Kinetic Road Machine Fluid Trainer

First things first - I'm Lisa's hubby, not Lisa. We share one Amazon account - it just keeps things simpler!I ordered this to replace an aging Minoura rim-drive style trainer. The Minoura was great from the standpoint of the rim drive, but the belt and other moving parts made it noisy (in my opinion) and the belt wore out pretty quick and was a PITA to replace. But overall it was a good trainer. I was hoping a fluid style trainer would be smoother and quieter.After reading many reviews, I decided the Kurt Kinetic was the best option, and the additional flywheel would give the unit excellent feel. I knew the rear tire would take more abuse from this type of trainer, but I was willing to recycle some old tires to the task to get a quiet, smooth, road-like ride.Unboxing, the product was perfect. The box opens fully, so you don't have that awkward issue of trying to figure out how to slide the Styrofoam out. I was pleased to find just a few simple parts inside. The assembly was a breeze - just mount the resistance unit with a single bolt, slide the spring onto the tension L-bolt, and screw on the adjustment knob. That's about it - takes all of three minutes to assemble and it's simple. On mine, I changed out the aluminum lug that holds the skewer on one side. Not sure why they don't do that by default, but it was simple as well.The product itself is well built. The design is similar to many others with the folding legs. But the stance is a bit wider and the tubing larger in diameter. Also nice is how perfectly the skewer mounts fit onto the supplied skewer. You'll never worry about the bike slipping out of this unit. Both sides of the unit have screw-in and out adjustments, and one side has a quick-release, making putting the bike in and out super fast.Once I got it up and running, the first thing I noticed is that this unit has excellent feel. The design, while simple, is very solid. The resistance unit has one rotating part and has excellent bearings. It spins smoothly and without any jiggle or looseness. And the large flywheel produces realistic pedal feel. I ordered the supplemental 12 lb flywheel but it doesn't arrive until next week. This should further improve the feel, but the unit does an excellent job right out of the box.Now for the not-so-good stuff. I bought this unit hoping for something really smooth and quiet. But it's not at all quiet. It's not so much the absolute volume of the noise as the quality. The sound that comes out of this thing is higher-pitched and white noise in nature. It almost sounds like metal-on-metal with high-pitched fan type noise. I'll try to get a video and post it if I can edit this review later. But suffice it to say that my old trainer with its belts, pulleys, and many moving parts was quieter. That was a major disappointment! Update on 07/01/2013 - I have uploaded a short video with sound to demonstrate what this thing sounds like. And yes - it really does sound like that...reminds me of bearings going bad with no oil or a small jet engine. The video shows riding at a power output of around 225-250 watts and roughly 80-90 rpm pedal speed. Not sure what the gearing would translate to in terms of road speed, but let's say maybe 22-25 mph based on what gear ratio I was in at the time.My other complaint is that this unit doesn't have quite enough resistance, nor does it have any adjustment for resistance. According to all the reviews I read before, fluid trainers simply increase their resistance as the wheel rotates faster. That's fine and exactly what I expected - but the problem here is that you have to run in nearly your top gear just to generate average resistance. And forget about sprinting... I'm a pretty good cyclist, not the best, but for comparison I bike the 112 mile portion of Ironman in a little over 5 hours. To do that typically requires an average power output of about 210-215 watts. My bike has an integrated power meter, so with this trainer I can tell you that 300-400 watts is approaching the upper end of what this unit can deliver. And to get those watts, you have to spin the bike's wheel pretty fast. And of course the faster you turn it, the more noise and vibration you create. I wish this unit developed the 200-250 watts I like to use at a much lower speed. If it did, it would be smoother and generate a lot less noise. At 250 watts, the Kinetic kicks up a lot of noise. Most of it appears to be coming from the fluid portion of the resistance unit, and more from either the tire/roller interface and the flywheel, although it's hard to tell exactly where while riding it. Hopefully my wife can get some up-close video and audio while I am using it that I can post later on.I'm going to call in to customer service tomorrow - I suppose it's possible something is wrong with my unit. It's really that bad. But the feel of this model is superior enough to my old trainer that I might end up keeping it anyway. I gave it 4 stars because it really is well designed and a very solid unit and maybe I was overly optimistic that a fluid trainer really would be quiet. As long as you aren't a highly competitive rider and don't mind the significant white noise note this thing puts out, this model will probably exceed your expectations in every other area.Update: I called Kurt customer service this morning about the noise levels. Gave the person the serial number and she said based on the number, the "new" unit I was sold was actually several years old. I guess it's been in a warehouse somewhere sitting around. So be aware - if you buy one there's no telling how old it actually is, even though technically it's "new in the box". She suggested I register and fill out a warranty claim, which I am doing now. She said the unit should be extremely quiet. I'll post additional updates as the warranty process proceeds.Update 2: Kurt customer service/warranty was amazingly fast! I registered my product online, got an e-mail response back almost immediately saying they'd ship me a replacement resistance unit. Hopefully it will solve the noise issues. For the record, when I called, there were no phone prompts - a real live person picked up immediately. If you are debating on whether to spend a premium on this product, the customer service alone is worth it.Update 07/01/2013: Today the extra 12 lb flywheel arrived. Installation was a snap - it fits neatly right over the stock flywheel and is precision milled to fit around it on the outside edges. It is secured in the center with a single screw with wings for tool-free installation. This flywheel is totally worth the extra cost - it makes this trainer ride almost exactly like the bike is on the road. Acceleration, "coasting", and pedal dynamics are dramatically improved. I also learned that this machine is very sensitive to how the feet make contact with the floor. Because you have to spin this unit SO fast to generate appropriate wattage levels, the flywheel is turning extremely fast, greatly exaggerating any imbalance issues. Anyway - once I got the new flywheel installed and started riding, I noticed some significant vibrations - so much so that my hands would have been numb by the end of my 90 minute training session. Playing with the unit, I noticed that one of the forward feet had a tiny amount of play in it. So I shimmed it up perfectly to remove every bit of play. The unit is sitting on a 2x2 foot ceramic tile floor laid over a concrete slab on the ground floor, so the floor its on is extremely solid. I think this helps - any softness in your floor is likely to allow vibrations to get out of control with this super-massive flywheel. But that's the price you pay for having a nice large mass - worth it IMO. Once I had all four feet perfectly even, the unit ran smooth as glass. A nice touch would be if this thing came with screw in and out leveling feet. It would be simple to add them, and you'd only need them on the front feet. As mentioned elsewhere, I've added a short video clip illustrating the sound/noise this thing kicks up. I'm still waiting on the replacement resistance unit that customer service is shipping - I'll update the review once that arrives.

