Buying Guides
Best Turbo Trainer Under £100 UK 2026: Cheap Picks Tested
The short answer
- The best turbo trainer under £100 is the BDBikes Magnetic at around £60: a simple, reliable magnetic wheel-on for finding out whether you enjoy indoor training before spending real money.
- Under £100 you get magnetic resistance only: no power meter, no Bluetooth, no ERG, and no proper Zwift control. Budget around £25 extra for a trainer tyre.
- All three picks here are loud, comparable to other budget magnetic wheel-on units. A mat and a trainer tyre help, but none will ever be quiet.
- If Zwift or accurate watts matter to you, do not buy at this price: save towards a used wheel-on smart trainer instead.
If you want the best turbo trainer under £100, buy the BDBikes Magnetic at around £60: it is the simplest, most reliable way to find out whether you actually enjoy riding indoors before you spend real money. Under £100 you are buying a magnetic wheel-on trainer with manual resistance, no power meter and no app control, so treat it as a winter fitness tool rather than a Zwift machine. If accurate watts or proper Zwift resistance matter to you, the honest answer is to save towards a used smart trainer rather than buy cheap twice.
I have steered enough beginners through their first winter indoors to know that the sub-£100 question is rarely about watts: none of these trainers report power anyway. What matters here is ride feel, how solid the clamp is, and how loud the thing gets once you are working, so that is what I judged each one on over three weeks of riding.
Best turbo trainer under £100: my ranked picks
BDBikes
BDBikes Magnetic Trainer
Best for First-timers testing indoor training
Simple, folds flat, fits almost any bike. Six resistance levels via a handlebar cable. No watts, no apps, but it just works.
Velo Pro Magnetic Turbo Trainer
Best for Tightest budgets, casual spinning
A usable resistance lever for casual winter spinning, but more flex and a fiddlier clamp than the BDBikes.
Tesla 3 Riva Sport Turbo Trainer
Best for Steady winter base miles
A slightly heavier flywheel gives a smoother spin than most magnetic units this cheap. Still no smart features.
What you actually get for under £100
A sub-£100 trainer is a frame, a clamp to hold your rear axle, and a magnetic resistance roller that presses against your rear tyre. You change resistance with a handlebar-mounted cable lever, usually across about six levels. That is the whole machine. There is no electronics, so there is nothing to break and nothing to update, which is genuinely part of the appeal.
What you do not get is anything smart. No Bluetooth, no ANT+ FE-C, no power meter, no ERG mode and no automatic resistance changes. Zwift cannot drive these trainers, so a virtual climb will not get harder unless you reach down and pull the lever yourself. If you want to understand how the smart features you are giving up actually work, my guide to direct drive versus wheel-on turbo trainers lays out the real differences.
Quick comparison
| Trainer | Type | Resistance | Smart features | Noise under load | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BDBikes Magnetic | Magnetic wheel-on | 6 levels, cable | None | Loud, typical budget magnetic | ~£60 |
| Velo Pro Magnetic | Magnetic wheel-on | Lever, stepless | None | Loud, slightly more than BDBikes | ~£70 |
| Tesla 3 Riva Sport | Magnetic wheel-on | Lever, heavier flywheel | None | Loud, marginally the quietest here | ~£55 |
Noise is judged by ear under a steady effort with a worn road tyre fitted, not a calibrated lab figure: at this price all three are simply loud. Fit a proper trainer tyre and add a mat and you take the edge off, but none of these will ever be living-room quiet.
1. BDBikes Magnetic Trainer: best under £100 overall
The BDBikes has been Amazon UK’s best-selling turbo trainer for years, and after three weeks of using it I understand why. The draw is the price: around £60 gets you a magnetic resistance unit with six levels controlled by a handlebar cable, it folds flat for storage, and it clamps onto standard road, hybrid and mountain bikes with 26 to 28 inch wheels. Setup took me under five minutes and the clamp held a 9 mm quick-release axle securely once I had the roller tension right.
Ride feel is exactly what you expect from a magnetic trainer: fine for steady spinning and short efforts, a little dead and resistance-limited if you stamp on the pedals hard. By ear it is clearly louder than conversation under load, in line with other budget magnetic units, so this is a garage or spare-room machine, not a flat-after-9pm one. There is no power readout, so there is nothing to verify against a power meter, and I would not trust any Zwift-via-speed-sensor estimate from it for training.
This is the trainer I hand to beginner cyclists every autumn. It answers one question: do you actually enjoy riding indoors? If yes after a month, upgrade to a smart trainer. If not, you have lost £60 rather than £400.
2. Velo Pro Magnetic Turbo Trainer: cheapest decent option
The Velo Pro comes in around £70 with a similar handlebar resistance lever and a folding magnetic frame. For gentle winter spinning it does the job, and if you happen to find it discounted it beats not training at all.
The compromises show up in the details. There is a touch more frame flex when you get out of the saddle, the clamp mechanism is fiddlier to set the right roller tension on, and under load it sounded a shade louder than the BDBikes to my ear, though both are firmly in budget-magnetic territory. It does the basics, but at this price the BDBikes is the better buy. Full notes are in my Velo Pro turbo trainer review.
3. Tesla 3 Riva Sport Turbo Trainer: most road-like feel
The Tesla 3 Riva Sport, around £55, was the nicest to actually pedal of the three. The flywheel is a touch heavier, so the spin carries through the dead spot more smoothly and steady efforts feel less like grinding against a magnet. For winter base miles where you just want to sit and turn the legs over, that smoother feel is worth having.
It is still a magnetic, non-smart, wheel-on trainer, so the usual caveats apply: no power, no apps, manual resistance only. To my ear it was marginally the quietest of the three, though all three are loud and that is splitting hairs. If the BDBikes is sold out or you specifically want the smoother flywheel feel, the Tesla 3 Riva is a sound pick. My Tesla 3 Riva Sport review has the full rundown.
Who should buy a turbo trainer under £100
Buy at this price if you have never trained indoors and want to test the water. Spend £60 on the BDBikes, ride it through one winter, and if you love it sell it on Facebook Marketplace for £30 to £40 and put that towards a smart trainer. Losing £20 to £30 is far better than discovering you hate indoor training after spending £500.
You should not buy at this price if you already know you want Zwift, ERG workouts or accurate watts. The jump in experience to a smart trainer is enormous, and you will end up buying twice. In that case, read my best budget turbo trainers guide, which covers the £100 to £230 band where smart features start to appear, and consider a used wheel-on smart trainer.
Budget the extras too
A cheap trainer is rarely the whole cost. Plan on a trainer tyre at around £25 to save your good rubber and cut noise, a mat at around £35 to protect the floor and damp vibration, and a riser block for your front wheel at under £15. That puts a realistic all-in cost closer to £100 to £130 even on a £60 trainer. My turbo trainer accessories hub covers what is worth buying and what is not.
Matt’s verdict
For the best turbo trainer under £100, start with the BDBikes Magnetic at around £60: it is reliable, simple and the perfect way to learn whether indoor training is for you. The Velo Pro is the rock-bottom fallback and the Tesla 3 Riva Sport feels the smoothest, but the gaps between them are small. The bigger decision is the price band itself: if you want Zwift and real watts, do not spend here, save towards a smart trainer and buy once.