Cross an entrepreneurial mechanical engineer with an obsessive triathlete training for his first Ironman and you get Paul Krumrich, a 35-year-old inventor who this summer built a bike training system to encapsulate a rider in a bubble of technology. replica iluxury watches Touted as the ultimate in indoor training, the Turin Bike Trainer melds high-end audio and home-theater components with a computerized resistance hub and bike-training software to allow a rider pedaling on a stationary road bike to control lights, room temperature, fans, music, video, a computer and web cams to view yourself and work on position in real-time.
The Turin, which will be marketed through Sensory Environment Design, Krumrichs Minneapolis-based technology firm (), incorporates dozens of components -- including a plasma display, 5.1 surround sound speakers, a DVD player and an Apple TV box -- all assembled in a laser-etched metal case topped with the plasma and flanked with fan outrigger arms. The rider controls applications via a touch-panel that sits on a stand replica Audemars Piguet watch next to the bikes handlebars. The resistance hub and bike-training software work in tandem to simulate real-life bike courses from around the planet. Krumrich, a competitive soccer player and triathlete, is finishing up a year of training in anticipation for the Ford Ironman Arizona on November 23. He came up with the idea for the Turin while spinning indoors last spring at a friends house.
We were watching a video of the Tour on a terrible 27-inch tube TV, he said. I knew there had to be a better way. With a base price tag of $12,500, and configurations that will sell for more than $20,000, the Turin is a niche product made for serious replica Oris watch athletes with equally serious disposable income. But Krumrich believes, in an industry where people buy $8,000 bikes, a teched-out training system can find its market. The goal of the system, Krumrich said, is to make indoor bike training more bearable and more effective by keeping the rider engaged and entertained -- be it while watching a movie or pedaling a virtual Ironman course.
