Category Archives: Fitness Equipment

New Bike Trainer Setup and Entertainment Options

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I just setup my bike on a new (borrowed) Bike Trainer, now that I have a place for it, and in order to check out the trainer and some entertainment (boredom-breaking) options that I had in mind. Giant Cyclotron Auto Bike Trainer

The bike trainer that I am using now is a Giant Cyclotron Auto mag resistance trainer which it is very basic and easy to setup and use. My daughter just went back to college for another semester so I have hew room to use (for my trainer room) for most of the winter.

I took some photos of the bike trainer with my bike (Trek 1500) attached to it for this blog post (I’ve setup the photos on this blog post to show the larger versions when you click on them) and I was thinking of putting together a video to show the full bike trainer setup and use but I have not gotten to that just yet.

Bike Trainer Setup:

The first step in setting up the bike trainer is to replace the real axle or skewer  from my bike’s back wheel with the skewer that is setup to clamp into the Bike Trainer. This was much easier than I expected. You don’t even need to take the rear wheel all the way off to change the skewer. You just release the wheel with the quick release mechanism (that most newer bikes have), lift it out of the frame and unscrew the fitting on one end. Then you replace it with the Bike Trainer skewer and reattach the rear wheel.

Once this is done, and you have adjusted the Bike Trainer to fit your bike and wheel, it is really easy just to clamp the bike into the trainer. This would be great in the summer when you want to use your bike outdoors and indoors.

Adjustments and Indoor Workout:

Giant Bike Trainer, CyclotronThis particular bike trainer has a resistance adjustment knob in the back. This is easy to use and you can set a wide variety of resistance levels from really easy to incredibly hard. I can see how it would be nice to have a Bike Trainer with a remote resistance control although since you can also change gears on your bike as you ride that is not totally necessary.

I found that I may even get a better workout on the bike trainer than I do riding outdoors. When riding outdoors there are quite a few times on any ride that you are able to coast while riding and essentially take a break (without even stopping). On the trainer I feel guilty if I stop so I tend to ride the entire time that I am on it. Also, since this is a mag trainer (not fluid) the resistance level is not “progressive” so when you stop pedalling the rear wheel stops pretty quickly then when you start again it is almost like starting from a complete stop again.

Entertainment and Boredom-Breaking Options:

OK, I saved the most fun stuff for last. Whether it is a Bike Trainer, an Exercise Bike or an Indoor Cycle/Spin Bike an indoor workout is usually just not as much fun as riding outdoors. Fortunately, there are plenty of entertainment and inspirational options available these days.

In my case, I started my workout playing music through my iPhone. Playing music as you workout is entertaining and can also be motavational. I started with my ear-buds but I found it a little difficult to find a place for my iPhone since I was wearing a t-shirt (without a pocket) and besides I prefer speakers if I have a choice. Bike Trainer setup

So my next step was to setup my sons old stereo that was not being used, and had an Aux jack (for my iPhone). My son basically did this pretty quickly. So now I have a small stereo in our new workout room! (I mean my daughters room 🙂 ).

One of the nicer features that most of the mid-range or better Exercise Bikes have these days is iPod/MP3 jacks and sound systems that are built into the console. It is nice to have the built-in sound system but as you can see by what I just described, it is not totally necessary since there are other options too.

Although we do have a tv in my new exercise room my daughter’s room, we moved the cable box to another room for a while so I don’t have a tv signal in that room. Still, that is not a problem these days since I have my laptop and can play videos (YouTube or others) and/or Netflix.

In my case, for this initial workout, I setup my laptop and played some of the bike trail videos that I have on this website and that I always thought would be fun to watch while riding indoors. You can find the Bike Trail Videos on this site here.

Our bike trail videos are bike trails mostly in the Chicagoland area. Unfortunately, I used an older camcorder and the quality is not up to today’s standards and I’m not sure if you can play them full screen on all computers and mobile devices.

