Saluki1968

I'd never make it up the hills!

FrenchFit 

Stationary bike? Are we talking about a spin bike or one of those lifecycle things? On a spin bike I'll do epic workouts, pretty hard to replicate on a road bike. And, I don't want to be 30 miles from home puking and rubber legged on my road bike, red-lining on a spin bike is a whole lot safer...

Funny, one of the gyms I belonged to had pitch black spin room with HD projection system on one wall playing road and mountain training rides. Nice production values. It was very motivating, but disorienting and vertigo inducing. I kept trying to lean the spin bike, bunny hop. That didn't work too well...

DoninIN

I have to believe there's a slight edge to the "real thing" and I have an exercise bike in my living room. However I think it's a much more important factor that for most people, me included it's terribly difficult to get, or stay motivated to ride an indoor bike, be it a trainer or standalone or whatever. I hate stationary bikes and I hate riding them, only by convincing myself i'm doing it to make my actual fun bicycle riding outside better, and only incidentally it will help me get in shape or stay in shape can I force myself to spend any time on the indoor bike.

Of course as others have pointed out if you can make yourself ride away from home for one hour, then you've assured a two hour ride. On an indoor bike you can stop at any time to fidget with the TV or radio or check your e-mail or whatever. About the only advantage for the indoor bike is that I'll get off and clean the house.

DreamRider85

I used to hate stationary bikes, thought they were the biggest waste of time ever. But then I realized I loved doing sprints on my real bike but also wished I could do sprints whenever I wanted, but that's not the case because of obstacles that pop up. So I gave the stationary bike a try and realized how fun it was to do intervals for a whole hour. I was so sweaty, that 2 asian girls were laughing at the puddles I made on the floor. So I ordered some wrist bands to try to absorb some of the sweat. I literally just go all out and do tons of sprints now on the stationary bike. Weird because I used to be against stationary bikes.

It's not boring at all. The time goes by fast. You can either listen to music, or listen to tv at the gym, or you can do what I do and download the Motion Traxx app. Motion Traxx is an app that has trainers that push you while you listen to fresh beats. It's only about 4 bucks a month. So I feel like I really found something with the stationary bike at the gym. The elliptical is nice too if you use it with the Motion Traxx app and go really really hard. I sweat multiple puddles on the floor.

I used to think stationary bike was stupid and typically couldn't last more than 20 minutes due to boredom. Another key thing is I literally PRETEND in my mind that I am outside while I sprint. It is really fun if you're open minded.

I remember when I was in high school and this kid was in Spandex and was on his bike trainer. Everyone laughed at him. I asked him why he's not just riding his bike around campus and he told me that his trainer allowed him to train exactly how he wanted. Since then I never really tried doing a bike stationary until the last couple of weeks. I highly recommend it. I am willing to go as far as to say that for the first hour it's even funner than riding outside. It gets you sweating even faster. After more than a couple hours though it's probably funner to be outside.

But again, visualizing that you are outside works really well. The reason I like this type of training is because I can work hard whenever I want. I don't have to turn, go downhill, watch out for potholes, etc.. Now I will admit that going up a real hill beats turning up the resistance on the machine. You work more muscles and that's why I think doing both is still necessary. I rode outside a couple of hours earlier today and later tonight I play to use the stationary bike and I can't tell you how fun it is. I work harder than everyone else at the gym who just goes easy on the stationary bikes. Again, the trick is to do lots of intervals and literally pretend you are outside. Don't just ride it for exercise, actually have fun with it and look at it as a tool.

Drew Eckhardt 

Inside with no coasting. Outside I seem to spend 10-25% of my time at zero power output waiting for traffic, descending, cornering, etc. so for the same wall-clock time I'd burn significantly more Calories inside.

Past a point you can't make up for that by riding harder because it's disproportionately fatiguing, and on endurance days you wouldn't want to because you'd prefer to stay below your aerobic threshold to improve your slow twitch fibers and oxidative energy system.

OTOH I run out of patience within 2 hours inside and 1.5 is the best I can do on an ongoing basis. Outside I enjoy unsupported solo rides past 200 miles and with more sleep should do fine on a 400k which takes over 24 hours due to mountains.

I did switch to riding intervals indoors after my crash, which was during a short work day endurance ride.

breadbin

The hills sort the men from the boys! Keep doing the hills. I'd say you'd be a long time riding on the flat to get the same workout as a good hill. Especially if you've a bit of weight on you. They're a killer, but great for the cardiovascular!!

Willbird

IMHO it is way way easier on resistance rollers with or without fork stand for me to hit a target HR and hold it if that is a goal for some reason than on the road. The wind always blows outside and no surface is level, and early on right now I'm as fast as a 90 year person so gearing is not low enough to go an hour at 125 HR if that is what Iv decided on.

kevindsingleton 

I go to the YMCA for my indoor training sessions. They have Expresso bikes, which have little TVs on them and they offer many different "courses" to ride. Some courses are very difficult, and the machine changes the difficulty to simulate hills, making it more realistic. There are 30 "gears", with no overlapping ranges, but no brakes! If you stop pedaling, the bike stops. No coasting. The courses are interesting, and range from a 1 mile flat "track" to 20 mile trails through forests, towns, and even outer space. The genius of all this, though, is that they installed the bikes along the back wall, facing the backside of all the elliptical machines and treadmills, so there is usually some interesting ...scenery, if you go at the right time of day.

tunavic

You say it's not boring but you tell us you have to PRETEND and visualize you're outside? If it wasn't boring you wouldn't have to pretend you're somewhere else.

DreamRider85

I didn't say it wasn't boring. But when you do pretend you are somewhere else, then it's NOT boring! Understand? When I'm outside, I don't always have the opportunity to sprint due to obstacles, but when I'm on the indoor bike, I can get my heart rate up at will. The key is to pretend you are doing it outside. I did 90 minutes today on the stationary bike because it's a little chilly out. And I sweated like crazy. Again, the key is to pretend you are riding outside.