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spin bikes (aka spinning cycle or group cycle)
Dear All,
I am a student at Staffordshire University, studying a BA(Hons) in Product Design. For my final year I am going to be designing a new spin bike (aka spinning cycle or group cycle), but at the moment my knowledge is limited. Who better to ask, than people who are into fitness or cyclists? So in my investigation I was told to use the Google Groups for help. In my research I will be looking at existing Spin bikes. So if people could reply with problems that have occurred when using the bikes, I would be very grateful. An example of this could be sitting on the bike, paddling, or the general style. This would be a great help to me and vital research for the project. Thank you for your time and hope to hear from people, soon. |
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#2
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#4
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4. The grips are always sliding off the ends of the bars (slowly, over many classes) - put an end plug in there that holds 'em on! Cinelli cork bar tape: even comes with endplugs! -Luigi |
#5
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Luigi de Guzman wrote: 4. The grips are always sliding off the ends of the bars (slowly, over many classes) - put an end plug in there that holds 'em on! Cinelli cork bar tape: even comes with endplugs! -Luigi Shellaced cotton holds up better. As for spin bikes, a Bianchi Pista is a screaming good deal. Of course the dog ( cannine sprint assistant) , an old italian coach and airfare to ride the hills of Tuscany balance out the price. Scott Goldsmith |
#6
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Diablo Scott wrote:
1. Most of the adjustments are good, but there is no way to adjust saddle tilt - and they all feel too "nose down". The solution to sizing to adapt a fully adjustable bike-fitting rig to be a spin-bike. 3. These bikes have the SPD/toeclip dual-sided pedals - probably the best compromise, but I wish I could use my regular road shoes. I just have two identical pairs with different cleats. But then, I buy the $39 shoes. 4. The grips are always sliding off the ends of the bars (slowly, over many classes) - put an end plug in there that holds 'em on! Hose clamps. 5. These bikes have a dial that adjusts the resistance on the flywheel. It works fine but there's no indicator to show what resistance you're using - there should be. Hard if not impossible to make; a bike with a PowerTap on the crank would probably be the only way to gauge resistance consistently. 6. The feet don't adjust to account for uneven floors so sometimes you get a bike that rocks around. Now that's just wrong. Although it brings up the point that stationary bikes don't rock, and real bikes do, and a little of that countermotion would be a good thing. Although the slower riders would probably just end up leaning farther and farther over until they fell off... 7. No place to put your walkman if you're riding outside of class. What? You don't wear a three-pocket jersey in the gym? (Just let me be there when you do; I want to watch the stares.) I can think of a lot of things I'd put on a super-expensive bike, like power meters and cadence sensors, but I figure these 7 items could be incorporated into a reasonably priced machine. The machine you ride at the gym probably costs about $2-3,000. And it still breaks more often than a real bike would. --Blair "8. Inch-thick crankshafts." |
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Diablo Scott wrote:
1. Most of the adjustments are good, but there is no way to adjust saddle tilt - and they all feel too "nose down". Yep, this is the one item that cannot be readily adjusted on the Lemond spin bikes at my club. Fortunately they are well maintained by our LBS so I haven't had to resort to bringing a wrench to make my own adjustments. 3. These bikes have the SPD/toeclip dual-sided pedals - probably the best compromise, but I wish I could use my regular road shoes. Got a spare set of pedals? Bring 'em and a pedal wrench and switch pedals for class. My wife needs her Speedplays to keep her knees happy so we go through this ritual every class for her. No big deal. 5. These bikes have a dial that adjusts the resistance on the flywheel. It works fine but there's no indicator to show what resistance you're using - there should be. A nice feature for sure, but I can see it would tough to keep calibrated without making it $$$. 7. No place to put your walkman if you're riding outside of class. What? You don't wear a three-pocket jersey in the gym? (Just let me be there when you do; I want to watch the stares.) 10 - 20% of our class wears cycling jerseys in class. No stares. I can think of a lot of things I'd put on a super-expensive bike, like power meters and cadence sensors, but I figure these 7 items could be incorporated into a reasonably priced machine. The machine you ride at the gym probably costs about $2-3,000. Doubtful. Our Lemond Spin bikes, which are the best stationary bike I've had the pleasure of riding, cost about $1100. REF: http://www.lemondfitness.com/product...ter/index.html I imagine a club buying 30 of these at a pop gets a nice discount. And it still breaks more often than a real bike would. Most clubs pretty much ignore the bikes until they break. Our LBS has a contract with our club and periodically performs preventative maintenance on the bikes. Result: Never seen a broken bike at our club. Chris Neary "Science, freedom, beauty, adventu what more could you ask of life? Bicycling combined all the elements I loved" - Adapted from a quotation by Charles Lindbergh |
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Blair P. Houghton wrote:
5. These bikes have a dial that adjusts the resistance on the flywheel. It works fine but there's no indicator to show what resistance you're using - there should be. Hard if not impossible to make; a bike with a PowerTap on the crank would probably be the only way to gauge resistance consistently. The indicator doesn't need to actually measure anything, just have a reference number - say 0 to 10 in half unit increments for repeatability. Or 0 to 11 for the really good ones! 7. No place to put your walkman if you're riding outside of class. What? You don't wear a three-pocket jersey in the gym? Lots of jerseys in my classes too - not so many outside of the spin studio though. I prefer a T-shirt. The machine you ride at the gym probably costs about $2-3,000. And it still breaks more often than a real bike would. The StarTrac V-Bikes at my gym retail for $850. http://homegymcentral.com/star_trac_v_bike.html The little adjustment levers break when people use the pipe as an extension lever, the bottle cages break sometimes, but mostly the crank bearings seem to go bad. -- My bike blog: http://diabloscott.blogspot.com/ |
#9
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Chris Neary wrote:
Blair wrote: Diablo Scott wrote: 7. No place to put your walkman if you're riding outside of class. What? You don't wear a three-pocket jersey in the gym? (Just let me be there when you do; I want to watch the stares.) 10 - 20% of our class wears cycling jerseys in class. No stares. I don't see many jerseys. One guy wears a spandex shirt, but no pockets, and no sponsor logos. Some of the girls wear tight tops; more like track suits than jerseys. And it still breaks more often than a real bike would. Most clubs pretty much ignore the bikes until they break. Our LBS has a contract with our club and periodically performs preventative maintenance on the bikes. Result: Never seen a broken bike at our club. My gym has a guy who's in there at least twice a week PMing the bikes. Most things only need to be fixed when they break (cranks, e.g.) but sometimes he'll scrub all the resistance bands and burnish the races. Given that the gym doesn't charge any extra for spin classes it's probably one of their bigger loss centers. --Blair "But they get all the free steam heat they can pump out." |
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