The thing that I liked about the bike trail videos on this site ~ aside from knowing that I had quite a few and where to find them ~ is that they are fairly long (mostly around 15 minutes) and they are bike trails in this area that I have ridden and am familiar with.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun to (virtually) ride the Busse Woods Trail and the Chicago Lakefront Trail as I worked out yesterday! Then I rode the Des Plaines River Trail this morning as I was taking the bike trainer photos.

Well, my homemade virtual-ride setup may not be as advanced as other options that are available these days ~ like the Proform Tour de France (TDF) Bike ~ but it was still a lot of fun.

After a short time I realized that I really needed a fan to stay cool during my workout so I setup a big box fan in front of my bike. This is one thing that you get natuarally on your outdoor bikes but for me a fan was essential for an indoor workout. Besides, then it felt even more like I was outdoors on a real trail! Once again, many Exercise Bikes come with fans built into their consoles but this is not totally necessary either (besides I don’t think that the built-in Exercise BIke fans ever cool you down that much).

One thing that I totally forgot to check out yesterday was my heart-rate monitor. My HR monitor is integrated into my Garmin 800 Bike GPS computer so since I was not going to be covering any real territory, I didn’t think of it at the time but I see no reason why I can not just strap on my HR chest strap and monitor my HR through my GPS as I ride indoors.

Summary:

Well, I guess this post got a little long but to sum up my thoughts I found this simple Bike Trainer to be easy to use, a great workout and really a lot of fun. Bike Trainers (in general) are a really nice economical way to get a good workout indoors (and without going to the gym or fitness center).

See our Bike Trainers page for more information on the different kinds of trainers, their benefits and for some good online resources.

One of the advantages that indoor (magnetic resistance) Exercise Bikes have over Bike Trainers, Indoor Cycles (or Spin Bikes) is the built-in consoles that allow you to track (and upload in some cases) all of your ride stats such as Speed, Calories Burned, Watts, Distance, Time, etc. See our Best Buy Exercise Bikes page for plenty of exercise bike information and reviews.

I was able to use the stopwatch feature on my iPhone to track my workout time on the bike trainer but I really had no indication about my speed, distance ot the other stats.

Actually my wife asked me how far I rode and, wthout really thinking about it much, I just said “Zero Miles“. Actually I did not ride a single mile, yard, foot or inch! My average speed was also zero. I did not move! It’s a “stationary bike”! 🙂

I thought that this was kind of funny in a way. It actually is nice to have a mileage number and a speed number even though they are actually only calculations or estimates as to what you might have ridden on a “real ride”. These stats are nice for comparison purposes (and I’ll try not to think of is so literally)!

Recumbent Elliptical Reviews and Dual Action Exercise Bikes

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One thing leads to another and after adding over 100 fitness bike reviews to this website I have just completed our fourth Recumbent Elliptical (aka: Seated Elliptical) Review.

For those of you who are familiar with the history of this website, we started out being all About Bicycles (of course) with an emphasis on bikes, bike accessories and bike trails in the Chicagoland area (and in Wisconsin).

Well, cycling is all about fitness too so we moved into fitness bikes (Indoor Cycles and Upright and Recumbent Exercise Bikes) and I have been fortunate to have a close friend who is an expert in fitness equipment (formerly a VP at a major fitness company) and I have also met and consulted with other exercise bike product specialists in the industry over the years. I focus more on fitness bikes in the winter and I love supporting fitness and good health in general.

For those of you who ride a lot outdoors, you may have noticed that Recumbent Bikes are getting more popular. There are quite a few different kinds of recumbent bikes (and trykes) available these days although they share some common features. They are very comfortable to ride, are easy on the knees and provide great back support. A friend of mine has owned 2 recumbents (a SWB (short wheel base) and LWB (long wheel base)) and I have ridden many miles on these bikes and can confirm how comfortable these bikes are.

