Feedback Sports Omnium Question

I just purchased a Feedback Sports Omnium (the overdrive model with progressive resistance) and I took it for its first ride yesterday. Normally I ride a Kinetic Roadmachine, and the Omnium was much less “smooth”. Obviously I don’t expect the Omnium to have the inertia that the Roadmachine has, but what surprised me was the vibration that came through the rear wheel. It was enough that I could feel a low frequency vibration in the handlebars and see my phone on my garmin mount shaking slightly, especially at lower cadences.

Those of you that have Omniums, do yours also send a vibration through the rear wheel? I don’t expect a light weight travel trainer to be as smooth as my heavy and silky smooth Kinetic Roadmachine, but I just want to rule out some sort of defect in the Omnium that I received…perhaps an imbalance in the rollers.

Any input would be hugely appreciated, I just want to make sure that if it is a defect I get it taken care of before the warranty period expires.

Thanks!

I do 95% of my indoor training on the Omnium and it’s usually smooth. I do use a trainer specific tire (Conti Hometrainer). My experience with rollers and this trainer is that occasionally I’ll feel a little vibration on the rear tire, mostly it feels like the tire has some extra rubber on it and is bouncing each wheel rotation. I’ve always chocked that up to just that, rubber on the tire as it’s sheds (this happens especially on newish tires as the bead wears off). On older tires I’ve never noticed this.

Vibrations like you described I’ve never felt.

I’d start trouble shooting with your rim/tire. Making sure it’s all true and the tire has no bulging. Then I’d look at the drums on the Omnium. Are they true? Are they too tight? Are they hitting something on rotation?

I appreciate the info! I had a feeling that the vibration was out of the ordinary…checking the tightness of the drum is a good idea, I’ll see what I can find. I don’t think it’s the tire or rim since the vibration isn’t there with the same bike on my other trainer, but I’ll try it with my cross bike and see if it’s any different.

Thanks Again!

Any vibrations I have experienced have typically come from not having the two rear cylinders positioned/balanced on the rear tire. When setting it up and extending the base of the Omnium I adjust it so that when I loosely spin the rear tire tire the rollers both start moving at the same time. Once that has been done stablished then I tighten the base of the Omnium. Sometimes I need to play with this a bit to get it exactly right. Even just a bit off and I experience vibrations. Not sure if this is what is happening in your case but I haven’t experienced any other situations that cause vibrations with mine.

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Excellent, thank you. I will see if I can get everything perfectly aligned today when I do my ride and see how things go. Thanks again for the input!

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Hey Carterberry - did you ever get this resolved?

Yeah, it turned out the vibration was coming from my wheel/tire, not the trainer. My roadmachine damps out the vibration between the pressure on the wheel and the heavy flywheel. Once I got a new tire on my bike the omnium smoothed right out.

It’s a great trainer, I use it for 95% of my trainer rides, not just warmups. It’s never going to have the inertia of a trainer with a flywheel, but given it’s easy setup and light weight I don’t regret spending the money one little bit. After a few rides you get used to the lack of inertia, it also really helps workout dead spots in your pedaling because you can feel every one of them.

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Hey Feedback Omnium users, quick question, what sort of steady state outputs can you reasonably achieve on these trainers, and with what gearing/bike?

I’m very strongly looking at getting something along these lines for leaving at work or taking between stations as needed. I’m wondering if I can get enough wheel speed with mountain bike gearing (32-11 on 29*2.35 tyre) or if I’d need my road bike attached?

I believe @Nate_Pearson, you use one for all of your travel training? Can you do your Sweet Spot/Threshold work on it?

Hi Liam,

I’ve been using the Omnium for a few months now. I’ve done quite a bit of Sweet Spot and Threshold work on it with my gravel bike that has sub-compact gearing, VO2 max as well.

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Thanks. I’ve just purchased a (cheap, secondhand) set of rollers with a resistance unit. I’m a bit nervous to try, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to do sweet spot on them.

Thanks heaps for your response. I’ll definitely keep my eyes peeled for a secondhand Omnium as well based on your feedback.

I have a small living space, and use an Omnium as my only trainer because it fits under the sofa when not in use. Feedback publishes a power curve that I’m sure you’ve seen:

I did Huxley recently, and here are some data points from that ride:
36.5kph@250W
41.0kph@285W
42.5kph@296W
46.7kph@342W
49.4kph@415W

You should be able to recreate a curve from that to predict the wheel speed at your own power level.

Ridden on old Vittoria Rubino Pro 23c slicks at around 85psi, so your results will vary with different rolling resistance.

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Pre-lockdown/ remote working, I was using the Minoura FG540 Magnetic Hybrid Roller.

TR doesn’t offer virtual power for it, but if you have a power meter… It was significantly cheaper than the Omnium at the time (actually the difference would’ve covered most of the cost of a 4iii). Can’t help regarding 1x/ sub compact, but I haven’t come close to maxing out on a road compact, including sprints/ bursts!

Haven’t seen the omnium to compare sizes, but I have the Minoura in a gym bag.

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Size compare between original SportsCrafters Omnium (black, QR-only), Feedback Sports Omnium (red, QR and thru-axle) and pair of cycling shoes (size 42):

I got the FB one used for C$350 a few weeks ago, since the original is only compatible with quick-release. It’s definitely bigger, but rides more or less the same.

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Minoura is definitely bigger than that anyway!

Thanks for this, I hadn’t actually found that and I thought I’d looked. Sometimes the answer is in the simplest place.

That is definitely interesting. I currently have a 32T front ring and 11-42 cassette. I think based off that I’d be really battling to get over 300W (which to be fair is a pretty useful range).

I ended up going from a sub-compact to a mid-compact on my road bike to better be able to put down more power on that trainer, and 32T is a far cry from either of those. You’ll definitely be spinning pretty high with that gearing, but maybe you’ve been looking for a reason or opportunity to practice high RPMs?