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Gear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.

Indoor bike trainer

Smart trainer or stationary bike that reports power and varies resistance

A unit that either takes the place of a bike's rear wheel or stands in for the whole bike. It measures effort in watts, adjusts resistance to match the gradient in whatever app is running, and sends the numbers over Bluetooth. Cyclists use one to train through winter and to race indoors. Power readings differ between units, so swapping trainers can move the numbers a rider is used to seeing.

Who backs it

Sorted by strength of stance

  • Coach and IFBB pro · Harder Than Last Time

    Posting after an 88-minute Zwift race over several mountains, he said a new racing bike had just put him into the B division on a personal best for watts. He guessed his old trainer had been under reporting power, meaning he had burned more calories than he thought, then allowed that the new one might be the wrong reading. No brand named.

    Source: Greg Doucette on Facebook: new Zwift racing bike
  • Ray MakerDoes it

    Sports tech reviewer · DC Rainmaker

    Rode what he calls a crapton of indoor miles last winter, all of it on test units passing through: a Muov bike, an Elite Justo 2, a Tacx NEO 3M, a JetBlack Victory and more. Hard to say any one of them was his, he writes, since it is rare that nothing is in for testing.

    Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List

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Gear entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.