Sean Kelly, the former ‘king of the classics’ and Vuelta winner, is one of the key people behind a new Irish cycling start-up aimed at making home training easier and more enjoyable.
IndoorVelo is a new bike-mounted unit that enables those who train indoors to have easy access to any two screens at the same time. It can hold phones, tablets, laptops and so on, fixed firmly and neatly in place.
“Indoor cycling has grown exponentially over the past few years. As you look for ways to upgrade your training, you realise having a stable screen mount is necessary to multitask as you train,” Kelly said.
“For example, tracking your fitness progress while using your second device to interact with both software and friends can have a huge positive impact on your training outcomes.
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"The selling point of the IndoorVelo screen mount is not only having an easy installation process, but also the ability to mount more than one device. With our product, you don’t need to step down from your bike for any reason to use or adjust your devices, you don’t have to interrupt your workout.”
The idea is a simple one, but has been repeatedly modified and refined since the start of the year. It is perhaps more valuable now than Kelly and his partners, Barry Meehan and Stephen Farrell, could have envisaged before the pandemic.
When lock-down was introduced, especially the 2km and 5km exercise restrictions, training at home on Zwift and other platforms really took off, with the first Cycling Ireland-sanctioned virtual races also taking place.
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And with more and more cyclists now very familiar with home training, IndoorVelo is being launched into a massive target market.
Kelly and Meehan have been business partners on a number of projects in the past and Farrell has joined them this time as the design engineer on IndoorVelo.
The device fixes onto the handlebars any bike – racer, hybrid, tri bike and so on – and is a neat adjustable unit that allows a multiple screen set-up using any combination of devices.
It means you can keep an eye on your training effort and data on Zwift, Trainer Road, Sufferfest and so on, while also using a second device for Zoom or Microsoft Teams or even to watch TV or videos.
And because many riders have limited space at home for their training set-up, IndoorVelo sits within the existing footprint of your bike; Kelly and his colleagues putting their emphasis on a simple and compact set-up that puts functionality first.
Those who commit now will secure a 30 per cent discount on their purchase. When the funding target of €50,000 is reached the IndoorVelo device will go into mass production.
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