Indoor bike trainer reviews and features

Indoor Bike Trainer

When it gets really cold outside, or when you are trying to get yourself back to cycling after an injury or illness, or even if you need a spin to flesh out your bike training program, an indoor bike trainer is invaluable. And you’ll find many professionals taking their indoor bike trainers outside so that they can get in easy miles as both a warm up and a cool down. Just make sure that you don’t wear out your tyre in doing so (see below) and make sure you hydrate sufficiently. Some take their own gazebos along to hide under!

There are a range of different trainers that you can go for, and over the coming few articles I will be looking at the different feature sets of each of the them.

The point of these A-framed gadgets though is fairly simple: support the bike and provide resistance so that your legs will get a thorough work out.

Why an indoor bike trainer is better than and exercise bike

These trainers differ from their exercise equipment cousins like the Tunturi exercise bike in many ways. And it’s not just that a bike trainer offers a cheap gym equipment alternative to the tunturi. The tunturi has videos, for example, and built in automatic resistance changing via an onboard computer. You don’t get that on the A-frames. More than that, on the Tunturi you don’t get the same angles so your body will adapt to fit a different shape than your normal cycling position. Over time, your body adapts to fitting certain exercise. If you even use a different setup on a regular bike you will need another good few weeks to adapt. Think about the huge changes then between an exercise gym-bike and your regular cycle. You are in a very real sense risking injury.

So that’s a big plus point for using your own machine or at least one setup in the same way on indoor trainers because you are reducing injury risks.

Don’t get bored on your bike trainer…

Ok, so you can watch TV, or be motivated by tuning into some pumping tracks on MTV, but is there a better way? You can get dvd’s – such as Spinervals to run on whilst you cycle of some wonderful places in the world, and to be honest, I can see the day when the new Nintendo technology for glasses-less 3-D will be shrunk down to wrap around goggles which you can wear, and the dvd’s will run through those giving you an immersive experience. But that’s for the future.

Resistance systems

Of course, you will want to adjust your resistance, and there are various systems ranging from get-off-and-twist-something to being able to alter the resistance whilst still mounted. If you have the dvd then being mounted will be best since you can increase the resistance on the hills.

Talking of resistance, there are such things as the resistance curve, which is how much the resistance increases or decreases as you accelerate. A nice touch and the better machines are similar to road resistance.

The tech behind the resistance is different too. The Cycleops fluid trainer uses, well, fluid. Some just use air. Some combine air and/or fluid with magnets.

You’ll need risers or a pile of books for the front wheel sometimes. You also should be looking out for a way of adjusting the balance for uneven surfaces. And finally, how quickly can you get your bike wheel in and out, and how securely is it held.

Weaknesses of indoor bike trainers

There are a couple of weaknesses that people encounter with bike trainers. Firstly, you don’t have to balance them. So there is no core stimulation at all. If you are going to use bike training exclusively throughout the winter months then you need to compliment it with some static or movement based core strength training or you’ll feel it when you get out on the road again. Secondly there is often a little extra wear and tear on the tyre, so you’re best getting hold of a thicker tyre/wheel and using that exclusively on your trainer. Of course some people go the whole hog and have an extra bike set up permanently in the garage…

Are there alternatives? A few people swear by using rollers. But do make sure that you have a padded surface. You WILL fall off at first!

photo credit: dennis