I bought this back in 2011 in advance of my first Full Ironman so could get miles in over the winter months. Reading all the reviews, Fluid was the way to go for smooth power delivery, low noise and realistic coast-down. The (2) highest recommended was the CycleOps (which I tried at a local store) and the Kinetic a friend let me try out. They were both solid trainers, but I felt the Kinetic was slightly smoother/quieter so decision was made. Four years and >1000miles later still in use and in great shape. I've since bought (2) more as gifts.Pros:- Quiet - not silent but bike makes more noise than the flywheel mechanism. I stream TV/Movies on my Kindle (plug :P) whilst riding.- Smooth - having the right tension on the wheel is key (once touching I go (1) full turn)- Spindown - with base flywheel spindown is very nice (e.g. you can pause your pedal without the wheel stopping)- Durability - 4years and >1000 miles no issues- Versatility - Easy to switch bikes out (now have (2) users in my house)Cons:- You will sweat.. ALOT. Buy a mat and nice fan :)

Purchased this baby to put my cruiser on to ride during the many, many inclement days in the Pacific Northwest.It's portable, easy to install, and super quiet - the noise you get will come from the type of rear tire you have - my bike has the heavy tread tire that came when I bought it, so there is some noise, but I can still watch TV at a reasonable level and NO, your neighbors and family members will not be disturbed by your use of it at odd hours.Comes with some adjustment items so you can work it to get your bike on, no matter what kind of bike you have!I love it, my husband loves it and we will never buy another stationary bike again!

