The Omnium stationary trainer is the first foray into the training market for Feedback – a brand best known for its top quality workstands. The Omnium is a hybrid of a turbo trainer and set of rollers – trollers perhaps? – with an emphasis on portability for riders looking for a neat bit of kit for warming up before time trials, track races or cyclo-cross events.
It’s based on a trainer of the same design and name from another American company, SportCrafters, but it benefits from Feedback’s expertise in building stable, stowable workstands.
The Omnium’s standout feature is its clever folding frame design. While it’s about 150cm (59in) long with a 67cm (26in) wide footprint when set up, it breaks down to a package measuring 25.75x9.28x8.1in (65.4x18.4x20.6cm) and wieghs just over 6kg. It fits inside a supplied tote bag, so it’s easy to take with you.
It’s quick and simple to set up, just release a couple of rubber bungees, unfold the frame, pull out the two legs, and lock them in place to create a stable tripod. The bike attaches by the fork with a quick-release skewer (thru-axles can be used with a supplied adapter). The wheelbase adjusts with a single thumbscrew up to about 1,220mm.
The rollers have progressive magnetic resistance — the faster you go, the greater the drag from the drums, and they’re pretty smooth. It’s not road realistic and the resistance can’t match more sophisticated trainers, so it wouldn’t be our first choice if we were planning to spend all of our time training ‘off-road’. But, you can still use it for a decent interval session, it isn’t a bad place to spend an indoor hour and it really is ideal for warming up on. Compared to most turbo trainers it’s very quiet too.
If you’ve used a Feedback workstand the build quality of the Omnium won’t surprise you. Compared to the SportCrafters version the quick-release/tripod unit for attaching the forks looks beefier.
Colleagues in the US have used the original and didn’t find the front-end especially stable. No such issue here, we stood up for sprint efforts with no wobbles. The rear wheel also stayed in place, there were no fears of the adverse side-to-side shenanigans you might get if you stop concentrating on true rollers!
