If we liked breathing stale, recycled air, we’d all take up a sport like wrestling or indoor fly-fishing. But we love the feel of a gale on our faces. We cherish the smell of cow manure filling our nostrils with its almost tangible grittiness. We hold scared the privilege to breathe in diesel fuel while doing hill repeats up l’Alpe d’Huez.
But such whimsy is not for every day. Occasionally, we find ourselves faced with the prospect of an hour of solitude upon the wind trainer or rollers, where our sport is transformed from a glorious experience of powering ourselves along with only Nature for company to one where a ride of 30 minutes is barely tolerable, 45 seems like a lifetime wasted, and 60 minutes is more than most of us can even consider enduring. 60 minutes on the trainer at a leisurely pace or a 4 and a half hour death march up a barren, heat-riddled climb? I’ll take the 4 and half hours every time, thank you very much.
We all have to do it, and there are even some redeeming qualities to be had. You get better at Rule #5, for one. You develop a more magnificent stroke, for another. Whatever the redeeming qualities, we all have our way of coping. Jeff in PetroMetro returns with his view on how to make it suck just a little bit less.
Yours in Cycling,
Frank
—
Either due to life-threatening weather or poor scheduling of life’s lesser priorities (see Rule #11), we Velominati spend a little time each year riding indoors. Whether one enjoys a ride on rollers or a trainer, and no matter if one methodically spins (as all good recovery ride specialists do), grinds out intervals, or practices ways to improve one’s magnificent stroke (scrape the mud off your shoes, scrape the mud off your shoes…), death-by-boredom is always a possibility. I’m not one to go for videos, or read books, or hook up to a computer. Call me old fashioned. I like to meditate on the V with only the voices inside my head screaming for mercy from the pain of a complete lactic acid meltdown.
Or, sometimes I like a little music.
Back in the Dark Ages, I used the yellow (sweatproof) Sony Walkman to play my favorite homemade training cassette tapes. But in our modern days of inexpensive digital storage, and with the brilliant invention of the “shuffle” command on my iPod Nano, I have some seven hours of musical motivation to keep my indoor sessions lively and loud.
I thought I might start a little conversation regarding favorite training tunes. Now, I know ALL of my fellow Velominati strictly adhere to Rule #62 when riding outside. And of course, we prefer strict adherence to Rule #9, but, as I stated above, shit happens.
While I have eclectic taste, I don’t fancy Al Green, Buck Owens, or Duke Ellington when loving a Rule #5 beatdown. No. I tack to the loud and fast. My preferences are punk and “classic rock”. (It was just rock when I first heard it.) So here’s a little flavor of my indoor training selection, in no particular order.
Hate to Say I Told You So“”The Hives””from the album “Your New Favourite Band”
Tick Tick Boom“”The Hives””from the album “The Black and White Album”
American Idiot“”Green Day””from the album “American Idiot”
The Rock Show“”Blink 182″”from the album “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket”
I Fought the Law (Live)””The Clash””from the album “The Clash: Live at Shea Stadium”
Batman Theme“”The Jam””from the album “In the City”
Communication Breakdown“”Led Zeppelin””from the album “Led Zeppelin”
The Real Me“”The Who””from the album “Quadrophenia”
Rock Around the Clock“”Ten Pole Tudor””from the album “The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle”
Of course there are many, many others. But I offer these few picks-to-click to perhaps start a little discussion and get some musical ideas for my next indoor shopping spree at the V and Dime.
A-Merckx
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If im driven to the trainer and lets be honest if got to be forced into it by either shift work of snow I quite like a bit of opera, it doesnt matter what opera it is, and honestly im not against opera per se, but it can be a bit painful on the ears therefore extra rule V..gotta love that Wagner bloke...
@northern hardman
No idea what you look like, but this is still a pretty funny mental image I'm getting here. Ride of the Valkyries pumping, rider snarling in pain from legs and ears...
All Velobeats for me at the moment. Good fun if you like dancy stuff, commentary and interviews dubbed in nicely.
@northern hardman
You must be a fan of "Breaking Away" (which is not a bad thing in my book!)
Does anyone have any recommendations for making a trainer not shake an apartment?
I was a very happy Velominatus Budgetatus when my brother, who is much less enthusiastic about cycling then I am, told me if I wanted it I could have his CycleOps Trainer for free, that he had ridden maybe, maybe, 50 miles. I was just way too boring for him.
My initial excitement has quickly diminished as the trainer is loud and I'm afraid I'm going to piss off the neighbors. Its not so loud in noise as it is in vibration. I've tried using it on carpet and tile. I've tried piling up magazines and books. the floor rumbles. What can i do to keep things reasonable?
@King Clydesdale
They sell vibration dampening mats at Home Depot/Lowes/etc, maybe try that and see if it helps? I've also heard of people inflating old tubes, laying them down on the floor, putting a plywood board on top, THEN putting the trainer on top of that - but that seems like a fucking huge PITA.
The folks that live under me (I live in an old house that has been converted into a split level duplex) practice music rather loudly for a crappy metal band, so my revenge is loud trainer sessions with my electronic music playing. I have a small mat under the trainer to keep it from hurting the wood floor, but nothing to dampen vibrations.
@King Clydesdale
Is it a fluid trainer? If so, I'm surprised it is so loud. Are you living above someone? If no one is below you, it's probably not as loud as you think. You could always ask them if they can even tell. And if it does bother them, ask when would be a good time of day to ride it.
@Buck Rogers
Fluid trainers can still make a bit of noise when you're running at a high RPM, I've found. I have a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine, which is a pretty well regarded fluid unit. At slow speeds it's pretty quiet. But if I'm really hammering on it, it makes a bit of noise through vibration - my thinking is that small imperfections in the bike, it's connection to the trainer, and the inexact tolerances of the trainer, etc. all act to effectively magnify any vibrations and oscillations into the floor.
I also think the floor itself makes a difference, as having it on a concrete slab basement with carpet won't vibrate the same way as a second-story wood floor will.
@mcsqueak
True. Good points all around. Best to be on the ground floor on concrete. But, do what you have to in order to ride is the bottom line!
Rode my new-to-me 2.25 inch Kreitler Dynamyte rollers today for the first time. HOLY SHIT they are awesome.
Coming from a world of fluid trainers for the past 4 years, and never having used rollers, it was quite an experience. Sooooo much more work required to keep it upright. The first 5 minutes were pretty painful as my rear wheel would start to swerve then I'd try to compensate and then the front would swerve and I would try to compnesate for that then the rear wheel again and I was ssss'ing all over the rollers while trying to get it back straight.
Rode for 1 hour and 5 minutes and only went off once. Thought that that was not too bad! Awesome. Rollers are infinitely better than stationary trainers. Only thing was that my ass got really sore as I am not able to stand up yet while on the rollers and it became painful locked onto the seat for over an hour straight!
Ttoally into the rollers now for indoor training. Obviously nothing beats the road, but if you're indoors, rollers are the way to go!
Another vote for the Kreitlers. I have the 3.0 Kreitlers with the flywheel. Great alternative when a road ride isn't in the cards.