Nathan Coppen crowed as he pedaled frantically, driving the exercise bike fast enough to drop the five of diamonds on the four.
"I always play this game," said Coppen, a 28-year-old ballet dancer from the Royal Opera House who's training to recover from an injury. "You can be on it for 20 minutes and not know it -- it just feels like five."
The bike is made by UK start-up company Exertris Ltd, which so far has produced only 60 of the machines that incorporate computerized card games. The bike, which forces users to pedal faster to zap aliens, pulverize giant spiders and score points in interactive games, is the latest weapon some fitness centers are using to attract and retain members.
Coppen had to queue to use the Exertris bike, popular among members of the Jubilee Hall gym across the plaza from the opera.
Manager Rob Jones said he installed the bikes because they offer ``something different'' and will give the gym an edge on rivals.
"If I faced a choice between two gyms, and only one had these bikes, I know which I'd choose," he said. "I was on that bike for 45 minutes trying to win Space Tripper last night -- still haven't managed it."
Using technology to overcome the boredom of training is a key tactic for fitness clubs. While no exercise-bike maker offers a direct competitor to Exertris, machines that monitor heart rates or allow users to watch videos are commonplace.
Incentives like these are essential in London, where some fitness centers are struggling to retain members, let alone expand, Jones said. Financial-services companies in the UK fired 36,000 people in the second quarter, according to the Office of National Statistics.
Chris Attfield is canceling his membership in a gym run by Holmes Place Plc after losing his job as a risk analyst at Bank One. "It's draining cash which could be used for better things," he said.
Of eight publicly traded UK fitness-center chains, only one -- Esporta Plc -- has seen its stock advance this year. It has climbed 24 percent. The worst performer is Topnotch Health Clubs Plc, whose shares have dropped 52 percent in the same period, partly because of refurbishment delays. Many are expanding in continental Europe in search of profits.
The Esporta chain is on a cost-cutting drive. The company had a loss of PD8.3 million (US$12.8 million) last year compared with a profit of PD8.5 million the year before as its clubs drew fewer customers. Holmes Place said sales growth halted in the first half, citing competition from lower-priced rivals such as Fitness First Plc.
Exertris founder Gareth Davies developed the game bikes. The 32-year-old physics graduate got the idea about five years ago because he found cardiovascular training on bikes and treadmills boring.
The machine, which is linked to a custom-made games console, uses feedback from the pedals in a suite of games. If users don't pedal, they can't play. A burst of speed is needed to fire bullets, flee enemies or move cards around in a Solitaire game.
"I love computer games and I love keeping fit, so this was an obvious next step," he said.
The bikes aren't to everyone's taste, Jubilee Hall's Jones said. "Many of our customers are dedicated, serious trainers. They consider anything like this, even the machines with TVs above them, as just a distraction."
Founding a start-up company just as the so-called "dotcom bubble" burst in the first quarter of 2000 meant finding funding was a challenge, Davies said.
"In the end, the bulk of our money has come from private investors," he said. Just one venture-capital firm, Singer & Friedlander Group Plc, is currently invested in Exertris.
Another believer is Reebok International Ltd, the world's No. 2 maker of sports shoes. Reebok plans to open its fourth fitness center in the world in October, a 30,000m2 gym in London's Canary Wharf that will feature two Exertris bikes.
"These stop you getting bored," said the new gym's fitness director, Lorna Malcolm. "Also, this is an area where you have a lot of traders, and they are notorious for having the latest computer games."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat