An indoor bike trainer is a
simulator or stationary bike trainer and a good piece of fitness and exercise equipment designed to help you
train for specific events or to use as a way to exercise your cycling muscles. During inclement weather, snow,
sleet and rain or if it's too hot to ride outside you can ride your bike on an indoor bike trainer free ly and
still keep in the best shape for you.Or in good weather use it
outside.
You may be looking to purchase or buy a good
indoor bike trainer to train for an upcoming event or race or even a triathlon. A stationary exercise bike does
not provide the same type of exercise you need to keep your cycling muscles in shape that outdoor cycling or
bike trainers do. You're sure to stay healthy and you can work up a sweat easily on an indoor trainer. You can
adjust the resistance to any level you like.
But whatever the reason you'll get a lot of the
best kind of exercise when you use a bicycle trainer indoors. As a bicyclist or cyclist you do need to keep
working out all year round and a bike trainer is the best piece of equipment to help you achieve that. You can
cycle or bicycle to your heart's content.
In fact you can use it outdoors on a patio or
deck if you can’t use your bike outside for some reason or are without it while it’s being repaired and you're
using a back-up bike or one on loan. Bike trainers are also used in many gyms and health
clubs.
An indoor bike trainer consists of a frame, a
sturdy clamp to hold the bicycle securely, a roller that pushes against the rear wheel, and a mechanism that
provides adequate resistance when the pedals are turned. There are several different types of indoor bike
trainers including wind trainers, magnetic trainers and fluid trainers.
A wind indoor bike trainer or bicycle trainer has
a roller that drives fan blades that create air resistance. These are the cheapest but they are the noisiest
trainers.
Magnetic indoor bike trainers have magnets that
resist each other, and cost more than the wind trainer and are only moderately noisy. Some of the magnetic
trainers have handlebar-mounted control boxes to change the level of resistance during a training
session.
Fluid indoor bike trainers use liquid-filled
chambers to create needed resistance. They cost more than the wind or magnetic bicycle trainers but are the
quietest trainers.Some types of these use a centrifugal pressure mechanism
to create resistance which involves pressure plates, ball bearings and some specially shaped grooves. These are
similar to fluid trainers in cost and the way they perform.
Why Should You Buy an Indoor Bike Trainer?
Indoor bike trainers make it possible to build up
your bicycle skills and your power efficiently in a highly controlled environment, without the interruptions
encountered in outdoor cycling. When you're hill training, instead of being limited to whatever hills are in
your area you can simulate any size and steepness. Bicycle trainers or indoor cycle trainers help you train
better for racing than stationary bicycles would.
Indoor bicycle trainers require better technique
than stationary bicycles do - the ride is much more realistic too. The body position of a stationary bicycle is
quite a bit different from a racing bike.If you use the actual racing bike on an indoor trainer, the position of your body
will be almost identical.
Some bicycle trainers are equipped with sensitive
sensors that monitor the cyclist or rider's performance. Power output, cadence, virtual speed and your heart
rate are among the metrics that can be measured electronically. Analyzing these resulting figures can help to
fine-tune any cyclist's training. All good reasons to purchase an indoor bike trainer.You can practice saddle hill
climbing or sprinting too.
We get asked many questions about indoor bicycle
trainers such as: how to put a bike on a trainer, how to use a bike trainer, how to set up a bike trainer, what
type of skewer is needed for bike trainer, etc. but they are very easy to set up and use, there is really
nothing to it.
The Bicycle Roller as a Bike Trainer
Bike rollers or bicycle rollers are similar, but
they don't support the bike. Being able to balance the bicycle without it flying off of the rollers is a
challenge for the rider. Some riders find this helps them focus on the workout, while others prefer the security
and stability of an indoor trainer.
Indoor bike trainers are categorized by how the
equipment provides resistance.
Wind resistance - the unit uses a fan powered by
the cyclist's legs to provide the best resistance on the rear tire. This is good because the resistance
progresses with the rider's or cyclist's speed, creating a more realistic feeling of cycling on street, trail or
road. However there is noise due to limited resistance.
Fluid resistance combines magnetic flywheel with
fluid resistance chambers.It has nearly silent magnetic operation with
added progressive resistance.However it has repeated friction heating and
consequential expansion and contraction of the fluid can result in seal leaks.
