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DMC Moto trainer review

by Phil on 27th November 2007

This little gadget is just what you need to inject some fun into your riding! Strap it on your bars and time runs or sections to benchmark your performance, experiment with lines, play with setups or race your mates.
Fitting took 30 seconds - especially if the gap between your lever and grip is big enough. Slap on the sticky back velcro, un-pop the red popper and pop the trainer on your bars. Click the one button to wake the unit and you're ready to rock.

First off, the instructions were a wee bit confusing - but with the trainer in hand, there is only one button so it's easy to work out.

- Click once to 'wake up' the unit
The display turns on and shows '0:00:00'. You're ready to roll

- Click again to start the clock
The clock is running - get off them brakes and pedal! Mind the trees though!

- Click again to add 'laps'
Each time you click the button, the trainer adds a new 'lap' or 'split' time to the session. The recorded lap is shown for 3 seconds i.e. L1, L2, L3 etc, then the time for that lap flashes for 7 seconds. The timer carries on recording.

When you are done adding laps, hold the button down for 3 seconds to stop the clock. This discards your last recorded split and also puts you into review mode. In review mode, you can scroll through lap times and get a total ride time. The Moto trainer is also smart enough to show you which of your laps was your fastest - and slowest!

Doing a full run? Start the trainer at the top then all you need to do is hit the button on the finish line then roll to a stop. Once stopped, hold the button for 3 seconds. The 3 second press enters 'review mode'. The trainer disregards the last segment as it's smart enough to know that's not a full run, and displays your run time. Simple! Now try to beat it...

One thing to note is that the trainer only stores a single session, as a series of lap times. This is because it's designed for Moto-X, where riders are putting in back to back laps on a track. For downhill, if you want to time several runs, you've got two options:

- clear the timer each run, either remembering your time or writing it down (keep paper in your pocket or a white board at the van for race practice)

- leave the timer running and treat your push ups as a 'lap'. Just click top and bottom of your run as usual. When you review later, it'll be obvious which times were run times and which were uplift. You won't be able to compare slowest times during review, but fastest should still apply (and that's what it's all about, eh!).



Jue Duxbury from the nohuman race team has been riding with a similar product for a while and here's his thoughts:

It's fair to say that everyone wants to go faster. I know this is true because we collectively spend thousands of pounds on overpriced, lightweight shiny parts that manufacturers claim will make us faster. We embark on crazy training programs that see us bombing backwards and forwards along our local BMX track like demented madmen. We carbo load on meatballs and pasta the night before a race (or is that just me?). We pray to the god of mountain bikes for a little more go-go juice during the start line countdown.

Lets be honest, we do some pretty stupid things and we invariably have no idea whether they make us faster or not. The answer to this conundrum....is to time yourself over a measured distance!

Until recently you had to go to a race to see how fast you really are. But the trouble with racing is that you seldom get enough time to try out different lines or different styles. And you certainly can't break the course down into smaller sections to test what works best. All that has now changed!!

The stopwatch I used is actually designed to be used by swimmers. It is supposed to be worn on the index finger and the stop/start functions are operated with your thumb. However, this just makes it the perfect size to be mounted on your handlebars next to your rear brake lever.

The watches are water resistant to 50m and designed to be operated under water. So the UK weather should prove no problem. They come with a long life lithium battery and the back plate is removable if you need to change the battery at a later date. The display is also pretty large and very easy to read on the go - you can even glance down mid race to see how you are getting on against the clock.

The downside, at the moment, is that stopwatches are not available from anywhere in the UK. I've certainly not seen them anywhere and I consider myself a reasonably good Googler. So you are faced with the option of a) going without or b) importing one from the US (but even that was difficult as 2 shops bizarrely refused to accept UK credit cards). That said, I've heard on the grapevine that a UK distributor may be importing them for the masses in the very near future. So all the hard work may soon be done for you.

When they hit the shores - get one. They are simple, robust, easy to use, cheap, accurate and an excellent training aid for the more intelligent downhiller.

Juetron Bomb
www.nohuman.co.uk


I played with the timing on the Cwmcarn track recently and found the Moto trainer to be easy to use and a load of fun, especially on an uplift day when all your mates have one too! In fact, why not stick a whiteboard up, slap your times on and race each other, or more importantly, yourself!

Even without the extra lap timing features DMC have developed, the neatness of this little unit beats my old ghetto-hotwired casio stopwatch hands down.


The button is within easy reach of your thumb

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