I have been using a spin bike for a several months at home on many occasions and while my cycling has improved, i often feel im not getting the best bang for buck return. A lot of this would be solved if the bike had gear indicators or some sure-fire way to define a resistance. Unfortunately, as with a lot of spin bikes, your estimating your resistance with a simple turn of the knob. Now while i dont make some sessions easy, i often wonder if they were as hard as last time i was trying to do a similar workout. Has anyone trained a lot with spin bikes and moved to a trainer like the kurt kinetic road trainer and use the inride app for virtual power? Im an rpm instructor so im a bit over spin bikes, but dont mind riding indoors, im sort of used to it. My birthday is a few months away and im thinking about putting the hard word on the wife, but only if the difference is significant enough if that makes sense?
It is worth making the jump up to a dedicated trainer. I exclusively used a spin bike for indoor sessions during my first year of racing and a Kurt Kinetic for ever year there after. My only regret is not making the switch to an indoor trainer sooner.
In terms of effort, replicating effort is easier for me on the Kurt because I would use gym spin bikes and tension adjustments differed from bike to bike. However, effort is always going to be a little hard to define without power. I used HR (I know it is taboo on here) and that worked well. I moved to power this year and it is just that much better. I used virtual power a little prior to getting a dedicated powermeter and would recommend it. I would not buy the Kurt Kinetic power device as I find it expensive for what it does, especially when other programs (Golden Cheetah, Peripedal, Trainroad, etc.) do the same thing.
***Specificity ***in training is very important - training and conditioning the *exact *muscles (large and small) used on your road or tri bike.
Unless your ‘spin bike’ geometry and fit are *exactly *the same as your competition bike, your time spent there will have limited benefit (besides an aerobic workout). Every time you get on your road or tri bike, you will feel weak and your performace will be sub-par because you haven’t been training the muscles needed.
Get a Kurt Kinetic trainer, ride your actual bike, and train the specific muscles needed.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time, right? I’m in a similar situation to the OP, in that the only option available to me right now is to use a spin bike; I do my best to get the fit as close to my tri position as I can, but if it’s not exact, am I wasting my time? I’d like to think that it is benefiting my fitness, which will carry over when I am able to start riding my bike again. In terms of intensity, I just make the best guess I can, and I would agree that the resistance is not consistent from day to day, but it has to be better than nothing.
I used to do spin classes, but they aren’t the same as riding your own bike. I really started to make cycling gains with a used Tacx trainer and then two years ago I got a computrainer aimed at getting to know the courses I will ride. I Gotta say,especially with these Canadian winters, the Computrainer is the best 1500 bucks I have ever spent for training. I got to the Escape From Alcatraz course last year and blew through it knowing every turn and climb like I lived there.
I do both but mainly the computrainer now.
I find if I want/need a easy day or just spin the legs out I will use the spu bike. If you are looking for better handling and a good workout a set of rollers are great also. For my short hard rides and recovery rides I will use them a work. Just another option to keep it fresh during the long Jersey winter.
I’m a data point of one but I only rode my bike outside last year 8 times (3 of those times were racing) and did about 75% of my riding on spin bikes. Won my AG in every race I entered and took the win at the NYC tri overall.
The spin bike vs trainer bike is all bullshit. Just ride indoors and make it quality.
I’m a data point of one but I only rode my bike outside last year 8 times (3 of those times were racing) and did about 75% of my riding on spin bikes. Won my AG in every race I entered and took the win at the NYC tri overall.
The spin bike vs trainer bike is all bullshit. Just ride indoors and make it quality.
Tough to argue this…I have spent most of this winter getting about 6 hours minimum a week on the spin bike and there is no question it has made me a stronger rider. No cheating (coasting, drafting, whatever it may be) you have to keep pushing pedals. Can you turn the resistance down? Sure but then your only cheating yourself. Turn that knob to the right and PUSH!
“t daddy”…great to hear this from you with proven results as I spent all last year ON the bike and didn’t make any significant improvements but I’d been convinced to do a fair amount of training on the spin bike and “you will see a difference” (which I am) by my coach. THANKS!
Gotta disagree to a certain extent. If you can’t get power data you can’t as effectively target specific training zones, monitor for improvement, and analyze your pedaling efficiency. I ride the trainer for 93 minutes 3x every week on an old road bike all year round except when I am on vacation I look for a spin cycle. At home I sit on the trainer without TV or music and watch my wattage as I turn the pedals noticing how my power and pain level change. You can’t do that without a power meter. The spin cycle will get you fit, but if you can get one with a power meter it will be much better.
I’m a data point of one but I only rode my bike outside last year 8 times (3 of those times were racing) and did about 75% of my riding on spin bikes. Won my AG in every race I entered and took the win at the NYC tri overall.
The spin bike vs trainer bike is all bullshit. Just ride indoors and make it quality.
Im happy to see you have had some success with a lot of spin bike use. I did a google search (should have done this first) and many responses come back saying there are slightly different muscle groups used and the turnover of a spin bike is ‘helped’. I try to dial in my position on the spin bike to replicate the P2 - which isnt an aggressive position anyway. I never easy spin on the thing too.
