Very "noob" questions about trainer

[Cassandra_Cain]

The trainer holds your rear tire off of the ground. In general, you'll have to put something under your front wheel to even out the bike, unless you want to feel like you're riding down hill. Unlike a treadmill, I don't think that raising the front wheel higher makes the riding any harder or simulates riding up hill.

Totally agree with you! You've hit on something that totally baffles me...why some folks think putting an 8 inch block under the front tire somehow equates with hill climbing! A block does not equal overcoming gravity

GLC - Never seen the type of trainer you mention, but in general I want resistance (aka wear) on the tires not the rims....they after far cheaper after all!

[Eden]

Totally agree with you! You've hit on something that totally baffles me...why some folks think putting an 8 inch block under the front tire somehow equates with hill climbing! A block does not equal overcoming gravity

GLC - Never seen the type of trainer you mention, but in general I want resistance (aka wear) on the tires not the rims....they after far cheaper after all!

No one thinks that raising the bike equates resistance - what is may do, and there are varying opinions, is put your body into the hillclimbing position and thereby use different muscles. That combined with using more resistance is better than nothing for simulating hill climbing. No one thinks that there is any better thing to do than to go climb hills to get better at it, but when in a pinch...

[Cassandra_Cain]

No one thinks that raising the bike equates resistance - what is may do, and there are varying opinions, is put your body into the hillclimbing position and thereby use different muscles. That combined with using more resistance is better than nothing for simulating hill climbing. No one thinks that there is any better thing to do than to go climb hills to get better at it, but when in a pinch...

Not sure I would say 'no one thinks....', more like you and most people in the forum who have plenty of common sense obviously know that.

I hear a lot of rubbish about there being more resistance, specifically, by tilting the front wheel up and such. When in reality we know that the resistance on a trainer has nothing to do with the front wheel.

I find the trainer to be very efficient, productive, and especially useful for intervals. Actually intervals are the all I do on the trainer

GLC - Hadn't seen a trainer like that before, it is rather interesting. Being that my rear wheel has a power hub, I'm a little protective you know.

Anyway, end of thread hijack

[GLC1968]

GLC - Never seen the type of trainer you mention, but in general I want resistance (aka wear) on the tires not the rims....they after far cheaper after all!

I wouldn't think that this will 'wear' on the rims. The contact is a rubber wheel that rides the rims. It also comes with a remote thing that mounts to the handle bars to adjust resistance, but when I used it on the mountain bike, I never bothered with it. I just used the gears to adjust.

You do make a good point though...perhaps I should only use this on the commuter/tourer with the tougher rims, just to be on the safe side.

Found a picture of how it works: