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Wishing I Belonged to a Gym

12.08.2013 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

This has been a tough week, biking-wise. We had something that is quite unusual around here: a cold snap. It’s part of the massive winter storm system that pushed through the country, but we got just the tail end. And we were very lucky. Compared to Dallas, which got lots of ice, we had very little.

The temperatures, though, made bike riding out of the question, at least for me. As you might know, I try to ride Tuesday when I get home from work, but I was stuck there late this week since we’re at the end of the semester. A lot of final projects are being finished on a rush basis, and I have to be around to offer suggestions, write critiques, or even save some from crashing and burning. I looked forward to Friday, when I didn’t have to go in. The semester was over on Thursday.

But biking wasn’t going to happen Friday. Too cold. I’m good for temps down to 40 degrees (4C), but if it gets any colder than that, I simply don’t have the clothes to handle it. Instead, my wife and I put flannel sheets on the bed and lit the fireplace for the first time this winter.

Image courtesy of stock images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Image courtesy of stock images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Meanwhile, I saw that some members of my club were getting in their miles in spite of the weather. They did it indoors — at their gym (health club, fitness center, whatever you want to call it). Spin classes apparently were full.

We used to have a gym membership. Actually, it was my wife’s, but I could go over there from time to time on a guest pass through her. We dropped that membership a few years ago, for two reasons: she had stopped going regularly, and the cost was more than we wanted to pay, especially if we weren’t going to use it.

So this week, I found myself a bit envious of my pals. I’ve never enjoyed riding a stationary bike, but at least it would work up a sweat and I could feel like I was “pretend” riding. I didn’t do any pretend riding this week. I waited for Sunday to roll around and the temperatures to moderate some, and went out for a nice 18-mile jaunt through the neighborhood.

I know my Northern friends are chuckling right now. “The answer is easy,” they’re saying. “Just get yourself a trainer, and you’ll be able to ride, too.”

With Christmas just around the corner, that won’t happen. Any money we have will go to presents, and entertaining family visitors for several days. Trainers might make sense when you’re kept indoors for three months straight, but I’m used to riding year round, so I’ll hold out for better weather and try to make up for lost ground.

Looks like it got all the way up to 48 (8C) today. That might be the warmest it gets until next weekend. Anyone want to let me into their gym on a guest pass?

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Categories // Cold weather Tags // spinning, trainer

How Do Bike Trainers Generate Resistance?

01.27.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

Bike Noob took a look at trainers at about this time last year, and is revisiting the topic with a guest post from Ron Fritzke.  Ron describes himself as 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.

It doesn’t take too much time wading through the bike trainer world to get a good feel for the various features and benefits that a perspective buyer should keep their eye open for.  I’ve spent hours and hours writing indoor bike trainer reviews and have come to conclude that several factors are on most cyclist’s minds when they’re looking for a bike trainer.

Is It Quiet Enough?

Although the level of sound coming from the trainer doesn’t directly effect the workout, it sure effects the riders enthusiasm for getting onto it to begin with.  And that’s saying nothing about the lack of enthusiasm, or even open hostility the rider will face from members of the family who are subjected to a howling wind trainer.  It can get so loud that even residents living in the same apartment complex stop saying ‘Hello’ in the hallway, replacing the greeting with a scowl.

In general terms, the fluid trainers are the quietest, the magnetic (mag) trainers come in second place, and the wind trainers can create a sound similar to a living room hurricane.

Where’s The Resistance Coming From?

It’s not too hard to figure out where the resistance comes from in each of the three main trainer types.  The wind trainer creates resistance by spinning an impeller through the air, the fluid trainer does something similar by spinning an impeller through fluid (typically silicone), and the mag trainer creates resistance by spinning repelling magnets past each other as the flywheel spins.

Moving Air

Starting with the simplistic wind trainers, there isn’t too much mystery as to what’s going on with this type.  After all, everything’s exposed.  In case the word impeller isn’t in your knowledge base, it’s nothing more than a propeller with the blades safely inside the flywheel rather than pointing outward.  A true propeller might be interesting except for the possibility of the manufacturer’s legal department  having to  field a lot of ‘missing fingers and toes’ complaints.

An interesting version of wind trainer design is CycleOps’ vortex shaped impeller.  The claim is that it increases resistance while reducing noise.  That sounds like the best of both worlds in the wind trainer world.

Magnets That Hate Each Other

Heralding back to the days of primitive elementary school science experiments, mag trainers use the repelling force of similar poles of magnets to create resistance.  These trainers work by spinning the magnets on one part of the trainer past the magnets on another part of the mag trainer.  The repulsion as they get close to each other creates the resistance.

The big issue with mag trainers centers around how they increase or decrease the resistance levels.  On the least sophisticated models, the rider dismounts (getting a welcome relief from the tyranny of the workout) and changes the setting directly on the trainer.  The next level of complexity requires the rider  to merely change the setting using a lever that’s been attached to the handlebars.

A recent development in mag trainers is the system on the CycleOps Magneto.  It’s called progressive resistance and uses the power of centrifugal force to spin the magnets further and further away from center as the rider increases their intensity.  The engineering in this model is such that there’s more resistance the further the magnets move outward.

Fluid Trainers And Leakage

Fluid trainers have long been at the top of the heap when it comes to resistance.  On these trainers the harder you pedal, the more the trainer resists.  While that may seem obvious, what I mean is that the resistance increases exponentially.  If you were to look at the level of resistance as it relates to the speed of the turning wheel you wouldn’t see a straight line.  Instead you’d see an intimidating upward swooping line that almost approaches vertical at the upper end.  This type of resistance is particularly valuable for strength type workouts and may not be as necessary for trainer riding at a steady state.

