Review on 🚴 Unisky Bike Trainer: Ultimate Smart Stand for Zwift, ANT+, and Bluetooth Connectivity by Carl Durant

I bought this trainer to replace a (cheap) magnetic resistance trainer. I was never able to solve the puzzle of getting enough resistance with acceptable tire wear and good reliability. This is a relatively inexpensive direct drive trainer. The build quality is very good, it's very sturdy (it weighs almost 40 pounds). Some assembly work is required: you need to assemble the legs (easy enough), adjust the height (the handle is a multi-position spring-loaded lock - very secure), level the unit (the connectors on the 4 legs are eccentric and can be adjusted for a perfect orientation can be rotated). Adapters and spacers on the left side of the axle are designed for standard axle distances of 130 mm and 135 mm. The axle itself does not rotate relative to the machine frame, so a bike with front suspension can present a problem if the fork is not locked. There is no cassette included and you need to buy and install it by yourself. The freewheel is a standard Shimano/SRAM type with 9-10 speeds. Installing the cartridge is by far the hardest part of the build, but with the right set of cartridge removal tools, it's not that difficult. I use an old bike and had no problem fitting a 7 speed cassette with a 4mm spacer. There is a belt tension mechanism that needs to be adjusted from time to time (I haven't done that yet). It comes with an ANT+ / Bluetooth adapter (no battery installed) with matching USB receiver. I don't need it and assume it only provides speed information to the sim. Software, so the power curve would have to be introduced somehow. The first thing that struck me when using it is how smooth and quiet it is. The combination of high inertia flywheel and fluid resistance works very well! It has a fixed power curve so no resistance adjustment is required and the shifting and cadence are all you can play with. The high resistance case gets hot in use - there is an internal fan and I guess it depends on how hard you can push the thing! Speed/cadence (too easy for me). On the other hand, the resistance I can apply as I increase my cadence is much greater, so the relatively low power limit (by direct drive standards) of 1128w/60km/h is not a problem for me! happy with this trainer. Edit 06/09/21 - I've been using this machine for almost a year now, 1 hour every weekday (my COVID routine). At one point it made a very loud, annoying noise, like an internal piece of plastic hitting the case with every rotation. I did a bit of disassembly including splitting the large brake/brake housing and was happy to find a very nice design. The fluid resistance/brake is entirely on the outside of the large silver body. This is a sealed unit - the rotating shaft does not pass through a seal that allows fluid to flow through. The resistance/brake is operated by (strong) magnets attached to a (plastic) wheel mounted on a shaft next to the fan. Back to my noise problem: it was caused by a hard point on the shaft bearing. A combination of very strong magnets and small drops in speed caused this plastic wheel to warp slightly (like a speaker cone shattering), crack open and detach from the fan. A jet of oil eliminated the hard point of the bearing. And the noise went away immediately.