Bikes at the gym?

bigpikle

I'm stuck away for a week with no bike access, but have found a local gym offering day passes, and they have some bikes obviously, as well as some spin bikes advertised. Its been years since I last sat on a bike at the gym, and long before I got into cycling, but dont remember good experiences...huge fat saddle that gets in the way, poor position and thats after you queue to get one etc etc.

Is there any point to me getting in there 2-3 times and trying to get a decent workout on one, given it will be 6 days before I can ride again? I was thinking that I'd just try and get in a 2x20 using whatever resistance adjustment it offered to approximate a good effort level? I'm not sure if the spin bikes are for classes only or if you can just hop on one for 45-60 mins when you get there? I've never used one, but from the pictures they look like they might be closer to a real bike? The gym is a Pure Gym in Aberdeen.

Thoughts? Good idea or waste of £££ buying day passes?

Dave_P1

I'm not a fan of normal gym bikes but the spin bikes I've used haven't been that bad.
The way I look at it is, it's better than not doing anything.

Muffintop

Make sure you can get access to the spin bikes outside of class time. My last gym wouldn't let you use them unless you were attending a class for them. I never use the sit bikes - they hurt my @rse (I broke my coccyx a few years ago) and unless you ride in a really upright position I don't see the benefit myself.

You could always use the gym time to do some weight work.

Mx

PhilPub

I might be lucky but there are exercise bikes at my gym where I can get a pretty comfy position for a decent work-out. The seats are stupidly wide at the back but it just happens that getting a nice position for me involves sitting quite far forward and leaning my elbows on the bars, sort of TT stylee. Pins and needles set in after 45 mins or so, requiring a bit of fidgeting, but no worse than I experience on the turbo on my own bike at home.

Sooo, maybe not ideal but potentially a lot better than nothing. If you can get a day pass, give it a go.

mustol

Saddles do tend to be uncomfortable on gym bikes, to I tend to use them for practising out of the saddle - a mixture of shorter harder intervals and longer steady (up to 10 mins) intervals.

Pross

I use the Lifecycle gym bikes at my gym. I agree that the saddles aren't the best (too wide and chafe my thighs if I don't wear cycling shorts underneath). I only use it for short sessions, usually 20 minutes with 10 minutes steady riding followed by 5 sets of 30 second on / 30 second off sprints and 5 minute warm down. My biggest issue with them is the power reading, why can't they get accurate power measurements out of the bikes? The power output shown on screen changes as you go up the resistance levels but doesn't move when you stay in the same level and push harder!

PhilPub

Pross wrote:

My biggest issue with them is the power reading, why can't they get accurate power measurements out of the bikes? The power output shown on screen changes as you go up the resistance levels but doesn't move when you stay in the same level and push harder!

I take any readings on the bikes with a pinch of salt. Even if the wattage readings were accurate, I don't know how much power I'm losing by using normal trainers strapped into rubbery pedals, compared to proper cycling shoes into SPD-SLs! Having said that, if you can use the same bike regularly you can still get some idea of fitness progress. If I can sustain >100rpm for 2 x 15mins @ level 10 on bike #3 (just to the left of the telly showing Bargain Hunters at midday) then I'm doing well, even if this doesn't mean much in the real world.

bahzob

I have been using a Lifecycle since 2005. I also own Powertap wheels and use a Wattbike.

I have carried out some tests on my Lifecycle comparing HR, RPE and time to exhaustion at given watts compared to Powertap on a turbo and the Wattbike. The results were pretty close (a simple test vs the Powertap is herehttp://mr-miff-on-tour.blogspot.com/2007/03/22nd-march-powertap-v-lifefitness_23.html)