What Is A Good Bike Trainer?

I'm about to purchase a bike trainer but am really clueless about what to buy. What is a good bike trainer across a few different price points?

Why don't we pick five different price levels and see what we can do for you. We're not talking about prices on bike trainers that you may be able to pick up used or through Ebay or Craigslist but rather retail/sales price. What we will be using is Amazon because you'll not only find a very wide range of bike trainers but they are rated on a scale and with customer comments. Sure, you can usually throw away a great comment or two on every bike trainer and the bottom couple of comments from people who just like to bash everything. Truth be told though, since neither Amazon or the customer are paid for these comments, they reliably tell what the user thinks of the product. I use Amazon for reviewing not only bike trainers but everything from coffee makers, to books, nutritional supplements, etc...
$0 to $100
$101 to 200
$201 to $300
$301 to $400
$401 to $500

So what do we look for when comparing bike trainers on Amazon? First of all, we know that there are different types of bike trainers, namely a wind trainer, magnetic trainer, fluid trainer, rim drive trainer, and a roller trainer.

Wind Trainer - Uses a fan to provide resistance. Generally loud and provides the least amount of resistance of any bike trainers.

Magnetic Trainer - Uses a series of magnets to provide resistance. On the better trainers, this resistance can be changed either on the trainer itself (by bringing the magnets closer together for more resistance or further apart of less resistance) or on a remote handlebar shifter. Generally makes less noise and offers better resistance than a wind trainer.

Fluid Trainer - Recognized as the best type of trainer on the market today. A fluid trainer uses a sealed chamber containing fluid (generally with an impeller rotating that provides resistance). A fluid trainer has the best resistance, offers the most road like feel of any bike trainer and is used by intermediate cyclists and those competing at the pro level.

Rim Drive Trainer - A great trainer for mountain bikes. In fact, it can be used with road bikes as well. However, if you have a mountain bike and don't want to change the rear tire to a slick in order to ride a trainer, a rim drive trainer is the perfect choice. The best rim drive trainers offer a number of resistance settings and that resistance is provided at the rim, rather than the rear tire.

Roller Trainer - A roller trainer uses both tires. Imagine riding on soup cans that are held in place by a board. Ok, bad analogy. Actually there are those out in the cycling community that prefer roller trainers because it helps them to maintain balance while riding. You will not be bored when using a roller trainer because if you lose concentration for only a short while, you will find yourself falling off the trainer.

Criteria
1. Price (is the bike trainer on sale?)
2. Number of reviews
3. Average review rating

Best Bike Trainer $0 to $100

This one is an easy pick. Bell Motivator Mag Indoor Bicycle Trainer. It has a retail price of $99.99, is currently on sale for $79.99 (as of January 9, 2011). It has 256 reviews at an average review rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars. Hard to beat the quality of the Bell Motivator Mag at this price.

Best Bike Trainers $101 to $200

Best Bike Trainers $201 to $300

Best Bike Trainers $301 to $400

Best Bike Trainers $401 And Above

Note: some of these trainers come with additional items but I've included them here because they were the most sought after bike trainers at this price point.

Related posts:

1. What Kind Of Indoor Bike Trainer Should I Buy?
2. Do I Need To Order A Specific Bike Trainer For A Trek Road Bike?

This entry was posted on January 10, 2011 at 10:09 AM and is filed under Bell Motivator Mag, fluid trainer, indoor bicycle trainer, indoor bike trainer, mag trainer, magnetic trainer, rim drive trainer, rimdrive trainer, roller trainer, wind trainer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.