How To Build A Manual Trainer For $25 - DIY

just like a normal manual right today we're gonna be doing a fun little project we're actually gonna be building a manual trainer so I'm sure a lot of you guys have seen these in the past for those of you guys who aren't familiar with on manual trainer is it's basically an apparatus so you can put your bike in it'll hold your rear wheel steady and then you can lift the front wheel up and kind of get a feel for that balance point of a manual I thought it'd be kind of fun I haven't tried a manual trainer but I'm gonna build one kind of give you guys some feedback on what is real with it like what it actually feels like to manual versus what the trainer feels like and how you can kind of bridge that gap so let's go ahead and get started first things first I'm gonna show you guys what you're gonna need to build this today so obviously you're gonna need a saw and some wood I have a little miter saw over here then I'm gonna be using you don't need a miter saw like that you could use even a handsaw if you had the motivation to do that that's a fairly simple process and so biggest thing is just getting the right materials so these are the materials I got for this project some materials wise you're going to need two two by sixes so these are eight feet long each so two two by sixes at 8 feet and then you're gonna need a 2 by 4 8 feet you're also gonna need to get a front wheel hook and then a bungee cord to kind of hold your front wheel in place probably gonna need a drill tape measure and then sub screws and a pencil and some safety glasses and maybe some plans so this is just kind of me helping figure out what I was gonna need like I said - 2 by 6 8 foot 1 2 by 4 I went with an 8 foot one a hook a bungee and some screws and that's kind of the finished product there so it looks pretty rough but we'll do better than that let's go ahead and get started first thing I'm gonna do is cut a 20 inch long 2 by 6 section that's gonna be the brace for the back of the rear wheel kind of the vertical brace and then we're gonna go ahead and take the full length 2 by 6 put it on the ground put the bike on it and then figure out where that brace is gonna go so I recommend using the longest bike in your family whoever has the biggest bike that's someone we're gonna use to measure I got my 29er over there so we're gonna use that to check it out and see what we can do so let's go ahead and cut a 20 inch section of this first alright so we got our 2 by 6 I measured it out to 20 inches I put a line there we're gonna do click cut before we do any cutting make sure that you use some safety glasses just to be safe I have some clear pit vipers that I use all the time so that being said let's go ahead and start cutting this 20 inch piece cut it's not screwed down or anything but that's gonna be our back brace and then we're gonna go on this fully two by six this is gonna be where our hook is kind of towards the front so maybe I'll put a mark there so let's try to put a mark right around here it's about two inches back from the front then we're gonna take our bike and we're going to put it on the two by six and kind of figure out where that 20 inch piece needs to go all right cool so we have our full-length 2 by 6 this is the full 8 inch section we have our 20 inch 2 by 6 that we cut here it's not screwed down but it is marked out and then we have roughly about 20 inches in the back here and this is going to be the area for when you pull up on the manual this is going to keep you from looping out or having the full manual trainer raised up as well so we're gonna go measure out a 48 inch section for the side brace and 2 8 inch sections as pads we have our full length 2 by 6 over here have that pre-cut xx section and then we have our other cut 2 by 6 here we measured it out we're gonna mark it at 4 to 8 inches or in a market at 56 inches and at 64 inches these cuts don't need to be super precise as long as you're close you know it'll all work out in the end [Music] all right and this is where you're gonna get to do your first bit of drilling so we just cut our four foot section here and then we have our two eighth inch sections which are going to be pads so what we're gonna just do is make sure that these are flush try to get it as flush as possible right on the end so one on each side and then we're gonna go ahead and drill four screws into these so it's kind of equal and we're gonna repeat that on that side as well so let's go ahead and drill those four holes put some screws in there and then we'll attach it to our manual trainer [Music] for holes in there I got a footpad over there all installed so next we're gonna go ahead we're gonna take this bad boy we're gonna lay this down just behind where we had our brace cool and then we're gonna make sure that this is centered so I'm going to go ahead and measure it real quick just get it centered and then we're gonna drill holes in here probably do four screws again drilling into this and then that's gonna be your side-to-side stabilization [Music] so now that I have one screw installed here I'm gonna make sure now that has a little bit of tension on it I'm gonna make sure that everything is straight and square so I'm gonna kind of look at this make sure it's square you don't want it to be at an angle so if it's like that or kind of doing something funny definitely fix