Sport: Exercise: Equipment: Cycle
Bike Route Master of the Universe   (+4)  [vote for, against]
Getting local roads programed into your stationary bike

Take this special GPS with you next time you go for a nice bike ride. It will keep track of your location, ups and downs and distance traveled. Bring it home and plug it into our Stationary Bike Route Master and it will download the route you just took. The Route Master would increase or decrease pedal resistance (and possibly seat pitch) depending on the terrain you traversed in the real world.Now you can train the actual course your learning in your own home.
-- macncheesy, May 18 2004

My super-duper idea I baked and am now selling! http://trainersoftware.com/
So there you go. Perhaps we should put your GPS idea in! [britboy, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

I've used (in a health club) an exercise bike which was attached to a computer/display and allowed the user to select different courses. Riding up hills was more difficult than riding down them. Riding into water was harder still (basically made the thing unridable until the user reset).
-- supercat, May 18 2004


Supercat -- yep, this is indeed my (personal) baked idea. [check out link].
-- britboy, May 19 2004


Interesting concept, brit, though I question your sensor method. Because most bicycles have a ratchet between the pedals and the flywheel, pedal cadence is not a reliable indicator of speed. Additionally, I see nothing in your description about resistance. On some bikes with mechanical braking, resistance is constant independent of speed. On bikes with pneumatic braking, resistance is proportional to the square of speed. On bikes with electrodynamic braking, resistance can be anything.
-- supercat, May 19 2004


NOT a baked idea really because the whole point is the GPS tie in. It is not just a "resistance bike"

You could develop a program that interprets the GPS info into a visual format..ie..a road image on a screen. Trees and bushes and bunnies would just be extra I candy.
-- macncheesy, Aug 06 2007


Brilliant!

The resistance bike is preexisting - this idea ties in to the resistance bike's controls and varies the resistance according to where you are on your simulated road: more resistance for up hills, less for down, a bit more if you're pedaling into a wind (a tie-in to a weather site, maybe), etc. For verisimilitude, it plays a real-time video of the road as you proceed along it; DVD players could vary the playback, if you have the road recorded, at a rate that coincides with your travel speed.
-- elhigh, Aug 06 2007


Would there be an option to ride it around Eternia?
-- nomocrow, Aug 06 2007



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