A Magnetic Trainer: Built To Fall Apart?

Any of you remember American Motors? While AMC may not exist any longer, the magnetic trainer products seem to be following in their footsteps. It’s funny how certain products elicit predictable responses.

# American Motors- Junky cars

# Kleenex- Tissues

# Large American Pickups with Lift Kits- Rednecks

# Hairy, unwashed Fellers with a fond affection for their cousins- Rednecks

And then there is the

# MAGNETIC TRAINER… Junky product that won’t last long!

I wasn’t about to buy a bunch of mag trainers to see how they’d hold up, so there had to be a better strategy.

How about reading review after review of disgruntled magnetic trainer user without putting out a dime myself? Yes, that’s the kind of help I needed.

Some of the breakdowns reported by magnetic trainer owners are amusing. When the complaints are taken in their totality, it’s amazing that a product as weak as this can stay on the market. Of course that’s what they said about American Motors for a lot of years.

So what are people saying?

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My Bike Leans To The Left!

Here’s a good one. Several of the Blackburn mag trainer users report that the brackets holding the rear of the bike loosen and leave the bike listing to the side. Who wants to be in a constant left turn as you fail to circle your living room? ‘I pedal and I pedal but I can’t ever seem to pull out of this stylish cornering maneuver’.

Another problem that is reported several times is the loosening of the magnets on the flywheel. ‘Whap, whap, whap, that noise is sure annoying.‘ Easily fixed by taking it apart and tightening it up. But who should have to do something like that with a relatively new product?

And then there is the guy who reported that his Cycleops mag trainer gave him the most satisfaction as it made a loud clanking sound when he threw it onto the scrap metal pile at the local landfill. He sounds dissatisfied.

So What’s A Mother To Do?

I don’t think you should buy a magnetic trainer. At best you may be able to write a review that says you think your mag trainer is ‘OK‘. It’s more likely you’ll be dissatisfied.

It seems that the only riders who are consistently able to say, ‘I love my trainer’ are the Kurt Kinetic trainer owners.

Now get this straight- not all Kinetic owners are bubbling with enthusiasm, but a lot of them are full of praise. And in the world of bike trainers, that’s not very common.

Go to theFluid Bike Trainer page (Trust me, it’s a lot better written than this sorry page)