Indoor bike?

CantGetNoSleep

I've recently started cycling for fitness - doing about 15/20km on Saturday mornings at a fairly relaxed pace - as we wait for better weather and longer evenings, I've been thinking of getting an exercise bike for my apartment to allow me to build up a bit of fitness.

What would people recommend? An exercise type bike or a spinning bike? Or otherwise a bike trainer and just use my own bike?

I'll probably buy from Amazon or Decathlon but open to other suggestions

Darkglasses

Mostly I would recommend getting a turbo or rollers, it seems to be generally the best value and it'll match your road-riding geometry the closest. Although if money isn't an object, there's some really cool VR high-tech exercise bikes around. What kind of budget do you have in mind?

CantGetNoSleep

Only looking to spend 200 - 300 if I can. I have a small apartment so size also a consideration

iwillhtfu

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Only looking to spend 200 - 300 if I can. I have a small apartment so size also a consideration

With an axa card it's under budget. Also pick up a tyre and a few months subs to zwift.

http://www.halfords.ie/cycling/turbo-trainers/trainers/tacx-flow-t2240-smart-turbo-trainer

Darkglasses

Would definitely recommend a turbo so, spare road tires are easy enough to find though. Have 3/4 spares to give away myself, if you want to pick them up in Wexford

dahat

Another plus for a turbo and a sub to either Traineroad or Swift, Traineroad and the Turbo has brought me on immensely this winter. Hard training but the rewards are evident.

Darkglasses

As an alternative I bought a Tacx Antares a few years ago, it's not bad at all for indoor training but I kinda wish I had went down the turbo route. Paying attention to staying upright isn't necessarily better.

greenspurs

dahat wrote: »

Another plus for a turbo and a sub to either Traineroad or Swift, Traineroad and the Turbo has brought me on immensely this winter. Hard training but the rewards are evident.

Traineroad?
looks good, hardly works with a bog standard turbo though ?

dahat

greenspurs wrote: »

Traineroad?
looks good, hardly works with a bog standard turbo though ?

No afraid not, I bought a Tacx Satori Smart for €180 and went from there, cost friendly but not perfect tbh. I'm having issues calibrating it but it does the job.

CantGetNoSleep

Thank you to everyone that replied and to Darkglasses for your kind offer.

Just wondering what the advantage of a turbo is over a spinning bike? Only reason is that I live in an apartment so have some space constraints

Macy0161

greenspurs wrote: »

Traineroad?
looks good, hardly works with a bog standard turbo though ?

They do virtual power for a lot of bog standard turbos, once you have a speed and cadence sensor. Then it's up to you to keep tyre/ roller pressure consistent. I use it with ant+, not sure how it works with bluetooth, so you may have to factor that into costs, but that would be the same with zwift.

I've been following TrainerRoad plans on a "dumb" elite turbo muin, which is direct drive and very quiet, if noise maybe an issue OP.

Never tried zwift, but I'd say there's a lot less concentration needed with TrainerRoad with a smart turbo which adjusts the power, rather than trying to keep on target yourself.

Macy0161

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Just wondering what the advantage of a turbo is over a spinning bike? Only reason is that I live in an apartment so have some space constraints

Pro's are that it's the same position as on the road. It depends on whether you keep your bike in the apartment or not - if you do, then a bike + turbo would be less room than bike + spin bike I'd have thought?

Turbo's can be noisy, but then so can low end spin/ exercise bikes (which your budget would be really).

Only real pro of a spin bike I can think of is that it'd be more adjustable if there's more than user/ or an easier sell to a partner ("sure you could use it too")

Which ever way you go, GCN on youtube have spin and turbo sessions that you can follow without any extra kit or subscriptions. I did a few of the spin ones last winter in the gym.