How to Choose an Indoor Bike Trainer

It’s getting to be that time that most folks move their bikes indoors for at least a few rides a week. Unless you’ve got a good lighting system, by the time you get home from work it’s too dark to ride so mounting your bike in the trainer is the best way to stay in shape over the cold, dark season.

If you don’t have a trainer yet it’s a good time to get one and start riding during Desperate Housewives or CSI. Of course once you’ve decided to get one the question becomes which do you choose. Trainers come in four basic types.

Magnetic Trainers – by using a magnetic plate drag is created. The tension is adjusted by moving the plate closer to the rolling drum, usually with a remote that attaches to your handlebar. The advantage of mag trainers is quiet and the least expensive option. The negative is that the resistance is not progressive, meaning that during sprints and hard accellerations you’ll spin out the resistance.

Fluid Trainers – By encasing a fan into a sealed chamber filled with fluid, the resistance becomes progressive. This means the faster you go the harder it gets just like out doors. Because of this it is a powerful training tool, as you can do everything from light spinning work to big gear hill climbing to all out sprints. The trainers are quiet and the price is reasonable for the usefulness of this training tool. If you want virtually unlimited resistance with the most realistic road feel this is the trainer for you.

Electronic Trainers – The resistance is generated by an electric motor giving a wide range of adjustment and smooth load. The key benefit of electronic trainers, is the feedback from the onboard computer. The computer measures speed, power, cadence, time, heart rate etc. In addition to regular training you can use this type of trainer for fitness tests. The Tacx and Elite brand trainers are available with software that allows you to analyze your workouts and even ride against other riders like a video game. To keep it interesting, many of the major European pro races are available on DVD so you can race against the pros. I think this type of trainer is useful just for the motivation and fun factor that will keep you on the trainer in the dead of winter instead of eating chips and watching Simpson’s reruns. The main negative is that you need to plug it into the wall, so you can’t take it to races etc. to use for warmups.

Rollers – This is a set of drums mounted to a frame that you ride on. Nothing holds you so you need to balance as well as work out. The plus of these is that you really improve your pedalling efficiency and smoothness. But you are limited in how much resistance is possible, it’s hard to stand up leading to potential numb crotch and you can fall off.

Cycleops Bicycle trainers