Tags: fluid trainer, indoor bike trainer, mag trainer, wind trainer
It depends on what you are looking to get out of the trainer and how much you are willing to spend. Typically (but not always the case) under $100 you will be looking at a wind trainer. A wind trainer generally provides the least amount of resistance (next to to a roller trainer) and most make quite a bit amount of noise.
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Moving from there you will find the middle of the road magnetic trainer. If you can find one with a remote handlebar shifter, you will not have to get off the bike to adjust resistance. Of course you can adjust resistance just by changing gears but its not quite the same as changing resistance via the unit or handlebar shifters. Believe it or not, you can find a mag trainer (Bell Motivator Mag) on Amazon for about $79 right now. It got good reviews. CyceOps and Kurt Kinetic are two big time names to look into as well. As a general rule, magnetic trainers offer increased resistance over wind trainers and do not make as much noise.
From there we move to the cream of the crop - fluid trainers. A fluid trainer provides the greatest amount of resistance of all indoor bike trainers with the least amount of noise. Again, CycleOps and Kurt Kinetic are the top names with the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine having a feature which pretty much negates fluid leakage (which has been noted in some of the other fluid trainers). If you've got the choice, find one with a remote handlebar shifter. It just beats getting off the bike to change resistance when you can simply use the shifter to change resistance on the fly.
(A rim drive trainer works very well for mountain bikes as well as road bikes. The tire doesn't touch a roller but instead this trainer is propelled by using the rim on your bike. A plus is that mountain bike users do not have to change out the rear tire. If you go with any other trainer and you have a mountain bike, I highly suggest you change out your rear tire.
Roller trainers use both tires on your bike. You won't find much resistance but if balance is your goal, this one will help you keep balance during the off-season. The negative is that if you don't pay attention to riding on a roller trainer.... ooops, you'll find yourself falling off and hitting the floor.
I dig CycleOps and Kurt Kinetic. However there are plenty of other trainers that will do the job for you. Again, it depends on the amount of money that you want to spend which will most of the time determine which trainer you will be looking at.
