Saris Fluid2 Indoor Bike Trainer, Smart Equipped Option, Fits Road and Mountain Bikes, Compatible with Zwift App

It’s tough to find trainers these days. I was bent on getting a smart trainer, but they were all sold out. i was surprised to find this Cycleops available, considering it’s stellar reputation, but I suppose the trend is to smart machines. FYI: this IS COMPATIBLE with training apps. You’ll need a speed device, sold separately. Pros: well-built, sturdy, quiet, very smooth, even resistance (shift Bike gears to increase resistance—no extra connection/gearing needed), collapsible, easy storage. Cons: set up. It’s actually not difficult, but Saris makes a booklet that is unclear at points. For example, when sliding the pin into the bolt-action side, which will connect to the skewer, you must slide the BEVELED end of the tube in first. This is completely unclear in the directions, but DOES matter when connecting to the bike and tightening things down. Also, make sure the fan and main power unit (both are connected to the same piece of metal, which attaches to the legs), are positioned correctly: the bulky power unit on the left, the fan blade unit on the right. If you reverse these during attachment, it will adversely affect the rear dial adjustment once the bike is mounted. Believe it or not, the manual does not illustrate a fluid 2 trainer, which has these two pieces, so it could be easily mixed up during install. Once I got passed a frustrating moment or two with set up, the trainer worked like a dream. My old trainer, a Giant that is 12 years old, is nowhere near as smooth or quiet as this Fluid 2. I love it. I use a yoga block to elevate the front, but you can use books, a rolled-up towel, etc. If you want to smart train, you’ll need the additional accessory. If you’re happy without it, I believe this is the best non-smart trainer for the money.

My only other experience with bike trainers is with the long-discontinued Travel Trac 2000 (Official Trainer of the Mercury Cycling Team!) that I purchased about 25 years ago and that started leaking fluid a couple of month ago. After a month of so of use, I am generally satisfied with my new Saris Fluid2, but I have a few observations. Assembly was relatively easy but watching the short videos on assembly from Saris helped considerably. The Saris trainer does fold, but it's not designed to fold after every use (as was the Travel Trac). I have limited space for trainer set-up and need to take the bike off the trainer and store both after every use. The legs of the Saris trainer do fold, but it takes considerable force to fold them; so, I leave the trainer set up. Not a huge deal but slightly inconvenient. My 1990s road bike fits the trainer but only at the widest setting of the trainer's hub locking mechanism. The left side of the quick release skewer seems to seat too shallow in the receiver on the trainer and thus makes loading the bike onto the trainer a bit of a challenge. The locking mechanism that fits on the right (cassette) side of the skewer initially took about all my strength (I'm old) to close until I put a little WD40 on it. The trainer is quiet to use, although I do have hearing loss and ride on a concrete basement floor. There seems to be a bit of vibration in the trainer as I'm riding, but whether the vibration is due to my tires (~slick road tires) or some other cause is unknown; again, not a big issue thus far. I have not tried to get out of the saddle with the Saris trainer but presume it is sufficiently stable to do so. I have not used, nor do I plan to use, any of the "smart" options available with the Saris trainer. My bike computer provides all the info (riding time, speed, average speed, cadence, and distance) that I need to know. Overall, the trainer works well enough. Whether it matches the tens of thousand of miles of riding/training that the Travel Trac provided remains to be seen.

Saris CycleOps Fluid2 Indoor Bike Trainer, New Fluid2. Easy to assemble. Better than average assembly instructions. Sturdy. Relatively easy to mount bicycle on trainer, especially with the included replacement skewer. Very stable while in use. I recommend the front wheel leveling block and a bike trainer pad (mine is in a room with carpeted floors), even though the trainer and the leveling block do raise the bicycle enough that mounting the bike is slightly more difficult than normal riding mounting. Relatively quiet, though it does make noticeable noise. I have not ridden since summer got in full swing (I live in Florida and this summer has been very hot and humid) but rode 3 miles this morning (day two after assembly) and will push it on up to five miles tomorrow, on the way to my normal routine (I'm 77 yrs old, so not a college athlete going for gold!). Note that to get mileage and speed from a device, such as a Cateye computer, the sensor has to be on the rear wheel when your bike is mounted on a trainer (I had to move my sensor from the front wheel to the back). Also note that wireless devices will often not "transmit" far enough for the sensor to be on the rear wheel and the readout on the handlebar. Took some experimentation to get my Cateye to work reliably after I moved the wheel sensor. Overall, I am very pleased with my purchase at this time. This trainer was recommended to me by my son-in-law, who is a track and field coach (college level) who uses his Saris trainer as part of his training routine for marathons and "ironman" competitions. Seems to have been a VERY GOOD RECOMMENDATION!

