Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Great American Inventions

Given the rapid onset of winter round here, it's hardly surprising that many people do their jogging on fitness centre running machines. At a local centre, all the treadmills face outwards towards the street, so as you pass by you are momentarily confronted by what appears to be 30 to 50 people running, rowing and Nordic skiing towards you - though like all the best nightmares, they never actually get anywhere.

Fitness fanatic and budding inventer Alex Astilean clearly thought it was boring running on the spot in a sweat-filled room (I must admit he has a point), so he dreamt up a mobile treadmill that you could use outdoors.

The SPEEDFIT Treadmobil combines two classic American passions: fitness and automotive propulsion. It's a "men-powered" (his words, not mine) treadmill on four wheels with a rudimentary handlebar, as the following video shows:




There's only one thing that puzzles me: why would anyone pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars on a Treadmobil when they could just go running?

Alex also has another invention: the "all-green, non-motorize" SPEEDFIT SpeedBoard, and an even more attractive video to sell it with:




Unfortunately, Alex was so keen to market the Speedboard that he didn't wait for Anke to actually lose those 100 pounds (on top of what she spent on the Speedboard itself) before releasing his video. So now we'll never know if she ever achieved her American dream.

I wish both of them success.

4 comments:

New World Newbie said...

These are roughly on a par with the equally bizarre treadmill bike: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hmVQc91yVE

Anonymous said...

Of course, this is how treadmills should really be used...

Anonymous said...

I thought you said that the roads and non-existing pavements around your house were awful!!!! These ones, shown in the video, were perfect for such nonsense, but now I am totally flummaxed. (And I KNOW it was not you on the funny mobile!)

New World Newbie said...

You're right in one sense: the roads are perfect in the video, which was clearly not shot around here. Michigan is known for its bad roads. But I don't see any pavements anywhere! (The second video was clearly filmed behind a block of flats - I guess to get the pretty yellow backdrop and so he could shoot part of it from what looks like a first-floor window)