Champion triathletes Peter Reid and Heather Fuhr credit indoor bike trainer sessions for quantum leaps in their cycling in the 1990s. Reid claims that he gets the same intensity from a 90-minute trainer session as four hours on the road. Without the interruptions of traffic lights, stop signs, downhill coasting and traffic, cyclists can focus on a specific aspect of their bike training without disturbance.
Wind Trainers
Wind trainers are the most basic and inexpensive incarnation of the bike trainer. Your rear wheel is elevated on a stand with a flywheel fitted against the tire. As you pedal, the rear wheel pushes the flywheel, which in turn spins a fan. Air resistance from the fan blades provides pedaling resistance. Wind trainers are notoriously noisy, making it hard to lessen the monotony of training with a DVD, and disturbing people nearby.
Magnetic Trainers
Magnetic trainers are more expensive than wind trainers and slightly quieter. A series of magnets within the flywheel system provide resistance. Older “mag trainer” technology offers manual adjustable resistance in the lower end models. High-end models provide a resistance remote to mount on your handlebars. Newer magnetic trainers have automatic variable resistance based on how hard you pedal; magnets move to increase the resistance on the flywheel the faster your wheel spins. The drawback of magnetic trainers is durability—they break often.
Fluid Trainers
Fluid trainers are the most expensive and quietest option in the non-computerized stationary bike trainer family. Fluid trainers offer hydraulic resistance as the flywheel spins a rotor or disks inside a sealed, silicone-filled chamber. As the silicone heats, it thickens providing flywheel resistance. Rotor-based designs with a rubber-sealed opening to the fluid chamber are prone to leaks, so choose a design that works on magnetic disks on a fully sealed fluid chamber.
Computerized Trainers
Computerized models work on the same stand-and-flywheel design as mechanical options, except that computerized parts determine flywheel resistance. Computerized trainers cost more than some racing bikes, but offer features that make up for the expense, like virtual courses displayed in real time on a computer or TV screen, virtual partners, feedback on power, heart rate and pedal mechanics, and data analysis. Computerized trainer software crashes rarely, and the technology’s main consumer drawback is the price.
Rollers
On rollers, your bike is not attached to the contraption at all. One front and two rear rollers are mounted on a track. Your bike spins the rollers as you ride in place. Rollers are the only indoor training system where riders run the risk of falling—and you will fall if you steer your bike off the rollers. While learning to ride on rollers, begin by setting them up in a doorway so that you can catch yourself when you fall. Rollers require more concentration than a stationary trainer, reducing boredom. They also improve bike-handling skills and teach you to ride in a straight line. Rollers are more expensive and less portable than other non-computerized trainers.
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