Trainer Magnetic or Fluid question.

[Erik_A]

I have been looking for a trainer, and found one on Craigslist. Can anyone tell me whether the Travel Trac 2000 (Performance) in these photos is Magnetic or Fluid? Thanks in advance.

[Louis]

Looks like fluid to me. Do you see a disk and magnets?

[cash05458]

kurt kinetic road machine!....best one in the world...great company backing your a** s well if any problems whatsoever...

[Erik_A]

No, but - it also doesn't seem like a very large "container" for fluid.

[Louis]

Info here (http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/10/my-2012-trainer-recommendations-early.html)

[foo_fighter]

Those are fluid...made by Elite I think.

[polyhistoric]

They are listed on CL used all the time. The company stands behind the product and failures are rarely reported (if at all) in contrast to other fluid trainers which all reportedly begin leak at some point. Plus the Kinetic uses a known and calculated/consistent Power Curve.

[Peter P.]

That's a fluid trainer. Mag trainers don't need heat sinks.

[Louis]

Mag trainers don't need heat sinks.

I agree that they don't seem to use them, but I'm not sure why they don't need to.

At the end of the day, unless you're hooking up a generator to the rear wheel to power your TV, the energy has to be dissipated as heat, which needs to be dumped in to the air. (and even then, nearly all of it still ends up as heat) Maybe fluid systems generate that heat over a much smaller volume, so they have to have the fins to prevent over-temping of the fluid damping hardware.