Exercise bikes

[kate_nepveu]

Hello, LJ. Having completed [major work thing] today, I intend to spend the weekend catching up on a lot of stuff—including looking at exercise bikes. Anyone have recommendations, suggestions, things to look for or avoid?

All I know now is that it should be sufficiently adjustable that I (5'3") and Chad (6'6") can use it. Oh, and I'd like some way to monitor my heart rate so I know I'm not slacking off, but that doesn't need to be intrinsic to the bike.

Comments

[ckd]

For me, the recumbent style bikes are best. Uprights kill my back.

We have a Precor, which is several years old and much less spiffy looking than the ones they sell now. The one adjustment that you'd need to make on ours is to loosen the "keel beam" knob, then push or pull the back end to the appropriate distance from the pedals. I don't know about the newer ones.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

re: heart rate - getting to know how your heart rate varies with your breathing will help avoid instrumentation (that I found to be spotty in reliability at best, but that was a while ago.) Then you try to exercise to a particular breathing level.

We got one of those roller devices - that way you can use your own bike. The one we had was not easy to use, however, so was ultimately unsatisfactory. Also, your bikes might be different enough that you'd have to adjust between uses; we are closer in size. That also was a while ago.

Good luck.

[leighdb.livejournal.com]

All but the most high-end electronic heart rate measurers are basically bullshit, according to my personal trainer.

The eaiest (and most accurate) way to monitor your heartbeat is manually - find your pulse while you're exercising, watch the timer display, and count the number of times your heart beats in ten seconds. Repeat periodically throughout exercise period.

What the ideal exercising heartrate is varies with the person, obviously, but I'm pretty typical, and mine was around 25 beats per ten seconds, or 150 beats a minute.

As for exercise bikes, I can't help you. I loathe the things, for some reason. Ellipticals are my aerobic gerbil wheel of choice.

[prince-corwin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my main comment is that I wished I knew how much I hated exercise bicycling when I bought mine, and had instead gotten an elliptical or a treadmill.

[itlandm.livejournal.com]

Funny, I've been looking at exercise bikes myself for some days now. Those are all Scandinavian, though. My parents used to have an exercise bike which I sometimes used while visiting them, and I enjoyed it. I walk quite a bit so biking is different for me. If you bike outdoors you may find it boring, like I would a threadmill. I'm currently drooling over a bike with magnetic resistance. Amazingly, it is lighter and cheaper than the purely mechanical ones.

Don't let people tell you that no pulse measuring devices work! I have a Polar pulse watch (a Finnish product, but they write English about as well as I do) and it is quite reliable until the batteries start running out (one year and a half for me). It requires a sensor belt that you wear right under your breasts, though. I doubt you can reliably measure heart rate in your hands like some training equipment claims; try before you buy! Anyway, it is true that if you monitor your pulse regularly, you learn to feel the different heart rates intuitively.

Unless a doctor tells you otherwise, the best training intensity is the one you want to do again because it was fun. But because a lot of men in particular start at max intensity, you can usually find used exercise bikes for sale at any time of the year, but especially from February onward. ^_^

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

I was going to recommend the Polar product, too. My wife uses it when she bikes and walks. It's not that expensive, pretty comfortable to wear (for me it was, at least) and you can use it for more than just the bike.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Whatever you get, you want it in a recumbent style. robeli will sit on that thing for an hour or two reading while she pedals away. Find one that's quiet. You won't use it if you hate listening to it. Quiet also allows you to watch TV or listen to music if reading while pedaling isn't your thing.