OK, getting back on track with the subject of this blog post, in the process of reviewing numerous Recumbent Exercise Bikes, I ran across some Dual-Action models (with either levers or pedals for your arms and upper body) and eventually started looking into Recumbent (or Seated) Elliptical Bikes (or trainers). Sorry if gets a little confusing with the various names but even though these machines have been around for years, I still see them referred to using the different names that I’ve used here.

I have also received emails from visitors to this site who were looking for Dual Action Exercise Bikes or Recumbent Bikes (or ellipticals) or both so I needed to become more familiar with these kinds of fitness products.

What I have found is that there are quite a few different configurations and kinds of Exercise Bikes and Elliptical Trainers that are Dual-Action and/or Recumbent and they are designed and used for different purposes.

Some people prefer a dual action fitness bike to stay in shape for riding season and to get an upper body work out too. I have found that many of the people looking for this kind of fitness product have special needs and use them for Rehab, Physical Therapy, Weight Loss or just a good low impact aerobic exercise.

Schwinn Airdyne AD2The first Dual Action Exercise Bikes that I looked into (many years ago) were Dual Action Fan Bikes. The most popular are the Schwnn models like the original Schwinn Airdyne and the newer (less expensive) Schwinn Airdyne AD2. Fan Bikes use a pedaling motion (like a regular bike) and have levers for your upper body workout.

I could not find any other dual-action bikes that used a regular pedal and crank (like an outdoor bike) and that also had an upper-body exercise mechanism although there are quite a few models that use an elliptical design for your lower body workout and also have either levers or pedals for your arms and upper body.

I have seen quite a few Octane Recumbent Ellipticals at some of the boutique fitness stores around here but did not find as good of a selection online. I also reviewed the Inspire CS2 Recumbent Elliptical but that model is no longer available online.

The Smooth V2300 is a very popular Recumbent/Seated Elliptical Bike, which I still have listed as active on our site although they are currently out of stock (I have talked to my representative at Smooth and have been told that they should be available again in mid-February). The Smooth V2300 uses elliptical pedals for your lower body workout and a pedaling device for your upper body exercise.

Some of the models that you can get online now are the Proform Hybrid Trainer, which is a dual-action elliptical that can also be used as a seated or recumbent elliptical. The arm levers for your upper body exercise are only accessible, however in the standing elliptical position. HCI PhysioStep RXT Recumbent Elliptical

And finally, I get to the Recumbent Elliptical that I have just reviewed and that is available online now which is the HCI PhysioStep RXT Recumbent Elliptical (I saved the best for last).

This product is truly a Dual-Action Recumbent Elliptical Trainer with a Recumbent/Seated Elliptical Trainer, for your lower body, and adjustable Arm Levers for your upper body exercise.

One of the things that really impressed me about this fitness product is the overwhelmingly positive and consistent customer reviews on this product.

See our HCI PhysioStep RXT Recumbent Elliptical Review for more detail on this product, the customer reviews, our review and the best place to get this Recumbent Elliptical online.

Fitness Bikes at Electronic Stores

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With all of the Fitness Bikes that we’ve reviewed on this site (Upright, Recumbent and Spin Bikes), I often go out to stores ~ in the brick and mortar world ~ to compare prices, see what stores carry which brands, to check out the exercise bikes, talk to people in the stores about the fitness bikes that they carry and find out about the latest sales going on.

This weekend I was surprised to discover that a few of the stores that I consider primarily consumer electronic stores also have a very good selection of high quality exercise bikes and fitness equipment. The three electronic stores that I checked out were Best Buy, hhgregg and ABT in Glenview, Il.

The first store that I visited was ABT in Glenview, Illinois. ABT is a huge store that has been in business for quite a while and has survived the consumer electronics wars of the past but I believe that there is just the one store in Glenview (so this is not a national chain). ABT has grown into much more than just consumer electronics at this point. If you live in the Chicagoland area this is a good b&m store for fitness equipment.

