Hello. I would like to ask and get your opinion. How would you feel about a sports product such as a specialized «triathlon ergometer exercise machine»? This machine would consist of a treadmill that incorporates features of a swimming machine and an exercise bike. It would allow you to choose any triathlon distance and complete it, including all stages, with measurements for the overall time as well as for each individual segment.
Is there anyone manufacturing such training machines? I couldn’t find any information about them on the internet. What do you think—do you believe such a training machine is necessary for professional training?
No and No.
/thread.
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The market for swimming ergometers is quite small, and I think there is an issue of whether folks consider that as swimming.
The biggest impediment is that anyone with a gym membership can do a pool/lifecycle/treadmill triathlon already.
If running could replace a treadmill, then the treadmill as a training device would not exist. If an exercise bike could be replaced, then it would not exist.
Thank you for your answers.
Maybe I didn’t quite explain what I meant correctly.
Imagine a training machine on which you can perform all the exercises that the person in the photo is doing.
The functions and load will be the same as on the machines in the photo. The only difference is that it will not be three separate machines but one integrated device. Accordingly, it will be possible to measure the total time. I have sketched how it could approximately look.
Could you give a more detailed comment on why you think this is a silly idea? Your short answers are not very clear.
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Running outdoors is generally preferable to a treadmill, ditto with outdoor cycling vs a Lifecycle. These options exist because it is often not viable to train outdoors due to timing, weather, etc. This is the main reason there are so few swimming ergometers…indoor pools.
I have two of those already, with the bike all set up on the trainer and ready to go 10 mins after the alarm goes off at 4:30am. Ditto the treadmill. Any single machine is going to be compromised in some way, as well as taking some time to reconfigure. Add the swim, where no-one has really perfected a dry siimulator noting the heavy technicque focus, I can’t see how you will in a combined machine.
And when something breaks on teh machine you’ve lost the ability to do anything at all - with separate machines if the treadmill belt snaps I can still cycle (or go to the endless pool 2km away, or the Ocean 15km away).
Finally, your potential market is tiny and so zero economy of scale for purchase/service spares/development which will make it hugely expensive.
Sorry, Finally +1, your sales pitch is that you can measure the combined time. I get that with my garmin watch anyway. And trainingpeaks. And strava (which to be fair is also something your frankentrainer would break as strava hates multisport uploads).
Other than that it look awesome. Sorry to have slammed you for what looks to be something thats interested and excited you. My role at work is to be the ‘black hat’ - which is an important role to have in your ideation team to really hone in on where the value is. I was just being very economic with the messaging, albeit with no malice intended.
Edit to add: Go the other way, what is the ADVANTAGE to having one combo machine. As you show above it doesn’t save space as you need the swim plank and bike beside when running. The bike on the belt is back to the old days of wheel on trainers, and all the issues that those had which is why the world has pretty much gravitated to the wheel off trainers.
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Guilty
Treadmill 
> Lifecycle 
> Pool 
Just noticed that my bib didn’t say “Indoors” anywhere; an oversight, oops
This is like Poe’s Law. I can’t tell if it’s a joke.
We’re so far removed from being outside. Can’t go for a run without a gps watch to upload to Strava. Ever have gps data errors that wouldn’t upload? The horror
We’re being so far removed from contact with other people. By far our contact isn’t in person but moderated by a social media facilitator.
This machine reeks of a Black Mirror episode. The triathlon experience without any of the realism. Don’t do that stuff that’s outside for free, run through our simulated world and talk to your competitors through our app.
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So I’m your target market. I have a Vasa Swim, bike with a wahoo, and a kickr run treadmill. Love doing indoor triathlons. I can quickly transition from each piece of equipment, actually connecting to zwift takes the most time. Your system, while space saving looks to require a set-up for each mode, extending the transition time. Not seeing a real advantage over dedicated individual equipment, but the possibility of making each piece actually work poorly. That said there could be a market if it could be made cheaply, so the expectation of realistic performance would not be there (like the sports equipment sold at Walmart).
Blockquote
Your “ergometer” is just a tablet version of what Apple/Coros/Garmin/Polar already provide on our wrists that can measure all three sports in conjunction.
Like others have already mentioned, the biggest issue is that your drawing has saved minimal space as it isn’t an “integrated” device, it requires three unique devices to be LEGO’d together for unknown reasons. It reminds me of a worse version of a ping pong/pool table.
Your cycling device is the opposite of what people are doing now. I think you’re expecting the resistance to be measured/controlled from the treadmill which is a novel idea, but one I don’t want to investigate.
(and your saddle is too high).
