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We get it—cold-weather riding can be a hard sell to all but the most dedicated two-wheeled fanatics. Even with all the right cycling layers and accessories on your side, you’re still dealing with bitterly cold winds, icy patches of pavement, and salty roads that can eat away at your bike and its components. And even for people who are more than willing to deal with all of the above, shorter and darker days can make it hard to find time to get out for a proper ride.
That’s where bike trainers come in. While indoor trainers used to be reserved only for racers and fitness geeks, more and more people are embracing them for everything from serious training to casual daily workouts. Trainers have gotten a
lot better, quieter, and more interactive in the last decade or so. And while there are too many different models on the market for us to list every one, we put together a big-picture breakdown of the different types of trainers you’ll find, so you can get a better idea of which type is best for you.
Wheel-On Trainers
This is the tried-and true design that springs to most people’s minds when they think about indoor bike trainers. Wheel-on trainers hold your rear wheel in place by the axle, and position your rear tire against a resistance mechanism. Most of these types of trainers use magnets or fluid to offer adjustable resistance settings. Fluid-based systems tend to be quieter and produce more even pedaling strokes, vs. the herky-jerky feel you can get from some magnetic trainers.
Wheel-on trainers tend to be some of the more affordable options for people on a budget. Many of them are also foldable/collapsible, which is a nice feature if you don’t have a dedicated space where your trainer will live full-time. As an added benefit, they make it easy to remove your bike and enjoy an outdoor ride at a moment’s notice if the weather gets nice for a few days.
The downsides of this style of trainer are that they tend to be the noisiest, and also put some wear and tear on your tires—especially tires with knobs. Some people choose to set up a dedicated wheel and tire for their trainer to avoid wearing down their usual set of tires, though that comes at an additional expense, and cancels out the grab-and-go benefit if you’re occasionally riding outdoors.
Wheel-on trainers come in a massive range of price points and feature lists. Higher-end models will come with useful doodads like cadence and speed sensors, which let you connect to training apps for structured workouts and some cool gamified virtual experiences that make your indoor sessions more interesting than staring at a wall.
Direct-Drive Trainers
These types of trainers have exploded in popularity, due to their significantly quieter operation and a feel that’s a lot closer to riding on your favorite roads or trails. Direct-drive trainers require removing your bike’s rear wheel, and placing your chain on a cassette that’s attached to the trainer. Because you’re able to shift up and down the cassette like normal, resistance changes are much easier and more realistic. You also aren’t putting any extra wear and tear on your rear wheel and tire like you would with a wheel-on trainer.
Because they’re pricier than wheel-on trainers, direct-drive trainers tend to come with built-in sensors and connective features to interface with your favorite training apps. And if you don’t have a favorite training app yet, many “smart” trainers also include trial subscriptions to different platforms like Rouvy, Swift, or TrainerRoad.
Like wheel-on trainers, direct-drive trainers usually modulate resistance through hydraulic fluids or electromagnets. Fluid-based trainers are less expensive, though they don’t provide quite the same precision when it comes to adjusting resistance. This isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, though it will be most noticeable during a virtual training ride controlled by your training platform of choice.
As for the drawbacks of direct-drive trainers, they do require a little more tinkering time as far as getting your bike ready for an outdoor ride. They may also require purchasing an additional cassette to match whatever is already on your bike—otherwise, your gear shifting may not work properly without adjusting and re-indexing between indoor training sessions and outdoor rides. They’re also not as easily portable or stowable if your home doesn’t have the space for a full-time trainer setup.
Stationary Bikes
Not to be confused with stationery bikes—which are made out of paper, and generally terrible for riding—stationary bikes are among the most premium solutions available when it comes to bringing your riding indoors. They’re the quietest of all the different types of trainers, and the vast majority of them offer easy connectivity to training apps. Many stationary bikes also offer built-in power meters and cadence sensors, which deliver great insights for serious or competitive riders. Even if you’re not an aspiring racer, the virtual-ride features available through many popular training platforms make it possible to go on a ride with a friend on the other side of the city, or the other side of the globe!
Stationary bikes are also highly adjustable, meaning any number of different riders can use them with a few simple steps. And because they’re a standalone indoor training solution, you can keep your bike(s) ready for outdoor rides or trips to warmer, more cycling-friendly climates.
As you’d expect, all of these awesome features come at a price—one that may rival the cost of a new bike. And of course, stationary bikes are the heaviest and least-portable types of trainers, meaning they’ll require a dedicated area of your home to live in. However, for people with the spare cash and square footage, it’s tough to beat all the features that come with most of these types of trainers.
When comparing stationary bikes, keep in mind that virtual training sessions from some platforms (like Peloton) offer more of a spin-class experience, which can be great if that’s what you’re looking for. Third-party virtual training apps you’ll use with stationary bike manufacturers like Wahoo, Stages, Wattbike, and many others are intended to more closely mimic the outdoor-riding experience.
Rollers
The OG indoor training technology, rollers are among the most affordable, portable, and stowable solutions for off-season training. They most closely mimic the real-world feel of riding outdoors, because both your wheels are spinning underneath you, and you have to stabilize yourself with the handlebars. Many rollers are foldable, meaning they’re easy to stash under a bed or in a closet.
However, rollers also come with some drawbacks—the biggest one being that they’re pretty hard to use at first! It takes more practice than you might expect to train yourself to pedal on rollers without steering your front wheel off the side of the drums. It’s a good idea to set yourself up near a door frame or similar surface while you’re getting used to the balance.
While some rollers offer adjustable resistance, most of them are pretty light on features, particularly when it comes to connecting with training apps. Rollers can be great to throw in the back of your car for a pre-race warmup, and are also an effective training tool to help you smooth out your pedaling and overall riding technique. But for the vast majority of cyclists, stationary trainers or bikes offer a more feature-loaded and user-friendly experience that just makes more sense.
While there’s no replacement for the sights, sounds, and adrenaline rushes of real-world riding, bike trainers are better than they’ve ever been. Even the snobbiest of all-weather cyclists have begun to embrace the great features and virtual connectivity that come with many modern trainers. Because at the end of the day, any day that includes pedaling a bike—either indoors or outdoors—is much better than a day without riding!
TJ Parsons is a semi-reformed snowboard bum who now has a semi-adult career as a professional writer and creative. He's a self-proclaimed perpetual intermediate who thinks the outdoors are for everyone, and who wants to help dismantle gatekeeping and elitism in outdoor sports. When he's not squeezing brain juice into a keyboard, you'll find him riding boards or bikes throughout the Intermountain West.
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