Indoor training jargon buster | Cyclingnews

For most people who ride bikes, you can get along very nicely and simply just riding your bike and enjoying the simple metrics of time ridden and distance. You can even forgo those if you please. However, when we get to indoor training, and the prevalence of smart trainers with power meters and training plans available, there are a few new metrics and jargon that get thrown at us. But just what do all these terms and acronyms mean?

For most riders investing in an indoor turbo trainer, the most common and readily available option on the market right now are Direct Drive trainers. This means that your bike will be attached directly to the trainer with the rear drop-outs fitting the trainer and cassette between them. This provides a solid platform with most of these trainers featuring a hub-based power meter system and large flywheel weight to give that real-world feeling of wheel inertia.

A step up from the direct drive trainer is the Smart Bike. This is an entire system that does not require a bike to be fitted since it is built into the smart trainer. These often use similar internal mechanisms to higher-end direct drive trainers, but have virtual gear shifting to adjust cadence and resistance. This often comes at a higher total cost than what a cheap bike and Direct Drive trainer can be purchased for though.