it while you can and then once you put your second screw in there it should kind of stabilize that angle so it looks pretty good right now I think we're getting pretty close so I'm gonna go ahead and put the second screw in there and let's go from there [Music] at this point your manual trainer should be pretty stable so if you grab it and try to shake it shouldn't move at all that's a good sign so from here what we're gonna do is this piece is still loose so we're gonna go ahead put that up against that back brace and then we're gonna put one or two screws right here in the center [Music] so now we're gonna take our 2x4 we're gonna mark this out we're gonna do one at 24 inches we're gonna cut another 24 inch section so mark it at 24 and 48 and what these are gonna be our our side routers that go along the side and squeeze a tire 24 inches should be long enough to accommodate any wheel you know up to a 29 and so that's just a good kind of standard one to do is cut 24 inches so let's go ahead and cut those and then install them on the side right there so now you can see this is gonna be where our tire is gonna go it's gonna go up against that back brace one thing you can do like this should fit you know pretty standard 2.5 inch tire if you have something wider or narrower then you can kind of put your bike in right now and figure out exactly where you need it to squeeze so say you're on like a little BMX race bike or say you're on like a fat tire bike maybe you could kick this out a little bit get like a 2.8 in there so this is a good time to experiment I'm gonna just kind of go ahead put these on here my bikes set up for a 2.5 so that should be good so yeah I'm gonna go ahead and just make mine flush along the sides that'll give me pretty much perfect for like a two three five two point four tire it'll squeeze right in there but if you do need to adjust that feel free to adjust that now [Music] alright guys were getting really close so I basically have almost the full manual trainer but the next little cut is gonna be kind of most tricky and the one you need to pay the most attention to so let's go ahead and take a look at this one as you can see the tire is in here it's all secured but what we're gonna need to do just to get extra security is we're gonna end up putting a braced piece from here to here so in a diagonal line the one thing you want to make sure though is that you don't come too far out to where your derailleur or your disc rotor is gonna be so I'm gonna go ahead now I'm gonna take a mark basically here's the derailleur I'm gonna go back like an inch or so and then make a mark there so now that I got my mark made behind the Dre ler I'm gonna go up at a diagonal alright so from here to here I'm gonna do about a 19 inch cut on my 2x4 and then we're gonna figure out the angle there okay so I got my 19 inch piece of 2x4 here so there's gonna be a temptation just to screw it into the side like this but what we want actually is we want extra bracing here on the tire there is a way also to do the math on it and kind of figure out what angles you're gonna need to cut but I am a simpleton and so I like to just kind of back it up a little bit here and then just make a mark so looks like I'm gonna need to cut an angle roughly like that and roughly like that and then I'm gonna go ahead and make those cuts and kind of adjust it until it fits correctly so it looks about right so let's go ahead and see how good I do on my first try so [Applause] believe it or not somehow that worked out pretty much perfect it's not super ideal there's a little bit left on the angle there but that was my jerry-rigged way of doing it quickly so I'm gonna go ahead cut the second one again kind of do the same thing just line up a 19 inch section that I measured go ahead and draw an angle and then cut that matching angle and it should be good and then I'll show you guys what it looks like but this is the reason that we wanted to do it on the interior is you get a little bit extra bracing on the tire so that way it's a little bit stronger and less likely to fall over all right so I got both of these cut I clean this one up a little bit more - I'm gonna go ahead and pull the bike out and then drill both of those in and then the last thing we have to do after we get this braced is we just got to put the wheel hook in and the bungee cord and then it's time to test it out [Music] [Music] alright guys we're almost done so we've got the manual trainer pretty much all assembled last thing we need to do is do the front wheel hook and the bungee and then it's time to test it out so let's go ahead finish this step real quick I always like to pre-drill holes especially when it's something big like this front wheel hook so when it's something like this where it's a pretty big hole I like to just pre-drill that so I made a mark you know about two inches from the front of the board so I just pre drilled that hole to a quarter inch this one already has a small split in it so definitely need it if you drill that just to prevent it breaking after all this hard work so it's good that looks pretty good all right cool and then now I got my bungee cord check out that I might just clip this onto one of my spokes or there's another option of having a small like tie-down strap kind of going around your wheel and then clipping this on to it so let's go ahead and see how