Who We Are

Engineered by cyclists. Refined by riders. Trusted for decades.

TruTrainer started with two lifelong cyclists and aerospace engineers, Ross Belloni and Jeff Rhodes. In the 1980s they spent winter after winter on traditional rollers and realized indoor training could feel much more realistic.

They began building and refining their own system in their garages using manual mills and lathes. Over the years they added small CNC equipment and continued improving the design. The roller spacing, inertia system, flywheel balance, and overall geometry that became TruTrainer all came out of this early work.

As the design matured, they developed what eventually became SmartLoad, an eddy-current resistance system that increased training possibilities while keeping the natural ride feel they had focused on since the beginning.

From the start, their goal was simple:
make indoor riding feel like riding outside.

That same idea still guides every TruTrainer we build today.

A New Chapter

Family-owned. Built in Indiana. Focused on quality.

In 2019 the company moved into a dedicated manufacturing space. At the same time, Mike Belloni took over the day-to-day work of machining, assembly, and production. Mike now owns TruTrainer and continues the work Ross and Jeff started.

His background includes hands-on mechanical work and industrial project engineering. After stepping in, he expanded in-house machining, updated workflows, kept SmartLoad production running smoothly, and introduced TruTrainer to a broader cycling and triathlon community.

The goal is the same as it has always been:
build the product with care, stay small enough to maintain quality, and keep the engineering honest.

TruTrainer is still small-batch, precision-built, and manufactured  in Indiana.

Our Philosophy

Ride feel first. Always.

Every part of a TruTrainer exists for one purpose: to match the sensation and feedback of real riding. Roller spacing, bearing choice, inertia tuning, and the SmartLoad eddy-current system all work together to create a natural road-like feel.

  • Smooth inertia

  • Predictable balance

  • Realistic torque feedback

  • More natural than fixed smart trainers

Cyclists and triathletes choose TruTrainer because it feels familiar. It feels like the road.

Meet The Creators

Ross Belloni

Co-Founder

“I’ve always had a love for learning and a desire to make things better, so our small company environment is a perfect playground to create, invent, and improve. I really believe our TruTrainer products are a testament to my never-being-satisfied search for perfection, but hearing positive response and feedback from our customers is a great inspiration to keep going.”

Jeff Rhodes

Co-Founder

“I’ve always been driven by finding ways to figure things out. I guess my love for competitive cycling and a rewarding career in aerospace — engineering jet engines — is proof that I love precision and high performance. Creating TruTrainer rollers with Ross was a natural extension of this, and became a fun way to design and build a product I really believe is the best on the market.”

Meet The Owner

Mike Belloni

Owner, Manufacturing & Operations

“Jeff and Ross genuinely have the kind of engineering minds that could be solving the world’s problems — luckily for all of us, they designed these rollers instead. Once I realized nothing else on the market came close to maintaining real bike biomechanics and ride feel the way theirs did, I knew I had to keep the brand going.”

Since taking over operations in 2019, Mike has overseen machining, assembly, workflow optimization, QC, sourcing, fulfillment, and customer support. He represents the next generation of TruTrainer — keeping the product true to its engineering roots while bringing it to a wider audience.