Air Assault Bike

Overview

An air assault bike is a fan bike. There is no resistance knob: a large bladed fan is the flywheel, and the harder the rider pedals and pushes the arms, the more air the blades have to move, so resistance climbs with effort on its own. That makes it a favorite for high-intensity intervals, where output should follow how hard someone is willing to work rather than a fixed setting.

Everything mounts to the Steel Frame, a welded steel chassis that carries the Air-Resistance Fan, the Belt Drive, the Moving Handlebars, and the Seat & Post. Two Stabilizer Foot feet keep it planted, and a small Display Console on the mast tracks the workout.

How it works

The Air-Resistance Fan is the resistance. Its many Fan Blade vanes spin on a Fan Shaft running in two ball bearings, and because air drag rises with the square of fan speed, doubling the rider effort more than doubles the resistance. A Fan Shroud cage guards the blades.

Power reaches the fan through the Belt Drive. The pedals turn a crankset, and a Drive Belt runs from a large drive pulley on the cranks up to a small driven pulley on the fan, stepping the fan to a much higher speed. A freewheel clutch lets the fan coast when the rider stops, instead of slamming the legs to a halt. The Moving Handlebars adds the arms: two push-pull levers swing on pivot bearings and tie to the cranks through Arm Linkage rods, so arms and legs drive the same fan together.

The Display Console makes the effort legible. Its Console Board reads an Cadence Sensor on the fan and converts the pulse rate into RPM, speed, calories, and watts on an LCD, all run from a pair of AA cells. The Seat & Post adjusts up, down, and fore-aft so the rider sits at a clean leg extension over the cranks.