Designing Triathlon Spaces – An Indoor Bike Training Room

Basement turned into tri shop!!!

Hopefully, you read our Designing Tri Spaces – Storing Your Bike article and would now like to move on to designing a total training room.  Or perhaps, you just need to find a space for all that gear that comes with doing triathlons and need some help knowing where to start.  Arlene Avidan, of Avidan Architecture & Design, is back to show you how uncomplicated it can be to design an indoor bike training room.

 DESIGNING TRIATHLON SPACES – AN INDOOR BICYCLE TRAINING ROOM

Perhaps you have found that simply storing a bicycle may not be enough; many of my clients have asked me to design a training room, complete with storage, a work bench, and room for that all important “CompuTrainer”.  There are a variety of solutions for installing a CompuTrainer into your living space; each installation presenting its own set of considerations.  Instead of trying to tackle them all, I’ll illustrate several examples.  One is a room that I designed for my husband’s CompuTrainer, his many bicycles, and a work bench with gear storage above.  The other is a friend’s basement designed for the same purpose, with two designated tri training spaces.

THE BIKE ROOM

The bicycle room in this example is not large, roughly just over 150 square feet.  It is light and airy with three windows, an eight foot high ceiling, and ample hanging space on the wall for race photos, plaques, medals, etc.  On the opposite wall from the windows, there is a simple Elfa utility system which includes a hung shelf that is used as a work bench with ample storage (for gear, tools, and parts) and hooks (for helmets, shoes, and spare tires).  The floor is a very cleanable vinyl tile and the CompuTrainer sits on interlocking thick rubber mats called Wondermats, which are both scrubbable and extremely sound absorbent.  The room is located close to an exterior door for easy access and also to a sink for ease of cleaning.  Below is the plan view of the bike room.

Plans for the bike room.

As you can see in the photo below, the room can store as many as 4 bikes on a tension stand and an additional one on a work stand  (this one is a Spin Doctor from Performance Bicycle), plus the CompuTrainer and a whole lot of storage.

One way to store bicycles.

Note the wall of plaques and race photos by the window.  This provides great memories of past achievements and great motivation when spending hours in there training for future races.

Decorating the tri training room.

As you can in the picture, the CompuTrainer bike sits perfectly on 4 Wondermat Squares, to seriously, protect the floor and make cleaning up perspiration easy.

Our dog, Alex, is happy to share his space with the bicycles, gear, and his triathlete “dad”.  His dog bed fits nicely under the work bench!

Sharing the tri training space with your best friend.

If you cannot dedicate an entire room to your triathlete, designate a corner or a portion of a room.  The design below has been carved out of two corners of a basement.  The bike corner is comprised of peg board on the walls with hooks for hanging gear, shelves, and storage boxes and incorporates a work space for bike repair.  The bike CompuTrainer also sits in this corner, along with space to hang additional bikes and wetsuits from the ceiling (Wondermats are on order).  Of note, a wood board was originally constructed to specifically fit under the bike, but actually started rotting due to perspiration and a bit of water from the outside. Lighting is very important in these spaces as there is little to no natural light.  This basement has 48″ fluorescents.

The other corner of the basement is the workout area, which consists of a treadmill, Bowflex, TRX system, free weights, and a TV/stereo system.  Note the framed race posters that line the walls.

As you can see, there are many ways to design tri training spaces that don’t require a lot of construction or space.  There is also a lot of equipment out there that is simple to incorporate and relatively inexpensive, making the difficult training regiment just a bit easier for the entire household.  The important aspects to consider for any space are:

• Decide what you intend to use the space for; bike training, strength training, bike repair, etc. and hence, what you will need in the space to meet these needs – make a list.
• Lay out a budget.
• Determine how much space you can devote to the project.
• Are you sharing the space?  If so, the project needs to be done with input from other users.
• Ease of access to the outside, especially if you ride outside and traipse in and out.
• Flooring – must be easily scrubbable, as you will be faced with dirt, grease, sand, and perspiration.
• A mat to place under the training bike – should be sound & moisture absorbent and easily cleaned.
• Lighting, especially in a room with little natural light.
• Close access to a water source, if possible.
• Wall storage systems are important to get gear, supplies, etc. up off the floor, especially if you are sharing the space; can be simple shelves and hooks to cabinet units, depending on the space and your budget.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions at [email protected] and visit my website.  Thanks so much.

Arlene Avidan, AIA LEED A.P.

Sherry Wernicke

Sherry is one of the TriWivesClub and LifeDoneWell co-founders and contributes to multiple blogs. She is a former co-owner of the California Apparel News and had a career in the healthcare industry. Her passions include traveling, real food, the environment, and animal rescue/welfare. She lives a healthy lifestyle and has been a vegetarian since 1987. She and her husband are parents to two rescue pups and reside in Connecticut.