Review: Kinetic Rock and Roll bike trainer
The Rock and Roll marks Kinetics effort to make indoor training more diversified and effective. The outstanding feature: To create a more realistic feeling, the bike isn’t rigidly connected to the frame but can dynamically be moved to the left and right during out-of-saddle-pedaling. We put the bright green trainer to the test.
In addition to the trainer, Kinetic offers a wide range of fitting accessories. For our test, we ordered the Pro-Flywheel (90 euros), to get a more realistic resistance due to its increased weight as well as an Turntable Riser Ring, featuring an swiveling base that allows the front wheel to move freely. In addition to that, we also wanted to try the inRide bluetooth watt meter (199 euros) for iOS devices. These additions bring the total cost to about 835 euros – a lot of money!
After we mounted the heavy trainer and installed all the extras – took us about 20 minutes – we were impressed by the build quality: even when the unseated apocalyptic horseman roam through the remains of our civilization, you won’t have to worry about your daily indoor-training, this thing is indestructible! Finding it won’t be an problem either: with its wide spread frame is rather bulky. On the bright side, you won’t spare a thought on tipping over, no matter what athletic maneuvers you perform during your training.
Mounting your bike is easy too, the trainer is compatible with wheel sizes from 22 inch (with adapter) up to 29 inch and most of the axle systems. There is a adjusting screw to fine tune the pressure of the resistance unit on the tire – the resistance itself is not adjustable but increases automatically with higher pedaling frequencies.
Riding experience
Kinetic advertises the Rock and Roll trainer as the most realistic indoor riding experience available – and indeed: training with the green machine is pretty fun. At the beginning, the loose feeling is a bit unusual, but after a bit of time you come to appreciate its advantages. Especially when pedaling out of the saddle where the dynamic construction demonstrates its strengths.
Also due to the high mass of the flywheel and the progressively rising resistance the Rock and Roll trainer provides an pretty realistic feeling. While using it with an 26 inch mountainbike (42/11 teeth, 3 x 10 drivetrain) we would have wished for more resistance though. Training with a roadbike, the resistance is optimal.
Kinetic inRide
The inRide set contains a heart rate belt and a power meter to be mounted on the resistance unit of the Rock and Roll trainer. Both parts connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to any up to date iOS devices. With the sensors connected and calibrated, the app provides the rider with lots of useful information. Pairing the sensors with our iPhone worked on the first try while calibrating took us several attempts. After successful calibration the sensor/app combination worked well most of the time, sometimes some fantasy values were displayed though. We didn’t measure the precision of the power-values.
Bottom line:
The Kinetic Rock and Roll impresses with its stable stand, its good build quality and a more realistic riding experience than other trainers. The possibility to pedal while standing adds a new component to indoor training and is very useful, especially for an enduro specific workout. The inRide system provides some interesting additional information. More than 800 euros for the tested setup is a hefty price tag.
Words: Aaron Steinke Photos: Patrick Sauter
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