Winter is coming Kreitler Question.
 

Anyone use the flywheel accessory on their rollers? Is it worth the money, and does it add road feel and momentum as advertised?
Thanks for any info.

I use Krietler and have the killer headwind unit. It works well, offers good resistance and blows wind on you to cool you down

Yes, maybe, and yes.

Thanks!

I actually like having the flywheel, it makes it much easier to be smooth on the rollers, and you can actually coast for a several seconds. It does make it feel more road like than without the flywheel.

Follow up on this - this winter I noticed my rollers seemed much harder to ride, and the flywheel didn't seem to provide much momentum. Finally one workout the rollers started to squeal. Started checking the rollers and noticed the flywheel didn't turn very smoothly. Upon inspection I discovered I had a seized bearing, and had it been seized long enough that the shaft was worn oblong. Fearing a very expensive repair I contacted Kreitler/MRP about replacement parts. Spencer quickly replied that the bearings were $4 each and the shaft was $6 so $14 to fix the flywheel. He setup the order and sent me a link, all I had to do was enter my credit card number and shipping address. I had the parts 3 days later, and about 1/2 hr after the parts arrived I had a quiet and smooth set of rollers with a flywheel again. HT to Spencer at MRP for some awesome customer service, and to MRP for having some incredibly inexpensive replacement parts.

I suspect that the flywheel implementation on Kreitler rollers may be different than on my Tru Trainer rollers. Coming from an ancient pair of Performance rollers with turbine resistance the flywheel is quite different. First, it is hard to maintain even power ( watts ) output; it fluctuates quite a bit relative to my old rollers. Seems like the flywheel resistance is much more random. Secondly, it is harder overall. Sufferfest workouts that I could do on the old rollers I can barely do on the new. The coasting thing is nice but the momentum means stopping needs to be done slowly as the drum wants to keep going..,