The winter is starting to seem a bit long for those of us who don't live in the 'sunbelt'. Come to think of it, even some areas of the U.S. that normally enjoy exercise-friendly weather have been struggling with unseasonably low temperatures.

Coupled with too many sweets over the holidays, staying indoors and not exercising enough is a recipe for pudgy cheeks and jiggling jelly rolls. That's when a good indoor bike trainer may come to the rescue.

Why A Bike Trainer To Begin With?

The first thing I think about when I think of a bike trainer is the ability to foil the demons of a biting wind chill. Low winter temperatures are bad enough...but when you add the wind chill associated with outdoor cycling, you're talking about something that only the most hardy (and/or eccentric) riders tackle.

I don't know about you, but riding on a bike trainer when the temperature hovers right about 68 degrees in my living room sure sounds better than outdoors at 38 degrees with a headwind of 15 mph.

And another thing...it's too darn dark in the winter. From about the middle of October to the middle of February, it's already dark outside when I get home from work. But in my living room where the bike trainer is set up, I'm the master of the light switch; so getting in a workout after work isn't a problem.

Since I live in a town with only 3500 people (and three stop lights), I don't have to fight too many traffic related delays on my outdoor rides. But that isn't the case for those of you who live in the city (where there are jobs...sort of). The stopping and starting at red lights can get in the way of a workout that has a prescribed intensity level. What you don't need is a 3 mile section of stoplights just when you're determined to put a ten minute 'up tempo' segment into your ride.

Of course that sort of thing never happens on an indoor bike trainer.

Why Serious Cyclists Prefer Fluid Trainers

There are basically three types of bike trainers.

The least expensive are wind trainers, which are noisy and don't usually produce enough power to satisfy high workout demands.

Mag (magnetic) trainers have gotten better lately, but are still on the noisy side, and don't produce as smooth a ride as do the fluid trainers.

Although they cost more, fluid trainers have the edge when it comes to quietness coupled with a smooth ride. Another feature of fluid trainers is their ability to generate enough resistance to accommodate the strongest of cycling legs.

We're talking several thousand watts of resistance.

As a point of reference, when Floyd Landis dominated the 17th stage of the 2006 Tour de France, he generated 318 watts for the last two hours...and that proved to be a performance-enhancing drug-enabled herculean ride. Suffice it to say that a fluid trainer will supply all the workload you'll ever need.

Two of the most popular fluid trainers are the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine and the Cycleops Fluid 2. The CycleOps company is renowned for their high quality products, including the Fluid 2. But it is the Kurt Kinetic patented design that shook up the bike trainer world.

What Kurt Kinetic did was eliminate the one weakness that fluid trainers had been suffering under...namely leakage. Prior to Kurt Kinetic entering the market, dribbling silicone onto the living room floor was far too common in the fluid trainer world.

Now that fluid trainers can be counted on to be trouble free...and provide a realistic ride...and generate six times the resistance needed by Floyd Landis...and do it all quieter than mag or wind trainers...this is the type of trainer that serious cyclists gravitate toward.

Get A Bike Trainer To Get Svelte

I've found my bike trainer to be one of my best weapons to fight off mid-winter bulge syndrome. Although I'm a bit too old to pursue getting svelte (for those of you struggling with the term...it means 'gracefully slender') anymore, I'm sure some of you have it in you. And using a bike trainer to get there is a viable exercise option.

©2011 Ron Fritzke

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