Originally Posted by
rousseau
Interesting, that never occurred to me. Yes, I do use the bike on the road as well. However, on the trainer I don't do any out of the saddle sprinting, nor do I strain much laterally against the handlebar with my hands or the rest of my body, so I would think that I'm not really putting any undue stress on the forks. Can't quantify that precisely, though.
That type of trainer (in terms of holding the bike by the fork with a floating rear) was pretty common back in the 1980s. But as a mechanical engineer I wouldn't be too happy with the load on the forks. I would definitely keep a very close eye on the forks and dropouts for cracks.