How To Pick The Right Indoor Bike Trainer

If you’re like most of us, your fitness level can take a big dive when the winter socks in and getting outside to exercise becomes too uncomfortable to be worth the effort. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way if you have an indoor bike trainer.

When you attach the rear wheel of your bicycle to a bike trainer, you’ve immediately transformed your bike from merely a fair-weather exercise friend to a four seasons fitness tool.

But how do you go about finding the bike trainer that’s best for your style of riding?

Different Trainers For Different Purposes

1). Wind trainers are the least expensive of the three types (wind trainers, mag trainers, and fluid trainers). They’re also the simplest so the likelihood of breakdown is diminished.

But on the downside, wind trainers are the noisiest, as well as the least able to produce substantial resistance.

Because of these two factors, you probably shouldn’t get a wind trainer if you live in an apartment with thin walls…or in a household with a lot of ‘noise-sensitive’ housemates. Regarding the resistance capabilities...I wouldn’t recommend a wind trainer if doing hard intensity repetitions is part of your fitness goals.

A wind trainer is most appropriate for pseudo-serious cyclists who don’t mind extra noise, and who will be doing mild to medium intensity ‘steady state’ workouts.

2). Mag (magnetic) trainers produce their workload by spinning opposing magnets past one another.

Mag trainer users still report a good deal of noise when using their trainers, but they aren’t as noisy as wind trainers. They’re also in ‘no man’s land’ when it comes to ability to produce resistance…halfway between the ‘light’ resistance capability of a wind trainer and the nearly unlimited resistance of a fluid trainer.

A good quality trainer in this category is made by the CycleOps company and is called the CycleOps mag trainer. It costs in the neighborhood of $160, which isn’t too much more than the $130 that a CycleOps wind trainer goes for.

An interesting recent development in the mag trainer world is the CycleOps Magneto. Billed as the first and only mag trainer with 'progressive resistance', the Magneto uses the power of centrifugal force to alter the position of the magnets (and thus the level of the trainer's workload) without any input from the rider.

The Magneto does a reasonably good job of providing what a fluid trainer does, but it costs almost as much as a fluid trainer does, so...

Why not just buy a fluid trainer?

3). If you're looking for a budget priced bike trainer, don't look in this category. Good fluid trainers cost from $300 and up.

But there are some very good reasons that fluid trainers are chosen by serious cyclists, up to and including the pro riders at the Tour de France.

Three words...smooth, realistic, and powerful.

Of the three types of trainers, a good fluid trainer provides the most realistic feeling ride. It's smooth, and if it's fitted with a good flywheel to maintain momentum, it simulates both 'resistance to spinning up' and the 'ability to coast'...just like on an outside ride.

Additionally, a fluid trainer has the ability to supply enough resistance to foil the legs of even the most powerful cyclist. The folks who manufacture the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine claim it has the ability to resist against 2000 watts of power.

As a point of reference, pro cyclists dominate on sustained climbs putting out 500 watts of resistance. So fluid trainers provide several times as much resistance as you'll ever need.

A fluid trainer is appropriate for serious cyclists who aren't bashful about buying good equipment and who will likely be doing workouts that entail sessions of high intensity riding.

You'll Surely Benefit From The Right Bike Trainer

In many instances a fitness-minded person will find that the dark, cold days of winter can be beaten back by hooking their bike to a trainer.

Figuring out what types of rides you'll be doing, how realistic of a ride you expect, how much noise you can tolerate, and how much money you're willing to spend (from $100 to $500) will help you make the correct choice.

I know that I really benefit from my trainer...and I highly recommend that you look into getting one too.

About the author: Ron Fritzke is a cycling product reviewer with a passion for ‘all things cycling’. A former 2:17 marathoner, he now directs his competitive efforts toward racing his bike…and looking for good cycling products.