Because of time restraints I do most of my bike work on a spinning bike. I only get out for a long ride on my road bike once a week. Has anyone had experience with this type of training? This if the first season I have been forced to train this way and to be honest I am worried. With the convenience of having the bike in my home I am doing twice the bike work I have done in previous seasons but less actual road work. Any feedback would be appreciated.
I am in the same boat… the difference being that I drive to the gym to spin.
My understanding is that, as long the spining position replicates the riding one, spin-training is good.
From the matter of spending time on the road vs. indoor, it’s nicer to ride outside but… more efficient to spin indoors.
Outdoors you get to coast, stop etc. while on the spin-bike you’re pushing continuously (better control of effort & HR).
I would mix indoors & Outdoors but looking out on the window (snowing towards 3in) gives me no choice! 
My wife and I did IM Florida last November, and while I am probably more of an outdoor rider (living in sunny Southern California) My wife did ALL of her riding on her trainer. Now thats probably a touch different than a spinning bike but I know it served her VERY well both for Base training miles as well as race prep. It is more efficient but spending 5-6 hours on a trainer indoors really sucked.
One thing for sure, it is a lot safer.
last winter I started spinning several times a week. I would say that it helped tremendously last summer.
I think it largely depends on how you use it. Last winter, I did all my cycle training in the basement on my Revmaster, and it definitely helped me maintain my aerobic base. But since I would just get on it and spin at a certain exertion level for a certain amount of time, I didn’t really build power, and my stroke wasn’t efficient, but I could ride for hours on end. These may all be artifacts of how I used the bike.
I bought a Computrainer last summer, and have been using that all winter. With it, I have seen big improvements in cadence, power, and efficiency. The varied terrain simulated by the CT allows for hill-climbing, descending, changing cadence, varying loads, shifting, etc. These can all be simulated on a spinning bike, but you need to be diligent about it.
I am by no means an authority on the proper use of spin bikes, but after taking one spin class last Sunday, I can tell you that I never went that hard on my own spin bike before, and you can certainly get a good workout with one if you are doing it right.
I did one off season mostly this way. The warning I would give is to make sure you still get in good base training on the off season. Be carefull how much high intensity work you do. Most spinning classes only last less than 1 hour. Not the best training for a Ironman or even a Half. Since you are mostly inside you shouldn’t have this problem. The best thing I did was to set up my position identical to that of my real bicycle. I welded up my own seat post (front rear slider really) on the old Johnny G / Schwinn bike and put on my own seat. This allowed me to exactly mirror my real position without worrying about the pop adjustment devices on the bike. I just carried the piece with me, removed the Schwinn piece and inserted mine. As everyone on this forum loves to preach, fit is the most important characteristic in a bike. I actually prefer this over my bike on a trainer because I don’t have to worry about wearing out tires, and more importantly I could do really hard standing efforts without watching my entire frame flexing. That can’t be good for it. Next step would be to change the crank to make sure the crank length is also matching to the road bike.
I tried one of these for the first time at a local gym recently, and, I must say, the idea of having one at home is pretty appealing–so convenient. And the thing certainly looked and felt bombproof…it was a Reebok studio cycle, I believe.
So, for those of you who train at home on spinning bikes, what models do you use? About how much do they cost? If you can replicate your road bike fit, are there any real drawbacks to using a spinning bike extensively for training? Could those of you who have alluded to problems with power, efficiency, intensity, etc., elaborate on how riding a spinning bike differs from riding a road bike on a trainer in these regards? Thanks!
I have a spinning bike (johnny G spinner by Schwinn) at home and also a trainer for my road bike that has powercranks. During the winter I would ride the trainer first with my PC’s for as long as I could last 1.5 - 2 hours then ride perhaps another hour or so on the spinner. I agree with the posts above, I think its essential to replicate your road position on the spinner. Also you can stand and crank as hard as you would like on the spinner without concern of beating up your bike. I typically don’t do much in the way of ‘spinning’ workouts on it but it sure is nice for the long indoor rides. I bought mine about seven years ago for about 600 as far as I can remember. Of course if you can find a used one on Ebay that would be the way to go, as they are pretty much bomb-proof.