Category Archives: Equipment

New Proform Tour de France Training Bike / Indoor Cycle

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Proform has just come out with a very new Indoor Cycle that is unlike any indoor cycle currently on the market. The Proform Tour de France (TDF) Indoor Cycle uses the existing  iFit Livetechnology (powered by Google Maps) and a new Intelligent Wind Resistance technology to simulate realistic road (and/or Tour de France stage) riding conditions. 

Proform Tour de France

Proform has used the iFit Live technology on their Elliptical Trainers and Treadmills for some time now but, to my knowledge, this is the first exercise bike (indoor cycle, spin bike) to use this technology.  What you do is select a course (anything that Google Maps has indexed) and the bike takes you down your course and adjusts the incline/decline to match the actual terrain of the course. Wind resistance is also calculated (and the bike wheel resistance adjusted) based on your height and weight.

Naturally, the Tour de France and other popular routes and courses are already programmed into iFit, but you may also be able to set your own neighborhood route if it has already been indexed by Google Maps.

There are, of course, many big advantages to the new Proform TDF Indoor Cycle. The most obvious advantage is the realistic riding environment and the variety in your workout. Other advantages are that the iFit Live technology has already been available for some time now and has proven to be reliable and just to have an indoor cycle that is more fun than most indoor cycles out there with the advantage of  relieving the potential boredom of  indoor workouts.

The disadvantages of this bike are that it is still very new and there is not a lot of customer feedback or customer reviews online and of course the price is still a little high at this point.

At this point I think that the advantages out weight the disadvantages and this looks to be a pretty exciting new kind of Exercise Bike technology.

For Our Full Review and more details on this indoor cycle see our ProForm Tour de France Indoor Cycle Review. 

Also one final note: You don’t really need to wear your helmet on this bike as pictured above (this is much safer than this year’s real Tour de France)! 🙂

Best Summer Bike Sale at Performance.

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Sorry I am a little late on this but I just found out about the 15% off sale at Performance Bike and I know from past experience that this is a great sale especially since it includes an additional 15% off of the sale price already listed for bikes.

So if you are looking for the bikes that qualify for this sale at Performance see our Bikes For Sale Online page. If you are looking for accessories that are on sale see our Bike Accessories page.

I have included big red banners for the bikes that qualify for this sale on all of the related Bike Sale and Bike Review pages (this primarily includes GT, Fuji and Schwinn but there are other manufacturers on sale).

I did not include the big red banners for the bike accessories since this applied to any bike accessory that is for sale at Performance once your order is over $75, See our Bike Accessories page for information and easy access to the most popular bike accessories.

Horizon RC30 Recumbent Exercise Bike In Stock and Available Online

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I just visited the Johnson Fitness facility just outside of Madison Wisconsin on Tuesday and was fortunate enough to review many of their Livestrong, Horizon and AFG exercise bikes in addition to having a product specialist in this area demonstrate and review these bikes with me and to point out the various features of each of the exercise bikes.

Horizon RC30 Recumbent Exercise Bike

Horizon RC30 in stock

I spent quite a bit of time there and have learned a great deal about their current models and the new models that are about to be introduced.  I don’t want to get into all of the details here because my goal for this blog post is to report that the Horizon RC30 Exercise Bike is once again available online (This popular model has been out of stock (online) for months now).

I will be getting into more detail on the trip that I described above in new blog posts very soon because I have so much information to pass on but for now, if you were looking into this model but were disappointed to find that it was out of stock, that issue has just been resolved!

Let me just say that this particular exercise is very high quality (as are most of the Johnson Fitness products) and this manufacturer is very committed to customer satisfaction.

For more information on this Recumbent Exercise Bike see the Horizon RC-30 Recumbent Exercise Bike Review.

Good Bike Accessory Sale at Performance (but not everything)

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I was at our local Performance Bike store yesterday and saw that they were having a sale. When I was working on this site and checking prices online, I also saw that the Performance Bike website has huge banners about the sale that is going on now (thru Sunday 6/26) also.  

I always try to find out when the higher end bikes for sale on this site are on sale at Performance, so I checked the prices some of our bikes and found that they were still the same.

So my point here is that there is a good sale going on at Performance Bike right now, but it is not on everything (as the banner says, since most of the bikes are not on sale). There are quite a few Bike Accessories on sale at Performance right now though.

See the Performance Bike links on our Bike Accessories page for more info and to check out this sale.

