What’s the Best Portable Cycling Trainer?

As a serious cyclist, a portable cycling trainer is a useful tool to enhance my training routines. Who wouldn’t want to keep up biking skills even at home?

What’s the best portable cycling trainer? As a substitute for real-world biking, modern trainers with the right specifications that suit your cycling skills would be the best investment for your training. A trainer doesn’t need to be pricey, what’s important is you work out to become a better cyclist outside.

For those looking for an indoor trainer, you might want to familiarize with its attributes then identify what suits you best.

What are the different types of cycling trainer?

Do not let the snowy winter limit your cycling training. All you need is to turn into an indoor trainer.

Each trainer has a different road-like feel. It may also differ on the resistance, noise, affordability, connectivity, and compatibility.

Indeed, you should check out various kinds of an indoor trainer as well as its features, and pros and cons.

Wind Trainer. The harder you pedal this trainer, the better the speed of the fan and resistance produced. Although its fans are noisy and have less possible adjustments, it is cost-effective, durable and fit for strength training.
Fluid Trainer. It is a realistic trainer as its resistance is produced by a fluid that gives you a road-feel ride even at home. This trainer is a bit expensive than wind trainer and has shorter lifespan particularly if it gets hot due to heavy usage.
Magnetic Trainer. Through a magnetic flywheel, this trainer has a fixed resistance as it’s not hard to pedal as the tempo increases. The downside of it is it’s adjusted manually, although it is less expensive and quiet.
Roller Trainer. It is most familiar to the professional riders because it stimulates a road-feel riding experience. Since your bike is at the top of 3 cylinders, you need to balance and smooth pedal. Non-professional riders might fall off until they get used to it.

You better be sure to check reviews before purchasing a specific type of cycling trainer and, of course, read its manual.

What do I need to consider in buying a portable bike?

Of course, it is not enough to know only the type of portable bike that is suitable for your training.

You need to have a better understanding of your trainer and its resistance.

Here are a few points to consider buying a portable bike:

Noise. To avoid disturbing neighbours or family, look for a trainer with a low number of decibel level which matches its speed or cadence.
Footprint. Check out a footprint-space that suits your height. Without a proper space, you may tend to lose your balance and tip over. You should also check devices with foldable legs as it is more functional and spacious.
Weight. Take your weight into consideration. In case you plan to bring your trainer with you in events for a warm-up, at least, it’s portable. Also, double check its maximum weight load, bike plus the rider.
Adjustability. If your workouts vary, your trainer needs to adapt to the type of training you wanted. It should get adjusted according to the interval you prefer.
Performance. You should feel at ease in using your portable bike. You can get on and off easily, and allows you to have smoother and stronger performance. After all, your overall performance and skills learned indoor should matter outdoor.

Do I need to provide the other training accessories?

If you wanted to enhance your training experience, then, yes! You should consider providing training accessories.

Training accessories can alleviate boredom. It can also encourage you to exert more effort, focus and concentrate on the indoor training according to your plan.

Here are the top must-have training accessories:

Sweat guard. It covers your top tube and catches your sweat to prevent damage to your bike and trainer.
Trainer mat. This mat can help in reducing the sound and vibration of the trainer.
Trainer tire. Purchase a tire specifically for training so you can save your tire for an outdoor ride.
Fan. It keeps you fresh and comfortable as you pedal in the same spot.
Training Applications. Have your hard work recorded by using training applications. It documents your indoor cycling ride and coaches you, like a real-life coach.

The most popular training application is Zwift. This smart trainer electronically records your manual activity that documents your speed and stamina while using an indoor trainer.

What to expect from a bike trainer?

There are things you should anticipate in a bike trainer. It may be either you’ll like it or not, but surely you will love the more significant opportunity a bike trainer has to offer.

With the bike trainer, you may not practice your handling skills. It has a lack of interaction as you can’t develop abilities like balancing, braking, cornering or descending.

You might also have problems with managing terrains. Be it rolling, descending or climbing; you can only practice it outdoor.

Likewise, it is impossible to develop a counter-steering skill because the bike holds in the same spot.

However, these problems will not limit the benefits you can get from the bike trainer.

Time-efficient training. Bad weather won’t be a hindrance in your practice. Or if you have a limited time to bike outdoors, bike trainer allows you to catch-up. It saves a lot of your time as well as keep you on track.
Accurate pedal-stroke and posture. You may self-guide yourself with the proper habit. This guide mostly is done with a mirror in front of your bicycle. Bike trainer allows you to focus more on pedalling and correct position.
Controllable intervals. You may practice sustained efforts on a specific range you wanted to focus.
Efficient Training. Although you have a controlled environment in riding a portable bike trainer, you can efficiently work on a specific range. It helps you concentrate more on your endurance and agility.

Is Portable Bike Trainer budget-friendly?

First and foremost, are you prepared to invest in a bike trainer? How much can you spend?

With the various type of cycling trainer, which do you think suits you? Identify, weigh pros and cons then decide.

There are less expensive indoor trainers amounting to less than $200. This offer mostly doesn’t have any connectivity and durability.

Professional portable cycling trainers range mostly over $1,200 depending on the brand and quality of the trainer. There are always options that are cheaper but with excellent condition.

Remember that a portable cycling trainer is your investment to enhance your overall performance.

Utilize the benefits of an indoor trainer. Apply the lessons and intervals you learned from the indoor training to the outdoor cycling. Let your performance affect the development of your skills and enthusiasm.

My Recommended Portable Indoor Trainers

So with all that said, what portable indoor trainers will do the job. Here are my recommendations based on what I or friends have used along with some tried and trusted choices in different budgets: