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Curious if anyone actually uses their bike on an indoors bike trainer. If so, what kind of trainer?
I have done krietler rollers and a nashbar brand fluid trainer.
I’m extremely happy with both but the rollers are more fun (challenging) to ride and drastically improved my handling skills.
I rode the trainer for hard workouts like intervals…rollers can get dicey if you lose focus.
I used to do a lot of road cycling and found indoor trainers boring as hell. Maybe they’re better now with the video accessories and the biofeedback gizmos, but those units are pretty expensive, I’d imagine.
A good floor fan is a mandatory accessory.
An old Minoura resistance trainer, and Nashbar rollers here. Both circa ‘2001, holding up well.
Long winters in PA unlike my previous locale in Asheville NC.,,, can’t always ride outdoors.
The rollers are much more fun, and I vary their resistance by dropping a rag or a towel to contact the rear one underneath.
+1 for the floor fan.
I have a Kinetic Rock and Roll Trainer that I dutifully get on every winter. You have to have a workout plan to make it worthwhile though, otherwise it is boring. I have an assortment of training videos that I use.
A lot of my friends are moving to smart trainers with connectivity to the internet where they will hook into Zwift or something similar and ride with other people. It seems to be the latest and greatest thing, but I’m too cheap to spend the $$ for that…
I’ve got my hybrid road/mountain bike on a wind-trainer stand in the garage loft. I can set the garage thermostat for 60F which I prefer to being in the house (70F) or at the gym (70F) or outside in winter (-10 to +20F) unless I’m skiing or walking the dog or hiking. And I have a box fan pointed at me that I often kick on after the first 15 minutes.
For the boredom factor, the easiest is to wear ear buds or perhaps noise-canceling headphones and listen to podcasts. What works better for me is to work on my laptop, read what you yahoos wrote, watch youtube, etc on a narrow desk I built across the front of the bike. A friend up here is more virtuous and he set up a small flat surface in front of his treadmill and watches free classes out of MIT, tracks local political issues and technological developments as he walks along. He calls the set up his “iPlod”.
My wife has tried the virtual races against other people on her computerized, collegiate-level rowing machine (Concept 2), but what works better for her to get more hours on it each week is to listen to books on tape while she rows.
Not this particular model, but this sort of thing:
Spinning the fan increases the work with the square of your speed, like riding on the road and the fan blows a little bit of cooling air up your skirt. You have all 10-18 gears on your bike to adjust the level of effort. I have a simple $20 speedo on the handle bar connected to a Hall-effect sensor on the rear wheel so it tracks miles pedaled. That’s a helpful metric for me, if I commit to doing XX miles today.
Also, as I get older, getting back into any activity definitely goes better if done gradually. So starting a program of an easy 2 then 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, etc miles each day may be wiser than getting overly ambitious the first day, doing a 20, and regretting it.
“He calls the set up his “iPlod”
That’s funny. I’ll be using that…. :-)
“I have done krietler rollers and a nashbar brand fluid trainer.
I’m extremely happy with both but the rollers are more fun (challenging) to ride and drastically improved my handling skills.
I rode the trainer for hard workouts like intervals…rollers can get dicey if you lose focus.”
+1…though my fluid trainer is a kinetic. fwiw, the kreitler 4.5 was too little resistance for me, I prefer the 3.0.
I just can’t handle an indoor trainer. It’s boring, hot (even with a fan)… I live in an area where you can bike year round on the road. I use backpacking and hiking for cross training and when it’s raining, when traveling, and from November – December. They are great off the bike strength training. The cross training helps with being able to sustain a higher pedal force. I can surge my power output to keep up with my racing cycling buddies or to put the hammer on them. It’s also nice to have a different activity than cycling psychologically when you are putting in upper 4 figures or lower 5 figures of miles each year.
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