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Guys. Please note that this is only a preliminary design. I can think of a way for it to take up little space and be a single device. Make other changes
Also, there is no goal to replace real training and outdoor activities. Only to supplement them for the winter season or bad weather, during a pandemic, or for those who do not have time to go to a fitness club.
It is more for those athletes who would like several exercise machines, but could own one combined one. If someone did not plan to have a home exercise machine, then he will never buy this one.
I had a more general question about the triathlon trainer for my understanding. As I see, most are skeptical.
I was involved in academic rowing at school. We trained a lot on Concept rowing machines all winter. It allows you to develop endurance, conduct various training sessions and competitions. But it does not replace training on the water. That’s why it’s a bit strange to me that rowing has long had a single training machine, but triathlon hasn’t come to that.
Umm rowing has a rowing machine, and the event with three separate sports has the need for 3 machines. Not really all that strange.
Just a minor correction, the majority of responses are skeptical. They are identifying flaws in the proposal. Back to the first line in that last response. Come back when there is an updated proposal that does respond to the identified barriers/lack of benefits and I’m sure we’d happily give you some more feedback (hopefully positive).
But I’ll refer back to one comment I made before. Only Vasa has really made any market impact with a dry swim trainer, and even then plenty of skeptics in regard to how much assistance it gives for when you are wet training (I’ve not used one to be able to comment one way or other). So how are you going to deliver not only vasa or better than vasa level swim training in a package that has to be compromised to also allow for running and cycling? Clearly if it wasn’t a very complex problem someone else would have done it by now.
1-Most triathletes don’t train by doing a triathlon. Even at the highest level. They train by swimming OR cycling OR running, occasionally cycling and running together. Is this ideal or circumstantial? Does it matter?
2-By and large people don’t buy an expensive futon. A cheap bed is more comfortable for sleeping and a cheap couch is more comfortable for lounging. A competitive triathlete is looking at $5000 minimum for a bike, $1000 on shoes for the year, $500 in pool fees, and a few grand for races and travel. Call it a $10,000 total cost for a few years of serious racing. Inside of that a trainee is $500, a pool is $500/y, and if you want a treadmill it’s $1000. Right off the bat your machine has to cost <$2000 to make sense. And idk anyone who became a good swimmer by using a Vasa for most of their training.
3-At the risk of sounding like an a-hole, rowing is one sport that takes place over a fixed movement. Triathlon is three sports, one of which is equally fixed in movement to rowing, another slightly more free, and a third that is entirely disconnected from movement patterns.
I’m a rowing race you sit in a sliding seat and repetitively pull an oar through a fixed path. You see how that’s different than even just swimming alone? You may as well ask "why haven’t
I don’t think there is a market for such a thing. Instead, more people would possibly buy a stand-alone swim ergometer, if they were more affordable; the Vasa and the Kayakpro are like $2,000. Ideally it should measure the basic metrics (distance, power, stroke rate, heart rate) and have the connectivity to produce an output file to upload to Strava, TP etc. If you could offer such a machine in the $800-1000 range (lots of good ergo rowers at this price), definitely I think there would be a market for it
Hate to say it, but my indoor training generally is superior to my outdoor training. And I live in Norcal with the best roads-year road for road cycling. Even swimming, I find better in an indoor pool since I’m more likely to go when it’s cold!
I still train outdoors regularly but all my key bike sessions are indoors, and my most quality speed sessions are on the TM. Even the vasa erg, despite its limitations on cardio, is really good if used properly for both swim arm strength and even long endurance.
I don’t think your idea is terrible, but you need to consider the cost to develop and manufacture a quality 3 sport product versus the market that would actually be served, which is a niche of a niche market.
I’m not involved in manufacturing in any capacity, but my common sense guess here is that the cost to create a solid product that people would actually pay for far exceeds what your returns would be on sales in a window that an investor would expect to recoup their investment. If you have unlimited capital yourself, then I’d go for it. But I can’t imagine any bank, private firm, or other capital provider would even consider a meeting.
For reference, I have a Vasa Erg, a couple Kickrs now (Kickr move for me and an older version the wife is using), and we just ordered the Wahoo treadmill with some of my annual bonus and it will be delivered in 10 days. My all in cost there is around $10k. So you’d have to develop something that is of the quality of those 3 machines for $1k to $2k less in order for it to be a consideration. I just don’t see it
I think Casper’s dad tried to build one of these but it killed him.
On a serious note, I can’t imagine anything worse than swimming outside of water. As bad as getting up early and going to the pool before work is, not having the cooling effect of the water would be worse.