ExerciseBike
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One man is cycling the length of Britain in VR
Exercise bikes can be a little boring. Even with some music or mindless TV in the background, it's a mind-numbing workout. Pedalling, pedalling, pedalling. Not for Aaron Puzey. The Brit has developed an app for Samsung's Gear VR headset which displays Street View imagery while he's riding. Using a Bluetooth cadence sensor, which tracks how fast he's pedalling, the app knows when to manipulate and change the panoramas, giving the impression that he's travelling. His goal? To ride the length of Britain, from Land's End in Cornwall to John O'Groats in Scotland.
Ask Engadget: best connected exercise bike?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Mårten, a self-styled Swedish geek with a love of statistics who wants to make a lifestyle change in 2013. If you're looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "I'm looking for a recumbent exercise bike that's able to hook up to a smartphone or tablet. That way, I could also hook it up to my Withings scale and my ANT+ (Bluetooth 4.0) chest strap. I've got a need to loose weight, so could your readers tell me if they've found anything similar on the market? Thanks!" Well Mårten, we struck out looking for bikes that just had tablet docks, but you can always just pick up a holder like the Scosche IPD2FR -- which would do a similar job. Of course, perhaps the throng of Engadgeteers will know better, and if you do, let us know downstairs.
Exercise bike connects to original Mario Kart, Rainbow Road shortcut gets even trickier (video)
Canadian modder Brent Smith has managed to connect an aging exercise bike to Nintendo's perennial racer. Naturally, there's some Arduino involvement, but the whole setup plugs directly into an original SNES console -- no emulation necessary. Power-ups are accessed with a button in the center of the exercise bike's handles, each of which has a directional button for steering, while the pedals function as the acceleration button, accurate to one sixth of a rotation. According to Smith, "it's a lot harder than it looks" -- and we believe him. Watch his test-drive kart plow off-track in the video demo after the break.
Google Maps-powered training bike simulates Tour de France, refuses to speak English
Poor France. The nation known mostly for its food and wine only has a few major sporting events to call its own, yet we -- great, fat and lazy America -- have pwned its most iconic one for seven years. That legacy could still live on -- if you don't mind shelling out $1299 and sweating all over your living room floor, that is. Powered by Google Maps and touted as the official trainer of Le Tour de France, comes a Pro-Form training bike so hardcore, it even simulates potholes. Ok, we made that last part up, but it does allow you to feel the burn of 24 pre-set courses, or one of your own punishing design. For the ultra-committed indoor enthusiast, there's also Intelligent Wind Resistance and a 20 percent incline / decline feature that'll match the ups and downs of real life outdoor cycling without the hassle of the actual outdoors. Honestly, it's a bit much and we can't really see this thing taking off with the New Year's Eve resolution set, but if you've always wanted that biker's derriere, this is your trainer.
LifeFitness exercise bike interfaces with Nexus S, makes fitness marginally enjoyable (video)
LifeFitness may have taken one too many creative liberties with its Cyberbike Wii accessory, but it did a laudable job of redeeming itself at Google I/O this week. The outfit brought a USB-equipped exercise bike to the show floor, where an Open Accessory-enabled Nexus S promptly stole the show. We were shown a demo of the CardioQuest app interfacing with the cycle over the aforementioned protocol; the bike itself had a heretofore unreleased firmware update installed that allowed it to interact with the phone, and we're told that said update will be available free of charge to existing customers in the coming weeks. As was announced yesterday during the opening keynote, the Android Open Accessory API is currently only capable of handling communications over USB, but that didn't stop a clever game from keeping a booth representative mighty busy. The gist is pretty simple -- pedal harder to move the Android up, and relax your stride to see him float down. The goal is to avoid the surrounding walls, while also keeping your mind from focusing on the fact that you're actually burning calories. Mum's the word on whether or not this particular app will ever make it into the Android Market, but there's a video of the chaos waiting just after the break, regardless.
Ciclotte exercise bike for the big wheel enthusiast
We can't say we've given much thought to the state of the exercise bike design, but we're definitely digging the Ciclotte concept that was just exhibited in Milan. Details are light, apart from a note that it's almost entirely made of carbon fiber, but hopefully designer Luca Schieppati is working on bringing it -- and that crazy road-faring version on the left -- to market soon. Hit the read link for way more pics.[Via Minimalismi]
Trixter exercise bike gets a PSP add-on kit
It's not like Sony's PSP hasn't flanked the top of a steering wheel before, but the X-Bike Sony PSP Kit takes the handheld into the world of exercising like never before. Of course, we're not sure if this newfangled motivational tool will help you melt off the pounds like other systems we've seen, but the half-hearted attempt to integrate the PSP into an exercise bike allows users to watch movies (or fitness tapes) whilst burning calories. Interestingly, the product page doesn't mention the possibility of gaming, but we see no reason why the uber-coordinated couldn't mash a few buttons while maintaining their balance on the bike, so feel free to drop your $100 if you know you're in that elite crowd.[Via Joystiq]
Relax whilst exercising with the L250 bike bed
If there's one thing that Engadget's editors will not stand for, it's being told that we have to put down our gadgets in order to do other tasks that require the use of our hands. That, dear readers, is the reason you will never see any of us getting on one of those mechanical people-powered bicycle contraptions -- we assure you, we have have no aversion to doing exercise, it's merely the idea that the handle bars would limit the number of times that we could check our Treo that prevents us from getting our bike on (which is similar, but not identical to getting on our bike). Fortunately for us, Hypoxi, a company specializing in "VacuTraining Teachnology", has solved our problem with the unveiling of the L250 stationary exercise bike bed. Instead of traditional exercise bike designs, the L250 has a reclined bed shape in the place of one of those awkwardly shaped bike seats. The bed bike apparently also comes with a vacuum chamber that forcibly sucks off any flab you may have around your waist -- only kidding! We have absolutely no idea what the vacuum chamber is, or how it's supposed to help you lose weight, but frankly we don't care, because the freedom that the L250 allows us is all we need. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're just gonna go plug our new bed bike into our recently installed brain port: a fifty mile cycle -- whilst we're sleeping -- should do it.[Via Fitness Gadgets]
Rig of the Day: Tune your cycling
Don't you just get bored to tears while exercising? Well, you've got two options: First, you can do what I do...don't exercise. Or, you can follow OndraSoukup's lead and strap a Powerbook to your stationery bike. Just don't jostle that thing too hard, ok?"Powerbook & Bike - winter edition" posted by OndraSoukup. If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. We select one image to highlight each day, and crown a Rig of the Week on Sundays.
