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Sometimes simpler is better

I like to ride this little stationary bike setup that I have and watch TV in the evening.  Usually I pop something on netflix to eat and then it will capture my attention and then after I'm done eating i'll ride the stationary bike and keep watching it.

Sometimes I ride and read though instead of watching TV.  It all depends on my mood.  It's always good to change it up and keep things fresh.  Well...

Let me explain first what the stationary bike is... so it's not a normal bike.  It's folding bike.... and it hooks up to a bike trainer made by this company cycle ops.  or cyclops.

 

They say it's Cycle Ops though...

OK well... this makes it easy to fold up the bike and put it away and clear space for other things.  It's functional and practical!

Although, i'll admit it looks kinda weird...

I know what you are saying... pic please.... ok ok... hang on a moment...

 

Again... yea it looks weird.  Ok ignore all the other stuff around it... that's my music jam creative stuff corner of my apartment.

Also the rug was free... soooooooo I know it looks weird.  Also my carpet is gray I don't know why it looks pink in that picture... how odd?

Ok anywho soooooo now you can visualize it up much better!

Cool, ok now that I've explained that... let me continue....

Well last year I went ALL out and bought the expensive trainer!  The one that uses fluid to make the resistance.  It was ok... but I don't know it never felt "right".  I always was adjusting it to try and get it to feel right.  I got it to the point where it was pretty good but something was off!  Well then a piece inside broke.

So I sent it back to be repaired.  They sent me a new unit.  All their stuff has a life time warranty so all I have to do is pay for shipping to get it to them which is cool.  Well even the new one felt off again.

I tinkered more and more... nothing sat right.  Then recently the replacement broke again.  So I have to get it back to them for another repair.

I was looking up their other models out of curiosity while getting an RMA number.  I saw that the lowest end model was like HALF the price of the top end one... but really it kinda worked the same way.

Except it makes a windy sound because it uses air for resistance rather than fluid in a sealed chamber.

I decided you know what I'm going to do?  I'm going to buy the wind one... send the fluid back to get fixed and then ebay the fluid one when it comes back and when it's all said and done... I'll have either broken even or actually gotten some money back!  Because the fluid one is twice the price than the wind.

Well I got the box in the mail yesterday.

I decided to finally put it together today and I got the wind one all setup finally.

It feels PERFECT!  WOW... I LOVE it... also the wind noise that it makes isn't all that loud AND I actually put headphones on while watching TV and can't hear it at all!  My TV has a jack for headphones... and I have a little extension sound cable.

It all just works perfectly.  Also the wind one apparently doesn't have the problems that the fluid one has because it's just a little fan... much fewer pieces than the sealed fluid compartment and all the other stuff inside.

I thought it was just funny how I spent soooo much more money on the higher end one thinking that it would be so much better and the cheap one ended up being the one that fit just right... the other one is more money because of it's complexity and the cheaper one just has 2 parts instead of like 10.

So sometimes simpler is better...  And it can be cheaper too!

Although, sometimes when I ride my bike in my apartment.  It feels almost like the people version of a hamster wheel.

Maybe I should get one of those plastic balls and run around in that instead?  Hmmmm... On second thought.  I'll stick with the hamster wheel folding bike cycle ops trainer setup and a watch a little bit o TV while I ride.