BTW, 40 hours is more time than it might sound at first. Figure 90 minute sessions, twice a week, for 3 months over the winter).

Bob

I've had two of them over the past 12 months. In both cases, the bearings went bad and the noise coming from them was beyond awful.

Performance, however, does a great job of handling returns, or has for me anyway! Mind you, I have a store close enough to drive to. They cheerfully accepted the 2nd one, which I had used for 9 months back as defective. I used the credit, added a few bucks and purchased the Travel Trac Fluid unit.

I used it today and it was waaay smoother and quiet as silk.

Overall, the Ascent unit (made by Elite, I believe) is a decent mag trainer, especially at that price point.
It's stable and does the job. Had it not been for the very high noise level, I probably would have kept it.

Sheldon