Hearts in Hawai'i
Kinetic Ride #1
10/2/2014
My Kinetic Road Machine fluid trainer has arrived!
Assembling this couldn't have been easier. In fact, it came assembled--they assemble and test each unit prior to shipping and in this case, they left it assembled post-testing. Since the unit folds up neatly, all I had to do was unfold the unit, replace the skewer on the back tire of my Trek hybrid bicycle, and mount the bike onto the rear axle of the trainer. Mounting the bike raises the back tire a couple inches off the ground, so it gives a somewhat noticeable forward tilt to your bike. The riser for the front tire (ordered but not yet arrived) will alleviate that.
After that, it was a simple matter of tightening the roller up against the rear wheel, which creates the resistance while peddling.
My first impression was that, while the riser will be nice, it really isn't necessary. Keeping the front wheel straight is relatively easy unless you're standing and really moving from side to side. I'm not crazy about the forward pitch with the rear tire elevated, however, so the riser will make for a more natural ride.
How much to tighten the roller? After reading a few message boards, I went with 2 1/4 full turns after the riser first makes contact with the rear tire. This created an extremely realistic ride--my initial ride resulted in a 13.17 mph average. This is somewhat slower than I was used to riding my hybrid outside on the Munger Trail.
Initially, this seemed easy to pedel, and then about five minutes into the ride I realized, hey, I'm starting to really sweat here! Part of this is due to being out of cycling shape. Since my workouts at the fitness center had been steadily decreasing to four or five a month, my fitness level had suffered to a great degree. Now, with this Kinetic, my excuses to not work out evaporate. I'm really looking forward to riding this!
Today's stats: 15.2 miles rode, 1:00:00 time, avg. speed 15.2, 790 calories burned, avg. heart rate 141, max heart rate 155, 13.17 calories per minute, 51.97 calories per mile.
Previous: 9/21/2014--Waikiki Meatballs
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