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A member sent me an interesting article the other day (actually, it was a number of year ago, this article has been festering for a while) about VR Bike, a virtual reality recumbent wind trainer. The article says: “Imagine biking in virtual reality across a pastoral New England countryside. Virtual cows utter virtual moos. Virtual trucks honk virtual horns. Then, virtual racers try to maneuver you off the road-making you crash into a virtual tree. It’s enough to make you virtually swear.” The apparatus features a 20” color TV monitor, and its own sound system. You can choose different skill levels and circuits. The thing actually banks up to 15 degrees to simulate turns (I don’t think you can actually fall over though -- you’ll have to stick to rollers for that). In addition to computer generated competition, you can network up to eight of these things and compete with your buddies.
This is aimed mainly at health clubs, since its $7500 price tag is a bit too steep for you or I. Does sound like the ultimate yuppie toy, though.
I think we could add a little spice to the program.
If I were designing the program I would include the urban cyclist simulation. You would be heading down a street (quite possibly in Cambridge) car doors opening, cars bobbing and weaving, turning right in front of you at corners, the usual stuff.
The simulation would of course include virtual pedestrians. They would dash out in front of you at great speed, and just as you’ve corrected your course so as not to have a handlebar ornament, look up, notice you and start to do a little dance, where they alternately move forward and back as you try to figure out where they’re really going and do their best to remain in front of you. In the advanced version, they would have a red cape and a toreador outfit, and yell “Velo, velo” at you. The actions of the virtual pedestrian are very similar to that of the virtual squirrel.
Also de rigeur for the simulation would be the charity ride. You are confronted with several thousand cyclists who haven’t been on their bike since the seventh grade, they wander left, right, stop, start, wobble, as you try to wend your way through to safety. Then we would have the virtual food stop where several hundred cyclists queue up for the two port-a-johns while a couple of hundred more find out that all the good food has already been eaten by the racers, and all that’s left are several fossilized saltines, which none-the-less is attractive enough to the famished masses to cause several fights to the death in the vicinity of the food table.
I have only scratched the surface ...
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