Indoor Bicycle Trainers

"Who Need Indoor Bicycle Trainers? You Do!"

  ...Let's say you look out the window of your home and see piles of soft snow.  "Too bad, no cycling today," you think.  But indoor bicycle trainers are around just for those days when you don't want to be outside.

Indoor bicycles come with choices, like everything else in life.  You can choose rear wheel trainers that you hook up to the bicycle's rear tire.  Or, you can use rollers, which give you the feel of flat roads.

A third choice that you see in most gyms is the stationary bicycles, or stationary trainers.  The Cateye Gamebike Regular Home Model lets you play games by connecting with your Sony Playstation or Playstation 2.  You use the bicycle's handlebars and pedals to race cars.  How real is that?

Fun Workout

Bicycle exercise gives you many options to have a fun workout.  You can watch television or listen to music to keep from getting bored while on any indoor bicycle trainer.  A new trend is to sing and cycle at the same time.  Or, you can watch videos or DVDs to help you train, like the Spinervals Fitness Series.

Let's talk about rear wheel trainers.  They come in two different drive systems.  A tire drive has the rear wheel push against the roller.  To work the best, the tire has to be smooth and not a mountain bike tire.  That way, the trainer builds resistance smoothly.

On the other hand, the rim drive model that Minoura has patented, gives resistance at the bicycle's rim.  This way, you can use any kind of tire since the trainer never touches the tire.  You also get a more quiet workout.

One example of a rim drive is Minoura's PowerMatic.  The PowerMatic gives you a noise-free workout and protects your tires from wear.  And you get more resistance the faster you pedal. 

A remote control lets you decide the maximum resistance level, up to seven levels.

Cyclops Trainer

Besides the type of drive, rear wheel trainers also use different methods of building resistance.  One type is the Cyclops Fluid Trainer, which can go from a power of 20 watts to more than 725 watts.  Another kind of trainer uses magnets for resistance, such as Cyclops Magneto, which puts centrifugal force to the rider's advantage.

With CompuTrainer, a rear wheel trainer, you can build your own 3-D courses using Topol maps.  Then you can see the scenes on the computer screen, as if you really were on the course.  You can also connect to other riders on the Internet, with CompuTrainer.

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Next, we come to rollers, trainers that have a pair of rollers that you set your bicycle on.  This type of indoor trainer seems the trickiest since riders have to balance themselves to stay on the trainer.  An example of rollers is the Tacx Econo Rollers, which also come with an optional fork mount, so you can focus more on strength training and less on balance.

Meanwhile, Cyclops Rollers have PVC or aluminum rollers.  You can adjust the belt to get off the bicycle from the right or left side and you can adjust the rollers to fit almost any bicycle.

Indoor bicycle trainers let you get into shape in the comfort of your home.  And you can use whatever trainer fits your style.

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Ride for Life...
Chip Clark
Famous Bike Guy

    Indoor Bicycle Trainers