GreenPlease wrote:
So kind of a back-door.... something... I've owned a lot of trainers. Started on a Cycleops fluid, went to a KK Road Machine, turned that into Rock 'n Roll, went the erg route and tried a Powerbeam Pro, sold that and went back to the Rock n' Roll, recently saw and bought a powerbeam pro mated to a Rock 'n Roll frame, and... because my residence is apparently a wireless black hole... recently bought a computrainer which I am very happy with. I also have a friend with a Kickr.... and I have a cheap set of rollers. Yes, I have poured money into trainers something I never intended to do but... whatever, I have my own justifications and I might as well share my $0.02
In my opinion, the Rock n Roll IS more comfortable for longer sessions. Why? I don't know. With that said, there are a few caveats:
-it's a pain in the ass to set up initially. If your wheel and riser block isn't perfectly centered your bike will have an annoying lean to one side or the other. If your floor isn't really close to level from left to right this becomes very difficult to remediate.
-if your pedal stroke isn't reasonably smooth you'll bob a bit up and down on the bike. Personally I think this is a good thing. It forces you to smooth it out a bit.
I would imagine most of the people who have a negative opinion of the Rock n Roll ran into one of those two issues or simply didn't ride it for long enough to notice. That's something else I should note. You're not going to notice much of a difference on a one hour ride. To me, the difference in comfort became apparent when I started doing ~2hr sessions.
A few other notes:
-in my opinion, the KK fluid unit is superb. It seems bomb-proof and the resistance curve seems pretty consistent. It uses a fluid (forget what type) that's not as sensitive to temperature changes as those found in other fluid trainers.
-InRide is a cheap way to start training with power and the new InRide app is actually pretty decent.
-heavy flywheel. I like that.
-very quiet. My drivetrain makes way more noise than the trainer itself.
Feel free to answer any questions.
Nice write up! BTW, are you referring to the original R&R design in regards to the bobbing? From what I read, the R&R 2 design changes have helped with the bobbing so that its not as pronounced as with the original R&R model even when really hammering a sprint.
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