Note: The Performance Bike site slows down a little, due to all of the additional website traffic when they have  one of these sales, so be patient…

Elliptical Bike Reviews

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We now have a whole new and exciting category of bikes available thanks to a need and some good old fashioned yankee ingenuity!  Elliptigo’s Outdoor Elliptical Bikes are now being manufacured and sold online and at selected retail outlets.

Elliptigo Elliptical Bicycles

These machines can truely be called “bikes” or “bicycles” (they have 2 wheels and are self propelled) but they are really quite different than just about any other bike that has come before them. Elliptical Bikes use the same design as indoor Elliptical Trainers but the pedals are attached to the bike crank, chain, gears and wheel of a bicycle to allow you to get an excellent aerobic Elliptical Trainer/ Running style of workout – outdoors!

I had an opportunity to ride and review the Elliptigo Elliptical Bikes recently and have just posted a couple of reviews on these new machines. See the Elliptigo 8C Review and Elliptigo 3C review for the details.

Overall, these bikes are very easy to ride and provide an excellent, low impact, runner style workout. These bikes are especially well suited for cross training but I can see how some people may even like this kind of bike just for the excitement of trying something completely new and different and/or for casual trips around town. 

I was very impressed with the Elliptigo Elliptical Bikes and I think that we will be starting to see a lot more of these around very soon!

Best Annual Bike Sale, 15% off Bikes at REI

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It’s that time of year again and REI is having what I believe is one of it’s best sales of the year so I am adding a quick post here to get the word out. 

REI is currently having it’s Anniversary sale and offering 15% off on all full price bikes Through May 30th. REI sells bikes from: Cannondale, Raleigh, Electra, Marin and Novara, Burley, Dahon, Ellsworth, GT, K2, Kona, Scott, and more.

See: Our Online Bikes Stores page for a quick, easy link to Bikes at REI. The columns on each side of this page (and all of our bike review pages) have the bikes (including REI bikes) that we have reviewed on this site.

Wireless Bike Computer (speedometer) Information (and tricks)

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I really like my Vetta wireless bike computer that I have had for 6 years now and over the years I have learned a few things about bike computers and specifically about wireless models that I thought I would take a moment to pass along here. 

Bike Computer

Vetta Wireless Bike Computer

If you’ve visited the  Bike Computers page on this site or some of the other related bike electronics pages (like the Bike GPS page, etc.), then you know that I am really into bike electronics and I think these things are fantastic. I can’t imagine riding without one anymore. Actually when I’ve had problems with my cycle computer, I usually end up postponing my ride until I get it working again.

I had a regular wired Vetta for 15 years (when bike computers (cyclocomputers as they are sometimes called) were first coming out as we know them today). This computer still worked after 15 years but the fork mount was a specific size (not the tie wraps that most use these days) and when I got my new bike it would not fit on the fork so I had to replace it.

So 6 years ago I bought my then new wireless bike computer and it is still working but I have had a couple of problems that I thought that I would mention.

First of all, what I like about the wireless models is the installation is even easier than wired models (which aren’t that hard either), the cleaner look (no dangling wires) and no fragile wires to break (and splice back together (which does seem to happen occasionally no matter how careful you are).

What I don’t like about wireless models are that they do take more batteries and more battery power. In addition to the computer battery itself there is the battery in the transmitter on the fork and, if you get the cadence model (which I did) there is the battery on the transmitter on the crank.  Also, the computer itself (the head unit) may still look like it has power because it has enough power for the display and functions but it may not have enough power to pick up the signal. So I have had to replace the head unit battery even though it still looked like it had power.

I started having a problem with my bike computer about a year ago where it would stop working (not receive a signal)  intermittently even after I replaced all of the batteries. I actually thought it was time for a new one when I discovered a little trick that has been working ever since I had this problem.  

Of course, I would check the alignment of the transmitter on the fork and the magnet on the spokes and make sure that they were perfectly lined up and as close to each other as possible but this did not always get it working again. What I discovered is that if I move the transmitter so that it actually hits the magnet on the wheel (you hear a little click each time the magnet passes the transmitter) it would start working again and then I would just lean over and pull it back just enough so it no longer hit as it went by and bam! it kept working!

It just seems like the transmitter might just need to be tapped a little to wake it up or something. Of course, this may not work in all cases, but this has worked for me for well over a year now and it works every time so if you have a similar problem it may be worth a shot (unless you really just want a new bike computer… or better yet GPS unit).

