As fun as it could be, cycling outdoors can sometimes not be feasible, especially during the winter. For this reason, good indoor bike trainers are necessary gadgets for cyclists to maintain their fitness. Bike trainers can replicate the feel of the road with the realistic resistance, climbs, and descent that comes with it. Nowadays, bike trainers feature a lot of technologies and are more connected than ever. They now feature Bluetooth connectivity and ANT+, allowing you to connect them to smartphones, GPS devices, and computers. In addition, modern bike trainers measure your power output, heart rate, program resistance and even simulate ride down to the terrain style.
Looking for the best indoor bike trainers can be an overwhelming task since there are many different options to consider. There are friction trainers, magnetic trainers, roller trainers, direct drive trainers, and stationary bike stands. There are also many smart bike trainer options that are quite expensive but with more hi-tech features.
Below are the best options of indoor bike trainers to buy in 2021;
This indoor bike trainer is one of the few bike trainers on the market with the 11-speed cassette already preinstalled on them. It comes with its own app, which is easy to use and gives all the necessary information on a big display. With this, it comes with its own that records all your training or workouts. In addition, the Wahoo performed amazingly well when testing responsiveness and for accuracy. In fact, it comes in at ±1% when measuring your actual wattage. However, the only downside found with this indoor bike trainer is that the flywheel is exposed. It’s important to point this out for safety reasons. It can get very hot and could be a danger for those with curious children or pets.
This is another indoor bike trainer similar to Wahoo KICKR. This direct drive trainer is durable, quiet, and reliable. Besides that, it’s ideal for anyone looking to get something decent that doesn’t break the bank, simple to jump on and ride. It has fully encased components and a precision-balanced flywheel, making this trainer a great choice for parents with curious children or pets. In addition, it also comes with a rudimentary app which allows you to change wattage setting, though it doesn’t record any of your workouts or give you real-time feedback. As for accuracy, it features a decent precision readout of about ±2% when measuring your wattage, and it’s very responsive when increasing or decreasing power.
This trainer weighs 20.7 lbs, and it’s a trainer for a rider who only has one bike or doesn’t want to remove the back wheel every time. It quickly connects to many different apps, including Tacx, Strava, Zwift, and smartwatches, making it easy for anyone to jump on it and customize their ride. In addition, the Tacx Flow trainer is also compact, versatile, ultradurable, and lightweight, making it the perfect traveling companion for serious cyclists. However, the downside of this trainer is that it only simulates a 6% grade hill climbing, unlike the Wahoo Fitness KICKR SNAP, which does 12%. It’s also a bit noisier than drivetrain trainers.
Alpcour Fluid Bike Trainer is compatible with most 26- to 29-inch bikes and 700c wheels. Similar to the Wahoo, you have to make sure you have the right skewer to properly attach your bike. This trainer has a number of features in a surprisingly inexpensive package. Its handlebar-mounted cable controller lets you adjust the settings on the fly, so you can easily adjust your intervals as needed. It is also very portable, and you can fold, store or even transport it in a bag. This makes it a great choice for race-day warmups. In addition, its mounting is fast and simple, with the heavy-duty stainless steel frame mounted on anti-rubber pads to keep you in place while cranking up a simulated hill.
The Tacx NEO 2T Smart Trainer provides you with a quiet, smooth, and vibration-free ride. Its redesigned magnets help reduce internal air displacement, cut noise, and keep a more accurate feel to simulate acceleration and climbs. It is compatible with cycling software such as Sufferfest and Trainer road and allows the app to control the trainer. With this app, you can participate in online races or simulate rides half a world away. NEO 2T does not require calibration as its sensors measure your power output within 1%. In addition, it also compensates for speed, weight, and incline to give you the most realistic ride possible. This trainer is also compact and can easily be folded away for easy storage.
