I hope you are enjoying the start of 2010. We are getting ramped up for a great year with new services, tons of workshops and alot of teaching and coaching…everything we love. There are many new things that get introduced at the beginning of the year and one of them is new indoor bike designs. Like cars, some new indoor bike models have hit the scene.

Let me warn you right from the start of this entry, this is not a happy post. I’m about to go off on a rant about the state of available equipment for indoor cycling. I’m not going to mention companies and product by name at this time, but Stage5 will be producing a guide to indoor bikes next month. We will grade them on a number of criteria including proper fit, real road feel, reliability, quality, maintenance issues and electronics (HR, Cadence, Power, etc.) to name a few. My biggest issue for this post is bike fit. Is it that stinkin hard to find a real bike somewhere in the world to model these indoor bikes from. Come on!

Now understand that even though Stage5 Cycling is heavily entrenched in the indoor cycling industry, we are first and foremost cycling coaches who perform biomechanic assessments and bike fits on a weekly basis. So to say the least, we emphasis proper fit on the bike.

Now to back down the emotion a decibel, it is not that all of the bikes are missing the mark totally, but each one has its issues when it comes to putting a rider in the correct position. The most prominent issue is positioning of the handlebars. Although some manufacturers are getting on board with the need to move the handlebars toward or away from the rider (fore-aft) some new models still do not incorporate this feature. The other issue with handlebars, which is wide-spread, is how low they can be adjusted. I’m 5′8″ and when setup correctly on a “real” bike, have my handlebars approximately 4cm lower than the height of my saddle. The best I can do on most indoor bikes is having my handlebars the same height as my saddle. What about everyone who is shorter than 5′8″? Depending on the length of their legs, their handlebars will “always” be higher than their saddle. Don’t get me started on the various shapes and tilt of handlebars. I’m not talking about just having a set of handlebars that look like those found on a road bike (which would be a nice option), but just general hand positions found on a road bike, mountain bike, whatever. This in combination with poor fore-aft adjustment and incorrect handlebar height starts to become very frustrating.

One manufacturer, in an attempt to make settings easier, reduced the fore-aft saddle positions to 3 settings: (+) (0) and (-). Very simple, but I can’t get a number of riders in the proper position with their knees correctly aligned over the pedals. This is potentionally dangerous as incorrrect biomechanics can eventually lead to overuse injuries or worse.

Tonight I was teaching a workshop for instructors on bike setup for indoor cycling. During the workshop one instructor said that she found that riders who usual bike outdoors rounded their backs to maintain that aerodynamic position when riding during indoor cycling classes. I thought this was an interesting observation. Unfortunately is had nothing to do with aerodynamics and all to do with the fact that the bike was incorrectly designed and without fore-aft adjustment for the handlebars.

Come on people (directed at indoor bike manufacturers)! Health clubs are trying to attract more cyclists to their clubs (more members) and you are not helping. We are also trying to keep everyone safe and in the correct position. Here’s a suggestion: Bicycles are NOT rare. Go to your local bike shop and buy 3 bikes (xsmall/47cm, medium/54cm and xlarge/64cm) and go design an indoor bike that can be matched to all of these geometries. Here’s another suggestion, go and find the people at your companies that ride bikes outdoors and ask them to bring their bikes to work so you can measure them. If you don’t have anyone at your company that rides a bike outdoors, you have no business making indoor bikes.

OK, time to make an appointment with my chiropractor