...:::<<<EXIT CYCLING'S KOBILA>>>:::...

What follows is a description of a contraption much like you'll find at your LBS, if your shop is a player in the bike fit and custom bike categories. It is one of several such products on the market -- I've owned quite a few of them -- and I'll list some of them below.

Since this is a diagnostic tool, why is it being reviewed as something targeted to the consumer? In point of fact Ves Mandaric (who makes road race bikes under the Mandaric name and tri bikes under the Yaqui name) does not target this to consumers. I'm targeting it to consumers (though I did verify that Mandaric would sell his bike to end-users).

A couple of months ago one of those attending a tri bike workshop here on our property asked if i had a Computrainer on which he could set up his road bike, after hours, for a stationary interval workout. "I can do you one better," I answered. "Why don't you do your workout on one of the fit bikes you were aboard earlier in the day?" I could see the wheels turning in his head. "Of course, yes, that's the ticket," he said.

This bike is called the Kobila, and a Yugoslavian gets the joke. Mandaric is Serbian, and in his native tongue a Kobila is a worn out horse, a nag. The Kobila isn't the first high-end stationary bike sold to end-users. The most notable is Computrainer's currently sold Velotron, though the resistance unit is more "high end" than the stationary bike that attaches to it.

There are advantages to owning a bike like this, some of which are apparent and some are not. The most obvious is that you don't have to use your road bike for stationary training. How much wear and tear occurs on road frames affixed at the dropouts by a stationary trainer? I've never seen this answered to a reasonable satisfaction, but the more I value my frame the less likely I am to put it on a trainer. The beater goes on the trainer.

Obvious tall all is the thrashing tires take on a trainer, especially on a Computrainer. Interestingly, the tire on the Kobila -- currently a 650c Hutchinson Fusion on my bike -- will last longer than the same tire out on the road. This is not specific to this bike. Any stationary bike that removes side-to-side movement of the tire on the resistance unit's mandrel will exhibit no tire wear to speak of -- and, no tire slipping. The difference in how smooth the ride is aboard the Kobila versus on the Computrainer with a bike built for the road is considerable.

As convenient as all this is, these aren't the primary advantages of a bike like this. The greatest value is in the ability to experiment with your position, especially if you use this bike for interval training. When you're riding at race pace or perhaps slightly above, you find out some things about your preferred cadence and position.

The bike allows you to apply as much data to position changes as you want. The world is your oyster. With the Computrainer, of course, you can set the unit to offer up a constant resistance (regardless of cadence), and then monitor heart rate as you change either your position or your cadence.

No, it's not exactly real-world, it's not like riding on the road. You neither get the benefit of your bike's inertia, nor can you factor in the result on aerodynamics that a change in position generates. But, in terms of your position, you'll probably end up with something on the fit bike that's quite transferable to the road.

As for generating a position, if you want you can follow the F.I.S.T. fit protocol published on Slowtwitch. Once you have your fit dialed in, it's easy to make the changes to your existing bike so that it matches what you've generated on the fit bike.

Transferring these fit coordinates you've generated to a list of production bikes that would match them is easily achievable on the Kobila, and the protocol for this is also published here. This requires an understanding of the stack & reach nomenclature, and you'll need to reference our published database of bikes offered by the industry.

A bike like this one is not cheap. Depending on the handlebars you want, the saddle, and if you do not currently own a Computrainer, you're probably looking at about $6000 to $6500 all in. That cost goes down to about $4500 if you just want the machine minus the wheel, handlebars, resistance unit, and so forth.

Bear in mind bikes like the Kobila, the Waterford Fitmaster, and others, really are position simulators, they are not designed as home trainers. While they make great home trainers, there is home-trainer functionality that is lost. These are single-speed bikes, and they don't have gears because simply changing the resistance on the Computrainer keypad is the way you make pedaling easier or harder. You'll probably ride these bikes using only the keypad. If you want to simulate road courses, you'll need Computrainer's 3D software, your home computer, a monitor, and a multi-speed set-up -- and few fit bikes have cassettes.

There are other bikes that'll work for this sort of thing. Fit bikes made for shops are sometimes available to end users, sometimes not. Little chance of an end-user getting the bikes made by Serotta, Bikefitting, Argon 18 or Guru. At least not as of this writing.

But Calfee Designs, Waterford Precision, Tiemeyer Cycles, all make fit bikes that are available to end users. Rob King of Road and Tri Sports in the Bay Area has made, and offers for sale, his own fit bike that is highly functional.

On advantage to the Tiemeyer bike is that it's designed to take a Computrainer, and its drivetrain features a cassette and shifters. It's $2400 and you must add either a Computrainer or a Velotron to make it work. It's multispeed, so whatever you want to do with the bike -- ride the Hawaiian Ironman, whatever -- you can do. And, if you have a Computrainer or Velotron you don't need to buy one, you just hook it up to the back end of Tiemeyer's bike.

The Waterford is quite a good option as well, because at $2600 it's affordable, and it's very heavy duty. You can hook up a Computrainer load generator to it but, remember, it's a single-speed bike so you're mostly limited to keypad functionality. It is also quite like the Kobila in terms of the data it gives you (i.e., stack & reach), but only if you have it built with the sort of extras we ask them to build for us and for our F.I.S.T. graduates. You have to ask for the "Slowtwitch hole," for example, which is the 90-degree head angle hole they'll drill in the front plate allowing you to switch the bike to an X/Y axis. Just ask for the "Slowtwitch package" if this is the bike you're interested in.