The Ultimate in Productivity
UPDATE: I've upgraded from my original design (post below).
I'm now using a NordicTrack Commercial 400 recumbent bike ($499 shipped from Costco.com, also available in most stores for $399). This bike works better for me than my original bike, because the resistance levels go higher. The original bike had a dial-resistance which was not sufficient for me, although overall it was a fine bike, especially considering the low price.
Because the NordicTrack bike couldn't accommodate the original laptop stand, I had to fabricate my own laptop stand, which I made out of aluminum. You can watch a YouTube video of the bike + stand below.
If you're interesting in a stand like this, I might consider fabricating them on a production-level scale, and probably sell them for something like $99 each. I'm already doing way too may things, so to make this worthwhile I'd probably have to get at least 200 orders. If you're interested, please email me with the type of recumbent bike you have, so I can determine the feasibility of creating a stand for your brand of bike.
If you haven't purchased a bike yet, but you're considering one, I recommend the NordicTrack - it's a great value in the world of "almost gym quality" bikes. You can also see a slideshow of pictures of the setup at right.
Here's the original post with original bike:
I've recently set up a pretty sweet work station - on a recumbent bike! I've found that yes, I can in fact work while biking (how sweet is that to those of you who, like me, value every minute of work time!). I can burn about 500 calories an hour doing this.
Here's how I set it up - the best part is that the cost was under $300.
I bought this recumbent bike from Amazon.com for about $220 and this work desk, also from Amazon.com, for about $70. The work station fits over the bike perfectly, and my knees don't knock on the work station at all.
I had considered much more expensive bikes ($500+) but this bike got such great reviews on Amazon, I figured I'd give it a try. Very happy thus far; we'll see how it holds up to use.
You can also see more pictures of the setup here at right, above. Give me your comments!