Saris MP1 first ride...
Wow!
I had ordered a Saris MP1 motion platform when they were announced several months ago. They were backordered for what seemed like forever but I finally received it yesterday and got it set up and did a 2.5 hour ride on it today. I know that rocker platforms are nothing new, and there are tons of home-grown options and some commercially available options already out there so spending this kind of money on one seems outlandish at face value, but the fact that it can move forward/backward in addition to rocking looked very compelling (plus I hadn't made any real upgrades to the pain cave this season so this was my one big splurge).
The fore/aft and rocking movement of the platform is really pretty freaking cool. Besides making the ride a lot more engaging it's immediately obvious how much more comfortable riding on the platform is vs. on a fixed bike/trainer. I still have my old Trek 5200 (circa 2005) trainer mule bike on the trainer for the moment but am planning to switch to the tri bike shortly for the duration of the season. This usually means a lot of initial discomfort for my "saddle parts" but I'm hopeful that the motion platform will make riding the tri bike on the trainer a lot more comfortable.
Comments
Very cool @John Katsoudas ! How about a video of you in action on it???
I saw one of those at a LBS, wondered how it felt.
Looks cool!.
Yes, video of you "rockin"! 😉
Very cool. I recently bought a Copart motion platform which is much smaller (goes under the trainer, not the whole bike) and there is one issue i did not think of which is to balance the bike / trainer since it's tilting to the left because of the weight of the freewheel (i'm using an old Kickr) on the left side of the trainer. I have to balance the bike by having the two balls between the plates at different pressure. Is balancing the weight of the trainer something you also experienced on the SARIS plate?
I did not have this issue when the trainer was on a hard surface. But agree that it makes it a much better cycling experience (and yours must be even better with the forward / backwards movements)
Hahaha - no videos of me rockin' and rollin' just yet, but I'll see what I can do...
In the meantime, here's a Saris promo video showing how it works:
https://youtu.be/BTon3yRINrg
@Vincent Sivirine in either the instructions or one of the setup videos (I don't remember) they do talk about the possibility of the unit being out of level, depending on which trainer you mount on it. The Tacx Neo2 has its weight pretty well centered so I didn't have a problem with that, but the two rear feet of the MP1 are adjustable so you can tweak them to level the platform if you need to.
what are your experiences in terms of effort or pedal stroke? I recall Friel writing about the different pedal dynamics between road and fixed training, and wonder if the platforms create something closer to the earlier vs the latter.
I see it weighs 62#, making it almost 100 with the trainer attached, add another 25 for the bike.. Since I move my trainer from indoors to out every time I ride, this seems like a non-starter to me, unless it has retractable or locking wheels or something similar which allows each movement.
Hey @Al Truscott yes, it's definitely heavy and awkward. I would not want to have to assemble/disassemble/move the whole bike/trainer/MP1 setup for each ride. I suppose you could attach some wheels to the back edge of the MP1 pretty easily but you'd still have to remove the bike and trainer from it to move it each time.
@Dave Tallo yes, it definitely feels like a more natural, road-like feel and pedal motion vs. riding on a fixed trainer. I can't say I notice a lot of difference in terms of effort, RPE, or post-workout fatigue, but I do feel like I'm engaging all the stabilizers more now, especially late in a workout when my pedal stroke becomes a little less smooth and I have to focus to keep a smooth pedal stroke.