I cannot believe how much I love spinning. Actually…I hated every second when I first started...it took me about 6 long weeks going 3 days a week to get where I could do the entire class without feeling like throwing up or simply passing out! Now I just dance away at it and it almost feels like it's easy-ish. Of course, some days are harder than others but the scenery sure does help. The videos have also shown me some places where I know I'll never go but I feel like I know it as well as if I had traveled there! Pretty darn cool! We have all your videos in the standard format and they work perfectly on our screen. You can see our spin room if you go to our website. We love your videos.... --Peggie Muir, General Manager, CITY CLUB Fort Worth TEXASI have never been a fan of bike racing videos in my Indoor Cycling classes. Too distracting. It's very much like watching a NASCAR race, you feel compelled to watch, waiting for the inevitable crash or some other drama. The creative team of Liz & Jan Hunter, the co-creators of the Bike-O-Vision DVD series, sent me a copy of their latest video to try out in my Spinning class. I liked it and so did the participants. My wife Amy (the senior group fitness instructor in my family) also liked them. Instead of creating a distraction, the pretty scenery you would see while riding these roads on your bike, added a nice atmosphere to the room. --John MacGowan, owner of (ICI/PRO) IndoorCyclingInstructor.com & cyclingstudio.orgWhen I looked at the list of top selling bike movies on amazon.com, I was very surprised to see that eight of the top 25 were from Bike-O-Vision, a company I had never heard of. It turns out that their DVDs aim to give you the feeling of riding outside as you pedal a trainer or exercise bike. I'll tell you straight up that I find riding a trainer or exercise bike to be dreadfully boring, and it seemed to me that the only thing worse would be having to watch videos showing outdoor scenery at the same time. The whole thing seemed hokey from the start, but hey, they're killing it on Amazon, so I figured I'd check it out. So I popped in the DVD and started watching. Generally how the Bike-O-Vision DVDs work is that the producers take a section of landscape and just let the camera roll as you 'ride' from one point to another, with segments roughly broken up into chunks of 8-12 minutes split by landmarks along the way that break up the ride. The DVDs -- mostly filmed in the U.S., but some elsewhere -- give the impression of you 'traveling' along a road through these places. Maybe you're pedaling along through California wine country, maybe riding on the Big Island of Hawaii or the mountains of Europe. You see the road stretching out in front of you as it rolls smoothly under your wheels. Occasionally, you'll glance to the side and check out the scenery passing next to you. And with the landmarks that help divide the footage, when you reach them, it's almost like you park your bike and go walking around and through them as the camera tours you through the most significant spots along the way. You're still pedaling at home, of course, but it feels like you've taken a break. Despite my initial skepticism, these videos certainly make the time on the exercise bike more tolerable, in fact, almost enjoyable. They certainly improve the experience at least 100%. I have a buddy who rides the trainer every day during the winter, 30 minutes at a time like he's serving a prison sentence. I gave him two of these DVDs to check out. He told me that he found himself doing 45 minutes or more with the Bike-O-Vision DVDs, simply because they made the time interesting and pass by that much more quickly. Specific Observations about the Bike-O-Vision DVDs Several things I noticed in reviewing the Bike-O-Vision DVDS. First, the sensation of riding caused by watching the video is much more realistic than I expected. For instance, incorporating the various landmarks, noted natural formations, dominant historical features, etc., in the film is a nice touch. I found that as I pedaled, I was constantly looking off into the distance of the film, watching the approaching landmarks, which gave a sense of expectation, movement, and ultimately accomplishment of travel. Secondly, 'riding' on actual roads with real traffic was effective too at holding my attention and giving the sensation of actually riding. I would become alert when vehicles approached from a side street. I found myself also looking slightly ahead at the road on the screen, watching for gravel, glass, pot holes, etc., just like you'd do in riding a real bike. It's realistic enough that a reader contacted the company last year after watching the Puerto Rico journey. He had so gotten into the video, he said, riding down jungle roads, that at one point in the film when a dog appears and barks from the roadside, he immediately swerved and almost fell off his bike. Third, the varying terrain was effective in changing the pace on the trainer. Many of the DVDs feature big hills and I found myself coming out of the saddle to pedal harder, just as if I was climbing a real hill. And the presence of road signs and other landmarks was effective too, in offering intermediate milestones to motivate effort. For instance, seeing a sign in the distance and sprinting until reaching it. --By David Fiedler, more at: bicycling.about.com