A Bicycle Trainer : Critical to Cycling Fitness, And On Sale!

- You’ll need a bicycle trainer unless you don’t have a day job. That’s right, a cycling trainer’s critical for after-work riding once the days get shorter and you come home in the dark.

It’s tough to watch the fat slowly return to our bellys after a great training summer.

Enter the bicycle trainer.

In the ‘trainer world’ it’s always light enough to see where you aren’t going. It’s always near room temperature, and the wind chill factor is carefully controlled by putting your fan on low, medium, or high.

The scenery isn’t so great when you’re riding a bicycle trainer. In fact sometimes you’ll be looking at a DVD of other riders on a bicycle trainer, being yelled at by a guy with a Napoleonic complex.

But what types of cycling trainers are there? Read on, my cycling friend.

Maybe you don’t know that you can
get up to 50% off on trainers at Bike Nashbar.

Fluid Bicycle Trainers

This type of bicycle trainer uses fluids in a confined space to create hydraulic resistance. They are quiet and smooth, much like Sean Connery. That guy irritates me, but maybe that’s because I suspect that his smooth, quiet demeanor is all made up.

Oh yea, he is only acting. I’ll bet he’s really a loud dork- like a cheap wind trainer.

Did you know that silicone gets thicker when it’s heated? That’s right, as the fluid gets hotter due to all that friction, it gets thicker. The increased viscosity creates more resistance, And that makes for a more realistic ride.

Try that with Maple syrup.

If you want an interesting discussion on the merits of the Cycleops trainer versus the Kurt Kinetic trainer, go to the fluid bike trainer page.

In short, ‘Kurt’ says that all fluid trainers not using the Kinetic patented technology will develop a leak. But not the Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer! Check out the differences in design on the Kurt kinetic trainer page.

Wind Bicycle Trainers

If you have the desire to ‘break wind’, the bicycle wind trainer may be the one for you. And with the money you save by not buying an expensive fluid trainer you’ll be able to buy more burritos.

How does a wind trainer keep you in fighting shape? Well you pedal and pedal, turning a fan thereby creating resistance.

Noise is a major consideration with any cycling trainer, the wind trainer being the champion.

If you live in an apartment the wind trainer may not be for you- you don’t want angry neighbors expressing themselves in your general direction. In the case of cycling trainers, ‘silent but deadly’ is good.

The most common of trainers, the Cycleops, seeks to cut down on noise by utilizing ‘die cast zinc fan blades in a vortex configuration’. As an added benefit, the extra weight acts as a flywheel making for a smoother, more realistic ride.

Summarizing: a wind trainer is the least expensive but the noisiest of the three varieties.

Magnetic Cycling Trainers

Caught between the wind trainer and the fluid trainer is the ‘mag’ trainer. These are a whole lot quieter than the wind trainer, even if that wind trainer has those high tech die cast zinc fins.

A mag trainer uses a series of magnets to create resistance. Some of the less expensive models have a variety of settings to vary the resistance. With these ’cheapies’ you get to change the settings by hand. More expensive units let you to change the settings from your ‘cycling cockpit’ while you concentrate on that DVD.

There are now variable resistance mag trainers, making it possible for the ride to get progressively harder as you pedal faster. They accomplish the increased resistance by using movable magnets.

If you need to spend a lot of money, there are magnetic bicycling trainers made by Cycleops which have an enormous load of electronics on them. With these models you can track and record heart rate, cadence, speed, elapsed time, and calories. They can be ridden with the pre-programmed rides or you can program some of your custom rides into them yourself.

But I’m getting carried away here. This page is supposed to be an overview of cycling trainers. There are more detailed pages for each of the three types elsewhere on this site.

Summing Up Bicycle Trainers

A cycling trainer makes it easier to work on efficiency since you’re cycling in a very controlled environment, away from cars, hills, and tire-sucking training partners.

Of course a cycling trainer is also a great way to maintain your peak cycling fitness. No icy roads to navigate, no bone chilling wind chill factors to deal with, and no ‘dark and stormy nights’ to pedal through.

That sounds like a great first line for a book.

Before you leave, let me say that I think you’ll benefit from taking a look at the bicycle trainer deals at Bike Nashbar.