This was my first Smart Trainer, so I didn't know what to expect. It's sturdy and the Rock and Roll movement feature definitely adds to the realism, making it feel more like an outdoors ride. The first thing I noticed taking it out of the box is how robust and sturdy it is, the frame and especially the flywheel is heavy and the roller and bearings fees very smooth. It has been reliable so far (a few months of hard training rides). To get the full benefit, you'll probably want to join Zwift, have a smart phone and also get the Kinetic turntable riser ring so you can swing the handlebars back and forth freely. Other important items for your pain cave are a high powered fan and a trainer mat to soak up the sweat.
There are a few important things to watch out for. Some of the issues were with the trainer and some were with getting set up with Zwift. The first is that the cone cups on the unit can damage your frame when used with the included Kinetic QR skewer. I have a Cannondale Synapse alloy bike and the dropout curvature is very tight. The cone cups pressed directly on the inside curvature of the dropouts and scratched them, rather then fitting around the ends of the Kinetic QR skewer without contacting the frame. This is tricky because you can't easily see it's happening. The only clue I had was a slight squeaking noise when riding. I advise mounting your bike into the cone cups very carefully the first time you use it. Check the interface between the cone cups, skewer ends and dropouts carefully with a flashlight and don't tighten it much. You should see daylight between the cone cup and the dropout surface, with contact only between the cone cup and the skewer end but not the frame! If this is not the case, stop now and get help from Kinetic before you scratch your dropouts like I did. It turns out Cannondale makes a long Trainer QR skewer with spacers to fix exactly this problem. The spacers push out the skewer ends so the cone cups will only contact the ends of the skewer and not the frame. Bottom line if you have a Cannondale you will probably have this problem, buy the inexpensive Cannondale trainer skewer.
The next problem is your bike may lean a little to one side when it is mounted on the trainer as the instructions say to (centered on the roller). This was very annoying because I had to lean my body the other way to feel right, unacceptable. The fix is simple just move the bike to one side on the roller to counteract the lean, and reset the mounting point. This fixed the problem for me.
With the above problems fixed, the bike feels very secure, quietsqueak free, and stable when mounted. I can get up out of the saddle and do a 600 watt sprint all out (hopefully you can do better!) and have no fear of falling over or the bike coming off the trainer. And you can really swing the bike back and forth and the handlebars too (as long as you have the Kinetic turntable riser ring). It's very realistic, cool, and unique.
OK, now onto the software and pairing issues. I pair my trainer with a Mac. I can Bluetooth-pair the trainer either with my phone or with Zwift on my Mac, but not both at the same time. This is a limitation of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). You have to first pair the trainer with your phone, warm up for ten minutes and then do a calibration using Kinetic's app on your phone. This adds ten minutes to my workouts. If you don't do the warmup and calibration, you will get very inaccurate power readings. After the calibration is done I have to exit the Kinetic app on my phone and then pair it with Zwift running on my Mac. I'm not sure exactly how this works if you are using the Zwift bridge app on your phone instead of pairing directly with your gaming machine.
Next, if you ar
Pro I needed a dependable trainer with a good feel for spinning after knee surgery. It didn't disappoint - a nice trainer. Con I wanted to connect this trainer with Zwift but I wasn't able. You needed an apple product and I had an Android. I didn't know this prior.
This was the perfect addition to my indoor training gear. Mounted it on an old wheel so that a quick wheel change out, and I 'm road ready. Excellent product, perfect for my trainer...
