I'm not a racing cyclist but I do commute by bike. I am planning a 10-week biking trip through Spain and France. I'd like to train indoors, and a colleague recommended a Tacx Virtual Reality trainer. I find the VR aspect very attractive - I can't ride on a stationary bike because of boredom. What do I need?

Paul Sevanich, via email

I sympathise with the boredom aspect, but personally I'm not sold on the VR thing. It means setting up your indoor trainer in front of a computer, which then plays a video game in which you ride up and down mountains and race against other (virtual) riders. These are expensive items (the best web price I've found for the Tacx I-magic is at JE James Cycles for £350), plus you need an up-to-date PC.

I think you might equally soon get bored and lose motivation with the VR game. My advice would be to buy a cheap but quiet indoor trainer, get a good heart-rate monitor and structure your workouts.Do your training in front of the TV, with the radio on or to music.

· Send your cycling queries to bike.doctor@theguardian.com