With winter upon us, even the toughest triathletes and cyclists are now starting to think about indoor bike training, myself included. So, I thought it would be fitting to provide a review on a product that I would highly recommend, the CycleOps Fluid 2 trainer.
I have been using a CycleOps trainer since 2008 and have been extremely happy with this brand of trainer. I picked up my first CycleOps trainer at the fall bike show and used it for about 4 years and what must have been the equivalent of well over 15,000km while training for an Ironman and 2 Ironman 70.3 races, as well as a couple dozen other sprint and Olympic distance tris. Living in the city with no real options for traffic-free riding on a tri-bike (other than shooting north on a weekend for an early morning long ride) I was confined to the trainer for at least 80% of my bike training. After about 4 years, I noticed that the resistance started to lessen and the resistance unit starred to make a weird grinding/whining noise. I did a little research and found that CycleOps has a lifetime warranty on their trainers. So, I brought the trainer to my local bike shop, explained the situation, and within a couple weeks, I had a brand new CycleOps Fluid 2 resistance unit (a nice upgrade from my current CypleOps Fluid unit) at no cost! I have been using this unit ever since and have logged easily as many miles as with the first unit. I know the CycleOps trainers are quite a bit more expensive than other trainers out there, but with a lifetime warranty, it is a very good investment.
So, as I said, I am now using the CycleOps Fluid 2 trainer. What I like to do is throw on a Continental Gator Skin tire on the back of my Cervelo P2 (I don’t bother with a trainer tire as I find them a pain to mount) and hook it up the the trainer. The unit comes with a special quick release mechanism that you have to swap onto your rear wheel. I actually just keep this quick release on my bike at all times, so that I can easily throw my bike on the trainer if an outdoor ride has to be scrapped because of rain. Same with the Gator Skin tire (another product that I would highly recommend). I ride on the trainer and outdoors with the same tire and have never once had a flat. My bike mounts super quick and easy onto the trainer and I’m up and riding with just the push of a couple levers.
I like to do a combination of some longer steady rides and also some harder faster “sprints” where I push a big gear hard for a couple minutes, then recover for a couple minutes and repeat. This trainer easily handles the hard efforts and provides awesome resistance. It is extremely well made and solid. As long as you set it up on level ground, you don’t have to worry about it rocking or moving at all. The only thing I notice is that it can be a little noisy on some of the big gear efforts, but I assume you will get that with any trainer. If your unit does not come with the front wheel riser block, I would recommend picking one up, or you can just make a riser block with a few scraps of 2×4.
With a lifetime warranty, you can’t go wrong with this product. It does exactly what an indoor trainer should do and makes indoor training something you will no longer dread! If you plan to do some serious training this winter, I would highly recommend the CycleOps Fluid trainer. You will not regret spending the extra money on this piece of equipment.