I don't recommend this item at all. This item was purchased from Amazon as a Christmas gift to use with my bike. It was an obvious return from at least one other buyer—the box was damaged and had multiple layers of cut tape. The unit itself was scratched and dirty. A machining error prevented the carriage bolt from going all the way through the resistance unit and frame. It was returned. Photos attached, except the last one, are of the unit purchased from Amazon. Hoping for a better experience, I purchased the replacement directly from Saris. It took my husband and I both over half an hour, a 3lb sledge hammer, a pair of pliers, and a wrench to assemble it. The second unit arrived in a significantly damaged box, was dirty, scratched, and had a rusty bolt/connector on the resistance unit (shown in the last photo). I almost returned the unit then and there in favor of one from a different company, but we thought it'd be worth trying to assemble and test with the bike. It was extremely difficult to get the carriage bolt through the resistance unit and frame—this unit seems to have the same machining error as the other. In the end, we were able to assemble the trainer and get the bike onto it. The bike went on very smoothly and the trainer seems to operate in spite of the rusted bolt/connector. We'll see how well it holds up.

Great trainer. I went on YouTube and followed second by second for installation which made it easy. Highly recommend getting a trainer tire however. Without a trainer tire it is loud. I switched to a trainer tire and it is much quieter and smoother.

This is a nice trainer. It is solid. I purchased it mainly because of how the front support legs flared out to each side, making it quite sturdy compared to trainers that have a crossbar as a brace. The unit is quiet for a trainer. I did not understand the assembly of the tensioner at first, but that was because I was looking at the first pictures and did not read on. Assembly is quick and the drum is smooth. The only problem I had was that the product description stated it came with a leveling block. The pictures show a leveling block under the front wheel. My shipment did not come with a leveling block. I contacted customer service and they are shipping another unit. If a leveling block does not come with that shipment, it will be returned. I hope the manufacturer can chime in as to why this block was not included or fix the product description to indicate it does not come with the product. I rated this as a three from the standpoint that there is a discrepancy with the product description. The leveling block was a consideration with this purchase and extra effort to get this right lowers the overall satisfaction score. Otherwise a solid 5 for this product.

I bought a Cyclops fluid trainer maybe 15-20 years ago. Recently I noticed that it was leaking fluid, and in retrospect it had been getting noisier and running a bit rough for over a year or so. It was time to look for a replacement. I found many options, some very high tech and pricey. I’ve had fan trainers and magnetic trainers in the past. The fluid trainer works best for me. I didn’t need anything that required subscriptions to training services that I could do without. I also did not need something that would generate training data that I had no use for. I just wanted a sturdy, stable, and relatively quiet machine. I opted for a slightly upgraded version of my old Cyclops, which was now available through Saris, the Saris Fluid2. It meets my needs. I’m impressed with how quiet it is. I control the intensity of my effort by varying the gears on my bike or varying my cadence. It was fairly easy to set up. I highly recommend the Sari Fluid2 for someone looking for a no-frills, solid, quiet trainer.

After a bit of fiddling, and some lubrication of the wheel clamping mechanism, the Fluid2 fit my 26"/1.95" wheel/tire mountain bike fine, using the widest mount setting. The bike has 135mm hub spacing and 7.5mm thick dropouts. The spring loaded wheel clamp, used with the provided skewer, seemed to give very secure bike mounting. Saris should provide a power vs speed curve for the trainer. Also, if the tension clicker is meant for a road bike 700c wheel, I'm not sure it provides the correct tension for a wider, lower pressure, mountain bike tire--absolutely no help from CS on this question. A few years ago I had occasion to contact Saris customer service about a Saris trailer hitch mounted carrier that I purchased, and at that time the CS rep was quite knowledgeable and helpful, about the product. Now the CS phone answers seem completely clueless and are of no use whatsoever. One feels that customer service now is not being provided by a company employee, but rather some remote phone answer, who may or may not even know what a bicycle is. Time will tell how long lasting the trainer is. Wrote the above review before giving it a trial run. After doing so I realized that, in my opinion, the fluid resistance is too great to be coupled through a tire friction roller--the friction roller/tire coupling will inevitably result in premature tire and/or roller bearing wear, and it causes unavoidable, excess noise from the friction coupling, even with a smooth trainer tire. Such level of resistance (again, in my engineering opinion) needs to be coupled through a direct drive mechanism, such as the Saris H3. tire/roller friction coupled indoor trainers that I've used many years as ago had a air fan resistance unit, which generated a much lower resistance than the fluid resistance, but which could be compensated for by shifting the bike into high road speed gears for a good workout.

Good quality , but manual, u need GPS speed and cadence sensor on bike

La calidad percibida es buena, solido y estable. El rodar es muy fluido y natural, al principio parece demasiado ligero, c pero en cuanto coge temperatura cuesta mantener los desarrollos del mismo modo que lo haría rodando en llano, pues mantengo las mismas velocidades con el mismo esfuerzo. Me habría gustado tener algo para cambiar esa sensación, pero es lo que hay, así que cinco estrellas pues cumple con lo que promete. Si quieres o necesitas esa característica busca otro modelo. Si no, este va perfecto.

Noisy engine. Plastic resistance knob broke from first use.

Parfait, idéal pour mes besoins. Installé il y a deux mois et va comme un charme.

Easy to set up and use. Quite.