Exercise bike vs real bike

[jsmoke]

I good one in the gym, what sort of time difference should you expect between the indoor and real, with real say on a good day, relatively flat roads.

For example 20k, what times should you expect indoor if your doing it at say 45mins on the real bike?

45mins would be 25km/h. So fairly going for it, depending on who you are.

 

[mattyfez]

Hard to put a number on it but I'd expect marginally better times in the gym.
No obsitcles or stop/starting, no uneven surfaces to deal with, probably requires less core strength as you don't need to manuvere the bike etc.

 

[merlin]

No drag makes indoor ridiculously easy.

 

[BennyC]

Too many variables outdoors to even begin contemplating comparing time to cover outdoor distance vs indoor distance.

Tyre choice and pressures alone could cost you minutes, before drag variables from clothing, weather and before factoring in your pacing strategy for any undulations in terrain.

If you want to compare an effort objectively, use power.

 

[touch]

If you want to compare an effort objectively, use power.

This. Or heart rate, or even perceived effort as you most likely dont have an accurate powermeter on the gym bike unless it's a wattbike.

45 mins at 80% max HR on a gym bike is exactly the same as 45 mins at 80% max HR on a real bike. Dont even bother looking at the speed/distance numbers.

 

[BennyC]

This. Or heart rate, or even perceived effort as you most likely dont have an accurate powermeter on the gym bike unless it's a wattbike.

45 mins at 80% max HR on a gym bike is exactly the same as 45 mins at 80% max HR on a real bike. Dont even bother looking at the speed/distance numbers.

True though HR is still going to vary as it is a response to effort, not a measure of work done and will be affected by variables (temperature, stress, sickness, sleep and training load). Nevertheless ample if without power data