can you recommend a good bike trainer?? (Page 2)

Essentially is sounds like the closest competitor, the Cycle Op apparently suffers from leakage issues.  The guys at bikesportmichigan.com have done a pretty detailed review of the Kurt Kinetic and they feel that the fact it is made in the USA and that they adhere to pretty strict quality control guidelines and can address problems better.  Read the article for yourself if you like.

http://bikesportmichigan.com/reviews/kurt-kinetic.shtml

Tom's a good guy (owner of Bikesport and author of the article).  But he's a salesman too.  And a lot of that info comes straight from the manufacturer.  CycleOps had leakage problems with their first generation, but very little since then (though Kurt's design means they will always have less--basically none absent a manufacturing flaw).  His articles are generally honest and worth reading, but just don't take them as gospel.

I don't remember ever reading a bad review from him, but it was on his recommendation (the reviews on that site) that I bought both my Tuscany and my Dual. So yeah, he's a salesman!

I went to a Performance bike shop last night to ask about trainers.  The Cyclops Fluid-2 was selling for $279 and the Performance brand ( I can't remember the name) was a Fluid trainer and was selling for $139.  The salesman just didn't think it was worth it to pay an extra $140 for the Cyclops.  At a Performance store they probably make more money selling Performance products but the only real difference he could tell me between the two was that the Cyclops does a very good job and not getting really hot.  Anyone have any insight here?  I was thinking about stepping up to the CycleOps but I don't want to do it for nothing.

Caren, I'm hoping this question is helpful to you otherwise I have done some serious thread hijacking.

He says he basically only sells stuff he likes.  And he only reviews stuff he sells.  Like I said, I think he's honest about it and really does like the stuff--I'd value his opinion far more than most salesmen I know.  But it's not like he's an agnostic scientific tester either.

THis is totally helpful thanks!  I went to performance as well, only the sales guy there wouldn't know a bike if I threw it at him.  I really find the service there to be lacking.

I digress....  I hear that their clamps are tricky to use...are they the same clamps as the cyclops?  If so,