This past weekend, I drove through the Snowmageddon in Ohio to show up at 7am on Saturday morning for the Spin-a-thon at the Central YMCA in Youngstown. Long story short, the Spin-a-thon was first postponed and then rescheduled for next Saturday. As with every challenge, this presented a new opportunity as I got to hang out with the organizers of the ride and got to try out the new Schwinn AC Performance bikes on a four-hour indoor ride of my own. At first glance this bike looks like an enhanced version of their Schwinn NXT, with more hand positions and a computer console. However, upon closer examination, this bike is a true departure from the traditional group indoor cycling bike and brings us much closer to the set up of a road bike on a trainer. To be specific, the AC Performance Bike has the following new features:

• Aero and road handlebar positions – more realistic
• Stem length adjustment – better individual bike fit
• Virtual Contact Resistance technology – magnetic resistance instead of the friction resistance created with felt pad and spring – smoother ride
• Road saddle – more adjustments and truer to outdoor bike
• M-Power performance console – a computer that measures power through wattage – can finally measure how much work you are actually doing

I’m sure there are other differences but these were the one’s that drew my attention. The biggest change by far is that the bike is no longer a fixie, meaning that when you stop pedaling, the front wheel keeps spinning. If you are still confused, on your old spin bike when you stopped pedaling the front wheel stopped also as it was directly connected or “fixed” to your pedals. What this means in practice is that with these new bikes you lose the benefit of the big flywheel helping to pull your legs around through momentum, and more importantly it means that if you are used to standing up and running during your workout, this will no longer be a break for you or easy to do.

Those with experience in the old bikes will feel a “hitch” when trying to stand and pedal. This is not a hitch, but simply the fact that your pedlas are no longer directly connected to your wheel in a one-to-one relationship. You’ll really need to drop your body weight and spin using both legs together and raise the resistance considerably to maintain a seamless spin while standing. Essentially you’ll have to do a “freeze” the entire time you are standing up. If you don’t ride outside, you’ll probably think something is wrong with the bike. If you do ride outside you already know what I’m talking about, it’s like trying to stand up and pedal on a flat road or downhill when there isn’t enough gearing or resistance under you.

The impact of this is that instructors who have been credentialized or certified as indoor cycling instructors with no outdoor riding experience will need to by necessity have to adjust their rides to be more life-like. No longer will they be able to teach a ride that bears little resemblance to an outdoor ride with instructors wearing tennis shoes and standing up in Position 2 (a standing run) for the majority of the ride and calling it a cycling workout. Personally, I’m very pleased about this turn of events.

This also creates the potential for a much tougher ride in a number of ways. If your butt hurt while riding in class before it may really give you issues now because with the previous fixed gear bikes you could stand up more often to get a both a breather for your lungs and your butt, and equally you would get the benefit of distributing more of your weight to your feet even while seated because you had built-in resistance to press against. With a free wheel to put more weight or to stand up on your pedals, you’ll have to a) wear clipless pedals and cleats, and b) add significant resistance to the bike to simulate riding uphill.

I’m not opining on which bike provides a “better” workout, because that depends upon your specific workout, I’m just saying that for the same workout on two different bikes, these AC Performance Bikes will kick your tush. I think that traditional indoor fitness cycling enthusiasts will absolutely hate these bikes, and roadies and triathletes will be thrilled that they finally can do a sport-specific indoor workout without having to drag their own bike inside on a trainer.

So should you buy one for yourself? Jury’s out on this but if I’m correct in understanding the price to be around $3,000 for one of these bikes, in my humble opinion, for $3,000 I could stick my own bike on an awesome Computrainer, add surround sound and a killer flat screen and still have enough to buy some chocolate milk when I’m done. You can read more about these bikes at Indoor Cycle Instructor.com.