2011 Best Buy Exercise Bike Updates

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Although some of the more serious riders use their exercise bikes and indoor cycles all year long, for many people it’s  the time of year that that they move their exercise routines outdoors and the exercise bike shopping season is slowing down quite a bit.

Fortunately, for those of you who are in the market for an exercise bike now, many of the exercise bikes for sale online are now selling at greatly reduced prices.

OK, so that may not be big news for many of you, what I did want to mention is that I just reviewed the Best Buy Exercise Bikes page on this site and have made some changes to reflect the better prices and more popular exercise bikes for 2011.

Many of the models on the about-bicycles.com Best Buy Exercise Bike Page are still selling at very good prices and are still very popular with the visitors to this site, but there have been some changes that were made for 2011.

Here are the Best Buy changes that have been made for 2011:

  • The Schwinn Active Series 10 upright bike has been replaced by the Schwinn 120 as the Best Upright Exercise Bike for Under $200.
  • I have created a new category for the Best Upright – Indoor Cycle Under $300 and moved the Proform 290 SPX into this category.
  • The Schwinn 230 Recumbent bike has been replaced by the Schwinn 220 Recumbent in the Best Recumbent Exercise Bike $300-$500 category.

With this being the start of prime riding season, I really want to get out there and check out some of the latest bikes that are out there (online and in the stores) but I have also just reviewed a few more exercise bikes, including the Schwinn A20 and Livestrong LS07.0B.

One of my good friends, and an expert in fitness equipment, has offered to set up a meeting for me with his contact at Johnson Fitness in Madison, Wis to visit the plant and personally review the Livestrong LS07.0B, since this is where the Livestrong bikes and exercise equipment is manufactured. I am looking forward to that and will post the updates here after my visit.      

For now, it’s a pretty decent spring day and time to get out for some riding!

2011 Best Buy Bike Updates

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The About-Bicycles 2011 Best Buy Updates are in (sorry for the delay). Although we do have some changes for 2011, the bikes in some of the categories remained unchanged from 2010 to 2011.  You can see the 2011 Best Buy Bikes Online Updates here. Below is a brief summary of the 2010 to 2011 changes.

The mountain bike categories remained unchanged for both full suspension and hardtail. The GT Zaskar and Jamis Dakar models just can’t be beat in their categories and price ranges.

The GT Series 4  remains in the top road bike category for now although the 2011 GT Series bikes are not yet available online.

Although the Schwinn Voyager GS remains at the top of the Comfort / Hybrid bike best buy category, I have found that quite a few people are looking for more of a “Total Comfort Bike” so I have created the new Total Comfort Bike category. The undeniable best bike for this category is the Electra Townie.  

In the Recommended Hybrid Bike category (true road/mtn cross), the Fuji Absolute has been replaced with the GT Transeo Disc. Although, I still believe the Fuji Absolute to be an excellent hybrid, the online reviews (and sales from this site) show that many riders in this category really like this bike.

I did not really include any direct links to the best selling, low cost, “big box store”  hybrid bikes on the 2011 Best buy Bikes Online page but the top bike in this category is the Schwinn Midmoor Men’s Hybrid.

Well, there you have it. OK, time to go out and hit the trail (or road, hills, track or whatever your preference!)

2010 and 2011 Bikes for up to 70% off 4/12 and 4/13

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I just caught this sale at Performance Bike when I went to the site to do some look-ups and noticed that the site was slower than usual.

This is one of those excellent springtime sales at Performance where they clear out some of their older stock, like 2010 bikes and have some other good bike products on sale too.

If you go to our Online Bike Stores page, there is a quick link to Performance Bike (in addition to some other good other online bike merchants). Just give the Performance Bike site a little extra time right now. You may found out that the wait is well worth it.

This particular sale has up to 70% of on many items, including Bikes! Performance has a great selection of Fuji, Schwinn, Schwinn, Dahon,  K2, Mongoose, GT, Nirve, Diamondback and Performance Brands, Scattante and Dahon.

Normally, I post some banners for these  kinds of sales on my relevant bike review pages but I am late on this one so I’ll just have to settle for this blog post.

If you are looking for a new bike this year, this is really a good time to purchase from Performance online (or even at the store if you have one close to you).

Check out the sale selections with the Performance Bike Link at  Online Bike Stores (before the end of the day tomorrow (Wednesday))!