What I found at ABT was that they carry Proform, Life Fitness, Schwinn and Spirit Fitness exercise bikes. There was a good selection of Life Fitness and Proform, one Schwinn Fan bike ~ the Schwinn Airdyne AD2 Fan Bike ~ and one Spirit Fitness bike. Proform Tour de France, TDF Spin Bike

One thing that was really nice at ABT was that they had the popular Proform Tour de France TDF bike set up and on display. Although this bike is very popular online, there are not a lot of stores at this time where you can actually see and try out this bike so if you are interested in the Proform TDF this is a great place to see it.

My next stop (for fitness equipment at electronics stores) was hhgregg. Hhgregg is a chain of b&m stores (over 190 at this time according to their website) mostly located west of the Mississippi at this time.

I like hhgregg, I think that they are a good alternative to Best Buy and I found that they carry some very good quality fitness equipment too. The HHGregg store by us carried the Life Fitness, Horizon and AFG brands.

Horizon RC30 RecumbentWhat I found very nice about hhgregg is that you can see and tryout the Horizon Fitness bikes that I reviewed at the Horizon headquarters in Cottage Grove Wisconsin and have reviewed and recommended on this website for quite some time now.

Horizon does not have a large selection of exercise bikes ~ just one Spin Bike (the Horizon M4) and one Recumbent Bike (the Horizon RC30) ~ but they are a very high quality brand and also very affordable (a nice combination). I would really like to see them come out with an upright but we will probably need to wait for that one.

The prices for the Horizon bikes at hhgregg were better than online list prices at Amazon and Horizon (factory direct) but not as good as the price from our site when you apply the 10% discount code that we are able to offer at this time. See the two Horizon links above for more information on the 10% discount if you are interested in this.

I would have to say that all the exercise bike brands that hhgregg carries are good quality  and, in general, their prices are also very good.

And my last stop on the electronic store/fitness bike tour was Best Buy. I have seen exercise bikes (and fitness equipment) on the Best Buy website but I actually did not remember ever seeing fitness equipment at Best Buy but since I was never looking for it there I thought that I might have missed it.

As it turns out Best Buy only sells fitness equipment online (through 3rd party stores) and does not sell fitness equipment in their stores (according to the sales rep that I talked to (and who seemed knowledgeable)).

So there you have it. A few more brick and mortar stores that you can go to and find and try out different fitness equipment brands.

The New 2013 NordicTrack Commercial VR Pro Review

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I recently discovered that NordicTrack had just released their new top of the line Recumbent Exercise Bike, the NordicTrack Commercial VR PRO. I have been familiar with the Original Commercial VR for quite some time now and at first I didn’t notice that this was an upgraded version of that bike. NordicTrack Commercial VR PRO

It has taken some time and research but I have just posted my review of the NordicTrack Commercial Recumbent Exercise Bike here.

You can tell right away that the new Commercial VR Pro has a sleeker look than the original version and there are a few other differences too although they may not be real obvious, even with the automatic compare feature on their website, so I added a brief summary of the differences to our review (the link above).

As I mentioned in my review, the Commercial VR bikes from NordicTrack are not really commercial grade bikes ~ as the name implies ~ but really heavy-duty, high-end residential bikes that you can get at a reasonable price.

This is actually good since commercial grade fitness equipment is usually way more expensive then residential models and really not always the best choice for in-home use anyway. Commercial equipment is made to withstand long hours of continuous use (and abuse) by multiple users and often times does not have some of the nicer (more breakable) features that you get on residential models.

One example is that both Commercial VR bikes come with a wireless heart-rate transmitters (chest straps) that are compatible with the bike’s console. You might find commercial bikes that are compatible with wireless transmitters but you’ll need to be sure that it is compatible with the kind that you have or are considering getting.

Besides for giving you a more accurate heart-rate reading (than typical handle grip heart-rate monitors) the wireless HR transmitters allow your hands to be free through your entire ride for reading, using a laptop or mobile device or anything else that you want to do as you get or stay in shape.

