♪ [music] ♪
Turbo trainers, indoor trainers, ergo, static trainer, torture machine, whatever
you want to call these, they are a great way of keeping fit if the weather is
simply too bad for you to get outside training. Or if you want a good quality,
quick workout around your daily commitments. In this video, we're
going to show you a few different types of trainers that are currently on the
market to enable you to make a decision as to which one is right for you.
All the ones that we're going to show you today allow you to put your own bike on
them and has the advantage that means you are in the same positions you are out on
the road. And if you've got a power meter on your bike, you'll get comparable
measurements for when you're normally training.
The first trainer we're going to go through with you today gets its resistance
at the back here through opposing magnets. Now, this is really the entry-level
trainer these days on the market. You might want to consider this one if you're
on a budget, or you simply don't think you're going to be riding that much
indoors. Other advantages apart from that price point are the fact that you can
change the resistance using this thing that you can mount up on your handlebars.
Which makes it great if you want to do intervals during your session.
On this one we've got numbers one to five, number one being the easiest.
That means we can spin along quite nicely on the big ring, just as you would do if
you're in a big group on a flat road. Number five is the hardest and that once's
quite hard to peddle, even on the small ring, just as it would be on your local
climb. Disadvantage of this one, well, being and entry-level trainer,
it doesn't feel that realistic when you compare it to the feeling of being out on
the road. And it's also particularly noisy, so if you're in an apartment block,
or if you've got some neighbors that don't like the noise or even a partner that gets
sick of your addiction to cycling, well, then you might want to consider our next
trainer. Okay, this next one is a fluid trainer and as the name suggests,
it gets its resistance from fluid here at the rear roller. The main advantage of
this one over the magnetic trainer, it's got a much more realistic road feel to it
and it's also much quieter. It's not gonna annoy those people close to you as much.
And also, if you listen to TV or radio or music whilst you're training you'll be
able to hear that clearly without having to turn the volume up to its maximum.
The main disadvantage of this fluid trainer over the magnetic one is simply
the price point. It's around about one third more expensive. However, there
are some similarities between the two. The first is the tire rests against this
roller here at the back. So, if you start to train indoors quite a bit, you might
find that your normal tire wears down quite quickly, and you might want to
consider buying a trainer specific tire, which could save you money in the long
term. The second similarity, they both rely on gravity. As you can see this rear
tripod section isn't fixed, so once you put your bike in here, you sit on it or
simply push your tire against this rear roller.
♪ [music] ♪
And the third similarity is simply that they both fold down. So if you haven't got
too much room in your apartment or house, this might be the one for you.
This next trainer is called a direct drive, and as you can probably tell,
the main difference is that you have to take the rear wheel out of your bike and
then mount the frame onto here where the chain will wrap around this cassette.
The main advantage of this, well it's extremely stable. There's not much side to
side rocking even when you're going really hard. It's also got a very realistic road
feel similar to what you experience when you're actually outside training, and it's
extremely quiet, so you're not going to disturb anyone. You can also link this
particular one out to different media devices, get your power date or anything
else that you want if you want to take your training to that next level.
And if you're somebody that wants to do sprints indoors, this is definitely the
one for you because unlike the magnetic or fluid one, you're not going to experience
any rear wheel slippage. Disadvantages, well, the price point for starters.
It's almost double the price of the fluid trainer, and you've also got to consider
the fact that you're probably going to want to buy an extra cassette so you'd be
chaining it from your wheel onto the trainer every time you want to use it.
The only other disadvantage is really the bulkiness of it. Even when you folded this
leg down, it still takes up quite a lot of room in comparison to the others. So, if
you're stuck for space where you live, you might want to go back to the other two.
There is another type of trainer on the market and they are called rollers.
You'll see to track riders warming up on these a lot before their events, and
that's because they can really get a lot of leg speed because there isn't that much
resistance. Another advantage of these is that it makes time go past that little bit
quicker, because you actually have to concentrate on keeping upright,
which believe me, is a lot harder than for Bronchial Gilmour makes it look.
Disadvantage of these, well, that lack of resistance means that if you're a powerful
rider, you might not have enough bare to be able to get a decent into the workout
done. So, as a quick recap when trying to decide which trainer is right for you,
well, of course, firstly you need to stay within your budget. Secondly,
you need to consider how much noise is going to affect those around you.
Thirdly, how much you're actually going to be training indoors, and finally,
what type of workouts you want to do and how scientific you want to make them.
♪ [music] ♪