Kurt Kinetic Road Machine- My Exhaustive Review!

The Kurt Kinetic Road Machine shines because of magnetic coupling, medical-grade silicone, and an unconditional guarantee. There’s a good reason the Road Machine’s the official trainer of the USA Cycling Team.

When Pam from Kurt Kinetic offered to send out a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine for review, I thought it was a great idea…for several reasons.

• I’ve been pounding out mile after mile on my original Kurt Kinetic Fluid trainer for five winters now, and it’s never let me down.
• In my obsession to search for the best bike trainers to recommend to my readers, the consensus has been that the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine is at the top of the heap.
• But for some time now, I’ve been wondering how much different the Road Machine is from my ‘old’ trainer.

Well, it turns out that Kurt Kinetic hit on a winner with the original design… and except for a new ‘hair color’, the two units are nearly identical. Wisely, Kurt Kinetic decided to not fix something that isn’t broken.

There are now several new fancy Kurt Kinetic horses in the stable (namely, the Rock and Roll), but the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine is like a cowboy’s trusted quarter horse – not too flashy, but SOLID and impervious to breakdowns.

I do have an idea or two to make it even better, but I’ll get to that later…

My Scott CR1 put on his best wheels to meet the Road Machine.

1) Magnetic Coupling Makes The Kurt Kinetic Road Machine Stand Out In The Crowd

Cut away view of Resistance Unit

If you’re new to the bike trainer world you may not have heard of Kurt Kinetic’s unique magnetic coupling design. I’ll get you up to speed.

While fluid trainers are recognized as being at the top of the trainer food chain, they do suffer from a fatal flaw. They start to develop leaks when they shouldn’t, and have to be put out to pasture.

I’m just thankful that such a fate doesn’t await us older men when we start leaking inappropriately at social events. My kids assure me that I’m safe…at least for now.

Kurt Kinetic forged its place in the bike trainer world with a patent that eliminated the need for O-Rings (which predictably fail). In the Road Machine, the chamber containing the silicone fluid is completely sealed, and the roller which your bike tire is causing to spin is ‘virtually’ connected to the impeller by a magnetic coupler.

This is best understood by watching the video below.

Don’t get this confused with a mag trainer, which uses magnetic resistance to provide the workload.

The Kurt Kinetic system uses powerful magnets to couple the external roller assembly with the sealed impellers. That means that  there’s no shaft penetrating the inner sanctum of the fluid.

Check out the video later in this post for an excellent cut-away of the two chambers.

2) How Strong Are The Magnets In The Kurt Kinetic Road Machine?

There were times in the past when I’d accelerate on my Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer and feel some slippage. I wondered if the slippage was occurring inside the trainer; in the inner sanctum of the magnetic coupling.

It turns out it wasn’t the ‘innards’ that were failing. Here’s how I found out- I practically wore out my rear tire within the span of a couple of indoor rides. Like a meat head, I hadn’t put enough tension between the roller and my tire. All of that slippage was tearing the tire up.

Since those early ill-fated rides, I’ve discovered that the idea of me having enough power in my legs to disrupt the bond between the coupling magnets was wishful thinking. Kurt Kinetic’s testing demonstrated that the magnetic bond withstood an electric motor’s ability to suddenly accelerate the trainer from 0 to 50 mph without any slippage.

My abilities are somewhat less than that.

On a similar note, this trainer provides up to 3000 watts of resistance. As a point of reference, elite road cyclists may produce up to 1700 watts as an instantaneous maximum at the end of a road race. Instantaneous means for the first few seconds of their ‘jump’ as they accelerate.