by John | Aug 20, 2021 | Class DVDS & Videos, Product Reviews
Great music, incredible feats of strength and concentration plus some very funny physical comedy. What more could you want to entertain your class during a long endurance ride? Cirque du Soleil are by far my favorite for a long ride indoors.
What I like best about the music is most of it falls in the E – C Training Rate Ranges. (86 – 94 RPM) Perfect for the cyclists in your class learning to maintain an effective cadence, while developing their aerobic engine.
Netflix has many of the the different shows available.
Originally posted 2010-03-17 08:56:53.
by Amy Macgowan | Jul 12, 2021 | Product Reviews
Abby will look nice in these
As the “Senior Group Fitness Instructor” here I insisted that John set me up with an ICI/PRO membership. Now I'm using it to take advantage of the Pearl Izumi discount program.
It dawned on me that I could do a bunch of Christmas shopping for my Instructor friends and our two daughters online. Abby (our college student) has already sent me links to a number of items on Pearl's site. She has committed not to repeating the “freshman 15lbs” and is quite particular about what she wears to the college gym. All I need to do is order them and I have one I can cross my list 🙂
Originally posted 2010-10-31 15:14:18.
by John | Apr 4, 2021 | Product Reviews
As near as I can tell, I've been wearing the same pair of Sidi cycling shoes (basic black & boring) for the past 10 years. I'm not complaining, they have held up well despite all my inside and outside training. It's just that yesterday in Amy's class a friend of ours (yes – after all these years at the same club most of the class are friends) was up front with his pretty white shoes. “I should have a pair of those cool shoes” I thought. Then I switched to my justifying the expense mode, “if I had some pretty white shoes (or maybe silver) my class would be able to more easily see and follow my feet… So the shoes wouldn't be for me, I would be buying them for my students. That's it exactly!
Then I switch to my practical mode; the last pair lasted 10 years and cost about $150.00. So they cost about $1.00 a month – that's nothing.
Of course I would want to take advantage of my ICI/PRO member discount at Pearl iZumi 🙂
What do you think of these?
I actually got an email this morning from a member stating the money he saved equated to his ICI/PRO membership being essentially free 🙂
Originally posted 2011-04-17 14:48:35.
by John | Jan 29, 2021 | Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog, Product Reviews, Training With Power
NOTE: this was a previous review from 2013 that continues to remain accurate when applied to any of the magnetic friction Indoor Cycles available today.
Many Indoor Cycle manufacturers claim a connection with cycling outdoors:
100% Authentic – Spinning is authentic. It’s true to its cycling roots, yet refined to a simplicity that makes it the perfect program for any age or ability.
FreeMotion says; Drive System Mimics Outdoor Riding
The Schwinn® Authentic Cyclingâ„¢ Series is based on one simple principle: we believe that riding a bike indoors should feel as much like riding an outdoor bike as possible.
There are of course multiple similarities between riding indoors vs riding outdoors. Beyond the obvious differences, not needing to balance an indoor cycle for one, the claimed connection is that their Indoor Cycle feels like riding a bicycle outdoors.
But what does that mean? A feeling can be pretty subjective after all.
My review of the new Spinner® Blade Ion included a comment that I was a little disappointed that Star Trac continued with a friction resistance system, vs. the magnetic systems used by FreeMotion, Schwinn and Keiser.
I also teased you at the end of the post with:
Later that morning I also tried a little experiment that I’ve wanted to do for years…
What happens to your Power / Wattage when you accelerate from a set point, say; 100 watts @ 60 rpm to 90 rpm on friction based system, as compared to a magnetic system? Do they react the same way?
My apologies for the delay. I'm just getting to this today.
The ” little experiment” I conducted was something that I'd wanted to confirm/quantify for years, actually since I first started teaching on a Schwinn AC in 2010.
My early experiences riding/teaching with magnetic resistance, along with a discussion I had with Keiser's President Dennis Keiser, demonstrated to me that the amount of resistance created by the magnetic (Eddy Current) resistance system increased in lock step with a faster cadence / RPM. The faster you pedaled the harder (more force required) it was to turn the pedals.
Which is pretty much what you experience riding a bicycle outdoors, at speeds over 18mph. As you pedal faster (assuming you stay in the same gear) you and the bike move faster through the air. The faster you go, the more the resistance from the air pushes against you, making it harder and harder to turn the pedals.
There's a handy calculator to compute the amount of work it takes to overcome the resistance of the air here.
The difference in power needed to ride 25 mph vs 30 mph
So it takes apx. 300 watts to ride at 25 mph. To ride at 30 mph (just a 20% increase) you need to create over 60% more power. You can't make the power with additional leg speed – you're probably near your maximum efficient cadence already at 25 mph. To get to 30 mph you'll need to shift to a lower gear and push harder… A LOT HARDER!
Very different from the conventional friction system on an NXT – which (to me) feels like it gets easier to pedal, the faster I pedaled. In fact most of us can take what is a high level of load (at a slow cadence) and accelerate to the point where our legs spin-out and won't move any faster.
Side note: It's extremely rare to see someone riding with excessively high cadence on a magnetic resistance indoor cycle.
I've discussed this concept here in the past, but I couldn't prove or demonstrate it. I even went so far as contacting LOOK and Garmin to see if they would lend me a set of those new pedals with the built in power meter. They wouldn't and the crank arm from my FreeMotion doesn't fit on a NXT. It remained a mystery until now.
So while I was at the IHRSA convention, I finally had the chance to compare the new Blade Ion and the FreeMotion. With both cycles offering “measured power” I felt it would be a fair comparison; Magnetic vs Friction Resistance. Which best replicates riding outdoors?
Although I wasn't exactly “scientific” in my test protocol, nonetheless the results were very interesting.
Fun with graphs!
