piranha | yesterday's accomplishment

new acquisition.

not my photo, but it'll take the place of the daily since none of mine came out well enough (it's too bloody dark in here during the time i am awake). the actual bike we bought is all black.

a few days ago while shopping at the wholesale store, we happened by the exercise section and they had a recumbent bike there. i'd never seen one of those before (for exercising), and thought "hm". sat down on it to try it out, and it was comfortable; an immediate plus. i can't stand the upright bikes; if i am to put pressure on my RSI-plagued wrists, it better pay off by getting me to cover some distance in beautiful surroundings, like a real bike does.

did a little research at home and talking it over with the paramour, and we decided that we might actually use something like that if we put it in our living room so both of us have access to it at all times. even if we just had idle time for a few minutes and pedalled while reading that would still be better than sitting on our duffs. we didn't want to spend a lot of money, and it'd have to be quiet so it wouldn't disturb the other while working or sleeping.

we found just the thing at canadian tire, and it was 40% off to boot, so it cost us C$240. it is very quiet, it has adjustable tension from the control monitor, it is amazingly comfortable, both seat and back support, it is extremely sturdy (we both weigh around 110 kg, and it doesn't wobble the slightest bit even when pedalling as vigorously as we are capable). it shows time, speed, distance covered, calories burned, and heart rate. i like it more than i ever thought i could like a piece of exercise equipment. and i don't have to force myself to use it to get a "proper workout"; if i just feel like pedalling for 5 min while my breakfast cooks, i do that. i did do a proper workout yesterday and today though, huffing and puffing away.

it sits right in front of the otherwise mostly unused TV, so we can watch anime or shows while exercising, or pipe something across from our computers, or listen to music. if not pedalling vigorously one can read. so it shouldn't get boring (one of those things that kills most exercise for me).

we hope that if we keep this up, it'll get us in considerably better shape by the time better weather rolls around for us to take our actual bikes out.

my doctor will be pleased.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i was actually thinking that if we take to it, that it might be a good idea to buy a second one and use that as my desk chair -- and not to block the pedals, so i can actually use it while vegetating in front of my computer. of which i do a lot, so that'd be handy.

i suspect the only way i'd actually keep that up is if i made the computer powered by the pedalling.

i suspect the only way i'd actually keep that up is if i made the computer powered by the pedalling.

that would be awesome.

i suspect somebody has done it already -- there are enough high-tech savvy people who're also environmentally concerned that there's bound to be individual solutions for this.

once my OLPC XO gets here, i'll look into crank power for it; i think it'd be cool to have a setup like that, and _that_ machine is made to run energy-efficiently.

egads, now i feel all privileged. it's sorta perverted to talk about how "cool" it'd be to manually power a laptop made for kids in developing nations.

yesterday's accomplishment

exercise bike

Re: exercise bike

Re: exercise bike