I was wondering why NordicTrack, and some of the other fitness websites, are still having sales and promotions when we are just 4 days away from Christmas. Then it occurred to me that, since so many people are ready to get in shape the minute that the holidays are over, it makes sense that the early shoppers (for the after-Christmas fitness season) can order their fitness equipment now and have it on its way and delivered right after the holidays.

Anyway, if you are interested in the latest high-end NordicTrack Recumbent Bikes, see our Commercial VR Pro and Commercial VR reviews and comparisons.

And one final note… It is 5:25pm Central Time on 12/21/2012 and I am still here… It is starting to look like the holidays will be here right on schedule… 🙂

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Lance Armstrong Mess and Livestrong Exercise Bikes

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It really is a shame about this whole Lance Armstrong Mess. Personally, I still want to believe that the doping charges are not true and I wish that he would have fought to prove that the accusations were not true. Unfortunately, Lance chose not to fight and his downfall is now history (fairly recent history anyway).

There are many things that bother me about this whole situation but I want to focus on is the things that I am the most familiar with and on trying to preserve the good things (that can be preserved) that Lance has been involved with (outside of racing).

I think that most people that are familiar with Lance Armstrong know about his fight with and recovery from cancer and that he founded the Livestrong foundation to help cancer patients, promote healthy living and to help fight cancer.

If you have seen the recent news stories about Lance not fighting the latest doping allegations, being banned from professional cycling and being stripped of his 7 Tour de France wins, then you may also know that Lance Armstrong has stepped down as chairman of the Livestrong foundation (as well as being dropped from most, if not all, of his previous sponsors).

My concern, even though Lance has stepped down as chairman of the Livestrong foundation, is the potential harm that could be done to this organization since it was founded by Lance and has had such a close relationship to him for so many years. I mean even the name “Livestrong” still sounds like it is connected with the fallen cyclist.

I know that the Livestrong foundation has done a lot of good things in recent years and I really hope that they can continue their good work without a lot of damage or fall out from the Lance Armstrong demise.

The other thing that I am familiar with and that is very relevant to this website is Livestrong Exercise Bikes and Indoor Cycles. These fitness products are produced by Johnson Health Tech in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin. This company had made quality fitness products long before they partnered with the Livestrong foundation and continues to make quality products under the Livestrong brand name as well as other brand names (Horizon Fitness, AFG, Matrix, Vision Fitness…).

Livestrong LS28IC

Livestrong LS28IC Limited Edition Indoor Cycle

My concern here is that, if the Livestrong brand name gets a bad reputation, this could cause problems for Johnson Health Tech and the sale of their quality Livestrong products as well as the Livestrong foundation.

I had met with some of the managers and product specialists at Johnson Health Tech in Wisconsin a little over a year ago which is one of the reasons why I am so familiar with the company and many of its products (specifically the fitness bikes).

I have not actually spoken to them recently about the effects of the Lance Armstrong “mess” (as I called it in the first sentence of this post) but I know that the sales of Livestrong Fitness Bikes (indirectly) from this site in November are about 1/10th of what they were last year so that is not a good sign.

Last year, at this time, Livestrong was still selling the Limited Edition LS28IC Indoor Cycle  (pictured above) that totally celebrated Lance Armstrong’s achievements in addition to providing a generous donation to the Livestrong foundation for each sale of this bike.This was a limited edition bike and has been sold out for quite some time now which is probably good since I’m not sure how it would sell these days ~ who knows, maybe it would be even more popular. 😐

I don’t think that all this negative publicity about Lance is good for Livestrong brand fitness products but I have noticed that you can get their Exercise Bikes and Indoor Cycles (Spin Bikes) at lower prices these days on Amazon where they were rarely marked down in the past.

The following Livestrong bikes have had price reductions at Amazon recently:

Many of these bikes have been on our Best Buys list which is another indication of the quality of these products.

