Exercise Bike with Treadmill

Quick and easy exercise bike using an ordinary bicycle and treadmill.

Step 1: Attach Stand

Start off with plain old treadmill. No need to modify the treadmill in anyway. Using an old piece of scrap metal got from and old weight bench to hold the front of the bicycle, I cabletied it to the frame of the treadmill. Anyone with some welding skills could make a similar stand.

Comments

[FuzzyElephants]

I tried this... at 5mph my treadmill quit working and gave me some error message. It's an older treadmill I picked up used but either way, it didn't work. I don't know if the problem is just that if you pedal just the slightest bit faster than what the motor on the treadmill is going it screws it up or what. If that's the case then it kind of defeats the point since pedaling and actually feeling any resistance what so ever instantly causes the treadmill to glitch out. I tried taking the drive belt off the motor on the treadmill to make it self propelled but now the walking belt won't budge... I'm at a loss here but either way it didn't work for me. Worked great in theory but didn't work in real life for me. I'm going to keep screwing around with it to see if I can't figure something out since I can't stand that treadmill anyways but as of right now... no dice.

[Mavamaarten]

Are you a wizard ?

[FruitbytheFace]

Wouldent the back end of the bike swerve around?

[the_burrito_master]

Not if you pay attention. it might give it a more realistic feel.

[ReCreate]

reminds me of a cat on a treadmill

[2 stroke]

why not put the bike on high gear and lift the wheel off the ground

[baggot]

If there is no resistance you will just be spinning the wheel. even in the highest gear you will not be getting a workout.

[2 stroke]

what about ut a gear shifter to control the back breaks so you can control the resistance like those bikes at a school gym

[ReCreate]

And you won't know how far you went or how many calories you burned....

[ReCreate]

what do you mean?

[Dipster]

There would be no "road", so no rolling resistance of any kind.

[ReCreate]

I get it now XD

[salazam]

Do you ever smell burning of rubber? Because unlike with running, where your feet are moving with the belt... the tire is stationary and probably creates an incredible amount of pinpoint friction in the area directly below the tire and on the underside of the belt.

[Rimwulf]

I wanna see it work.

[nruegs]

perhaps you don't turn the treadmill on, you just get on and start pedalling, with the bike spinning the motor like a generator.

[J2M313]

I've got an older self propelled treadmill, and this is exactly what it will do.

Not exactly sure how a motorized mill would be as far as friction goes.  Would you be able to adjust the friction without the unit being on?

[Gypsyman]

doesn't the treadmill just spin the bike tire for you? thus taking away the work out?

[dhaughton99]

It will spin if you stop peddling but you do have to put work into it. I do 5 miles a day at 10 miles an hour. Works up a great sweat.

[adrian gumba]

if its going fast and you have a fixed gear bike when you stop peddling,its gonna hurt a lot

[ThreeWestCreative]

To combat boredom on my Elliptical machine, I learn a new language while I'm at it. I use Pimsleur language programs on my mp3 player. Each lesson is about 30 minutes so I can get through about 2 or 3 of them and feel like I've killed two birds with one stone. Keeps the exercise from being boring and I learn a new language.

[Phil B]

Very clever and innovative. If someone does not have welding equipment or skills, find a friend who does or take the job to a welding shop. With some careful thought, bolts and screws could probably do what is necessary for this project. Riding a stationary bike is not the most fascinating activity and boredom sets in quickly. Someone made a suggestion I have found helpful. Place a fan so it blows on you while riding. The bigger the fan, the better. Somehow it makes me think I am out on the road and there is far less boredom. The fan also cools you, which was the basis for the person's suggestion to me.

[PKM]

To combat boredom, why not combine this with the treadmill-as-game-controller hack so you can cycle around Second Life or wherever you choose. I'm sure it would add a new dimension to your speedruns :)