Don’t Be A Desk Jockey
The term “desk jockey” is not complimentary — it’s a cliche designating someone who “rides” a desk, rather than being part of a more exciting life where life isn’t sedentary. Maybe that’s why there are all those products designed for people who sit a lot each day. Yeah we are one of those too, and a long time back from a company now long gone we got one of those bike pedal-like things that went under the desk and which you stuck your feet into and thought it would make a difference in helping to build up your endurance. We barely broke a sweat using it and frankly found it dull enough to stick it in a closet and forget it ever existed,.
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The future is now though and CYCPLUS is doing it right. Specifically their Mini Pedal Exerciser which is an indoor mini bike that will make you feel the burn of exercising, even if you are seated at home or in the office.
Well Made to Work Well
The Mini Pedal Exerciser has a steel frame, comes fully assembled and sits on the floor or rug or carpet easy enough due to having a decent weight of about 10 lbs (which doesn’t make it that heavy to carry around either).
But considering that it might move a bit during use (peddling can do that), a special strap is included that can be used to anchor it to the chair you’re seated on. Also keep in mind not to hand crank the pedals with your hands, use your feet, but wear sneakers or shoes for doing this (which is what you’ll be wearing when you’re using it for real because bare feet/slippers, etc. can be terribly damaged over time). If needed a non-slip pad is also included for use — hardwood floors work best in general to keep it from moving around, as compared to carpeting.
And sure it’s a simple device at heart, consisting of a left and right pedal with a display screen at the center, but there’s a lot going on as regards how it reacts to the person taking it for a ride. FYI – the internal battery that powers the display gets its charge from the rotation of the pedals, so there’s no charging it up necessary. Resistance is also incrementally available too.
Cycling Without The Heat
We like to go up biking, but it gets pretty hot here during SoCal summer and being of a certain age, it’s really not a great idea. So this is a way to get the value of cycling without the associated issues of the weather.
Under A Desk or Wherever You Feet End Up
Using it under a desk is a good idea, although for those (like us) who tend to sit at the kitchen table a lot, pretty much any surface underneath will work as long as there’s room for the pedals to make their cycling process. It’s simple enough to look down and see the LCD panel — provided a bit of cycle turning has brought it to life — which gives you the various options.
Working Knob and Pedals
So you can work the control knob with your feel, instead of bending down for those concerned, but you will need to use that rotating knob/pressed in so as to activate the features desired. And yes you can rotate the pedals (which have reflectors on them for your enjoyment) in reverse, again should that be your desire.
The basic functions to take you through the options is to press and hold the knob for 2 seconds — switching exercise modes — rotating the knob adjusts resistance or target power and then start exercising. There are 10 resistance levels. Pressing the knob cycles through the data pages with the data pausing once you stop cycling. Inactivity (3 minutes) shuts the bike off.
Now about those modes; manual shows an icon in the upper right corner while the Ergometer mode‘s icon is yellow. Manual lets you set the resistance which simulates various gradients while cycling (we’re partial to 6 ourselves), while ERG is for training as it measures intensity based on a power you set. So pedal faster for less resistance and slower for more.
Cycling-related data points are found in 4 pages, with 2 data points per page. So you can see such things as calories burned, distance traveled (only in kilometers, btw), peddling frequency (cadence), speed plus others. Besides time used helping you to learn about all this — a full sized manual makes understanding what everything is and does simple.
The CYCPLUS Mini Pedal Exerciser is well made and well designed to fulfill its function of in-home cycling. A wealth of choices in how its used and the information it provides makes it a worthy addition to those looking to cycle inside the confines of their home or office (or cabin or man-cave, you get the idea). For more details go to