Friday 31 August 2007

Pic of the day: Doesn't this corner look kinda empty without an exercise bike in it? Yeah, I thought so too.

Pondering exercise bike

Actually I do that practically every year, think about buying an exercise bike. Or "ergometer bike"* as they would be called if the English had the same good sense of language as us. As if there are any bikes that don't exercise you. Well, there are supposedly some electric bikes, but I think I've seen one of those, and it was not in use but displayed outside a shop.

Technically, ergometer bike is one of the two popular types of exercise bikes around here, the other being spinning bike. But "ergometer" is still widely used for the whole category, at least by us who are too old to frequent fitness centers.

Anyway, exercise bike! I've been able to afford one for some years now, but frankly there wasn't much room in my old apartment. There was just a little floor space in my living room. Of course, I got rid of literally a ton of stuff when I moved, and I have more room now. Plenty for now, although I don't know how long I can stay here. There is still the problem of actually getting one of those heavy things out here. They are remarkably heavy, you know, more so than real bikes by far. Perhaps I could get one of my coworkers to bring it?

The price varies pretty dramatically, although none of them are cheap. The more expensive models probably differ in some way I have no idea about, but which is important to real athletes perhaps. I doubt it is just in the amount of power they are able to resist. More likely it is something in the programming. Almost all the models now are heavily computerized, with large LCD dashboards.

During spring, fall and parts of winter, home exercise could help keep down the heating costs. Not only because of my body heat, but one of the basic laws of nature is that energy can not disappear, it can only change to other forms. The natural flow is toward less organized energy forms, of which heat is the least organized. (In matter, heat is the seemingly random micro-movements of molecules.) So whatever energy I put into cycling on the spot is bound to end up as heat in or near the bike. I have no idea why these things don't come with a dynamo and battery, that would be more motivating. But even with that, such a bike would probably not pay its cost. It sure won't now. It is just a convenient motivation for using the body.

Due to my wandering day rhythm (my day has roughly 25 hours) there are many weeks in the year when I come home from work tired and sleepy. I go to sleep shortly after and wake up at 22, 23 or even after midnight. My daily walks outside won't happen then, since getting out of here means passing two houses with dogs. You can imagine how popular I would be with the neighbors after a few nights of frantic barking and howling in the small hours of the night...

Since I am already moderately active (thanks to not having a car, not least) it is probably not essential. I am not one of those chubby people who try to buy a good conscience by paying a lot for exercise equipment that is then rarely used. On the contrary, I have to stretch my conscience a little to get room for such an investment. Even now, I have not decided. If it is as psychologists often say, "the best predicator of future behavior is past behavior", I'll probably end up buying a new computer instead.

I read occasionally that you can combine computers and exercise bikes, but I think this has not yet made it from laboratory to local shop. I don't really think I'd want that anyway. I think I'd prefer reading or listening to music, or just thinking about my next journal entry.