Bike Trainer – Convert Mountain, Road, or Beach Bicycles into a Stationary Exercise Bike for Indoor Riding All Year Round by Rad Cycle

First off, there is only one level of resistance. How they can state there is 7 is beyond me. The ONLY way you can “increase” resistance is by putting your bike in different gears, which isn’t increasing resistance at all, just changing the gear ratio.

I am not a cyclist, but I like to cross train and biking is a good break from other cardio activities. Once winter hits I usually just give it up, but I thought I would try this out. The frame itself is sturdy. However, the magnetic resistance device is rather cheap looking and mostly plastic except for a few critical pieces that had to be metal. In order to get anything even remotely acceptable for resistance I had to really crank it against my training tire and put it in my hardest gear. Even so it takes 15 minutes of insane pedaling to start to feel a burn, and really it is harder on my knees to pedal that fast than if I was out running. It is unnatural how fast you have to pedal to get anything remotely similar to a cardio workout like on a treadmill or eliptical (not to mention it will never come close to running outside or biking outside).

The noise is as loud as a vacuum cleaner, really. I may post a video with some sort of decible recording device next to it. I don’t know who these people are that say it isn’t loud, either they are pedaling extremely slow or do not understand what loud is.

The frame seems like it will hold up, but my bet is the actual resistance controller device will be shot in less than a year with 2-3 times a week use in the winter.

All in all I would return this device without hesitation… but I threw away the box and everything that came with it but the manual… lesson learned.

I am not a cyclist. I just have a bike that I would like to use indoors this winter. I got this model on sale and am extremely happy with it. It is a tiny bit noisy considering how small the actual resistance device is, but it is not nearly as bad as any cheap, self-powered exercise equipment I have ever owned. Once I fixed the few issues I found with my bike, setting it up was easy and it works well. I also didn’t realize that I had 28″ tires, and though the product is not designed for it, it JUST fits within millimeters, so it worked out.

Purchased for my son. Reviewed all the similar products and finally selected this one and am very glad I did. Performs flawlessly in every respect.

From the reviews I was concerned of the ease of assembly, the noise, and the possible lack of satisfactory resistance. He called me up and suggested I review this product as it has fulfilled his needs very well and is excellent is every respect.

He advised that upon delivery he assembled the bike, (a 26′ Raleigh off road bike), without using a single tool. The only adjustment necessary was the tension knob to set it at the resistance level desired. He first had too much tension on it and was able to easily back it off finding the correct tension that would allow shifting of gears to provide the complete range of tension desired.

The noise issue in negligible. He said it is no different than riding the bike down the street. One factor that may have assisted in this regard is that in some reviews it reported that normal knobby tires made more noise than smooth tires. He has special tires that are smooth on the middle of the tread but have he knobby pattern around the edges. The purpose being that you get a smooth road ride but when turning or sinking into soft earth the knobs dig in and it is the best of both worlds.

As previously noted once the tension is set on the device you can easily go from free wheeling to hard resistance pedaling like climbing a hill. The bike gears provide the tension desired just as being on the street.

In summary, he cannot recommend this product more highly. Just to have him call and recommend I make a favorable review speaks volumes and he usually cannot care less of such reviews.

I tried another brand bike stand here (one that required assembling the friction wheel) and it was impossible to put together. This one comes almost fully assembled. You simply need to replace the choke for your back wheel (especially if it’s plastic) with the one supplied and mount your bike. It works very well. Stable enough for hands free riding. It’s a bit noisy, but that is due to the rear wheel rubbing against the friction wheel and any stand will do this. I’m pleased as instead of forking out several hundred minimum on a new exercise bike, I converted an old racing bike into an indoor exercise spin bike and it’s working out well.