Interval ergometer pedaling, one month+ of experience

Last Updated on: February 23, 2016

It’s been about 2,5 months since I first wrote about my not so cheerful experience buying a techy ergometer bicycle

ergometer1We know how it is, sometimes when buying stuff things do not always go as planned. You might be unlucky, and get something faulty. Such is the beauty of mass-production.

No one made any protests (as if that would be a reasonable reaction) when, after a second failure, I demanded to get the ergometer replaced and the new delivered home.

So after a long wait (Christmas and holidays got in-between) early in January they came with a new one. The only downside was to do all the mounting over again. Maybe I could have demanded full mount service but I didn’t.

Second time around the job was quick and painless, no need to check the manual to get things right. No excess screws or parts when done. Once operational ready I did a couple of tests, lo an behold, everything seemed too work.

Since then, during a little over a month we’ve covered quite a few fictitious miles’n hills, me and my ergometer-buddy. Probably have pedaled more than what I would have done during a normal week in spring, summer or fall. 

And it does the job? Oh yes indeed

I initially got the ergometer bicycle so that I could do interval bicycling during winter. Emulate routes with quite a bit of up and downhill. And have alternatives to avoid hassle with knees caused by tarmac running. Didn’t want to spend a fortune, though these things are known to cost quite a bit. Ended up spending more than originally intended. At first it seemed a pointless investment but no, it’s really been worth it.

This ergometer enables variable resistance magnetically, comes with an onboard computer with lots of programs. You can set time for the exerice or select free rides, measure output energy, pulse/heart rate, calories burned, the whole nine yards.

Additionally it has a USB port which I use to hook it up to an iPad. A free software called iConsole gives you A LOT more control, more exercises programming of exercises, storing all your efforts and open up for real route cycling! This solution is said to work with most ergometersof a similar kind.

Making your own route based on map information is kinda cool. The unit will get elevation differences from a map service (Google possibly). I’ve tried this a bit, how accurate it is depends on the route, quality of information stored. I’ve biked some urban routes and I’ve made my own.

In the case of the latter, i.e replicating routes I normally bicycle around home it didn’t really work all that well. Or put in another way, had I been able to pedal those routes with similar effort and on similar time I’d say my fitness had increased by approx 350% in a surprisingly short time!

Despite inaccuracies, it is kinda fun to be able to look at pics and/or maps while pedaling. Touring a city, region or country you’ve never been in or remember vaguely. With virtual reality coming fast there’s no doubt in my mind it’s only a matter of months or a few years before ergometer pedaling with full VR becomes a reality.

Meanwhile, no rush for me, this package does the job!

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