I bought a Kurt Kinetic trainer for my bike last week and set it up in the back room. (www.kurtkinetic.com) The instructions were easy and it took less than 15 minutes to mount my Specialized Allez road bike, setting it up facing the windows with a nice view of the pool. I’ve debated this investment for a long time. In the end, the reasons were overwhelming (translation: my wife wanted the trainer)
· Weather- I don’t like running my bike on wet roads because the dirt and grime wear on the expensive moving parts. In Florida, this causes me more than a little grief, due to all the freak’in geezers who have their sprinklers pointed at the road.
· Safety- There’s an obvious geezer reference here, but it’s really the newspaper guy that is the most dangerous foe on my morning workout. He almost took my life. About two years ago, I found myself head to head with a 10-year old Mitsubishi, reenacting the scene from Top Gun where Goose and Maverick go nose-to-nose with Viper over the desert floor, swerving at the last minute to avoid imminent death and maneuver for a missile shot and dinner with Kelly McGillis. My experience was the same, except the Mitsubishi driver had his dome light on and was driving from the passenger seat. Also, when I “broke right,” I crashed through two azalea bushes and a metal garbage can. It sounded like Animal, from the Muppets, beating his head on his cymbals. The newspaper guy never noticed, so he most likely has no clue why I scream at him and throw loose change whenever our paths cross.
· My wife can train- Actually, I don’t’ care about this, but it helped justify the cost of the trainer, thus preventing another expensive item from landing on the “toys for daddy” list which seems to count against me. Having a training tool for both my wife and I has proven more of a hindrance than a help. I’m forever adjusting the seat to her size and changing the pedals. Apparently, she can’t do these things. Apparently she isn’t sure how high to put the seat, and the pedals screw in the wrong way, and she’s suddenly afraid that she’ll scratch my bike, and…and…and she’s weak and math is hard. Whatever.
· I don’t need long, straight roads- I bike so that I can run triathlons. Therefore, I need long, uninterrupted stretches to work on my time trial strength. With the trainer I can put my head down, turn up some music on the Iphone, and rip out some miles without worrying about traffic, stop lights, or intersections.
To this point, the only bad thing about the indoor trainer is the lack of scenery. However, I can offset this by watching movies on my computer and listening to music. Judging from my heart monitor’s readings, an hour on the trainer is equal to about eighty minutes on the road. Of course that 20 minute advantage costs a couple of hundred dollars, but who can put a price on good health; or on getting to watch my wife spinning in her tight cycling shorts while I eat a turkey sandwich and drink a beer at the kitchen counter. Nice.
· Weather- I don’t like running my bike on wet roads because the dirt and grime wear on the expensive moving parts. In Florida, this causes me more than a little grief, due to all the freak’in geezers who have their sprinklers pointed at the road.
· Safety- There’s an obvious geezer reference here, but it’s really the newspaper guy that is the most dangerous foe on my morning workout. He almost took my life. About two years ago, I found myself head to head with a 10-year old Mitsubishi, reenacting the scene from Top Gun where Goose and Maverick go nose-to-nose with Viper over the desert floor, swerving at the last minute to avoid imminent death and maneuver for a missile shot and dinner with Kelly McGillis. My experience was the same, except the Mitsubishi driver had his dome light on and was driving from the passenger seat. Also, when I “broke right,” I crashed through two azalea bushes and a metal garbage can. It sounded like Animal, from the Muppets, beating his head on his cymbals. The newspaper guy never noticed, so he most likely has no clue why I scream at him and throw loose change whenever our paths cross.
· My wife can train- Actually, I don’t’ care about this, but it helped justify the cost of the trainer, thus preventing another expensive item from landing on the “toys for daddy” list which seems to count against me. Having a training tool for both my wife and I has proven more of a hindrance than a help. I’m forever adjusting the seat to her size and changing the pedals. Apparently, she can’t do these things. Apparently she isn’t sure how high to put the seat, and the pedals screw in the wrong way, and she’s suddenly afraid that she’ll scratch my bike, and…and…and she’s weak and math is hard. Whatever.
· I don’t need long, straight roads- I bike so that I can run triathlons. Therefore, I need long, uninterrupted stretches to work on my time trial strength. With the trainer I can put my head down, turn up some music on the Iphone, and rip out some miles without worrying about traffic, stop lights, or intersections.
To this point, the only bad thing about the indoor trainer is the lack of scenery. However, I can offset this by watching movies on my computer and listening to music. Judging from my heart monitor’s readings, an hour on the trainer is equal to about eighty minutes on the road. Of course that 20 minute advantage costs a couple of hundred dollars, but who can put a price on good health; or on getting to watch my wife spinning in her tight cycling shorts while I eat a turkey sandwich and drink a beer at the kitchen counter. Nice.
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