The fan provides a more realistic "road feel" while the magnetic resistance simulates hills. The computer head unit keeps track of your speed, riding time, calories consumed, grade, and wattage. Wattage is a measurement of your power output and is the same information used by top athletes and coaches. A shift lever unit mounted to the computer head adjusts your simulated grade from 0-10% to make you feel as if you are riding the flats or climbing the Alps. The CS1000 Cyclosimulator mounts to both your bicycle’s front fork and rear wheel to provide the most stable platform even when out of the saddle.
Submitted by
fred
a Weekend Warrior
from USA Date Reviewed: June 18, 2008
Duration Product Used:
More than 3 years
Strengths:
best bicycle exerciser available (i've used ~19 years, on 2nd set of batteries)
Weaknesses:
none
Similar Products Used:
schwinn velodyne which gave out after 13 years
Bike Setup:
Specialized Team Allez from 1988
Bottom Line:
best bike exerciser on the market
Value Rating:Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Larry
a Weekend Warrior
from Lakewood, CO Date Reviewed: June 15, 2005
Duration Product Used:
More than 3 years
Strengths:
Very easy to use once it is set up, and it gets easier to set up time.
Weaknesses:
Really needs a cadence feature. The fan creates a little to much noise at 3:00AM according to my wife.
Similar Products Used:
Blackburn trackstand; Minoura
Bike Setup:
Old road bike (only road bike)
Bottom Line:
I got this unit while I was racing in the late 80's. It was fantastic during the winter to get mileage on and served me very well during the spring to get climbing, interval and sprint workouts on. Now that I am old and responsible I use it to get what exercise I can during the week, and most weekends to replace a real ride. Both my boys are looking forward to putting their bikes on it next winter. I am sure it will serve us all well for years to come.
Value Rating:Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Michelle
a Racer
from Walla Walla, WA 99362 Date Reviewed: January 8, 2005
Favorite Trail:
none, roadie
Duration Product Used:
3 months
Price Paid:
$350.00
Purchased At:
Fittness Fanatics-Spokane, WA
Strengths:
Sturdy during sprints and standing intervals. Computer easy to set and read. Assembles easily. Wattage, calories, speed, time, distance, grade % up to 10. Quiet! Worth every $$$$$. NOTE: Buy a cheap skewer to use with it.
Weaknesses:
No cadence readout.
Similar Products Used:
Unknown model of Cyclops trainer. Does not even compare.
Bike Setup:
Mounts to front fork as well as rear hub.
Bottom Line:
Worth every $$$$! If you're serious about training when the weather gets cruddy, the money is not an issue. 5+
Value Rating:Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Charles
a
from Portland, OR USA Date Reviewed: April 13, 2003
Duration Product Used:
2 Years
Price Paid:
$329.00
Purchased At:
Colorado Cyclist
Strengths:
Very sturdy. Great durability. Fork is held in place tightly, allowing for strong out-of-saddle efforts. Good info in the readouts. Measures power output, speed, and distance. Not too noisy. Very smooth road feel. Unlike other reviewers, I find it pretty easy and fast to put a bike on and off. It's just practice. Still, I agree that it's very convenient if you can dedicate a bike to it. The "hill" settings are nice to increase resistance, but that's not really simulating hills. I use this feature just to work on low cadence power-building.
Weaknesses:
No average speed, distance, or power info. You can figure it out as pointed out in a previous review, but it would be nice to have.
Bike Setup:
And older "rain" bike that sits mostly on the trainer. The trainer sits in front of a TV/VCR for watching old TdeF videos or doing Spinervals workouts.
Bottom Line:
I've put a TON of time in on this thing since I bought it more than two years ago. I've moved it across the country and back twice. So I can vouch for its durability. I love having a readout in front of me to measure my effort in real time. It would be nice to have average power, but that's not a huge deal. Overall, after 2 years and hundreds of hours, I love this machine.
Value Rating:Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Craig Brown
a Weekend Warrior
from Shekou Date Reviewed: February 23, 2003
Favorite Trail:
all trails
Duration Product Used:
3 months
Price Paid:
$350.00
Purchased At:
Flying Ball - Hong Kong
Strengths:
Sturdy - Get out of the seat on the hills. Wind and Mag resistance - works well in combination to simulate hill climbs.
Weaknesses:
Big & Bulky set up time (if you don't have a dedicated ride for the trainer) No Pause on the computer. Buttons close together - easy to reset data accidentally mid ride.
Similar Products Used:
Trails
Bike Setup:
Klein Adept / XTR / Cross Max / Discs / Monkey Lite's
Bottom Line:
A decent product if you can dedicate a bike to it.
Value Rating:Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Chris
a Cross Country Rider
from Boulder, CO Date Reviewed: June 29, 2002
Favorite Trail:
SJT in SoCA
Duration Product Used:
3 months
Price Paid:
$329.00
Purchased At:
Lifestyle Sports, NY, outstanding source for fitness gear
Strengths:
Nice quality and easy to assemble, very stable while riding due to removal of front wheel, simple operation (you never need to revisit the manual after you use it once!), easy to adjust for different bikes, high resistance available at low rpm, fan doesn't make too much noise and can be removed
Weaknesses:
No cadence data, no average power or average speed. Also can't restart a session once you stop it. Not sure how accurate the power values are but I suspect they're fairly repeatable as long as tire pressure is checked often.
Similar Products Used:
Supergo wind trainer with rear wheel computer for speed, cadence, etc.
Bike Setup:
Dedicated "trainer" bike that's too rusted to ride on the street
Bottom Line:
Good value for a versatile indoor trainer that can be used for repeatable power testing/training. I like the ability to do very high force, low cadence intervals to build strength and it's well suited to this with the fan + adjustable magnetic resistance. Takes a bit of fiddling to get the right gear and hill slope set up for these but easy to repeat once you figure it out. I calculate average power after an interval by using the distance and time readouts to calculate average speed, then spinning it back up to that speed and checking the power value. This works OK but it's a mediocre way to get around a missing feature. Lack of cadence info is also a drawback but I get that from a rear-wheel bike computer on my dedicated training bike. All in all it works well and tells me what I need to know at a bargain price. Can't see buying one of the fancier fluid or mag stationary trainers when you can have this one for a few bucks more. I give it 5 flamers for value, 4 overall due to the lack of average power/speed, which just about any user would want. Heck, it already has 2 menu readouts, it should have a third with the averages.
Value Rating:Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Gary
a Racer
from Colorado Springs, CO Date Reviewed: June 7, 2002
Duration Product Used:
1 Year
Price Paid:
$329.00
Purchased At:
Colorado Cyclist
Strengths:
Excellent range of resistance, smooth, and stable.
Weaknesses:
Cannot resume after stopping clock. Must reset clock, calories, miles, everything, so be sure to go to the pot before starting. Not super easy to adjust when switching bikes with different wheel sizes (700c to 650c).
Similar Products Used:
Kreitler Rollers, Blackburn track stand, Minoura folding stand
Bike Setup:
I use an old Cannondale road frame built up with just enough components to work as a dedicated trainer bike. Works great.
Bottom Line:
This unit is for sure the best indoor trainer I've used. From easy low-resistance spinning to hard intervals up hills, it work great, especially for those 4-hour indoor sessions when it's a blizzard outside. Requires some cash up front but superior quality and durability. Will be the least likely trainer to end up in a closet collecting dust.
$ 350.00
Overall Rating:
Overall Rating:
