Background

 

The global popularity of the indoor group cycling market has grown substantially in recent years, with health clubs, gyms and gym equipment manufacturers demanding more ways of integrating technology into the classes. We analyzed the current market and took the opportunity to develop an indoor bike console that could be adapted to nearly all indoor bikes and display all the data the user needed to get the most out of the indoor cycling class.

 

Product Development

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To better understand the key features and requirements of an indoor bike console, we spoke directly to indoor bike class instructors, bike manufacturers, gym owners and frequent indoor cycling users. With this practical information we developed the product to cater to the demands of each stakeholder.

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Bike Class Instructor: The indoor bike class instructor has a very important role. They set the tempo, power and RPM targets, music, workout intensity, and are responsible for the welfare of each class participant. The class instructors need the bike consoles to display clear RPM, Heart Rate, %MHR, Calories, Time and Distance data in the often dark bike class rooms. Therefore we developed the LCD to display the key data in large text with a bright back light to illuminate the screen at the touch of a button.

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Bike Manufacturers: The bike manufacturers aim is to give their users the best cycling experience and feeling when on the bike, focusing on usability, build quality and styling. They require a bike console to adapt to their bike designs and fit securely to the handle bars, in a good visible position. We designed a bike console that could fit on multiple handle bar mounting systems, could be easy to install and adapted our cadence sensors to fit securely inside and around the bike flywheel or crank arms.

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Gym Owners: The gym owner has to make the purchasing decision based on a number of important facts and figures. How long do the batteries last? How easy are they to change? How will they cope in a hot and humid environment? How easy are they to set up? How will a bike console make my members book more bike classes?

We began developing the product to address each of these factors. To make sure the console has extra long battery life and easily replaceable batteries, we use AAA batteries that are easy to access and take no engineering skill or know-how to install.

To make sure the console would be durable in the hot and humid operating environment, we developed a sweatproof screen, large buttons and high quality ABS case. To keep gym members booking more classes, we added a workout summary showing their calorie burn, distance and key data averages so they can track their progress and try and improve next time.  

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Indoor Bike Class Users: The feedback from frequent users of indoor bike classes shapes the design of the bikes, the class format and our console. They asked for a clear and easy-to-read display that would show their key data at the top, a quick and easy process of pairing their heart rate monitors and a log of their calories for the session.

We incorporated each of these features into our design and installed our own patented advanced calorie expenditure algorithm to give greater accuracy for the end user.