VRX-Biking is indoor cycling with a difference: the bike has movable handlebars to add an upper body and core workout to a quad busting cycle session. Tzero took a class.

With winter dragging endlessly on, maintaining cycling fitness becomes increasingly difficult. How many days training have you missed because of snow or ice, or simply because you couldn’t face another wet, cold and dark bike ride?

The turbo trainer, the usual alternative for many triathletes, sometimes loses its appeal, even with the aid of motivational videos.

Another way to keep enthusiastic about training is to join a spinning or indoor cycling class for a group sweat session.

Scott Beaumont rides the X-bike

Tzero accepted an invitation from Trixter to join an indoor cycle class with a difference at the Vale Hotel and Spa near Cardiff, with Trixter instructor Neil Troutman and mountain bike national champion Scott Beaumont.

Unlike some other stationary bicycles, the Trixter X-Bike set up more closely resembles a mountain bike than a road bike. The biggest difference though is the moveable handlebars. As well as simulating steering, they allow you to engage your upper body and apparently increase calorie burn by up to 55%. The idea is to mimic riding outside as closely as possible.

Of course, it’s totally up to you how much use you make of the handlebars. You could just sit and pedal like a normal turbo session. But, with a big screen in front showing a simulated ride through spectacular landscapes or hair-raising city streets, and with the instructor urging you on, it’s almost impossible not to throw yourself around the imaginary corners.

The bikes have a grip shifter to vary resistance. The change is as instantaneous as changing gear on a normal bike. However, the direction seemed counter-intuitive as you change into a high gear (i.e. make it harder to pedal) to mimic a climb, whereas in reality you’d twist the gears the other way, into a lower gear, to ease the climb, but this is a minor quibble. The bikes are also stable enough to stand up and pedal.

VRX-Biking classes are currently being rolled out at Everyone Active Leisure Centres across the UK. Alternatively, for £1,250 you can have an X-Bike at home and set up your own cycling sessions with Trixter’s DVDs.

Overall, the bike class was great fun and a fantastic change from a standard turbo session. However, serious triathletes might prefer a longer class than the standard 30 minutes, and the numerically obsessed might miss their power output figures.

Extreme Xdream

They could however turn to the Trixter Xdream.

Imagine a computer game based on mountain bike racing. The screen scrolls a challenging off-road track before you; computer generated competitors jostle for position. Now, instead of a joystick to control your rider, you have a stationary bike with 27 gears, brakes, and steering. The harder you pedal, the faster your rider races on the screen. Turn your handlebars too hard and your rider piles into a cliff face or over a fence. Your competitors race ahead and you pedal twice as hard to catch them again. If the track turns up, resistance increases and you need to flick through the gears fast to keep up. Remember to hit the brakes going downhill or you won’t make it around the corner at the bottom.

At the end of the race, the computer gives you a detailed readout of your power output and, if connected to an HRM, your heart rate. This is the Trixter Xdream.

These machines really do take indoor cycling to a new level. You can even wire several together and race your friends. We raced Scott Beaumont, and lost badly. Later he confessed he has one at home and trains on it regularly. “It’s about the closest simulation you can get to mountain biking without stepping outdoors,” he says. It’s great fun, too. While other gym users zone out into a trance-like state to their music, Xdream users stay totally focused on their workout. You have to. The Xdream takes skill to ride, and this skill was clearly missing in our Tzero rider, who at one point ended riding the wrong way around the track.

However, with a price tag of £5,995 the Extreme is likely to make it into garage of only the most dedicated and wealthy Xterra triathletes and mountain bike enthusiasts. They are available in Virgin Active, David Lloyd and Everyone Active leisure centres though and at The Third Space in London, so if you’re considering gym membership, ask whether they have a Trixter Xdream.

Xdream machine

Pedal powered computer games

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