Flak

Those are my two choices given my extremely limited budget. (Kurt Kinetic and Cycleops fluid 2 are out of the question).

Anyone have experience with either? Which would you get?

Thanks.

raptor3x

All things being equal, definitely the fluid trainer. Wind trainers are loud and best for warming up outdoors.

Allegheny Jet

If you can visit a preformance store, compare the "power curve charts" on the Preformance Adjustable trainer and the Preformance Non-Adjustable trainers. The adjustable model will make about 25% more watts at 18.5 MPH. I have used the adjustable trainer for 5 years and when the hydro unit started to gurgle I called Preformance to inquire about buying a new hydro unit and they replaced the whole trainer with the newest model. They warrant their stuff for life. For $20 more you can purchase the adjustable unit. By the way, the adjustable unit, at the hardest level, makes about 25% more watts than the CycleOps 2 Fluid trainer at 20 mph.

merlinextraligh

^
1) I don't understand why you want an "adjustable" fluid trainer. The whole idea of a fluid trainer is that the resistence increases with speed at a geometric rate, similar to increased wind resistence riding on the road. Thus the "adjustment" is done by how fast you pedal, and what gear you select.

2) why do you want 25% more resistence at a given speed than on a Cycleops Fluid 2. The Cycleops is already more resistence than you get riding on the road at the same speed, so more resistence for a given speed just makes it less realistic. And unless you're beating the Cycleops into submission, I don't think you need more resistence.

whitemax

^ What he said. I'll add that the Cyclops wind trainer is a great trainer but is loud to the point that it sounds like a small jet coming in for a landing especially if used indoors, garage etc. I had one, got rid of it and got the Cyclos fluid trainer. Im a fairly stong cyclist but have no problems with it not being resistant enough. Trust me, it will give you all you can handle; work it and it will work you.

Allegheny Jet

More resistance helps when doing "overgear intervals" in 53/11 @ 50 to 55 rpm with a 5 to 8 rpm jumps. Without the added resistance I would not get the benefit of the interval while the remainder of the class works. Aslo we sometimes will be out of the saddle for extended times, of over 12 minutes, and being able to "not step thru the pedals" works well for the recovery periods.

Brian Ratliff

I'll be a shill for a moment here...

Trakstand Ultra FTW!

A very nice trainer. Kinda spendy though... I got one for $300, which is just a little cheaper than the Cyclops Fluid 2. Very well designed, and they don't lie when they claim it is the most realistic trainer out on the market. Best of all, for me, is that it is rock solid - I weight 185lbs, and on my previous trainer, as well as on the Cyclops that I tried, my bike rocked as I was pedaling and especially on out of the saddle efforts. If you do a lot of overgear intervals, like AJ above, you can set the trainer to have 750W at 25 mph. Otherwise, the system is set up for about 350W at 25 mph.

amorrow

Fluid. If you want more resistance, change gears. It it's the same as past years, the fluid unit is the same as on Elite brand trainers. I like mine.

whitemax

I have a 53/12 cassette on my trainer bike and typical turn the 12 at 65 rpms or so when I want to work on leg strength. It's hard to believe that anyone would be able to ride over an 11 or step thru the pedals even on a 12 especially with increasing resistance as on a Cyclops Fluid trainer. Not saying the trainer you are on does not provide more resistance than the Cyclops or even that the Cyclops is a better trainer. I think Merlins point was that the Cyclops provides ample resistance for whatever kind of training one would want to do and I would concur.

Double D

Go with the fluid, it's a no-brainer. Way better.

Re: adjustable fluid trainers, not ALL fluids increase resistance with higher rpms. That doesn't mean that pedalling faster won't be harder, just that some fluids are designed so that the faster you go the more viscous they get and resistance increases exponentially.

I'm sure that some of the resident BF scientist/geeks/geniuses can give a better explaination though.

Psimet2001 

I used a Performance Fluid (non-adjustable) for over a year or so. Good trainer. I was actually borrowing it. It you can't afford to go with the KK I would say you could do worse that the Performance Fluid.

I'm currently using their mechanical "I-Force" thingy..... I got it as a gift. It is a good trainer as well. Quiter then the fluid even, but it makes snaps and popping sounds as something inside (some kind of clutch mechanism I assume) engages and disengages. Always makes me think something on the bike is creaking......

I kind of prefer fluid honestly.

Psimet2001 

Actually (don't hold me to this folks) I believe that the fluid trainers act like an enclosed hydraulic system. The roller drives a pump/impeller which pushes the fluid through a restricting orfice-providing the resistance. Adjustable ones most likely just adjust the size/shape of the orfice to lessen or further restrict the flow of the fluid - increasing or decreasing the resistance.

Gurgling can happen if seals go and some air creaps into the system - making sounds as it is compressed and pushed through the orfice.

As some will find if they do research the Cyclops has the impeller shaft that enters into the enclosed system from the outside using an o-ring to seal. This system eventually fails. KK says that they use a magnetic coupling to allow the hydraulic circuit to remain sealed and remove a possible point of failure.

....meh....

Flak

I went with the performance fluid. It may not be a KK or cycleops, but it's already better than the mag trainer i burned up. Seems sturdy enough too. Ill post a full review in a few days if anyones interested.

Got it at a local performance store for the same sale price they had it online + an additional 20% off by using an online coupon in store. I'm a big fan of my LBS, but with deals like that it's not hard to see how Performance have expanded so successfully.

azdroptop

I was going to suggest rollers. Too late.