If you have ever dreaded the monotony of spinning away mindlessly on a stationary bike or road bike on a trainer, you know what a seemingly endless bore it could be. Here are a few tips on how I’ve snazzed up my training with a few simple and inexpensive or free options.
In the last few years there has been some significant marketing efforts underway for costly setups like the two thousand dollar Peloton indoor exercise bike, and more recently, the heavy promotion of Zwift, a monthly subscription based social game-like virtual riding world.
While these are a couple of good options for keeping fit an training during wintertime or inclement weather, both come with a significant financial commitment in hardware, and monthly subscriptions.
In this article, I would like to discuss some simple alternatives to these platforms, for the budget conscience cyclist.
The first, and most obvious thing you will need is a bike. Any old bike will work- preferably the bike you normally ride- be it a road, hybrid, cruiser, mountain bike- it really doesn’t matter.
Next, you will need a bike resistance trainer for your bike. Resistance trainers are basically stands that elevate your rear wheel and stabilizes the bike so you can ride it in a stationary position.
Trainers come in a variety of configurations and prices, from a very basic option which just holds the bike, to more advanced options which allow you to adjust the resistance applied to the rear wheel while you pedal to the really advanced (and expensive) smart trainers which synchronize with a computer to simulate real ride conditions by increasing and decreasing resistance to simulate elevation changes and road conditions.
For a simple and budget friendly setup, all you need to begin is a simple bike resistance trainer.
With this simple setup, you are ready to ride in the safety and comfort of your own home. However, without anything to do but pedal and watch the clock, this setup can get rather boring very quickly and doesn’t provide much feedback about your accomplishments and training analytics. To help with this, you can add some rather inexpensive sensors to your bike to capture this data to your smartphone.
If you already have a Garmin, Wahoo Fitness, or other more advanced bike computer that can manage data from speed and cadence sensors, you can use this data to help monitor your training sessions and performance.
If you don’t have a bike computer and would prefer to use your cell phone as your bike computer, a good option (which I personally use) a good and affordable option is the Wahoo Fitness Blue SC.
The Blue SC is a free-standing set of speed and cadence sensors that attach to your bike’s pedal and rear wheel, which sync to the free Wahoo Fitness app on an iOS or Android cell phone.
The app receives the data via Bluetooth and records and displays the data in the app’s easy to read dashboard and calendar. The app also syncs with a wide variety of other apps and systems, so you can effortlessly manage your data in your apps and websites of choice, such as Strava, Fitbit, MapMyRide, an of course, Zwift, and many others.
With the combination of your bike, a trainer and some form of sensor, like the Blue SC, you have everything you need to get started training, tracking, and analyzing your progress. The next obvious question will be, how to stay entertained during your training sessions?
If you are looking for the social interaction and game-like user experience, a great option would be to check out Zwift, which has a free seven day credit-card free trial period. To continue after the trial, Zwift has a $15/month to month subscription.
A free and nearly as entertaining visual alternative to Zwift is to watch some of the first-person cycling rides or runner videos on YouTube. While this doesn’t offer the training plans, group rides, and social interactions of Zwift, it does offer a visually entertaining experience to help break up the monotony of the indoor training ride.
With a simple YouTube search for virtual bike ride, virtual treadmill, or virtual running, your options are endless with a variety of beautiful locations from around the world to choose from. If you are looking to have a simulated group ride experience, there are an assortment of channels that are of group rides, filmed from a first person perspective, with fellow riders in front, alongside, or behind you.
While these frugal options don’t offer everything that a top dollar Peloton trainer or smart trainer and Zwift setup would, these do provide a simple, low cost option to help to get or stay active during the off-season. At the end of the day, the goal remains the same- to get you in better condition and ready to hit the road when the weather breaks and it’s time to enjoytimeoutdoors, once again!
