The 3 Types of Indoor Cycling Trainers...and What They Offer

There's no reason for avid cyclists to fall out of shape in winter.

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"Whatever your cycling style, there's an indoor bike trainer to meet your needs. …"

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I've found that staying in shape by riding my bike has a lot of advantages. As a former competitive runner, I'd always assumed that I could keep running as my chosen method to keep fit. But that was before an Achilles injury that never healed adequately knocked me out of my running shoes and onto the saddle of my bike. Running is now out of the question, and biking has taken its place. That is, until the snow starts to fly and the streets are too slippery to safely ride on. While it isn't my first choice (the freedom of riding outside is), my indoor trainer gets a good working over during the winter months. I've spent untold hours researching and writing bike trainer reviews; coming to the conclusion that bicycle trainers can be broken down into three basic categories, each having something to offer cyclists with different styles of riding.

Cycleops Indoor Bicycle Trainer

Simple Wind Trainers

• The simple design of a wind trainer makes it the least expensive of the three types.
• Because there are fewer moving parts, wind trainers are the most reliable.
• On the other hand, because wind trainers are creating a miniature hurricane, they can create a 'roaring' sound that makes the ride unpleasant for both the rider and anyone else in the room.
• Unless you're willing to ride a wind trainer with a very large fan (more like an exercise bike), the little impeller is unable to move enough air to create large levels of resistance.
• These trainers are suitable for casual cyclists who will be doing 'steady' rides, without hard intervals of intense pedaling.

Mag Trainers Are A Step Up

• Mag trainers create resistance via the 'eddy current' principle. In short, when a metal that conducts electricity (in this case, the aluminum flywheel) passes through a magnetic field, the shifting of the electrons cause a drag force between the conductor and the magnet. To the cyclist this translates into the resistance that makes the workout possible.
  
  
• Mag trainers cost about one hundred dollars more than wind trainers.
  
  
• While they aren't as noisy as wind trainers, they aren't as quiet as fluid trainers (more about those later), either.
  
  
• Mag trainers are able to create enough of a workload to make hard interval workouts possible. As an aside, hard interval workouts are much more effective at burning calories than workouts that are performed at a steady level of intensity. This is particularly important for those who are seeking to lose (or even maintain) body weight.

Fluid Trainers For The Most Serious Cyclists

I guess fluid trainers could be reduced to being described as a wind trainer 'under water'. The rollers of a fluid trainer drive an impeller that spins through fluid, with silicone being the most effective liquid because of its thermo-neutral (doesn't get thinner when heated) properties. But just as early-model mag trainers had their problems, fluid trainers of yesteryear suffered from a major weakness of their own. They leaked. Trying to keep the fluid from seeping out of the chamber at the point at which the impeller shaft came through the chamber wall was the big challenge. When subjected to the intense heat generated by the friction of the impeller moving through the fluid, the o-ring seals invariably failed...and the fluid slowly started leaking out of the chamber.

About Author

Ron Fritzke is a cycling product reviewer with a passion for 'all things cycling'. A former 2:17 marathoner, he now directs his competitive efforts toward racing his bike…and looking for good cycling products.

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