- Posts
- 1
- Joined
- Jan 1970
Holy Trainer Review Experience We bought the HT to use while traveling when our Steelworxx cage wasn’t an option. Because it’s made of biosourced resin, we thought it would be perfect for getting through those annoying airport scanners. It comes in four finishes (black/white/pink/clear), and we chose pink. With the larger tube, fitting everything was relatively easy and much simpler than with the CB6000. The way the tube and back ring connect (a sort of dovetail arrangement) is a neat solution, and the locking bar is well protected. A major plus was that we experienced very little skin pinching when attaching the tube to the back ring. We ordered both medium and large larger back rings and quickly realized the medium one (45mm classic) didn’t work for us. However, once we had the correct ring size (50mm), we found the back ring to be nicely shaped and comfortable day and night. Once the cage is in place and has reached body temperature, it’s incredibly comfortable. The device becomes slightly soft—not nearly as flexible as silicon cages—so it can still effectively prevent stimulation of the err, contents. Overall we loved the cage but there’s a big catch: we had an issue. The Trainer was used for about 5 weeks ‘24/7’ when part of the locking mechanism failed. After reporting this and sending a photo to Novamédia, Martine quickly arranged for a replacement tube to be sent. We cannot fault their customer service or speed of response. Upon receiving the replacement tube (which was a slightly different color—not a major issue for us), we refitted the Trainer. When I woke up the next morning (after about 12 hours?), I found myself free again because the locking mechanism had failed in exactly the same place. A friend of mine who is a materials engineer looked at both tubes and believes that while the dovetail location feature is a very good idea, the fit (certainly on mine) isn’t quite right to prevent stresses from being placed directly onto the locking mechanism. Because of this movement, an induced fatigue crack developed associated with stress concentrations in the material of the squared key way. When the bottom of the key way failed, the material forming the rounded key way followed. We sent a copy of the photo accompanying this review and our friend’s comments to Novamédia on 17/7/14. We also included: ‘We found the overall design of the cage to be very effective and comfortable but unless there are changes in the design and/or materials used in this area of the cage [lock housing], we do not think it worth a third try’. Although asked for a third tube not to be sent, we have not received any reply to our email as of today (25/7/14).