My Lemond Revolution Trainer Review and Impressions.
- Team Iron Cycles
- Kenneth Dorado
If you’ve gotten this far, then you’ve searched the web on for the reviews... You’ve read preview articles like DC Rainmakers blog, full page reviews from Cycle News and impressions from NY Velo City’s site.
And now you’ve reached my little own blog entry about this wondrous trainer.
Background and Initial Expectation Setting
Before ordering and riding the trainer, I did as much online research as I could prior to making the order. The concept is simple; a weighted wind resistance trainer to provide a road like feeling without the use of a rear tire. Sounds simple but there are a lot of physics behind this concept that I haven’t a clue on how they made into reality. How ever I do have some knowledge in what to look for in a great product.
Some concerns I had about the Lemond Revolution Trainer and trainers in general are:
- How much use will I get out of the trainer during the off season?
- Portability for use as warm up prior to races
- Durability
- Cost
With these concerns in mind, I set out to see whether or not this trainer met the majority of criteria.
I’ve trained indoor with different trainers ranging from Cyclops to Black Burn to Performance trainers. These trainers either used a magnetic or fluid resistance. Bottom line: I never found any level of realistic resistance that would want me to sit on these trainers for 60+ minutes. The primary annoyance with these conventional trainers is that they do not provide any reasonable level of coasting (10 - 45 seconds of coasting) if one were to rest their legs for a moment during a ride. Of all of these trainers, I’ve only kept the Performance trainer simply because of the fact that it uses a small footprint in my car and therefor is highly portable. However with that said, it’s only really worth riding on this trainer for about 20 - 25 minutes to warm up.
The Buy
So, with the fact that I didn’t have a legitimate trainer to use during the cold winter months, I made the commitment to order the trainer through my Team shop - Iron Cycles. The MSRP of the Lemond Revolution starts at $499 and goes to $549 with an added cassette.
Once received, the presentation and initial impression of the packaging was nothing short of above satisfactory. The box was wrapped in clear wrap to protect the box art work. It is quite heavy for obvious reason, but it does allow for one handed carrying with its supplied handle. Once I had opened the box, I was welcomed with quite a bit of foam. Foam is a good thing here, as to “not damage the goods”. The packaging is well organized as well as the instructions.
One thing I’d like to note with the instructions - because I read the previous articles, I came in with a certain expectation on where to find and locate certain parts such as bolts. Maybe I’m just blind or illiterate but I had some trouble finding the three mounting bolts which go from the base to actual unit. This was not indicated in the instructions rather they were already screwed to the unit where as some other parts such as the foot pegs were packaged separately. Just a note on consistency, either put all loose parts in a bag or have them mounted, or even better, note that in the instructions.
As I took a step back to observe the Lemond Revolution, it can be said that it is currently one of your non-conventional trainers. I hope that the direction of trainers follows this mold because it has certainly been broken and reinvented. (Note: an early version exists but never really took off)
The Impression
Once I had put the bike together I was off to the races....
I’ve put about 2 - 3 months of riding on the Lemond Trainer and I can honestly say it’s met about 75% of my expectations.
Pluses:
- Good road feel
- Good coasting ability
- Sturdy base for about 75% of the riding/training
- Level Base which eliminates the need for a front wheel training block (sans hilly rides)
- Aesthetics - It just looks good
- Durable - Although is fully yet to be seen, it is off to a good start with a drive belt, metal weighted fan and heavy duty base.
Opportunities for improvement:
- Noise level - Perhaps adding a buffer/silencer to lower sound and increase resistance?
- Power and cadence output for 3rd party devices - there is only a module available for a proprietary Lemond unit but having one available for those ANT+/W.I.N.D. unit owners would open up another sub-market.
- Spacer - The spacer for road or mountain bikes has a smooth surface. I’ve found this to be a safety issue as I’ve found that despite tightening the skewer my bike rocks back and forth during hard efforts.
- Base - On the note of hard efforts - I’ve found the unit to move and rock. Perhaps wider foot pegs or foot print would eliminate this issue.
- Portability - Hopefully a more portable version will be available in the future or maybe I just need a bigger vehicle to tow it around in.
- Consistent Instructions
In conclusion
I like this trainer, and although it is the first iteration of wind/weight resistance trainers from Lemond, I really think they did a great job of getting this off the ground.
Despite it’s steep price tag there are side benefits to using this trainer over traditional trainers. Rear wheel savings and the ability to simulate a closer to road feel are just some things one may find intrinsically valuable about this particular trainer. For someone who is looking for quality and willing to look outside the box - this would be the trainer for them.
This trainer is Team Iron Cycles Approved