Mechanical resistance - the belt on a modified
magnetic flywheel trainer transmits motion to a heavy spinning flywheel. It provides pedal powered clean clothes
but a lot of do-it-yourself engineering is required; this design needs a strong cyclist or rider to be
sure.
Virtual reality simulator - the rear wheel rests
on a motorized roller and the front forks fit in a frame equipped with steering sensors, the whole system is
linked to a computer with virtual software. Cyclists or riders steer their way through this virtual world and
pedaling gets harder and harder (the motorized roller 'loads' the rear wheel) whenever you're going
uphill.This virtual software for cycling will hold your interest and you can fit your own bicycle
into it. The software is not cheap though but may be worth it to you.
Most indoor bike trainers can be adjusted for
various sizes of road bikes and mountain bikes. But knobby mountain bike tires can cause unwanted vibration and
noise, which will defeat the purpose of the noiseless trainers.
Indoor Bike Trainer - Turbo Trainers
A turbo trainer is any cycling unit used to
convert a street or road bicycle to a stationary exercise bike, by mounting the bicycle in a rigid framework.
Turbo indoor bike trainers are different from rollers which also allow a bicycle to be used without moving, but
which allow the cycle to sway in a similar manner to when moving on a road.
Turbo trainers also provide a framework which
makes the bicycle secure and stable to sit on and pedal away while stationary and have a mechanism to provide
resistance to pedaling.
Most turbo indoor bicycle trainers provide a
mechanism for adjusting resistance, although in the simpler devices this may only be adjusted prior to a
session. However, in the large majority of designs, the resistance changes as the gears are changed on the
bicycle, which allows a high degree of user control of resistance during a session.
Some contemporary turbo trainers use a simple
built-in computer for a variety of user input and output. These may provide calibration of the resistance,
control of resistance to emulate hills (under the control of the user or a pre-programmed schedule),
measurements of mechanical power, inferred speed, pedaling cadence, heart rate (using a radio interface from a
chest band) and even torque on the most sophisticated models.
In addition derived statistics including
integrals and averages of these statistics are commonly available. Some designs provide an interface to a
standard personal computer, which allows more sophisticated processing and graphing of data.
Indoor bike Turbo trainers are used as a good
training aid by many competitive cyclists, allowing controlled and monitored exercise in spite of weather and
road conditions. With the wide availability of increasingly economical and sophisticated devices, turbo trainers
are beginning to become a more popular exercise device for cyclists at all levels, including those who do not
participate in road races.
One advantage of turbo trainers over exercise
bikes is that they are compact and easily stored away.A road bike can be mounted in
it for an indoor exercise session or removed in a matter of seconds.
Indoor Bike Trainer - Brands - Manufacturers - Models
Well known brands of indoor bike trainers include
the (often misspelled Cyclops trainer fluid2 and the CycleOps Pro 300 pt) CycleOps trainers - they make the
popular CycleOps fluid 2 trainer, often referred to as a fluid trainer, Cycle Ops Jet fluid Pro, and CycleOps
Pro 300 pt., Kurt Kinetic trainer or road machine, the Minoura trainer - Minoura mag 500 and 850, Bell Motivator
Mag indoor bike trainer and the Elite bike trainer among others.
To sum up you can easily get indoor bike trainer
training in your home with smooth and quiet magnetic resistance.For most
trainers the single-adjustment, progressive magnetic resistance smoothly increases as the speed increases. A
double adjustment centers the bike in the trainer for a steady ride. An indoor biketrainer can weigh about 20
pounds.Most come with good warranties, some as long as five years. Reviews
and ratings for indoor bike trainers are always good and one should always use comparisons. Although there has
never been a Consumer Reports review. You can save money and buy bike trainers cheap or one of the
quality best indoor bike trainers that cost more.
Indoor Bike Trainer Accessories
You can get indoor bike trainer accessories
too.The
CycleOps Stackable Climbing Block, Blackburn Trak Block II Bicycle Stabilizer, Blackburn TrakStand Mag 3 bicycle
trainer, Minoura Mag Riser 3, Forza Trainer Riser Block, CycleOps Bike Thong Bicycle Sweat Protector, and a
Schwinn 17-Function Bike Computer for example. Indoor Bike
Trainer
