I bought a Cycleops Fluid 2 trainer to replace my Cycleops Wind trainer. The Wind Trainer was free (someone had put it out to the curb), but worked well, other than being loud. But since I am going to be doing a lot more spinning, I decided to invest in a better (and quieter) trainer.
I read alot of reviews, and the Cycleops Fluid 2 trainer sounded like what I wanted, so I ordered it. At close to $250, it wasn’t cheap. So hopefully it would be worth it.
It came quickly, and I was excited to put it together. The directions were reasonable. Not sure if I used them much as it was pretty straight forward to put together. I replaced the skewer on my Trek 1000 with the one that came with the trainer. It is designed to fit into the trainer clamps better. I can still ride the bike with it if I want to though.
I like how fast I can set up the bike on it, and how quickly I can remove it. The clamp system is much nicer than on my older Cycleops Wind Trainer. All I have to do position the bike, flip one lever to clamp the bike in place. Then flip another lever to clamp the roller part to the tire. No adjusting like on the older trainer.
After getting the trainer all set up, I was ready to try it. I wasn’t scheduled to spin that night, but I wanted to play with my new toy. I ended up spinning for 45 minutes I think. I was amazed at how quiet it was. With my Wind Trainer, I needed to crank up the TV volume to be able to hear it. With the Fluid 2 trainer, I can leave to volume pretty much where it normally is. The fan I use to keep me cool is often as loud as the trainer.
Another difference is in the resistance. It seems like the Fluid Trainer has more resistance. So far I think most of my spinning has been with the small ring. I haven’t tried it with the Spinervals DVDs yet. I can only imagine the resistance when I try to do big ring/12. I might have the roller clamped to the tire tighter than it was on the wind trainer. I think I followed the directions properlly when I set that up. I may revisit that, and verify that it is set up properly.
So far it is a real workout to get the bike up to about 16-17mph on the fluid trainer. With the wind trainer, I routinely got the bike up into the low 20s, and could keep it there for a while. And on the road, I can average faster speeds. I averaged over 18 mph for the century ride I did a couple weeks ago. So I am guessing the resistance is a little stiffer than real life, but then I may have the roller clamped to the tire too tightly.
Overall, I really like this thing! I am sure I will get alot of use out of it! I used it last night for about 45 minutes, and may use it tonight for an hour or so.
2 Seconds
SUMMARY: The movie is mostly in French with English subtitles. I enjoyed it. I would have loved to have seen more downhill mountain bike racing like in the beginning scenes.
I stumbled over this movie while looking for something else at Amazon.com. You gotta love the recommendations sometimes. First, be aware that this movie is mostly in French, but there are English subtitles. The main character is a pro mountain bike racer. She races downhill. There is a great scene in the beginning of the movie showing the downhill racing. She hesitates for two seconds at the start gate before going. She ends up losing the race by two seconds. She gets fired from the team by the manager who thinks she is too old.
She moves in with her brother and gets a job as a bike messenger. But she often gets distracted in her love of riding the bike. She also meets this older guy who runs a bike shop. He is a former pro bike racer (Tour De France, Giro De Italia). They kind of start a weird friendship. He tells a stroy of how he passed up a beautiful girl to win a race and never saw her again. This was his life’s regret. The girl racer ends up meeting someone. It’s an interesting cycling movie. I would have loved to have seen more of the downhill mountain bike racing like at the beginning.
Crank Brothers Speed Lever
SUMMARY: Not as useful as I had hoped.
I bought my CrankBrothers Speed Lever a few days ago, and have changed 4 tires with it. I had read about this tool in my bike repair book. The author said it was really good. I read some other online reviews, and most said it was a good tool. So when I bought two new tires for my road bike the other night, I wanted to pick one up and try it. The store where I bought the tires didn’t have it, but another local bike shop did have one of the speed levers.
When I got home, I quickly read the directions, and tried to remove the tire from the rim, and couldn’t get the tool to slide. The directions said that if the tire/rim fit is tight, you maybe need to lube up the tire with soapy water or spit. So I used spit. I managed to get the tire, and replaced it with the new tire. In order to get the new tire on, I was forced to use a rounded fork handle in addition to the tool.
I change two more tires last night. This time, I have a bowl of soapy water. I wetted down the tire with soapy water, and used the Speed Laver to get the tire off the rim. When mounting the new tires back onto the rims, I was again forced to use a fork handle to get the last bit of the tire onto the rim.
So if the tire is tight on the rim, the tool doesn’t work well. The tool didn’t break, but I was a little concerned that it would break when I was pulling on it. It’s a great idea. Maybe if they made a metal version for shop use only. One that you could really crank on.
I may pick up a set of Park Tool tire levers. I will keep the Speed Lever. Who knows, maybe with more practice, I might actually be able to get the thing to work by itself.
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The Long Season: One Year of Bicycle Road Racing in California by Bruno Schull
SUMMARY: About half the book is author watching European bike racing on TV.
I thought this book might be interesting as I have been considering trying to do a few local bike races myself. I bought the book because it was supposedly about the author racing in amateur bike races in the California circuit. But about half the book is him sitting in a bar watching the Tour De France, and describing the race blow by blow. Then there is some more stuff about his love life that doesn’t add much to the book. He does actually write about some of his own racing experiences as he tries to earn enough points to move up to the next racing division. I would have liked to have read more about his own racing than his descriptions of the Tour De France. There are already a ton of book about the Tour De France by people who were actually there.
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Tales from the Toolbox: Inside a Pro Cycling Team by Scott Parr
SUMMARY: An enjoyable read. Interesting look at behind the scenes of a profressional cycling team.
I enjoy working on bikes. It is alot of fun to tear a bike down, and clean it up, re-grease it, and put it back together. And it’s alot cheaper to rebuild a bike than a car. That it is why I was drawn to this book. This book follows the author as he works as a “wrench” (bicycle mechanic) for the Motorola racing team. He describes building up the bikes before the season, building wheels on a large scale, maintaining the bikes in hotel rooms or parking lots late at night, or early in the morning. The bike mechanics also have to do things like wash the team vehicles, and bikes. He discusses what goes into setting up the bikes for particular races. The wheels that you use for one race may be completely wrong for another. There is some talk about Lance Armstrong in the book, but he only receieves minor attention.
The author also gives tips on bike selection and maintenance throughout the book. If you like reading about bike racing, or bike repair, I think you will enjoy this book.
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