I know that there has already been a lot of stuff written about the Lance Armstrong news but I had to post what I’ve been thinking and concerned about and, of course,  the Livestrong Fitness Bike information that is so relevant to this website.

Previously, I had a blurb on the LS9.9IC page about how Lance Armstrong had endorsed this Spin Bike and just now I jumped on the bandwagon and removed my LA endorsement comments from that page (which was a sad change to make).

Good Riding Weather before the Holidays and Holiday Sales

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I can’t believe it but I am still adding more bike miles to my bike computer for the 2012 riding season. We have been lucky recently and have had some excellent riding weather here in the Chicagoland area.

It has been into the 50s and 60s the last few days and it’s been really nice for riding if you can get out in the warmer part of the day. Of course, there is a lot less daylight riding time at this time of the year and I have noticed that the temperature seems to drop pretty quickly when it starts getting close to sunset. I don’t usually get a lot of riding in during the week of Thanksgiving but I’ll take it if I can get it.

The other thing that I wanted to mention, which I’m sure you are all painfully aware of (with the xmas commercials revving up for the holiday season) is that we are starting to see some of the big sales happening online and I know that later this week it is going to go absolutely crazy.

I have been watching this closely and I’ll be posting cycling product updates on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on our Specials pages.

For example, we’ll have Bike and Bike Accessories sales and promotions on our Bike Sales, Promotions, Special Deals and Discounts page and  Fitness Bike sales and promotions on our Exercise Bike Special Deals and Discounts page.

Also I put together a page for page for bike rider and cyclist gift ideas last year and I just made some minor updates to it for this year. I didn’t have to make a lot of major changes because most of the cycling products that made good gifts for cyclists before still make for good gifts now! Anyway, see our Bike Rider Gift Ideas and Gifts for Cyclists page for bike rider gift ideas if this is something that you are interested in.

Late Season Riding and New Fitness Bikes

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It’s that time of the year, here in the mid-west, where outdoor bike riding season is nearly over. Well, it may already be over for some people and may never be over for others (I’ve seen some pretty rugged cyclists out in the dead of winter).

For me, I usually consider bike riding season to mostly be within the daylight-savings-time date range although I can usually get some riding in before or after these dates. Riding at this time of year is much colder, of course, and you really need to dress properly but you also have less daylight.

Anyway, I have still been getting out for some late season rides but I don’t think that I will have a lot more (unless we have a really mild winter again). Yesterday was a really nice day to ride since there was very little wind and I was thinking about how much I will be missing my rides during the winter.

Well, I still have to stay in shape so that leads us right into the Indoor Cycling and Fitness Bike Season. This is the time of year when a lot of the fitness companies are coming out with their new Indoor Cycles and Exercise Bikes (along with all their other products) and the Fitness Clubs are trying hard to get new members. NordicTrack 2.5 Upright

I have been researching the latest Indoor Cycles and Exercise Bikes and updating this site with information and reviews on the new models (and archiving the older models when they are no longer available).

Some of the most recent exercise bikes to come out are the NordicTrack GX4.2 Recumbent and NordicTrack GX4.2 Upright and NordicTrack 2.5 Upright. NordicTrack seemed to find the right design a long time ago and they just make minor improvements to their previous year models each year. For example the GX4.2 Recumbent and Upright are very similar to last year’s GX4.0 series with some minor improvements (see the links above for more details on the changes).

If you prefer the convenience of an In-Home fitness routine (rather than a club or gym) and want to keep your costs down you also have the option of using a Bike Trainer or bike stand for your outdoor bike.

There are some pros and cons with Bike Trainers vs Exercise Bikes. Some of the advantages of a bike trainer is the much lower cost, of course, and the fact that you can ride your own outdoor bike that you are familiar with. Some of the disadvantages of trainers is that your outdoor bike on a trainer is probably not as sturdy, stable and comfortable as an exercise bike and you need to physically connect your bike to the trainer making it difficult to ride both indoors and outdoors (like at this time of year).

