Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - OT: I just got a spin bike - how do you ride the thing?

Hi all,

Not really a N+1 bike, but I just picked up a spin bike for free. As it was free I figure I can play around with it before re-gifting it to somebody. I just rode 25 mins on the thing and sweated like a fire hydrant in my 38 degree garage. I have no idea about spin bikes and so I rode 3mins seated and at each 3 min interval I stood out of the seat and went 30 seconds. It was tough!

Anyone have tips for riding a spin bike? Anyway to use my Garmin on it to record HR / Distance etc? How hard should the resistance be?

My legs are like jelly as I never had the confidence to stand out of the saddle on the road.

Thanks all.

Get one of the Spinervals DVD's Riding with Team Clydesdale is an excellent one.

http://www.spinervals.com/products/item37.cfm

You will have to figure out your resistance compared to the Chainring gearing (some of their dvd's tell you what resistance on a scale of 1-5). My Spinner has 16 levels, so I divided it into 5 settings. I have a whole series of their workouts.

"Team Clydesdale" ! Sounds right up my alley. Thanks for your feedback. It must be doing something as my legs are achy this AM :)

I did a few spin sessions at the YMCA. The instructor was a very fit, attractive woman. She, and a few others, were the only real reasons for me to be there. I'd rather ride my bike.

The instructor was tough. Maybe even mean.

The instructor was tough. Maybe even mean.

haha.


I took one of those at my YMCA, too. It whipped me. The instructor was a pencil-thin woman in her late 50s/ early 60s and she was smiling like she had just told a whopper of a joke the entire time.

Some spin bikes don't have alot of wheel to chainstay clearence so determining if your bulky garmin sensors will fit is hard to tell without seeing your bike. However I did mount a wired computer to a customers spin bike one time. The cadence sensor wasn't the problem, the wheel magnet and pickup were the tough part because of how tight the wheel was to the stay. I winded up using a flat magnet from an old spinergy wheelset on the rear weight(wheel) and combined with the smaller pickups of the wired computer it allowed me to squeeze everything in where it needed to be. Hope this info helps

Thanks all. I have an old CatEye comp hanging around - perhaps I will give that a try :)

A little OT Here but I'm curious now, what's the benefit over a trainer with a spin bike? Is there less noise? (Finding that hard to believe looking at the flywheels on these beasts).

A little OT Here but I'm curious now, what's the benefit over a trainer with a spin bike? Is there less noise? (Finding that hard to believe looking at the flywheels on these beasts).

There is "road type" noise using my CycleOps trainer but ZERO noise on the spin bike - I was surprised.

A little OT Here but I'm curious now, what's the benefit over a trainer with a spin bike? Is there less noise? (Finding that hard to believe looking at the flywheels on these beasts).

In my opinion the only advantage a bike trainer has over a spinner is that you are training on your own bike in a position that your body is already accustomed to. A spin bike can be positioned relatively close to your normal bike because seat height and seat fwd/aft position relative to BB are adjustable, but reach and bar height are usually fixed. This especially helps when winter is over and you jump back on your regular bike. You won't have to get reaccustomed to your positioning on the bike.

Other than that I'd say its 6 of one, half dozen of the other.

In my opinion the only advantage a bike trainer has over a spinner is that you are training on your own bike in a position that your body is already accustomed to. A spin bike can be positioned relatively close to your normal bike because seat height and seat fwd/aft position relative to BB are adjustable, but reach and bar height are usually fixed. This especially helps when winter is over and you jump back on your regular bike. You won't have to get reaccustomed to your positioning on the bike.

Other than that I'd say its 6 of one, half dozen of the other.

Good answer.. I think the benefit it being a prefered bike I ride a lot is a better choice ;) Don't have the floor space for one of these things anyways.

My spin bike is able to be set up the same as my road bike. The only difference being the different handlebars. I do some track style training on the bike with standing start type training and high resistance over short period high cadence stuff. Doing that on my real bike on a trainer would have ripped through a number of rear tyres, and for that reason, I think the spin bike has paid for itself. The main thing to remember with these sort of bikes, is that the momentum of the flywheel will turn your legs over for you. To gain any real benefit from riding them, you have to make sure you are pushing the pedals all the time. To get an idea of the resistance needed, just take your real bike out for a short spin and pay attention to how much effort you are putting into pedalling. Try and mimic that resistance on the bike. The other "rule" is that if your butt is bouncing on the seat, turn up the resistance!