A Swedish company is marketing a stationary bike designed to help seniors reminisce in a safe and secure environment. Residents of The Kenwood by Senior Star retirement community are lining up to use it.
BikeAround is a hit at The Kenwood as residents are able to select any destination in the world they would like to bike. "It's unique that it's a travel experience for our residents with no suitcase, no passports needed. You just hop on the bike, just punch in your destination and off you go," says Programs and Events Manager Annette DeCamp.
Users sit on the bike in front of a dome with their chosen location and meander along the road. Some people pick familiar places, others do not. For Carol Lind, who has been living in Cincinnati for only five months, the California native wanted her home town of Tiberon.
"You are not as adept as you like to think you are," she says, laughing. "I think I hit a few cars and turned the wrong way. But that's the fun of it. You can't really damage anything. It's just the visual part of it."
This is a video of how it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTBCWc53D80&t=21s
BikeAround is described as a safe, low impact form of exercise, leveraging the power of virtual reality and physical movements.
For The Kenwood resident Terri Seal, her destination of choice was much closer to home. She has fond memories of a Cincinnati park. "It was really fun to peddle around Burnet Woods and see what was going on and just keep going."
Seal says it is harder going uphill.
DeCamp says The Kenwood is the only place in the area using BikeAround.
