Rain or shine, the weather's fine on an indoor magnetic exercise bike trainer

As it turns out, I'm terrible at predicting the weather. Case in point: today started off foggy, rainy and just bad, all around. By the afternoon, it was sunny and in the seventies. Didn't see that coming... Meanwhile, the weather people are saying that next week, it's going to snow on Halloween. Whatever. I don't care what it's doing outside, because now I have a magnetic exercise bike trainer. I can ride whenever I want!

The contraption in the picture is a magnetic exercise bike trainer by FDW. I ordered it last Wednesday and it arrived today.

Setup was a bit weird, thanks to instructions that were written in Engrish, but I managed to get it together without mashing up too many fingers or bloodying any knuckles, and that's quite a feat, for me. Once the bike was bolted in, I got on board for the maiden voyage and did a half-an-hour's worth of interval sprints.

A lot of the reviews I'd read complained about how loud the device is, but I don't think it's much louder than the average powered-treadmill -- maybe even less so. Even when I got it cranking over 18 mph, I was still able to hear music on my iPhone at half volume on the coffee table a few feet away. And usually, when I'm going about that fast on the road, the sound of wind rushing past my ears is a lot louder. So, there you have it. I don't think it's that loud, and no one else in the house was complaining while I was on it.

My only qualm with this magnetic exercise trainer is that I was expecting a little more resistance. I'd read reviews that said to avoid fan and liquid trainers because they couldn't provide as much resistance as a magnetic trainer. Maybe I just need to tighten the bolt that presses the flywheel against the tire a bit more? I'll keep that in mind for next time.

I'm not going to lie, it's been a few weeks since I've gone for a ride of any decent length, and my performance shows it. My average speed after 35 minutes was 12.6 mph, which is a little faster than what I've been able to do in the past, but I'm almost sure that's because the resistance wasn't high enough. Even so, I was terribly winded by the time I was done. But that's why I bought this thing, to get myself back in shape. Now, I can ride whenever I want, rain or shine. The only downside is that, while the weather is always great in the house, the view is crap. Alas, Spring can't get here soon enough!