Light Turbo Trainer / Roller option for traveling?

A light bike doesn't replace good fitness.

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Dalai
Posts: 1491
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:54 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

by Dalai

I am planning on flying interstate for a number of races this year, so am looking for a lightweight trainer or set of rollers. Weight is one thing I am not seeing often listed for trainers as I am guessing for most this isn't a consideration...

So far the lightest trainer I've found is the Minoura B60D at 5.5kg http://www.minoura.jp/english/trainer/t ... /b60d.html

So any suggestions at to models and their weights would be much appreciated!

by Weenie


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shoopdawoop
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Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 12:37 am

by shoopdawoop

check these out maybe? Not quite as light as the one you listed but it does fold up nice.

https://www.sportcrafters.com/products/omnium-trainer/

DanW
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Joined: Fri May 02, 2008 5:39 pm
Location: Here, there and everywhere

by DanW

That Omnium trainer looks really interesting.

I'll be following this thread with interest while trying to work out the best way to keep the legs ticking over while flying a lot with work. Don't really fancy taking the full bike and trying to find outdoor rides in the late evening in a new city if there is a better alternative...

11.4
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Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 4:33 am

by 11.4

Is this travel for work, bringing a bike, or travel for racing? Your needs for rollers or a trainer will likely be rather different -- more power capability for training but simply warmup for racing, for example.

I travel a lot for track racing, both my own and for riders I coach. I have yet to find any product that's really decent and also packable. There have been rollers that completely disassembled quickly into rails and drums and had narrow 10-inch wide ultralight drums, but they were also of limited use. They were so narrow you had to be on dead-flat concrete or hardwood or they would tend to tip, that kind of thing. And small rollers are still big packages. One-day gym memberships (often free when you have premium memberships in better health clubs) have been a lot more useful for me if I wasn't going to have a bike with me, and if I brought a bike I'd find the closed circuits that locals used for evening training. It may not be the most exciting road training, but if you can find a 1/2 mile loop, even in a parking lot, and be doing serious intervals in it, it's still a lot better than sitting on a trainer in a hotel room.

Dalai
Posts: 1491
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:54 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

by Dalai

11.4 wrote:Is this travel for work, bringing a bike, or travel for racing?


Purely for warming up prior to races. Already booked my flights for the National CX championships, plus planning to race a number of rounds to the National CX season if training goes to plan...

11.4
Posts: 1095
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 4:33 am

by 11.4

For that about the lightest and most compact are ZZZing Rollers. They aren't made any longer but you can probably find some. Here's an old eBay listing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZZZing-Rollers- ... 7675.l2557

This just gives you an idea of what they're like; unfortunately no photos available.

I think the guy who made them is

John Stull
Owner
ZZZing Rollers
P.O. 410
Lewisberry, US 17339
US
Tel: 7179388116
Fax: 7179388116

Not sure, but call him and see. If he's the guy, he at least may know where there are some for sale. They are good quality (all-alloy drums, nice machined alloy rails, just made very light and so they come apart and pack in a smallish bag). If you can't find those, I'd suggest you just think about some Kreitler Kompacts, and possibly get the Hot Dog version (only 10 inches wide) if you want to save a lot of space (but not much difference in weight). The Kompacts have a simpler and better mounting for the drums. They don't slide back and forth for quick-release adjustment for wheelbase (since it's your bike and your rollers, you probably keep them in the same place anyway, and the quick-release adjustment always slips when you fold them up and pack them). You can take either the Hot Dogs or the wider ones and spin on or off the acorn nuts on the ends in a couple minutes and pack the three drums in some homemade neoprene tubes to protect them. If you want to save more weight, you can get a machine shop to make the rails in alloy for you -- it's trivial welding and then just powdercoat them for about $30. You can get Hot Dogs down to under 20 pounds that way. You are stuck with the length of the rails (they fold in half but it's still about 3 feet long) but everything else is pretty compact. Personally if I was really trying to make this work I'd go the route of the Hot Dog Kompacts, have some alloy rails fabricated, and pack a box-end wrench with the rollers for quick assembly and disassembly. And definitely protect the drums with sleeves made from wet-suit Neoprene.

I've raced track all over the world and traveled with hundreds of track cyclists and watched probably thousands at track events, and we all live on rollers or trainers. None of us have ever had any light or compact solutions better than what I've described above. Sorry about that.

Dalai
Posts: 1491
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:54 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

by Dalai

Thanks for the detailed response! With your comments about track I think I now know where your user id comes from. Nice 200m time! :thumbup:

Found a few pictures of the ZZZing rollers. The following plus some more on flickr

Image

I like the idea of rollers as I also race track - just raced our National Track Masters Championships over the last few days - but was held local this year so was using my regular rollers. With next years National Track Masters interstate again I could use a lighter option such as those suggested.

So will look at the roller options suggested including the ZZZing ones. Will also set up an ebay saved search with email messaging to tell me if a used set is posted for sale, unfortunately even though they are light I expect most sellers won't ship to Australia...

Also have noted a newly listed set of the Minoura R60-D 's just posted on ebay locally, so if the end price is cheap I may still get these in the interim. Already thinking an easy mod would be to buy some aluminium tubes and replace the steel fold out legs with these to save a few grams?

