SONGMICS Fluid Bike Trainer Stand, Double Seal and Lower Noise, Black USBT02B

Received the trainer last night. Assembly is simple, but took a little longer than expected because the assembly instructions are only diagrams (no text). Once I figured out how it "should" go together, it was simple. I tried it out this morning. With a road bike and "smooth" road tires, the trainer is extremely smooth and very quiet. I set it up on our balcony and at a pace comparable to maybe 17 mph, the sound from the trainer barely rose above ambient background noises. At 20 mph, the noise is more noticeable, but I wouldn't call it objectionable to anyone. The level of resistance is okay-you'll get a good workout if you gear your bike for a sustained high speed ride. It does not offer enough resistance to mimic climbing. The built quality is very good, i.e., heavy metal and plastic parts, and well finished. Overall a great value for a fluid trainer and much better than my old Cyclops magnetic trainer. You can't go wrong with this trainer unless you're a very accomplished rider needing more challenge. Currently I can ride upto to 40 miles on generally rolling roads at an average speed of about 15 mph, this trainer seems to be perfect for me to use on rainy days.

Pros:-Cheap-Sturdy-Easy to put together-Convenient (Convert a spare bike into an indoor cycle, or be able to run your summer bike year round.)Cons:-Weak resistance IMHO, even in top gear. (I'm on a 15 spd)-LOUD! Thought it was my mountain tires, put on slicks, barely different.-The front tire mount needs rethinking.-No mechanism to quantify your workout. (No Miles, Calories, Watts, ...nothing.)I push cars around all day. Before that, I was pushing boats. Basically, I can put some force into my step. I wanted something that let me also get some cardio in and, having a 15 speed laying around collecting dust, this seemed optimal solution to the problem.Assembly was easy, though I partly struggled with the orientation of the resistance brake. The way it went in didn't look like it would give the back tire enough room. Turned out, the tension adjustment needs to start WAY low. The correct orientation is with the brake mass on the left side of the bike, the flywheel on the right.The resistance of this system is too weak IMHO. Even at the highest gear ratio my bike will go, it still doesn't feel as hard as the mid gears when I'm actually riding. (Keep reading though, it may not be this way by design)Like others have said about this, and similar, it's loud. It sounds like a card in the spokes. I thought, "well duh!, I'm using mountain tires." so I bought street slicks just for this. However, this did not fix the problem. I suspect the resistance element is a sealed "water brake" and mine just doesn't have much fluid in it, which may or may not be intentional. Lack of fluid would cause cavitation though, which could be the sound I'm hearing. This may also be why the resistance seems low. A water brake gives the most resistance/torque with max mass. If my brake is missing fluid mass, it may be missing brake force as well.The rear assembly is sturdy enough to hold up the whole bike with a 200+lb person on it by itself. Because of this, they sort of neglected the front tire setup. I feel like this may have been a mistake. In particular, if you are using this as a trainer, then you really want the front tire to rotate freely, That's what it will do to you when actually riding, and you probably also want to work on your form. On the other extreme, if all you are doing is working on your legs, then having the front tire locked tight makes more sense.I would have really liked a way to know how much work I'm doing. As it stands, all I can do is time myself and try and stay consistent. This is of course error prone, and at least adding something related to number of rotations would make for better metrics. Ideally though, I would have liked something concrete, like Watts/calories, as this is pretty absolute. Sadly, there is nothing like that.All in all, it was only $70, and for that price, it's a fair deal. It gives me exactly what I wanted. Now I can do some effective endurance/cardio in the comfort of my own home. And, with a few mods, it might just be optimized.

It was pretty easy to assemble- took a few extra minutes to adjust, and it was ready to go. It is smooth riding, sturdy, stable, and quiet. I used my own axle on my bike (Specialized Roll) not the extra axel that comes with it, mine works properly with the stand. My bike has smooth fatty tires -almostthe max width that can be accommodated on the roller. The noise level is just fine. (Although knobbier tires will definitely make a lot more noise.)The trainer itself is quiet and smooth! I use the gears on my bike for resistance. Easy! I hop on my bike, set the timer and the tunes on my Alexa Dot and away I go! I’ve been using this for two months, so far, to rehab a total ankle replacement and it saves me having to pay PT to ride their stationary bike! I leave mine up all the time in a spare bedroom but it would be pretty easy if I had to put it up and take it down each time- albeit a PITA! I highly recommend this trainer. Great value!

I am very good at putting things together so had no issues. Instructions are basically only pictures so study pictures and study trainer mount before you start. Had the rod that tension adjuster fits in fell out of bracket but I had visually looked at it before this happened so wasn't that hard to put it back together after removing bike from mount then I could put the tension adjuster back together. Very sturdy. Not as loud as I thought it might be. I did need to enhance IPAD output with speaker/headphones to hear the device while peddling. The speaker on IPAD is not great anyway was expecting to have to do this. I had to rig something up to use IPAD in front of bike since I did not buy an accessory to mount to bike. I have an hybrid mountain/street bike (26") from the mid 80's. The mount was wide enough for the wider back wheel of bike and its 21 gears is enough with the one speed of the trainer to get a good workout. It does come with the front wheel stand and hub (which was identical to what was on my bike so didnt need). If you want to simulate a serious hill or have a beach cruiser this may not be the trainer for you - may not have enough resistance.