The bike trainer has arrived!
Regardless of the weather outside, I can now stay in shape with my own bike in the comfort of my home! Or so the description for the Soozier on the Sears page says. And while the weather was decent on the Sunday I set it up, by the time I actually got it all set up it was dark, so I tested the Soozier out for a 2-hr ride.
As you can tell from the picture on the left, the spot I claimed for my indoor training is inside the house and not in the garage. I chose to set in our sunroom for three reasons; 1) The sunroom is the room that leads to the garage which is key because I only have one bike and I use it to commute to work as well, 2) I plan to do a Texas race which will definitely be warmer than a Washington garage in winter, and 3) The room is also in a corner of the house opposite from where most interaction occurs so any noise I make is no big deal.
For those of you with keen eyes, yes that is a bike rack on the rear wheel. Since it's my commuter bike that rack is for panniers as well as stretch cords for those times that I carry packages. With this being my first bike trainer I wasn't sure if the rack was going to be a problem for mounting. Personally the instructions for setting up the Soozier where terrible if you're a first timer (if it's your second time the set up is pretty self-explanatory that you don't need instructions). Either way, my situation was questionable enough that I packed up my bike and the trainer in the car and headed down to the local bike shop, B.I. Cycle (http://www.b-i-cycle.com/). The guys there are great! So very helpful, patient, and friendly...now that I think about it, everything bike related that I have (aside from clothing and the trainer) I purchased from them.
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| This is Gabriel. Classic bike enthusiast! |
The first worker to be available was Gabriel. Yay! He's the one I tend to bug the most, I mean knows me and my riding level the best. Right away I told him that I wanted to make sure that I had everything set up right. Of course he said yes, and so we brought all my stuff into the store and he set it up with rack and all.
Now that I was happy and confident I headed home, did everything just how I did at B.I. Cycle, got on and had a great workout. Now, while I wouldn't call the Soozier quiet I did talk on the phone with my mom for a good 30 minutes and I asked her if it was hard to hear me or if she could hear any noise and she said no. And to give you a few more noise level references; while I didn't think it was excessively loud, it definitely makes some noise for if I were to play videos on my laptop I would have to have my speakers on max (for you techs out there I have a 2007 hp model), my headphones for music on my Iphone was at my regular level for when I run on the street, and my husband did say that he heard a low hum one morning while he was still sleeping. Good thing he enjoys background noises that have a constant sound (like fans).
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| Cheddar was watching me in the beginning wondering what sort of crazy thing I was doing. |
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