My £4 Fluid trainer ! - UPDATED IT'S HOME !

The secret rider

Hi looking to get a turbo trainer but low on funds a friend has a cycle opps fluid trainer that they know nothing about ( was their parents ) aprox year is 2001 ! but it is FREE so . . .

Is it likely to be too old to be worth using ? do they get too old ?

How can one tell if it functions correctly. Many thanks .

diamonddog

It's free try it, what's the problem.

The secret rider

diamonddog wrote:

It's free try it, what's the problem.

No problem at all just never used one before so dont know how to tell if its working or not .

sophidog

i have a more recent fluid turbo and the faster you try to get the back wheel rotating the harder it gets. No adjuster to mess with, you just use your gears. If it is working OK your legs will soon know about it. Hope that helps

cougie

If you're sweating - it's working.

The secret rider

sophidog wrote:

i have a more recent fluid turbo and the faster you try to get the back wheel rotating the harder it gets. No adjuster to mess with, you just use your gears. If it is working OK your legs will soon know about it. Hope that helps

cougie wrote:

If you're sweating - it's working.

Good advice thanks both !

I CAN CONFIRM I GOT IT WORKING ! Needed a few parts and some serious elbow grease but after some time spent cleaning some fixing and some gt85 its all ready to rock.

I went to Halfords and picked up a cheap wired computer for £4 and made a small bracket so this it fitted to the turbo now so i can leave it attached to the frame of the turbo and all that is needed for the bike is the wheels magnet. So this will be used to log miles for Strava ( manual entry )

I needed a riser block the only one i could get seems to be too tall not sure if this is an issue or not ?



The second thing is unlike the modern version it has a twist to tighten resistance thing but the big question is how tight against the tyre do i do this ?

Third the skewer does not fit very well in the locating slots provided the skewer has a large diameter than the mounts but this is not an issue as i can just take them to uni and bore them out some with a pillar drill its probably 3/4 mm max that needs to come off the internal part.

Other than those basic things i'm all done and ready to go, it pretty quiet. I think i will need to get a rubber matt or something so i don't annoy the people in the flat downstairs but other than that happy as can be for grand total of £4 and some elbow grease.

iron-clover

Well, you're not doing too badly for £4 so far.

For your problems- I'd suggest the following:

1. Use a book, or two as a riser- nothing more fancy actually needed.

2. Tightening the screw to contact the roller with the wheel: tighten until the wheel doesn't slip under power anymore- normally there is a noticeable depression in the tyre where the roller presses into it to get enough traction. Metal rollers will ruin your tyres pretty quickly so using an old tyre would be a good idea.

3. Boring out the spindles can only be a bad idea- they take enough force as it is and boring them out will probably create weak points that will fracture when you 'give it beans' on the turbo. Remember that being fixed in a trainer is NOT what bicycles are designed to do so there are lots of sideways forces when in a turbo.
What skewer are you using at the moment- I guess you haven't got a cyclops specific skewer yet?

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/cycl ... lsrc=aw.ds

Good luck!

The secret rider

iron-clover wrote:

Well, you're not doing too badly for £4 so far.

For your problems- I'd suggest the following:

1. Use a book, or two as a riser- nothing more fancy actually needed.

Thanks why did i not think of this !

2. Tightening the screw to contact the roller with the wheel: tighten until the wheel doesn't slip under power anymore- normally there is a noticeable depression in the tyre where the roller presses into it to get enough traction. Metal rollers will ruin your tyres pretty quickly so using an old tyre would be a good idea.

Thanks for this I have had a quick look and i can see the bulge it makes on the tyre so wil try it out tomorrow for slip and try and mark it or something so i know how much to wind it at quick glance.

I had read about tyre wear i guess that means another wheel too ! I dont think thats an option just now so have to hope it wont melt my rubber too much, too quick.

3. Boring out the spindles can only be a bad idea- they take enough force as it is and boring them out will probably create weak points that will fracture when you 'give it beans' on the turbo. Remember that being fixed in a trainer is NOT what bicycles are designed to do so there are lots of sideways forces when in a turbo.
What skewer are you using at the moment- I guess you haven't got a cyclops specific skewer yet?

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/cycl ... lsrc=aw.ds

No I dont have that oen mine is round at the end like this one

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/tacx ... -prod31152

Honestly it only goes in about 4/5 mm on either side but it seems to hold just fine even when giving it the beans, although ive not been on it for an extended period of time yet but we shall see. Thanks for the tip i guess ill order one of them . . . there goes the budget ahahahahaha !

Good luck!

And thanks !

The secret rider

Just to report this is still working like a dream

mfin

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19726509#p19726509]The secret rider[/url] wrote:

Just to report this is still working like a dream

Thanks for letting us know, a lot of us were getting worried.

The secret rider

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19726521#p19726521]mfin[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19726509#p19726509]The secret rider[/url] wrote:

Just to report this is still working like a dream

Thanks for letting us know, a lot of us were getting worried.

Yes, I assumed people such as yourselves would be struggling to conduct your day to day 'life' without such vital updates. Sorry it took me so long. Ill let you get back to goggle box

oldbazza

"I needed a riser block the only one i could get seems to be too tall not sure if this is an issue or not ? "

I just made one out of some wood off-cuts,with some odd bits of architrave to keep the wheel level and some rubber sheet glued on to help grip the tyre.