Accordion

So I bit on the REI $269 Kurt Kinetic Pro sale. Picked it up today since we're going to have four days of rain (GASP!) here in Southern California. With my work schedule I'm going to have some trouble riding every day so I thought this might be the time to bite the bullet.

Kurt Kinetic must have changed their instructions because the four page glossy page instruction manual is perhaps the BEST one I've seen in my life. It seriously took all of 10 minutes to set the thing up and it was completely simple. I had no questions and didn't even pop in the included DVD. I imagine they got tired of all the negative reviews about their documentation and flat-out fixed it.

So like an idiot I did the first 30 minutes on my Continental GP4000S rear tire. I noticed that it had a nice squaring off (imagined or real, who knows) but I was ticked that I didn't take the 5 minutes to change the tire to my spare crappy Vittoria.

In the first 30 minutes I was really unhappy. I'm a 20mph average guy and on a typical two hour ride using my Garmin Edge 500 and HR monitor I burn around 1200 calories on my typical two hour ride in the mountains. My average HR is around 160bpm. On this trainer and using my same Edge 500 with the GPS off and the same HR monitor I found it difficult to maintain 14mph and my HR was around 95bpm! Cadence was around 80rpm which also sucked badly. I burned 147 calories in this first ride and was ready to send the damn thing back.

I took a nice break and changed the tire to the Vittoria. I eased back the tension on the rear wheel. I gave it another go. I actually watched my 6-year old play some Tower Defense XBOX 360 game and it was awesome to be able to comment and help him and still be fully engrossed in my riding. I noticed that I was around 19mph and HR was now 150bpm. Cadence back to 95rpm. Now THIS I can live with!

I did around an hour and burned 650 calories and was dripping with sweat. It was cool not to have to wear my helmet, suntan lotion, proper jersey, flat kit, spare tube, etc. I just hopped on and went.

I figured I must have had the tension too tight on the rear wheel and there was too much resistance. I'm not really sure. Maybe I didn't warm up enough and the first 30 minute ride was my warmup. At any rate that last hour was a blast.

My son is thrilled because he's always begging me to watch him play something and now I can do it and also get my riding in. Nights, rain, etc. Awesome!

On another note, my bike has a freaking KNOCK coming from the crank that drove me crazy. I guess I don't hear it on the road for some reason but it's there on the trainer. Also, if you get the Kurt Kinetic also pay the $20 and get the front stand. I found I had to use it on the highest vertical setting to make my bike level. For fun I tried riding without the front stand and I was sliding off the seat due to the extreme downward angle.

So trainers - don't make a snap judgement. I've got a lot to learn but my first day riding one was a bit of a success. I see why investing in another wheel/cassette/tire set makes sense. What a pain in the arse to change that tire from indoor riding to outdoor riding.

Silvercivic27

Changing the tire is such a nonissue in my mind. It seriously takes me more time to find my hr monitor and bib, grease up and put them on than to change the rear tire. Thanks for your opinion and input though.

Barese Rider

Good to hear you like it. Ive used one at the winter spin class at my LBS and have liked it too. Im thinking of making the plunge.

jcushing

I put my CAD book under my front tire, works like a charm. Glad my money is going towards something good in college.

thesmoothdome

I broke my new KK Road Machine out this weekend too. Did an hour on the road in the mist yesterday morning and then a 45 minute Spinerval in the afternoon and an hour long Spinerval (the one that came with the trainer) this afternoon. I'm hearing the same creak you are btw. Still not sure where it's coming from though.

Accordion

Maddening, eh?

Beaker

I have a KK road machine and like it as much as it's possible to like a trainer. Don't try to compare speed on the road with speed on a trainer though, too many factors make it different. I do like to use KK's speed to watts curve though, as it gives a good way to benchmark effort in a reproducible way.

Just make sure that the tension is high enough that you don't get any wheel slip when you grab the rear wheel and yank it forward or back.

acaurora

I have eyed that KK RM since last year, and now that REI has it this year on sale I am highly tempted to go get one. Just a matter of going to REI when I have the time.

Accordion

You may want to hurry. I believe the sale ends tonight (10/17).

acaurora

I am at work already. Oh well. I'll give it a shot tomorrow, saying I was not aware of the sale. If it doesn't work, /shrug.

sfrider 

Yeah, the key is finding something to maintain your attention since there is no road or change of scenery. And a fan. And a big plastic floor mat underneath; I use a floor protector from Office Depot. I just set up my KK RM for rainy days and have been streaming stuff off netflix on the Xbox to occupy myself with. Today it was the first two episodes of Red Dwarf S03. Good way to finish off crappy tires, too.

alexvpaq

When I was 5 I had real problems with lego manuals but now that I'm a man, I thought no manual would stand inbetween me and success but when I got my satori Tacx... MAN, FML! 1 hours later I was still trying to get how to build it


So I wonder if the old KK manual was that bad LOL...