It’s that time of the year, here in the mid-west, where outdoor bike riding season is nearly over. Well, it may already be over for some people and may never be over for others (I’ve seen some pretty rugged cyclists out in the dead of winter).

For me, I usually consider bike riding season to mostly be within the daylight-savings-time date range although I can usually get some riding in before or after these dates. Riding at this time of year is much colder, of course, and you really need to dress properly but you also have less daylight.

Anyway, I have still been getting out for some late season rides but I don’t think that I will have a lot more (unless we have a really mild winter again). Yesterday was a really nice day to ride since there was very little wind and I was thinking about how much I will be missing my rides during the winter.

Well, I still have to stay in shape so that leads us right into the Indoor Cycling and Fitness Bike Season. This is the time of year when a lot of the fitness companies are coming out with their new Indoor Cycles and Exercise Bikes (along with all their other products) and the Fitness Clubs are trying hard to get new members.

I have been researching the latest Indoor Cycles and Exercise Bikes and updating this site with information and reviews on the new models (and archiving the older models when they are no longer available).

Some of the most recent exercise bikes to come out are the NordicTrack GX4.2 Recumbent and NordicTrack GX4.2 Upright and NordicTrack 2.5 Upright. NordicTrack seemed to find the right design a long time ago and they just make minor improvements to their previous year models each year. For example the GX4.2 Recumbent and Upright are very similar to last year’s GX4.0 series with some minor improvements (see the links above for more details on the changes).

If you prefer the convenience of an In-Home fitness routine (rather than a club or gym) and want to keep your costs down you also have the option of using a Bike Trainer or bike stand for your outdoor bike.

There are some pros and cons with Bike Trainers vs Exercise Bikes. Some of the advantages of a bike trainer is the much lower cost, of course, and the fact that you can ride your own outdoor bike that you are familiar with. Some of the disadvantages of trainers is that your outdoor bike on a trainer is probably not as sturdy, stable and comfortable as an exercise bike and you need to physically connect your bike to the trainer making it difficult to ride both indoors and outdoors (like at this time of year).

I am going to be keeping up on the latest indoor cycles, exercise bikes and spin bikes so you’ll probably be seeing more on the latest models and sales soon. I also have a story about the heart-rate monitor for my GPS unit but that is a whole different story which I’ll be saving that for another post soon.