Help please!

Mrs Julian has just acquired us an oldish minoura turbo with magnets in it.

Basically the magnetic resistance adjust thingy doesn’t really make much if any noticeable difference to the resistance.

Didn’t have any instructions but schematic and instructions i found on minoura website for a very similar more recent model would suggest it is has all the bits it’s supposed to in all the right places, and I have adjusted the cable remote properly. The outboard magnet mount turns smoothly with each click of the adjuster, and the magnets clearly have quite some magnetism in them with a quick looksee with a metal object. One thing i would say is i thought the magnets are supposed to go closer together for increasing resistance. As far as i can tell, all the outboard magnet mount does is rotate when you adjust it -I expected it to move closer or further away from the other magnet as it did so. (like a cable actuated disc brake) The housing etc is all in great condition, in fact barring a little bit of surface corrosion to the main frame, the whole thing looks nearly unused.

1) do the magnets lose their strength after a few years?

2) is the distance they move in and out supposed to be so slight i can’t really tell by looking in the top, or is there something up with the gubbins that moves the magnet in and out? (the mount does rotate smoothly as you adjust..)

3) Is the adjustment on magnetic trainers so subtle that my thunder thighs just suck it up without me noticing?

Thanks in advance.

1) No they will still be magnets

2) mine pulled them up and clear of the spinning wheel so you should see movement- few cms ???iirc was easy to check fix tbh

3) The change in resistance was not massive tbh – have you thought of just changing gear?

thanks for your reply JY.

Nah, my magnet rotates relative to the opposite fixed one but even sighting it with a ziptie between the flywheel and the moving magnet, the distance changes by half a mm if that (it might be wishful thinking).

It is plenty hard enough to pedal even in top gear on slicked-up 26″ wheel and can obviously be easier to pedal if you change gear.

If i rev it up by hand to a particular wheel speed (with my awsumm moozical ear skillz, I went for the pitch of the ‘whine’ rather than guesstimating the rpm) and then let the crank go, it takes a couple of seconds less to stop spinning in the hardest setting compared to the easiest. So there is some change in resistance, but I’ve literally never been near a turbo before so no idea if this is about right or not.

I think it will be plenty tiring enough anyway!

it should be much more than that — assuming you have concert pitch- I assume yours move intowards it like brake pads mine pulled away from the entire flywheel.
It should move more than that I assume and should be noticeable but not awesome. I just used gears as the difference was not huge tbh though i never did your spin test as you could actually tell. if you cant tell pedalling you must have some issue IMHO. It was at best like going up a small incline it was not the difference between flat and monster killer climb

When I had an old magnetic turbo trainer I just left it in a mid-setting and used the gears to change resistance.