If any of you happened to be at Interbike 2003 in Las Vegas last year you may have seen one of the most innovative products to hit the cycling world in some time. For full details, check out the treadmill at www.insideride.com.
I had the pleasure of spending a weekend in Oregon recently and rode the Inside Ride for some time. Simply put, this device allows you to take your everyday bicycle (road, mountain, hybrid or whatever) on the large 3x12 foot riding area. It's hard to imagine by looking at the pictures but this thing simulates, and to some degreee, exceeds an outdoor riding experience. The real trick to the treadmill is it's ability to let the rider control the speed they ride at simply by accelerating and decelerating. There is no on-the-fly programming necessary. The user can sit comfortably or freely stand and pump on the bike just like the real thing outside. The treadmill will rise up to a 16% grade. The severity of this angle is almost impossible to ride. You can easily ride in excess of 20 mph and speeds of 25 mph are possible.
The treadmill also has the ability to take ride information from a bicycle computer like a HAC4, Timex or Polar and import it into its ride database. This means that you can quite literally "play back" your latest outside ride. On top of that, you can race against yourself or another rider and the graphical display will show you winning or losing to the "other" rider. Apparently there are plans to allow a taped video ride to playback on the interface and even further simulate an outdoor ride.
There have been several articles written about this amazing machine but you really can't appreciate it until you ride it in person. The inventor, Larry Popadopolous, is always looking for ways to improve the product but for now is taking orders for the current model. Be warned, the unit's base price is $35,000 plus extra costs for custom modifications to the hardware and software functionality. However, several sports medicine and research facilities are in talks to bring the machine into their labs. You'll probably start seeing these in high-end health clubs in the colder parts of the east this winter. You can contact Larry through his website for more details.