How Can An Air Bike Make You A Better All-Round Cyclist?

Lots of people have a bike, but to become very adept as a rider and even undertake competitive cycling requires a lot of training and effort. Having an assault fitness air bike can help play a surprisingly important role for many people.

While some people see a bike as a practical way of getting from A to B and an alternative to using a car or public transport all the time, others will want to be competitive as a rider, perhaps joining a local cycling club and investing in a high-calibre racing bike.

Inspiration can come from seeing the best in the world in action, not least as Britain has been so prominent in the sport in recent years.

Why Does Britain Have So Many World-Beating Cyclists?

This has been shown again in the ongoing World Track Cycling Championships in Shanghai, where Team GB riders have been piling up the gold medals.

British success has not happened by accident:

• There has been extensive lottery funding

• Access to top-class coaching

• Great new facilities have been built, starting with the National Cycling Centre velodrome, built in Manchester in the 1990s

However, many people aspiring to be great riders may wonder what they can do if they lack the facilities or other help to enhance their fitness and riding skills.

Used subsequently in the Commonwealth Games and world championship events, the Manchester venue is also home to the Team GB cyclists, from gold medal-winning track cyclists to Tour de France winners.

Further velodromes have been built for other events, with one in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, another in Glasgow for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, plus the Welsh national velodrome in Newport, named after Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas.

What Can You Do If You Cannot Access Great Cycling Facilities?

Unfortunately, while these facilities can also be used by the public, not everyone can benefit from them to become a better rider, simply because they don’t live near them. Your own local track may not be very good.

This is just one of the reasons for using an assault air fitness bike. Because it is not merely another exercise bike but generates resistance, it enables you to do more to train muscles beyond just your legs, bolster your cardiovascular performance and enjoy better fitness.

A particular benefit of the extra resistance training is that it can build up the leg muscles you need to take on slopes and hills. This is not just an issue when you lack access to the sloping oval of a velodrome track, but also when you don’t live near hills.

Indeed, one reason the GB team remained based in Manchester after the London velodrome was established was the proximity of the Pennines, providing better conditions for riders training for gruelling hill climbs.

Such possibilities will be hard to find if you live in a flatter part of the UK, such as East Anglia, much of the East Midlands or some flat coastal areas, not to mention in a large city with few hills.

In such circumstances, your assault bike can do what riding on local roads and tracks cannot do to build up your leg muscles.

How Can An Assault Bike Help You Through The Winter?

These benefits add to the other benefits of having an assault bike to use in your indoor gym when the conditions are not good for riding outside, especially in winter. These include:

- Having local roads in poor condition with lots of potholes threatening punctures

- Issues with poor weather conditions

- Winter darkness

- Slippery surfaces

Ironically, cycling accidents are more common in spring and summer, but this is because far more people will be out riding in these seasons, including inexperienced riders with poor road skills and bikes in poor states of repair, such as having worn-out brakes.

The above winter cycling may be seasonal, but your development as a rider will not be helped if there are several months of the year when activity is going to be severely curtailed by conditions.

This can leave cyclists with a potential dilemma. One is to try to get out a lot in winter anyway, but in doing so put themselves and their bikes at risk, or have a long lay-off until the spring.

Having an exercise bike indoors can go some of the way towards closing the gap, but an assault bike, because it does so much more to build up the muscles, can ensure you are much fitter and stronger before you take on real races on the road.

That way, even if you don’t live near a world-class velodrome facility, you can build up your skills to increase the chances that one day, you will be competing in one.