Trixter X-dream Fitness Bike

When you think of an exercise bike, you probably think of a tired white thing stuck in the corner of your garage. The Trixter X-dream is entirely different. It pairs an advanced interactive exercise bike with a computer system to give you what is more like a mountain biking simulator than an exercise bike.

Coming in two components, the bike and the computer rig, the bike isn’t just your average static bike. Based on the Trixter X-1000, manufactured by Giant Bikes, the X-dream bike features a 14kg flywheel at the front with varying resistance as you’d expect. The bike bristles with sensors so the computer knows what you are doing, allowing the inclusion of all the normal features you’d get on a real bike.

That means you get gears, brakes and steering, all of which have an impact on what happens on the screen as you ride. The X-dream also uses some regular bike parts, so you can swap the pedals for your own or change the saddle. The pedals we tested were double-sided, with toe clips on one side and Shimano SPD clips on the other, so if you have bike shoes, you can use them on the X-dream.

The saddle too is pretty good, just like a regular MTB saddle, including a groove to relieve pressure on your essentials – a world away from the huge triangular saddles of some exercise bikes. You can raise and lower the saddle, as well as slide it forward and back and change the height of the handlebars, so you can set-up a proper riding position and ensure that you ride comfortably and most efficiently. More importantly, if you are using this to train in the off season, it should be able to closely resemble your MTB set-up.

Attached to the front of the bike is the brains of the unit. It actually houses a Dell PC running Windows XP, which runs all the software to provide the immersive environment – the cycling “game” if you like. This is topped by a 17-inch (15-inch visible) monitor with an under-slung speaker unit, which falls naturally into the eyeline of the rider. If there was one criticism at this stage, it would be that the 4:3 unit might be better served by a widescreen aspect, giving the rider a great feeling for the terrain.

In the saddle it feels just like a real mountain bike. The system can be set-up for a number of users, so your stats will be tracked, therefore when in a gym environment you can just get on and ride the route set up for you, with all your settings for height and weight and so on. There is no dedicated warm-up session however, which is a surprise, but the Quick Start provides an easy option for getting up to speed.

Quick Start essentially lets you get straight into riding but has no bearing on the rest of the system. The second option is the Fitness mode, which is the mainstay of the system and where you’ll likely spend most of your time. The third option is Training, unlocked after completing the Professional level.

There are five grades of difficultly in each mode, ranging from green to white, and four types of terrain (parkland, semi-arid, desert, highland), giving you 20 different tracks. The routes are pretty much on rails, i.e., you have to stay on the track and if you veer off, a countdown starts to put you back on track.

You need to put your cycling skills on the line here, with steering, braking and gearing all important. As a beginner there are various assists that you can use, so the computer will brake for you, steer for you and change gears for you, but you still have to pedal. This makes it a case of simply pushing pedal until the end and takes a lot of the realism out of the operation. The assistance might work for cycling novices, but if you are an experienced rider, you’ll find things don’t work as you might want them to.