BKool Classic Trainer, no resistance, Fixed.

Hi, Just thought I'd post about my latest experience with my BKOOL Classic (White) Trainer. I have suspected for a while that something was wrong. When I first got the trainer I had to go up and down gears relative to the incline/descent on the ride I was doing. For the last couple of weeks things have been much easier, with no noticeable increase or decrease in resistance, this also tied in with the fact that the simulator software now rates me as an Elite athlete and I can now finish most races in the top ten. Clearly something wasn't right..... I emailed BKOOL, just to ask if there are any official service centres near me, I bought the trainer second hand so there is no warranty. They responded saying they would arrange for an engineer to contact me and remote desktop onto my computer, I needed to ensure the trainer was connected so that the engineer could investigate. At 10:30 today (exactly when arranged) the engineer rang, and within a couple of minutes had diagnosed an issue with the stepper motor in the unit and offered to send me a quote for repairs, A short time later the quote arrived, 120 Euros and I decided I'd try to fix it myself.... Excellent service from BKOOL, they had no obligation to do anything and whilst I didn't want to pay the 120 Euros, That included postage to and from Spain, replacement of the parts and recalibration, so not a bad deal overall. I decided that for just over £100 if I broke my trainer I could buy another (second hand) so it was worth the risk. I opened up the casing (not recommended by the manufacturer, but with no warranty and a reasonable grasp of electronics I figured I was probably OK) It's a pretty simple design, a big heavy, metal disk which has a coupe of powerfull magnets held close to it, the magnets are moved along the radius of the disk (to increase/decrease resistance) by a worm gear attached to a stepper motor. However my worm gear wasn't attached to my stepper motor :-) I checked the stepper motor was Ok, Used an 3v LED plugged into the socket on the end of the wires, spin the spindle and the led lights up, if you have the LED plugged into the correct wires and the stepper motor isn't broken, 4 wires on this stepper, so 2 pairs, the outer wires (red and black) are on one coil and the inner 2 wires or on the other coil, tested both pairs, All good. So all I needed was a V small allan key to fix the worm gear back onto the stepper motor and put it all back together again. job done in about 30 mins, 120 euros better off. :-) Excellent service by BKOOL though, Now I've got to get used to being at the back of the pack again on the simulator :-( Axe..