11.4
Posts: 1095
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 4:33 am

by 11.4

Dalai wrote:Nice 200m time!



Back when I got it, it was a national record and almost made the podium at Worlds. Now the competitive times have dropped below ten seconds. I need to go faster.

whydobearsxplod
Posts: 158
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Location: Santa Barbara

by whydobearsxplod

Keep in mind that any lightweight trainer is going to be thin in terms of inertia. I personally find low-inertia trainers unpleasant unless I'm just spinning easy. I'd personally be more focused on the folded size than weight.

The Sportcrafters Omnium is designed to fit in carry-on luggage and has double walled drums to add inertia. The people at sportcrafters, especially Pete (owner) are very passionate and make really high quality stuff.

The 1upUsa trainer also folds up nicely and feels pretty silky.
Last edited by whydobearsxplod on Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

11.4
Posts: 1095
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 4:33 am

by 11.4

whydobearsxplod wrote:Keep in mind that any lightweight trainer is going to be thin in terms of inertia. I personally find low-inertia trainers unpleasant unless I'm just spinning easy. I'd personally be more focused on the folded size than weight.

The Sportcrafters Omnium is designed to fit in carry-on luggage and has double walled drums to add inertia. The people at sportcrafters, especially Pete (owner) are very passionate and make really high quality stuff.

The 1upUsa trainer also folds up nicely and feels pretty silky.

Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk


This is a bit more of an issue with trainers than with rollers, but the OP wanted light weight and compactness and there are tradeoffs to get those. The ZZZing rollers actually feel pretty good, but they do need to be set up on cement or a hard interior floor -- on grass or on heavy carpet they tend not to lie perfectly straight so you keep wanting to ride off the side. The Omniums are not bad but also don't use a roller on the front, which many trackies would prefer, and again their size and weight go up again. Their quality is certainly good. It always comes down to a trade-off. Personally I will customize rollers for travel but won't depart from a basic established design because I may be using them on a funky surface and I may want something to train on more intensively for a day or two if travel took me to a track venue before the track is available and I don't have a road bike with me.

Do note that most riders at elite track events (like World Cup events) bring a road bike so they can go out for road spins to unwind during gaps in the day's schedule, and also so they can ride a freewheel while circling the infield. It's a second bike, and it doesn't eliminate the need for rollers, but it makes life a lot nicer and lets you do that much better when you race.

Dalai
Posts: 1491
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:54 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

by Dalai

Thanks for the feedback guys. Not too bothered with inertia for this particular use. I already have a heavy set of rollers and heavy trainer for training and races I drive to. These will only be a specialty item used for pre-race warm ups maybe half a dozen races a year at most I may fly to.

11.4 wrote:Personally if I was really trying to make this work I'd go the route of the Hot Dog Kompacts, have some alloy rails fabricated, and pack a box-end wrench with the rollers for quick assembly and disassembly. And definitely protect the drums with sleeves made from wet-suit Neoprene.


Noticed you can buy the Kreitler rollers separately, so this may be an option. 10" Hot dog rollers with the plastic ends I expect would be lighter than the alloy ends? Does anyone know what the weight of the 3.0" drums are?

Then as you suggest I get alloy rails manufactured locally. Still hoping this would get closer to ZZZing roller weight than the 20 lbs you suggest?

by Weenie


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11.4
Posts: 1095
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 4:33 am

by 11.4

Dalai wrote:Thanks for the feedback guys. Not too bothered with inertia for this particular use. I already have a heavy set of rollers and heavy trainer for training and races I drive to. These will only be a specialty item used for pre-race warm ups maybe half a dozen races a year at most I may fly to.

11.4 wrote:Personally if I was really trying to make this work I'd go the route of the Hot Dog Kompacts, have some alloy rails fabricated, and pack a box-end wrench with the rollers for quick assembly and disassembly. And definitely protect the drums with sleeves made from wet-suit Neoprene.


Noticed you can buy the Kreitler rollers separately, so this may be an option. 10" Hot dog rollers with the plastic ends I expect would be lighter than the alloy ends? Does anyone know what the weight of the 3.0" drums are?

Then as you suggest I get alloy rails manufactured locally. Still hoping this would get closer to ZZZing roller weight than the 20 lbs you suggest?


Yes, you can get Kreitler drums separately. The Kompakt frames are simply a piece of square-section steel with a hinge in the middle, short pieces of the same steel welded on one side to make for short feet, and short pieces of flat steel bar welded on the opposite side with multiple holes drilled in the front one for adjustability. Some square plastic plugs that I've found at Ace Hardware to close up the main bar and the feet and rubber tips for crutches (also at Ace) to go over the feet for traction. Any local powdercoater can paint it cheaply for you, or you can get someone to anodize it for you for an even more durable finish if you're already going for aluminum.

And yes, at that point you're pretty close to the ZZZing weight. By the way, there's not much difference between the plastic-capped Challenger Kreitler drums and the classic all-aluminum ones. The Challengers are simply a lower price point. They used to have the same warranty as the alloys but I believe that's changed now. I prefer the all-aluminum ones but it's mostly a question of what you want to spend. The Hotdog drums save a little weight but are mostly about smaller volume for travel. You might not even want to disassemble the thing if you are using the narrow drums -- in the Kompakt model it does pack up really small. You can call Kreitler and ask for the weight of the drums.

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