Got some bad news from my doc, immediately put myself on a low carb diet and bought this thing. I have no experience with these, so I read the reviews, checked prices and placed the order. This is a rather simple, no frills, no electricity, no brain required unit, that came fully assembled and well packaged. Just open the legs, replace skewer with the one supplied (or not), place the bike into position, tighten onto skewer while adjusting alignment, adjust tension on resistance unit, mount up, peddle away. It's taking me longer to type this than the actual setup. You can skip the $25 riser and just stick a phone book under the front tire. After initial setup, you can remove and remount bike with no further adjusting. My first impression while peddling my mountain bike in top gear was that there's not enough resistance. After ten minutes or so, I broke a sweat and decided there was exactly enough resistance. I'm 6', about 230 lbs (down from 252) and it doesn't sway, skew or bounce while peddling. After suffering through the first few sessions I ordered the Schwinn Pillow Top "fat guy" saddle, but that's a review for another day. I've been doing 30 to 60 minutes a day and will continue until we get some Spring temps around here and I can hit the road. Riding indoors sucks but it was cheaper than a good treadmill and I'm nowhere near a gym. I do highly recommend this product.

This just arrived and my biggest regret is not ordering it 4 months ago - to use all winter! I bought this based on reviews online from various sites and I'm not disappointed in any way. Quite heavy, strong, and solid.BUT, I'm giving this 4 instead of 5 stars because of the company's customer service. I was somewhat shocked at their response to my inquires for help with a few questions concerning assembly (after searching online and downloading an instruction manual). Any company that feels it can rest solely on the laurels of their excellent product is missing huge opportunities. This will at some point catch up with them.So, in closing, buy it but don't ever email "Erin" for help!!

After doing much research into which turbo trainer would be right for my needs, i decided to go with the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine. I'm a road cyclist who mainly does time trials, hill climbs and audax.The main selling point for this trainer is that the company guarantees the fluid resistance unit against leakage for life. The Kurt resistance unit uses liquid silicone and not oil - all fluid turbo trainers that use oil are liable to leak at some point. The Kurt unit is constructed in such a way that leakage should be impossible. Time will tell if their claims are true but it certainly persuaded me to buy.Assembly of the trainer is easy and straight forward. But my first issue is that when attaching the resistance unit itself to the folding frame, the first thing that i noticed was the amount of play between the fixing bolt and the hole in the yoke of the resistance unit. The tolerances arent very good and even when you tighten the fixing bolt up, the resistance unit still moves about quite a bit. Once you install the spring and tension adjusting knob it helps to stabilise things. And of course, once a bike wheel is sitting in the turbo, the play is irrelevant.Stability of the trainer is excellent. The quick-release locking mechanism is easy to use and holds the wheel securily. The fluid resistance unit is very very quiet. The green colour is actually very nice and makes a change from all those black turbos. I cant say how accurate the power estimations are as i dont have powertap, but the claim is that it's pretty accurate due to silicone not being affected by heat. I'm using the power curve available from their website to get a rough idea of my power based on speed. I just did an hour at 17mph and that felt okay.When not using the trainer, it folds up for storage and i notice that the resistance unit, being so heavy, tends to flop about quite a bit. A further improvement on the design would be some way of locking this in place.The other thing of note is that i registered my warranty on Kurt's website and didnt receive a confirmation email so i wasn't sure if they had received it or not. So i emailed them about a week later and asked them if they had received my warranty registration. I received a one word reply - "yes". Maybe they are understaffed at Kurt head office but i expected more than a one-word reply. Funny that a Brit should feel the need to teach an American company some customer service skills!That's all i can think of, but if you have any questions then post a comment and i'll reply.

I spent a lot of time researching the market and reading reviews and this trainer topped the field. It's a bit more expensive but it works brilliantly - easy to set up, holds the bike very securely even when riding hard. Excellent concept in that it provides a resistance directly related to effort. Stays quite cool and is not noisy - after a month or so of use am still really pleased

Following plenty of research I ordered this machine, and have found it truly excellent. The construction is substantial and very stable in use. ( I am no lightweight!!) In use the noise level is reasonable, the machine not me) and gives a smooth resistance to effort. I was worried by the price but now feel it is worth the premium.

I recently purchased the Kinetic Road Machine Trainer and I must say this is an excellent machine. It was very easy to set up and I was on the bike within minutes of taking it out of the box. It is a very quiet machine so there are no complaints from anyone else in the house when i do my workout indoors. I could have purchased a cheaper model but I believe this machine is great value for money, and I am glad I went for the Kinetic model, looking forward to hour's of fun with this machine, thank you.

This is our 2nd Kurt, so we have a dual session in the living room. Absolutely cannot fault Kurt, they are brilliant, worth spending the extra to get the quality kit. So easy to set up and an amazing colour!