Home Cycle Trainer

Indoor Cycle Trainers. So it’s winter, its cold, wet and windy, and you just don’t want to go for a cycle ride. Then it might be a good idea to drag out the home cycle trainer and do a routine in the comfort of your spare room or garage. This is also a great way to ease back into cycling if you’ve coming back from an injury or extended lay off.

If you want to do some training all year round, then investing in one of these indoor trainers might be your best bet. Basically they are a frame with a clamping system that holds your bike in place. You don’t need to do anything to your bike, just slot it in place and clamp. A roller which is attached to the trainer frame, presses against your back wheel to provide resistance. Some models have adjustable resistance.

These days home cycle trainers are quite compact, and store away easily in a cupboard or even under your bed. They take a few minutes to get set up with your bike, then you’re away.

A Few Things to Consider with home cycle trainers.  Indoor trainers range in price from less than $200 to upwards of $600. The cost difference comes down to the quality of the resistance mechanism, the more expensive models also tend to be quieter when you really wind them up. They all work, so it comes down to your budget.

You can use your good road bike on these, plenty of people do. Indoor trainers tend to flatten and square off your tires with extended use, so if you do use your good bike then you need to consider this, especially if you run expensive tires. You can buy specific tires for this purpose, but that just becomes a hassle if you have to swap tires every time you want to use your indoor trainer. But if you have an old bike, then why not set it up as your dedicated indoor bike, that way you can use any old tire and not have to worry about it.

If you’re training to a programme, then you will need a cycle computer, which will need the sensors attached to the back wheel to get speed, distance and time. Most training programs also use cadence as an indicator, so this will need to be attached to one crank and the swing arm. This can all be done fairly easily, but if you’re unsure, then get your local bike shop to install it. You will also need a heart rate monitor to make sure your in the right heart rate zone, as dictated by your program.

Cycling indoors can quickly get you very hot and sweaty, so I always have a portable fan blowing straight at me, to keep me at least partly cool. Keep a towel in easy reach as well. Also take on plenty of fluids at regular intervals to ward off dehydration.

If this is to become a serious part of your training, then you will need a proper training program to get the most out of it.

But you if intend to use your home cycle trainer just for the occasional hit out when the weather’s really bad, then just do a basic routine of varying degrees of resistance. Start with a 10-15 minute easy warm up, then use your gears to simulate flat riding  up tempo riding and hill climbing. I do blocks of five minutes, with two minutes of very easy spinning before the next block. Throw in a couple of all out short sprints plus a warm down of ten minutes and you can have a very satisfying workout. Plan to do at least an hour to get any benefit. 

If you’re like me and don’t like missing out on a planned ride, then an hour on your home cycle trainer will at least give you the semblance of a good workout.