Upper Body Ergo...! ⛮

[Argali]

I was reading about UBEs and found out that I could make an impromptu one by flipping over my spin bike [a DP AeroCycle].

The step counter seems to be tracking rotations, too!

I looked into hand-powered trikes (for paraplegics), but those are crazy expensive.

[Argali]

Upper Body Ergometers [UBEs] are also known as

• Arm bikes,
• arm-cycling,
• Hand bikes,
• hand-cycling,
• Inverted bikes,
• hand-pedalling, etc.

In my notes, I refer to the device as a crank-bike ⛮ and the exercise as "cranking." 🤓

I think that it is the perfect complement to cycling.

[Argali]

Using the pedals that it came with, I bought a second set of pedals and modified them into handles.

Crank Handle (0)

Crank Handle, before

Crank Handle (1)

Crank Handle, after

[Argali]

FYI, there is a UBE with the brand name, Krankcycle, and the trademark, Kranking, so others are thinking along the same lines. 🤓

[Argali]

More about the DP AeroCycle,

Mine came with a missing speedometer. I took off the chain guard to see about adding a wireless cyclometer (on order) and found three magnets mounted in the front chainring.

Wireless cyclometers use a single magnet mounted on a spoke (on outdoor bikes).

Having three magnets on the chainring simulates being halfway between the lowest & highest gears on a ten-speed (for a cyclometer).

The fan wheel speed is faster than a normal bike wheel, so a reading there would be erroneously high.

[Argali]

Mounted the wireless CatEye cyclometer using the AeroCycle's existing magnets. It works great.

[Argali]

I used my new cyclometer, tonight.

Fitbit steps do not correspond to actual crank strokes and should be ignored.

(Crank strokes can be calculated from the distance recorded.)