Doing some bike workouts at the gym on their bikes- good/bad/don't try

Peter Carroll

I was curious of peoples opinions of doing a bike work out at the gym.  Their bikes show watts, so I would have some general idea of how hard I was going.

Its not ideal, but some days the 5 month old gets up too much at night for me to get up at 5am to ride and doing it at lunch at the gym would be easier.

 

Thoughts?  Thanks!

chuckg

I also have a young one at home (although not as young as yours anymore), so can feel you pain. For the last few months, I have finally been able to regularly get in my planned workouts when "I" plan them. So, I can tell you that it does get better. At one time I was trying to "fit" in workouts, when ever and where ever I could. As long as I was getting my longer rides (Saturday) on my bike, I didn't have a problem with the gym bikes. This early in the plan, I would assume that the gym bikes OK.

david ware

I have been doing nothing but Gym bike (recumbent actually) for about a month now. It is not ideal but you can get a sense of where you are from perceived effort and Heart Rate. That will help you get close to the wattage, but Watts are pretty imprecise, and will have no bearing on where your real bike would be. But,for example, if you figure that 200 watts on gym bike is about 240 at home, based on PE and HR, then you can start to use the numbers on the gym bike. Good luck. Dave

Barbara Spitler

I too, have done primarily gym bike workouts. I ride the regular stationary bike. I figure that as long as my mph are getting faster, and watts increasing, it's all good!
I will transition sometime in the near future, to my tri bike and trainer, so I can ride at home, on the bike I will race wtih.

Nemo Brauch

If you are training by HR, then the bikes at the gym are not ideal, but it's not horrible if that's your best option.  But if you are training by power, do not even bother trying to use your power zones on a gym bike.  Calibration between two PowerTaps or two Ergomos is always a bit off- those bikes at your local gym are even worse.

Keith Wick

just for reference, i was in NYC this weekend so had no access to a real bike. my hotel had very new, nice stationary bikes with power on them. my FTP at home is 240 and i could barely hold 140 watts for any length of time on this gym stationary. definitely a big difference. therefore, i'd say you could use it, but comparing them is like comparing balloons to bowling balls.

marianne

good article in recent Bicycling on this issue. I bet it would be online!

John Dannenfeldt

I'm also wondering about this since I'll be trying to do 7 days of the PowerHack on vacation.

My plan is to estimate my watts using RPE and max HR during the interval. I know this won't work well for 30/30s but might come close on 2.5/2.5s. I looked back at my PowerHack data from 3/09 and it's fairly consistent.

I'd agree that using the listed power or speed on the hotel bikes is not going to be even close.

I'd appreciate hearing some other ideas.

John

Tom Glynn

Posted By Marianne Park on 05 Jan 2010 06:48 PM

good article in recent Bicycling on this issue. I bet it would be online!

It sure is!  Here

 

tom

Jonathan_Crick

It's not ideal, but i did 2 2x20 tests, first one on the bike at the gym and 3 days later on my powertap. That gave me a difference of 30w. After my last test on the powertap produced an FTP bump of 25w, I just put the zones on the gym bike up by the same amount. TBH I usually only get to use my powertap for the Saturday work these days. As long as you always use the same bike at the gym you should be fine.