it works all right I almost forgot the most important part so right here where the wheel is I need to put a block right here so that way when I go it doesn't come forward so sorry I almost forgot that part but I'm gonna go ahead and throw one of those in there really quick so let's do that all right so now we should be good without we busting my ass so I have that if you guys do have different wheel sizes in the family you can keep a spare chunk of 2x4 and just kind of cut it down to a couple inches and that way you can kind of put it in there but with that 24 inch length router that goes all the way there it's perfect for a 29 inch wheel so as you can see like right there so we're good to go alright let's test this again alright okay just like a normal manual right it works feels pretty similar actually to I'd say the only difference feels really similar actually the only big difference I can feel right off the bat is a on a normal manual when you're going fast your wheel is your cranks are able to move forward and back because you have speed so you can kind of pedal forward and then backpedal a little bit since the rear wheels being held in place here you can only really back pedal but the pedals can't go forward so I would say that if I were to train on this and actually try to learn how to me on one of these I would take my chain off I think that would really help it a lot to make it feel more natural but yeah we're all it's pretty cool well another thing I want to show you guys too is that with this design it's really easy to change out the track for different wheel sizes so this bikes a 29er and I'll show you guys what it looks like to change it out to set up for 2075 over my 26 inch dirt jumper so let me grab my other bike really quick so this bike has 26 inch wheels this is my dirt jumper and when you put it in the track that's 24 inches long like we cut it then it's definitely has too much play and it's not gonna feel safe when you go to manual I feel like it's gonna move quite a bit but what's really cool is if you just take a section of 2x4 and you cut it to the width of the track which in this case is two and a half inches just throw that in there kind of press fits right in there then it works so show you guys what that looks like to try it out I'm gonna do it really quick all right let's see if mrs. seemed a little bit a little bit touch here on the dirt over but again feels pretty similar whoa actually it does feel pretty similar so I think this is good trainer so yeah it's pretty much a wrap um I'm really stoked houseing turned out I just want to say a huge thank you to Ian Fitzpatrick he's a local friend of mine and he posted a photo his wife doing these are using one of these the other day and I kind of stole his idea and his design and I was like I just wanna make it and show people how easy it is to make these things so they could do something like this I mean 25 bucks you're good to go just get some two by sixes and a 2x4 and you know anyone can pretty much do this at home if you even if you don't have very much carpentry skill um you know like I said I just did kind of rough job on it and it took about 45 minutes and I feel like you could do that a bit quicker even if you didn't have to deal the camera so yeah a huge thanks to everyone for watching this you know my thoughts are with all you guys and with everyone kind of going through this time right now the coronavirus you know we're all in it together and I have a ton of love and respect for everyone out there and I just hope that everything ends up being okay and I can't wait to get back out to a normal life and back up to the races later this year and you know my thoughts are with everyone that's being affected by it and just trying to figure out some positive ways to fill time during this downtime and I think that's kind of one of the best things you can do is to stay positive try to stay busy but doing positive things and try to just have fun with it while you can because it's really the only option right now so I'm gonna do a few more little projects like this if you guys have any suggestions that you want to see done let me know I have a few ideas already and hopefully you'll see those in the next week or two so definitely if you could like and subscribe this video would help me out a ton I really appreciate you guys and I hope you guys have fun making these if you have any questions thrown below I'll get back to that ASAP and you guys Rock can't wait to see all your guys manual trainers and honestly it feels pretty good so definitely try it with your chain off if you make one of these I think you'll be surprised at how much more realistic that'll feel but all-in-all manuals are one of the most fun things you can do out on the trail you can throw them in anywhere and do a little combos and I don't know it's just an awesome trick to have in your bag and so it's my favorite one by far and it just kind of looks cool so that's why I always try to do it yeah thank you guys so much hope you enjoy and I'll talk to you soon see you guys later [Music]

Channel: Kyle & April - Ride MTB

Views: 470,792

Keywords: mountain biking, kyle warner, quarantine project, manual trainer, how to manual, how to wheelie, diy bike ramp, manual, trainer, how to build

Id: WWJBqnVJI6I

Length: 18min 48sec (1128 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 04 2020