I am going to be keeping up on the latest indoor cycles, exercise bikes and spin bikes so you’ll probably be seeing more on the latest models and sales soon. I also have a story about the heart-rate monitor for my GPS unit but that is a whole different story which I’ll be saving that for another post soon.

Day at the Races, 2013 Bikes, Hybrid and Misc.

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It’s been a while since my last post here and there have been a lot of little things that I wanted to mention or write about that were not really enough for a full blog post by themselves so I decided to include them in this multi-topic blog post.

Bike and Horse RaceI’ll start off with my Day at the Races. My wife and I went to Arlington Park race track this weekend for something fun to do and, in my case, to get some photos too. This is not really a bike related topic but when I was there I noticed a lot of similarities in the racing scene between the horse race and the bike races that I was at this summer (the Tour of Elk Grove specifically).

OK, well the horse race scene is much more about gambling and there are plenty of other differences too but for some reason there seemed to be a lot of similarities too. They are both colorful events that draw large crowds (and are good photo ops 🙂 ). Both events share the anticipation of the race itself, a similar speed/pace, and the excitement of the race and competition are similar.

Well, this is a stretch but I had some Photoshop fun merging one of my photos from the horse race this weekend with one of my TOEG photos (the photo shown here). I also just looked up the average speed for horse races and it is very close to the speed of professional bike races at times so the photo may not be as obscure as it appears at first (well, maybe if the cyclist had a paved track).

2013 Bikes Available Online

In other actual cycling news, I wanted to mention that I have discovered that there are now some 2013 bikes for sale online. Specifically, there are some 2013 versions of the popular Cannondale bikes for sale at REI like the Cannondale Quick, CAAD10 and CR1 for starters.

Hybrid Elliptical and Recumbent Bike

As we start falling into a little more of the indoor fitness season, I have been looking into the latest fitness products out there and found an interesting new product from Proform. It is a hybrid elliptical trainer and recumbent exercise bike. This is not going to be for everyone but since hybrids do typically meet the needs of some people that are looking for a combination of two (or more) products in one, this may be perfect for some of you. You can see my review on this fitness product at the Proform Hybrid Trainer Review on this site.

Helpful Information about your Social Security Statements

And finally I want to mention one more topic that is not even bike related but I have found this information to be very valuable and since this blog has a large number of readers and subscribers I wanted to post it here (as well as on some of my other sites). If you are here only for the Bike Info and/or if this does not apply to you then please feel free to skip this one.

This is not real new but many of you may have noticed that the government does not send out the hardcopy Social Security Statements that show your entire working history, earnings and potential retirement benefits from Social Security anymore.

What you may not know is that you can now get the exact same Social Security Statement online at: www.ssa.gov/mystatement. You will need to setup a login  account which will require your SSN (of course) and additional personal tax information that only you should have. It looks like the security is pretty good and I am glad about that. You may need to look some stuff up in order to setup the login account.

Anyway, once you set this up, you will have access to all the SS Statement info that you used to get in the mail.

le Tour de France 2012 continues… TDF updates and perspective

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le Tour de France is well underway now and they just completed Stage 3 today. I have really been getting into watching le Tour (I usually record it and watch it when I get  a chance) although I have not yet seen Stage 3, which will air later tonight. I would definitely recommend watching this event to anyone that is into cycling (even if you are not into racing).

le Tour de France logo

le Tour de France is on now!

Personally, I am just amazed at the condition of the riders in le Tour de France and how they can average around 25 mph for over 100 miles and do that for 3 weeks straight! And don’t forget racing up the mountains! Even if you do not get caught up in the race itself, there is still some beautiful scenery and the fanatical spectators can be an interesting show also.

The TDF is being broadcast on the NBS Sports channel and has been aired throughout the day until today. They are now playing some of the Olympics events throughout the day also although they still have the TDF on in the morning and early evening so there are still plenty of times to catch a stage or two.

