Hey, I am 65 and a bit overweight at 210 lbs, and ride a mtn bike with panniers and rack riding hills at 10,000 feet. Compared with a 24 yo skinny 140 lb rider on an 18 lb bike riding flats at sea level, my miles should count DOUBLE!

It is all nonsense! You really can't compare "miles."

I would but my computer crapped out mid june last year and
I haven't bothered the replace it.
I don't count my actual road milage, let alone the
countless numbing hours on the rollers.
Marty

Yes and no.
Count. Don't count.
Ride. Don't ride.

It is really up to you. Don't worry about what others think on this subject. I use the trainer and count the miles. I'm not riding outside for long in -47F temperatures. Just ain't happening! I have a bike computer on the trainer bike hooked up to the rear wheel to get an accurate mileage count.

for me, i count time on the trainer rather than miles. i'm going to start counting time on the road too a little more often as well. i feel i get a better workout if i have a certain amount of time to work with. just a mental trick for me though.

I'm confused. Does milage matter for qualifying to get license or something? It's only for personal satisfaction, right? Does it matter what others think?

You can disregard them,you can erase them,you can
ignore them,but your muscles will show them anyway.
in other words
I don't count them...but they'll still count

After reading this post (and some others) one would think it mattered a lot. Some people don't want to be riding less miles than a biker counting trainer miles, more than likely this is a manhood thing.

well said, thanks for the words of wisdom

Good question-why do I bike, I ride bike to ride bike!

I take it the sex part of this response is spoken from someone who is single. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But while single guys brag to their buddies about their sex lives. Married men don't. Why? Well for one married men only have one sex partner, at least they should. And if it ever got aback to his wife he was bragging about his sex life with her, can you imagine the trouble he'd be in? When a guy gets married he becomes a bit more respectable when talking about his wife to his buddies. And another thing is often times who is buddies are often changes too. A guy usually goes from having a lot of single friends to not so many, but then he has a lot more married friends then he used to. Why? Well no one actually knows, it just sort of happens.

And finally you can easily have a skiing season in Florida. Northern Florida does get cold enough & it is easy to produce snow with machines as long as you can find a large enough hill. It is, for the time being, impossible to produce enough heat to have a year round cycling season in the mid-west United States or anywhere else the temp. drops below 50 degrees & often snows for 3 months or so out of the year. Notice I didn't say it is impossible to produce enough sunshine or light. Because that is possible, it is the warm temps. & no snow that are hard to come by.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Yes I realise this has been done before, but then what hasn't? I am starting to believe that trainer miles DO count. The reason is this. Imagine you are rolling down a huge decent for 15miles, not pedalling, just rolling down in a tuck position. How far have you ridden? In reality you haven't ridden anywhere, gravity has done it all for you. Whereas if you did 15miles on the trainer, you have actually done a lot more work. Just more coal for the fire

CHEERS.

Mark

I do not count trainer or stationary miles into my base miles. I do record them separatly however but not towards my road milage goals. At the end of the year I always only end up with a few hundred indoor miles as compared to the thousands of road miles. I also do not count MTB miles on the local single track into base miles. Anyway that is just me.

I absolutly hate a trainer and stationary. The only reason is to maintain some kind of fitness level until spring breaks. That hate keeps me hitting the road as often as I can. I will ride in pretty bad weather any where above 20F as long as it is not snow, hail and pooring rain.

I guess for bicycle maintenance purposes I would want to keep the approx trainer mileage tucked away somewhere. 5000 road miles + 1000 trainer miles = more than 5000 miles on your chain and driveline. Maybe not 6000 depending on your training habits on the trainer but it's more than 5000 miles nonetheless.

Why not count them. I agree with a lot of posts that state miles are miles. I actually find the trainer harder in some cases, because you are peddling (all the time) vs. outside on the bike when you have glide time. The difference in my opinion between the trainer and outside is the diversity in cycling conditions (hills, et al). I do think it is harder to cycle outside, but I also think trainer miles count!

A What is a "cycling season?"
B If there is one, and it ended, how have I been getting to work this winter?
C What is the problem with snow?
D Above 50 F, isn't it a bit warm for cycling?

Paul

Yes. I'm definitely much more comfortable below 60. Yesterday was an unseasonably "balmy" 40, and I did 25 miles in shorts and a tshirt and gloves. I felt totally comfortable, and as a plus, wasn't drenched with sweat when I got home.

I wimp out below 20F, but 50F, give me a break...

I count them, in many ways trainer miles are harder than road miles,...if you do them right.
I had a titanium plate screwed to my collarbone and have been off the bike and on the trainer for the last 5 weeks, hope to be on the road next week.

No, it's just like reading books.
Doesn't count for anything, but it makes you a better person.
It's all internal, you know you did it.

If you don't give any idea about the conditions in which you did your "miles," your number is pretty much a waste of pixels for the rest of us. Of course, you don't owe any explanation to yourself, so keep your personal record anyway you please.

I don't count trainer miles. It's all personal preference. Typically, when I'm on my trainer, I don't push myself as hard as I do on the road. I usually just mindlessly spin to bad tv.

If you want to count yours, then count them.

just as i count playing basketball for 30 minutes as 30 minutes of running/jogging; 30 minutes on the trainer can be counted as biking.

my HR is raised, i am training. these are training miles.

and the ************ vs. sex argument is fatally flawed. if the end result of both activities is ejaculation, then both achieve the same goal. are they equally as satisfying? this is the trainer vs. the biking outside thing.

if i did 5,000 miles last year, i can estimate that i did almost 1.5 million pedal rotations. who cares where they were. if you ever saw me do trainer miles, you wouldn't be splitting hairs like this.

I count my trainer miles, if I am going to sit their bored to death and in mental pain than I am counting them. Riding on the road right now is just isn't an option except for Thursday through Sunday so I am counting my miles.