Concept2 Forum

Has anyone come up with a simple and solid "rocker plate" design for the Concept bike erg? It seems like it should be easier to make something for this erg than for a regular bike on a smart trainer.

I suppose that the easiest thing would be for Concept2 to design and sell rockers for the base of the erg that simply bolt on. Just remove the short base pieces and add the rockers. Someone who's got a woodshop could make some out of wood once they figure out what the optimal rocker curve would be - but I'm not that guy.

Any ideas for a good simple design?

Rockers for simulating side to side bike lean?

Should not be too hard conceptually, but the implementation is another matter, i.e. to make it safe, making sure it stays firmly bolted on, and with a wide enough base to make sure it doesn’t tip over.

FWIW, I made up some rockers out of closed cell foam first and out of wood later and attached them to the bike erg.

While seated and pedaling, it's definitely much better because it varies the pressure points on your seat while pedaling and it just feels more comfortable and realistic. While standing, it's not a good solution because the bike leans the opposite way of how it does in real life and at a different rhythm.

The solution for a bike erg company like Concept2 would be to create a pivot point on the bike erg at some distance above the floor, maybe around the height of the bottom bracket, and have some sort of pendulum swinging underneath so that the bike erg stays upright and keeps coming back to its center upright / neutral position. At least, I think that's where the pivot needs to be.

borgnes wrote: ↑

November 28th, 2018, 10:46 pm

FWIW, I made up some rockers out of closed cell foam first and out of wood later and attached them to the bike erg.

How are the rockers working out for you?

My homemade rockers were ok but not perfect and I only ended up using them for a few weeks. I used ideas from the facebook group "rocker plates" - lots of different design ideas on there. My guess is that the Concept bike erg is too heavy to work well perched up on top of rockers. In any case, I'm now on a Wahoo Smart Bike, so I might look at some rocker ideas again.

There are now numerous rocker plates available that are compatible with indoor trainers for a bike. I haven't seen any specific for the BikeErg.

One of these might might work:
https://www.rockrindoortraining.com/sto ... LY%29.html
However the front end may be too narrow to accomodate the base of the BikeErg. You might be able to get one custom made.

What is surprising to me is how expensive they are, ranging from a few hundred to well over a thousand $. One would expect market forces to bring the price down by now.

I'm still thinking about getting one for my indoor trainer, but I can't see spending all that money for something of questionable benefit