Having returned from my cruise I thought I’d expand on this in case anyone else with the same question comes across this thread.
There are 3 types of bike
In the main gym there are 4 x ‘fitness bikes’. Not sure of the model as there’s no exact match on their website but this is your typical gym bike that you’d find in a normal commercial gym.
It has flat pedals with ratchet straps, one bottle holder and adjustable saddle height. Lots of hand positions for comfort.
The readout gives you heart rate (either from electrodes in the handles or you can connect a BLE strap), power and cadence, plus a bunch of other stuff you won’t need.
As with all the bikes in this gym, there is no ERG and it won’t broadcast to a Garmin. The linear resistance control makes it pretty controllable and I had no issue maintaining my target watts.
Next up, buried in the back corner behind the floor work area are 2 x Technogym Rides, which do exist on the website: https://www.technogym.com/en-IE/product/technogym-ride_DGC03U.html albeit these are an older model with a smaller screen.
These have reversible pedals, with SPD on one side and traditional cage type straps on the other. It’s worth noting that if you use these with running shoes your sole will almost certainly rub on the crank arms and make an annoying noise, so bring your spin/mtb shoes if you have them.
The position is more adjustable on these, with saddle height, fore and aft, reach and stack.
When I was on board, the bottle cage was broken on one of these, although there’s a window ledge nearby.
The readout and connectivity is similar to the gym bikes. No ERG again, in this case resistance is controlled by a combination of virtual gearing (gives you the current ‘ratio’) and an incline adjustment. I found it a bit more fiddly to hit my target watts on this, it seemed that it fluctuated pretty wildly at the same RPM in the same gear, which could be to do with the movement of the sea, or a skill issue on my part.
Spin Bikes:
Last but not least there is a spin/yoga studio with about 20 spin bikes. When there’s not a class on you are free to move these around (although they are heavy) and use them as you will.
Very adjustable position, again with the same pedals as the ‘ride’ (so bring your SPDs). Also has 2 bottle holders and a space for your phone.
The bike connects to the nearest HRM at the press of a button. No broadcast again and being spin bikes there is no ERG as the resistance is provided by braking, which is controlled by a knob in the usual place. This is very controllable as it’s analogue and didn’t seem to suffer from being at sea.
On paper the ‘Ride’ bikes should be the best, but I found the spin bikes were the best for me.
Hope this helps someone some day.
