You can only put your trainer on the coffee table when your wife's not home.

I’m not gonna’ lie, I got some really good birthday presents this year, including not one, but two full seasons of “The Office” on dvd. Since we’ve been living without cable since we got married, I’m excited to see what happens with Jim, Pam, Mike, Dwight, and the rest of the characters on the show since I’ve only seen the first season, which is unreasonably short in my opinion.

But since I could easily lay around all day watching seasons 1, 2, and 5, it’s a good thing that I also got a new trainer for my bike, the 1up USA CPR A-2000. Despite the absolutely horrible name and apparent lack of slick marketing ability by the company that makes & sells the product, it seems to be the best-reviewed trainer on roadbikereview.com for what seems like forever. Hopefully, this trainer will help me maintain/improve my fitness through the short, mild winters that we suffer through here in Southern California.

I’ve had a chance to use the trainer for about two or three weeks now so it seems like a good time to share my first impressions.

Assembly: This part was pretty easy. It comes assembled in the box.

Setup: A little trickier, but not rocket science by any stretch. The 1up trainer comes with a new quick release skewer designed specifically for the trainer. I swapped out my old one with ease and locked my bike onto the trainer. The 1up trainer uses a unique process to load the bike where one leg hinges open and then locks back closed. It seems quicker and more secure than my old trainer, which has a more traditional turn-the-knob interface.

The part of the setup that I find most difficult is engaging the flywheel so that it makes an appropriate amount of contact with my bike’s rear wheel. You have to push the flywheel up against the wheel while tightening two separate knobs to lock it into place. I find the process to be awkward and it usually takes me a couple tries to dial in the right amount of resistance.

Too little resistance results in a “slippy” kind of feeling when performing high-cadence, high-power efforts such as stomps, sprinting, or power intervals. The sensation reminds me of sprinting efforts where my rear wheel keeps coming off the ground. Too much resistance makes the gearing overly difficult and pretty much restricts my workout to three or four cogs on the small chainring. It feels like pedaling uphill or into a strong headwind the entire time.

Use: Once the resistance is properly dialed in, the 1up USA trainer is really enjoyable to ride on, as far as indoor riding goes. I very much prefer the feel of this trainer over my old fluid trainer, which was the Travel Trac Century V. The massive weight of the flywheel gives a much more realistic “road feel,” in my opinion. When I stop pedaling, the flywheel takes a while to slow down, as if I’m coasting. If I start pedaling again, it takes less effort to spin it back up to speed.

The 1up trainer also allows me to perform low-cadence muscle tension intervals at higher power outputs than the Travel Trac. The resistance on my old trainer felt too easy at low cadences, which was dissapointing to me. I’m very much looking forward to adding muscle tension intervals to my indoor workouts.

Overall Impressions: I really like the 1up USA trainer a lot. The build quality seems solid, although the weight may make it a little annoying to drag around to races (upper body strength is not my strong suit). It folds up to be pretty compact, which is a cool space-saver for travel or storage. Unlike my Travel Trac trainer, the 1up hasn’t left any mysterious black dots on the carpet of my apartment. It’s great for muscle tension, tempo and steady-state intervals, not so great for stomps & sprints (which are better outside anyway) and I’m still undecided on the power interval performance (it’s the offseason, I don’t really do a lot of PI work in December).

If you’ve had a chance to use the 1up USA trainer, feel free to share your experiences, especially if you have tips on how to get the resistance set up with less trial-and-error.

jj