In the past, it was almost certain that fluid trainers would begin leaking due to the friction and extreme heat generated during a workout.  The whole leakage problem was confronted head-on when the Kurt Kinetic company developed a design that is today featured in all of their fluid trainers, with the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine being the foundation of the line.

Kinetic trainers have a sealed chamber housing the impeller and the silicone.  Outside of the chamber is a flywheel with six strong magnets imbedded into it.  These are matched to six magnets in the impeller.  In this case, rather than repelling each other, these magnets are configured to form a magnetic bond to each other.  The result is a magnetic coupling with the impeller and the flywheel spinning in tandem without the sanctity of the fluid chamber being breached.

Not to be left behind by this design, the Cycleops Fluid 2 Trainer is the result of efforts on the part of CycleOps to beef up their fluid trainer products.  It’s not clear how they accomplished the improvement, but it’s very evident that something’s been done since customer dissatisfaction is markedly reduced among the ever present complainers on the internet.

Summing It Up

It’s been my intention to expose the reader to the implications of how each of the trainers generates resistance.  Each of the styles has its strengths and weakness…no one type suits every rider.  Casual riders may do well with the relative simplicity of a wind trainer, while more intense riders would be best suited to a fluid bike trainer.  There’s plenty of information on the internet, and my intention is that this short article will get you asking the right questions in your quest for a good bicycle trainer.

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Categories // Equipment, training Tags // guest post, trainer

Trainers Vs. Rollers

02.07.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount follows up his post on rollers, by comparing them to trainers.

If the weather changes so you are reluctant or unable to get outside to ride, is it better to hop on a stationary trainer or on bike rollers?

The answer is, it depends on what you want to accomplish.

The consensus among a few experienced cyclists is that rollers will allow you to work on your riding skills, although you’ll need practice to be able to stay upright on them. However trainers will let the most novice of riders hop on and do power workouts without any type of learning-how-to-ride-them period.

So which is better?

“I would recommend both because they do two different things,” Robert Fuller said. Robert is a licensed USA cycling coach and team manager for Rocket Sports Foundation, a youth cycling team in Lodi, Calif. (www.rocketsportsfoundation.org) In full disclosure, Robert did my bike fitting.

“As you know, with a trainer balance is only a minimal factor so doing hard intervals, standing up, sprinting, and slogging away while watching a video or TV is much easier to do,” he said.

But with rollers “there is a riding/balancing skill that is hard to replicate with any other form of cycling,” he said. “When riding rollers you are forced to learn to control your body movements since any movement is magnified on rollers.”

Ah, so true. While riding rollers I’ve turned my head slightly to one side to look at something and found myself lurching toward the edge of the roller and then to the floor.

Robert continued that rollers carry an important benefit. “If an athlete has mastered being able to ride on rollers for 30 minutes without falling off, you know that rider is going to be a safer rider on the road.”

So given that, if he could only have one, he’d use the trainer. “I would say that a trainer is going to give you a better, safer workout for 99 percent of all cyclists.”

A longtime friend of Robert’s is Craig Sanders. Another full disclosure — I work with Craig. He helped me select my bike and introduced me to Robert.

The two used to race bikes together a long time ago.

If Craig had to choose between a roller and a trainer, he would go with a roller. “A trainer is the same as riding a stationary bike at the gym. You can work on power but nothing else.”

Avid cyclist and blogger Dana McEwan (“Maine Velophile“) uses her trainer to build her base. “I do mainly endurance workouts with it and not too many intervals, or at least standing sprints,” she said. “The frame can torque a bit so you have to be a bit careful about body movement on it.”

She added that by the time she’s ready to start doing intervals on the trainer, the weather in Maine is starting to turn milder, and she can do those workouts on the road. “A road ride beats a trainer ride any day.”

Another cycling blogger, Bryan Dewberry, (“Biking to Live“) just started using a trainer. He says his biggest problem with it is boredom. “If I hadn’t set up my laptop on a table in front of me I don’t know if I could do it,” he said. He’s thinking about getting cycling DVDs to play during his workouts.

And in talking with a few sales people at my local LBS, all avid cyclists, they agree with the uses of each piece of equipment but also are split on which to use.

Ann, who is short, prefers a trainer in part because if she fell off a roller, it would be a long way down.

Steve, a former competitive racer prefers to use rollers because it allows him to work on form. Yet, he said, the trainers come with DVD systems that help you simulate riding. And depending on how much you want to spend, you can get trainers with all types of resistance settings.

Dana McEwan uses a fluid trainer, which she likes because it’s quiet. She suggests going with a reputable brand, such as CycleOps. “If you can afford to spend a bit more, then look for a good quality fluid or mag trainer. The latter actually allows you to adjust the resistance remotely,” she said.

But her most important trainer advice? “Invest in a trainer specific tire! And never use a regular tire that has been run a lot on the trainer outside on your road bike. Dangerous!”

I paid $110 for my Travel Trac rollers during a Performance Bike online sale in Sept. 2008. I haven’t seen them anywhere near that price since. A basic trainer I’ve seen on sale for as low as $89.

I may add a trainer at some at some point, in part because my wife wants to do indoor cardio work on her mountain bike. Daresay she won’t go near my rollers.

So depending on whether you want to work on your form and simulate riding while working out indoors or care less about your technique and just want to crank, that may influence whether you want to go with rollers or a trainer.

However, in the end, I agree with Craig: “Riding indoors is boring. I’d rather ride outside.”

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Categories // training Tags // Blount, guest post, rollers, trainer, training

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