Proform Tour de France Exercise bike
I bought a used Proform Tour de France exercise bike to replace a homemade version exercise bike. Not knowing much about it I decided to take a leap of faith for the low used price of $400CAD (regular $1999?).
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| Proform Le Tour de France exercise bike. |
I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of the bike. It seems sturdily built and allows very high resistance settings, something missing from my last bike. It is very quiet when pedaling owing to its magnetic resistance, belt drive and narrow flywheel. It has a nice incline function to enhance the experience, so I feel like I am actually going up a hill (or down). Thankfully, it was in good condition and nothing was broken.
The first task was to replace the seat. I comes with a wide seat on a non standard mounting system. So, I found a similar shaped rectangle of steel and welded on a length of scrap seatpost I had salvaged from an old bike.
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The other negative to me is the handlebars that came with the bike. Very "gym" bike style -- my preference is for some nice road drop handlebars, but with the integrated incline and gear buttons, their replacement will be a bit more work.
My first few rides have been, well, a bit boring. I watch TV and try to keep my heart rate up for the duration. But it leaves me wanting more and I think the capabilities of the bike are not fully exploited. The bike has some Tempo and Interval Apps. But it seems all they do is set some targets for your watt output. And you can program interval training limits into the bike too, but again it seems a bit simple. There is a Bluetooth connection that allows the use of an iFit app but I'm not really up for the monthly subscription. And it seems the iFit app is a bit like watching a movie of a bike ride. It doesn't really take into account the effort you put into the workout.
So, what to do with the bike? Can it be connected to Zwift? Could I write my own simple workouts for the bike? Maybe upload a GPS file of my favorite ride? It might be time to look inside and see what makes it all tick.