Here's what I did
My test was admittedly simple. After completing an early AM ride with Josh Taylor, I spent some time riding both the Spinner Blade Ion and FreeMotion S11.9. I began by establishing a steady 60 rpm cadence. Then I added resistance until the power meter showed 100 watts @ the 60 rpm. Then I accelerated to (and sustained) 90 rpm and took notes on what happened. I rode both cycles twice and the results were consistent. The blue Magnetic Watts line is more squiggly than the red Friction Watts line because I used the actual date set I downloaded directly from the FreeMotion's USB port.
I'd already tested the FreeMotion S11.9, so I knew that the 50% increase in cadence would result in a doubling of power. Perfectly consistent with my understanding of how Eddy Currents increase linearly with speed. A 50% increase in RPM = a 50% increase in resistance. Although math isn't my strong suit, it's easy to see how a 50% increase in Speed multiplied by a 50% increase in the amount of force required to turn the pedals = a 100% doubling in power/wattage. While not the same effect as what you'll find chasing down a breakaway at 27 mph, it is enough to force your students to work hard in a way that will help prepare them to hang with the “A” group.
The Spinner Blade Ion reflects the inherent weakness of using a friction pad with a heavy, perimeter weighted flywheel. The graph above clearly shows how the amount of resistance doesn't increase with additional speed – it actually goes down, validating what I had hoped to demonstrate. If it just stayed the same I should have observed 150 watts @ 90 rpm, I only saw 135 watts. So where did the other 15 watts disappear to? That's a math thing I'll leave to others smarter than me to answer. I will offer a guess that if I had continued on to 120 rpm, I would have seen a progressively lower increase in wattage vs what would be expected from a doubling of speed.
So what's this all mean?
Short answer – it's my opinion that magnetic resistance is superior in every way to a friction system. Besides being zero maintenance, the linear increase in resistance is much closer to what your participants will experience outdoors. Combined with the reduced inertia of the aluminum flywheel, magnetic cycles require more work to ride and force everyone to develop better pedaling technique. IMO the net results is that the members of your club or studio will (if they take advantage of it and you coach them properly) receive a more effective workout, that will translate to them becoming stronger outdoor cyclists.
So does that mean you wouldn't recomend the Spinner Blade Ion?
Not at all… it's an awesome cycle and that battery charger rocks. The purpose of this article was to demonstrate the differences so you can make an informed decision on your own. Besides, if you're a Spinning® studio, what other choice do you have?
P.S. If you're going to be at WSSC – I'd love for you to try and replicate my test on a Blade Ion for yourself. Then report back with what you find 🙂
Originally posted 2013-05-04 17:03:45.
by John | Sep 25, 2020 | Instructor Tech Help, Instructor Training, Product Reviews
LTF Instructors get a 15% discount – are you taking advantage of this?
I could lease a nice car for what I'm paying Verizon Wireless each month. Service and data plans for daughters; Abby and Carly (two iPhone's), Amy's Droid Razr M and my iPhone run $250.00 a month = $3000.00 a year.
It may not be for you, but that's a serious amount of money to me 🙁
So my ears perked up this morning when I heard an interview on Fox for a company that said Americans pay something like $50 billion more than they should for cell services. The guest, the founder of savelovegive.com, explained that they have an easy way for you to analyze your monthly bill and compare the different service plans.
I didn't take the time to look, but I'm guessing there are other companies that do something similar. What makes savelovegive.com unique is that you can choose to simply pocket the money you save using their service or contribute it to their chosen charity – The Seven Bar Foundation.
The Seven Bar Foundation, a 501(c)3, is the brand for the empowerment of women. As a social enterprise it fuels microfinance institutions by driving profits with purpose with cause-marketing brand partners. To reach a critical mass with its ladder symbolic message, the Foundation hosts the top couture and luxury lingerie shows in the world – Lingerie New York, London Miami, etc. Together with the Foundation’s alliances we enable women in need to start or grow their own small businesses, breaking the cycle of poverty for their children via microfinance.
We believe that microfinance is an effective tool to combat poverty and empower women because it fosters self-reliance and encourages sustainable development. As loans are repaid to our Microfinance partners, the funds are then reissued to other entrepreneurs. Investments in Seven Bar Foundation will help countless women over the long-term, constantly growing in size and increasing its impact with every woman that the funds reach.
I love anything that empowers people to become productive 🙂
Using savelovegive.com was free, really easy and took me all of ten minutes to set up. Eight of the ten minutes was consumed by trying to remember which of our four lines was the Primary # and then resetting the forgotten password.
That $102.00 a year could go somewhere better than Verizon. If you choose to spend on on yourself maybe a Spotify premium or ICI/PRO subscription?
You create a user and password at savelovegive.com and then confirm the email they send. The actual tool that analyses your service is called Vera. Enter your cell # and password and Vera goes to work. I was shown four plan options and the potential change in costs. Plan option 1 showed I can save $102.00 a year just by making a simple change to my service.
Now to be fair, Amy watches all our expenses like a hawk (she was a CPA when I first met her), so we were already pretty close to optimal. But the conformation was both comforting and a bit depressing… I was hoping to see some huge, untapped savings we could take advantage of.
If you opt to make the suggest change, savelovegive.com generates an email to send to your carrier this the new plan data. Hit send and hopefully they will respond. It's when your carrier responds that the changes will be made – savelovegive.com doesn't make any changes directly, just shows you which changes to make.
If you're concerned with savelovegive.com having your personal info, I suggest running the test and then you can go back and change your password.
If you try this let other's know your results below.
P.S. savelovegive.com is a great example of a website built using HTML5 – the new hypertech markup language that we were discussing earlier in regards to iPads and how they won't display the Flash audio player that uses the old/current version of HTML.
Originally posted 2013-01-24 08:49:06.
