In June 2011 I turned 50. Since I am getting older, I feel that I should slow down and enjoy my bike rides more. So I will being doing more solo riding and touring that will give me the time to just ride and enjoy.

The purpose of this blog is to share my ride 'events', insights and experiences with others.

Enjoy my blog and hopefully you will get something out of it that will benefit your own riding.

Friday, April 12, 2013

ProForm Le Tour De France Spin bike - April 12th update

From my last post you will see that the repair only lasted 40 minutes of riding.

3/28/13 - Rode trainer for approx. 40 minutes before incline motor failed. Notified UTS
Received email notice that parts were ordered.
  • 4/3/13 Parts arrived
  • 4/4/13 Notified LAPD Engineering Inc. that the parts had arrived
  • 4/11/13  LAPD Eng technician showed up for the repair
    • UTS had sent a new handlebar with wiring harness, harness to connect handlebar to control unit in body of the bike.  (They forgot to include the heart rate monitor cable that connects the console to the wireless sensor.)
    • Technician installed all the harnesses, no change, incline still did not work.  He checked out the incline motor.  When he tapped the relay, the incline started working.
    • Technician said he would order a new lift motor as the current one would likely fail again.
So far these are the parts and number of times they have been replaced. (Note that I have not counted the lift motor that is currently on order)

Lift motor                               4
HAL Effect wire                    3
Console                                  3
Power Board                          4
Wire Harness 40"                   2
Wire Harness 15"                   1
Hex Nut                                  1
Loctite                                    1
Teflon lube                             1
Handlebars w/harness            1
Bushing                                  1
Axle                                       1

One of these days they may decided that this unit I have is actually a lemon and just replace it.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

ProForm Le Tour De France Spin bike - The ever continuing saga

So continuing from my last post on March 13, 2013.

  • 2/12/13 - Bike broke - notified UTS - sending new circuit board
  • 2/13/13 - Notified by UTS part has shipped
  • 2/18/13 - Part from UTS arrive - Notified LAPD engineering
  • 2/20/13 - LAPD engineering shows up - they need a new lift motor.
  • 2/27/13 - Contacted LAPD engineering to get status.
    They state parts were ordered on Monday 2/25/13
  • 2/28/13 - Notified by UTS that new parts have been ordered
  • 3/1/13 - Nofified by UTS that new parts have shipped
  • 3/7/13 - Parts from UTS arrive
  • 3/8/13 - Notified LAPD engineering that parts have arrived.
  • 3/14/13 - Called LAPD asking for status update
  • 3/15/13 - Sent email and online request asking for status update
  • 3/18/13 - received call from LAPD stating they are waiting for work order from UTS
  • 3/21/13 - contacted UTS, "LAPD received new work order on Feb 28 and acknowlede it,  also re-acknowledged on March 7"
  • 3/21/13 - Sent email to LAPD with update from UTS
  • 3/21/13 - LAPD stated technician would contact me shortly
  • 3/22/13 - Contacted by technician, repair scheduled for March 23rd.
  • 3/23/13 - Technician showed and repaired bike.  He fully tested bike, incline, etc
  • 3/28/13 - Rode trainer for approx. 40 minutes before incline motor failed.   Notified UTS
             Received email notice that parts were ordered.

  • Summary:  Repair took 39 days from time UTS was notified until bike was actually repaired.  Repair lasted 5 days.  Acutally broke again 40 minutes into my first ride on the bike.  The incline function does not work, but at least the bike is not tilted at a 20% incline this time.

    The iFit.com website still is not working properly.  Every time I ride the bike it duplicates all the prior workouts but with the current date.  I can not download any routes (created or purchased) from the iFit website to the LTDF bike so that function, which is one of the main reasons I got the bike, does not work.  The only options I have on riding the bike is manual or one of the dozen 'canned' rides that are already programmed into the bike.