I teach 2 classes a week of RPM and bust my nuts on that class to try and use it as a training ride. Other than that i get in a 1hr session of intervals, a 30 minute tabata ride on it and then do a long ride on sunday for 2.5hrs. I get about 6 hrs a week on the bike, a good 3 or 4 are spinning. I have a 70.3 in early may. Just writing this down i think i need to ride more and probably use the tri bike more. I only got 12 weeks left roughly. Shit.
I tend to agree. Because of my schedule, I am limited to using stationary bikes at the gym on the campus of the junior college I work at. They are upright not recumbents, and they have some feedback but I don’t believe any of the displays are accurate. However, I get on those bikes throughout the week and I have made more gains in the last year than I did in any of the previous 6 seasons. When I ride outside on my tri bike or road bike, I feel neither sluggish nor uncomfortable. My training has not been negatively affected by gym bike use one bit. Just ride whatever you have at your disposal, and ride it hard. You will get faster.
The biggest issue with the spin bike vs. trainer is likely one of biomechanics and joint stress. My tri bike fits me like a glove, and no matter what, I can’t get a spin bike to fit me the same way. So when I spin, I tend to get more knee and back issues than I do when I use my KK at home or ride on the road.
But being fit is being fit. Cycing really isn’t that complicated – so if it’s a matter of cycling or not, spinning will still get you pretty darned fit. Just take it easy when you head back to your regular bike.
Real road riding > your bike on a trainer > SPIN bike > exercise bike
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X2 exactly what I was going to say
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Real road riding > your bike on a trainer > SPIN bike > exercise bike
I actually believe that if you are training for tris, or TTs, your bike on the trainer is actually better than real road riding in that one can control more variables on the trainer - no traffic, no wind, no stopping for stop lights and intersections, etc. As well, if one is using trainer road or a computertrainer or the like, one can follow workouts in a way that is not so easy on the road. Finally, it is more efficient as there is less gear to sort (i.e. no flat kit to find, no layers of clothing to sort, etc.), there is no time lost in getting to the ride itself, and there is no bike cleaning to be done as compared to riding outside.
In making this claim, I am assuming that one does not need to work on one’s handling skills, that one is similarily motivated to train on both the trainer and the outdoors, and that one can HTFU in adverse weather conditions regardless of being on the trainer all the time.
***Specificity ***in training is very important - training and conditioning the *exact *muscles (large and small) used on your road or tri bike.
Unless your ‘spin bike’ geometry and fit are *exactly *the same as your competition bike, your time spent there will have limited benefit (besides an aerobic workout). Every time you get on your road or tri bike, you will feel weak and your performace will be sub-par because you haven’t been training the muscles needed.
Get a Kurt Kinetic trainer, ride your actual bike, and train the specific muscles needed.
Related to specificity…if you ride on the spin bike with a hip angle that is as closed as your aerobar equipped tri bike, there will be almost 100% ease of transition between bikes. I have found this is all that matters. My spin bike and my road bike actually have more closed hip angles than my tri bike…I can not ride my tri bike for weeks and get on it and ride for hours.
Seriously, exact specificity is overrated. Get your hip angle right and leg extension in the same range and you are 98% there. Fore-Aft is not that important when it comes to transitioning to the TT position, since fore-aft is just a rotation of the entire “system”. The last 2 percent is neck and crotch discomfort on the tri bike, but that has limited impact on power output.
Just bumping this up to see how successful spin bikes are working for folks. I’ve been contemplating on getting a trainer but, let’s say the commander-in-chief doesn’t want a bike standing around anywhere inside the house. So since the spin bike is the next best thing, I decided to get a couple of sufferfest videos and I just tried it while spinning at the gym during lunch at work. I feel the pain but want to know if this will just keep my fitness or will spinning with a plan lead to better cycling.
Last year I was able to put in more road mileage and saw an increase of speed from 16mph-19mph for 40k. But with the new job I’ve been busier and can only squeeze in workouts during lunch time so longer rides are only during the weekends (and of course I have to squeeze in swim/run in the process). I have a 70.3 in August and a olympic dist. on April, May and June.
I have been doing spin class once or twice/week over the winter. The weather is fine to ride outside in CA, but it has been dark (UNTIL THIS WEEK!!!) after work. I figure this is better than not spending an extra couple hours/week on the bike and I was pleasantly surprised with my bike split and how my legs felt on the run at Alcatraz.
Seems like a pretty good bang for your buck if it’s easier to escape to the gym than head out on a ride.
The spin bike isn’t the problem. I went through most of the winters in college riding on spin bikes just like that and developed my bike speed a great deal. Hard work is the important thing.
I use both a spin bike and a trainer (Lemond Revolution) throughout the season but for different workouts. The spin bike is great for high cadence and efficiency efforts while the Lemond is great for pushing hard intervals. I actually do my hardest interval efforts on the Lemond because it is totally controlled and there is no concern about cars. The reason I prefer the Lemond over the other “mag” trainers is the feel is much more positive, you don’t burn through tires and it is a very stable platform. The Lemond also has a much more “real” feel as compared to a regular trainer, IMO.
I think they both have a place in any training program and can benefit your fitness…