I have only ridden over 100 miles in a day one time myself. That took most of the day and I was too tired to ride the next day so I just can’t imagine doing a ride like that in around 3 hours and then doing it again almost everyday for 3 weeks. I also stopped for breaks and to have snacks and a meal at my turnaround point. Last night I noticed that the TDF riders grab a “feed bag” from people on the sidelines as they continue riding.

Since I put so much time and effort into this cycling website, I am also very in-tune to the cycling related stories and commercials. Aside from the car and beer commercials I noticed that Cannondale, Trek and Proform had a pretty major presence.

The Cannondale commercial, that I’ve seen, advertises the Cannondale Supersix Evo as “The worlds best bike”. Well, I do like Cannondale and I think they make excellent bikes but this really should be qualified since the “best bike” for anyone is going to be the bike that fits your own particular riding style the best. I am sure that the Supersix Evo is one of the best road/racing bikes (in the world) but it would not be much use to a mountain biker.

Anyway, the Supersix bikes are Cannondale’s top of the line bikes in their Elite Road Bike category. Which is just above the Cannondale CAAD10 bikes, which I have reviewed and rated (highly) on this site.  Another nice thing about Cannondale Bikes, aside from their high quality, is that you can actually order them online. They are still only sold through authorized Cannondale dealers but you can find a good selection online, order online and then pick your bike up at a local store (see the link above for more on this).

Trek also makes some very high quality bikes (along with mid-range models) although I don’t know of anyplace (at least not any national merchant) where you can order Trek bikes online.

And finally, I noticed that they are now referring to the Proform TDF Gen2 model (exercise bike) as the “2012” Proform TDF Indoor Cycle and they have a new commercial this year. Actually I think that I liked last year’s commercial better.

OK, back the the actual TDF, I just read that Peter Sagan of Slovakia won the “crash-marred” third stage of the Tour de France although Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland is still the overall leader (who will continue to wear the yellow jersey).  I don’t normally like to look ahead at the TDF news until after I have watched the day’s race but I had to look-up a few things today and saw that story.

The “crash-marred” third stage does not sound good. I saw a few crashes on the first few stages this year but it did not look like there were any serious injuries. Of course, any crash is serious for these riders who have obviously trained hard for years to get to the TDF. I just hope that there are no serious or permanent injuries.

The TDF can be exciting to watch but it can also be very dangerous. I still remember the crash from last year when the TV car clipped a rider (Juan Antonio Flecha) and knocked him down into the pavement and consequently knocked another rider (Johnny Hoogerland) down and threw him into a barbed wire fence. That looked nasty. It also looked like the car did it on purpose to me. 😐

Well I hope that you will get a chance to catch at least some of this year’s Tour de France. I’m sure there will be a lot more exciting stuff and interesting scenes and information for all cyclists.

 

Mother’s Day Exercise Bike Sales

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I’ve been receiving some updates from the fitness places that I work with that there are some Mother’s Day Sales going on right now on exercise bikes, stationary bikes, and spin bikes ~ since Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday, May 13th.

Lifecore 850RBS Recumbent Exercise Bike

Lifecore 850RBS Recumbent Exercise Bike for 10% off

I wanted to pass on this information to anyone who is considering fitness equipment ~ specifically exercise bikes or spin bikes ~ for their mother, or their kid’s mother 🙂  ~ for Mother’s Day. If you are going to order fitness equipment online, you’ll need to place your order soon (see the details from each merchant for their specific delivery date deadlines).

Here are some of the sales that are currently going on:

Lifecore Fitness is offering 10% off on all of their exercise bikes. These are very good quality exercise bikes and the 10% off is a good deal since they do not normally have a lot of sales through out the year.

NordicTrack is also having a Mother’s Day sale going on now and they have some pretty good prices right now on their exercise bikes (and other fitness equipment).

See our Exercise Bike Specials, Sales and Discounts Page (here) for the details on these sales. Note: you will need the coupon code on the page that I just referenced for the 10% off on the Lifecore bikes.