Monday 20 February 2012 7:02 pm

Forget cycling machines, try the Wattbike

FIT IN THE CITY

I must admit, I’m not a huge fan of cycling – I tend to associate it with boredom and bulky thighs. But, given that last weekend saw the track World Cup at the new velodrome, coupled with the fact that cycling’s one of the few feasible medal-winners for the Brits come the summer, I felt obliged to take up an offer by Wattbike to try out its state-of-the-art indoor bike. Described as “the king of indoor trainers”, the Wattbike is actually the only indoor training bike to be endorsed by British Cycling.

My first impression was that, unlike other stationary bikes that leave your legs feeling like lead but heart rate barely raised, I was soon getting up a bit of a sweat without having dead legs, so it does do what it says on the tin, which is to mimic the outdoor cycling experience. But the bit about the Wattbike that excites most cycling enthusiasts and triathletes is the amount and precision of data the bike records.

“The Wattbike’s proved very popular here”, says Diane Kay, director of sales and marketing at the Reebok Club in Canary Wharf, where I had my session. “Many of our members are time-poor and want a highly efficient workout that comes complete with accurate data and state of the art software – basically a workout that compliments the rest of their working day”. Cadence, power and heart rate are all recorded – as is your pedal technique. This is the bit that got me – right in front of my eyes was a moving graph (known as the Polar View) showing the exact amount of force I was applying through each leg during the entire pedal revolution. Even as someone who’s usually left cold by statistics and technology, this is a pretty impressive feature. And as there’s a “good” pattern to strive for: a “peanut” means your technique is okay; a “sausage” is what an elite world cyclist produces, and then there’s my own rather lame figure-of-8. This aspect of the session alone is enough to keep boredom at bay.

Whether you’re a cycling pro or someone who wants to try a new bit of kit to shift those residual Christmas pounds, I’d highly recommend the Wattbike – as I tweeted after my session, “cycling, maths AND physics just got interesting.”