Review: Chapstand Full Kit
(2019) If you are a person searching for solutions regarding a surplus television for virtual cycling, you are our target audience. In case you have wondered how Zwift events prop up their displays, Chapstand, a startup company of cyclists, have created a box of every remaining item to bring virtual cycling close to reality. Think of it as the progression from video game controller to steering wheel and shifter for racing games.
We are in a new age of cycling where people are close to enjoying their relationships with the trainer. Instead of DVDs featuring coaches walking amongst stationary riders, the cycling landscape has been altered into a virtual – and parallel – universe. It feels like each day brings a new indoor training product from Training Peaks to Zwift, from The Sufferfest to TrainerRoad. It is hardly absurd to have memberships to more than two of those platforms at this time.
While the app content has improved dramatically, the surroundings of the indoor riding experience have not. Our immersion into indoor riding saw us leaning a tablet on a surplus bureau at an inconvenient distance to read the miniscule numbers and texts. However, if you are in possession of a 28-inch to 55-inch television, the Chapstand can bring you ever closer to feeling like you’re really riding at Central Park. It will not let you see the top of the Innsbruck climb though.
Chapstand, an inclusive virtual reality cycling kit, brings a full line-up of material to the indoor rider. As stated above, Chapstand’s biggest item is the heavy-duty television stand that holds between a 28- and 55-inch screens. After experiencing Zwift on a big screen television, all feelings of claustrophobic screen information have vanished. There is more space for the rider and surrounding screen on a large format television as compared to a tablet. Also reduced is the necessity to squint to see the watts-per-kilogram or beats per minute.
No matter your riding platform, Chapstand delivers a full range of indoor cycling accessories.
Chapstand’s full kit also provides an adjustable bike-side stand. Here contents such as a tablet or phone can be stored for those using Zwift Companion. It has the ability to hold an extra towel or nutrition for the longer rides or harder workouts. With Chapstand, reaching over the handlebars to grab the phone off the improvised shelf has gone away. This makes gearing up for the Spring Classics and summer race season easier, even if cracking 1,000 watts doesn’t benefit from the bike stand.
To round out the Full Kit, Chapstand includes further hardware. In the box are those pesky sensors needed to make the indoor ride feel as lifelike as possible. There is a USB extension cable, and HDMI extension cable, Ant+ dongle for speed and cadence sensors, as well as zip ties and Velcro straps. There will be a bit of setup for this process, but if the offseason has you in the basement, it’s a one-and-done approach.
There has been a fusion of indoor and outdoor riders meeting in the virtual world of cycling. With the addition of Chapstand, managing the controls of the online universe of riding is made easier. It doesn’t stop there; Chapstand offers smaller kits for your offseason riding. Reclaiming a television and heading into the basement with Chapstand could have indoor rides happening more often or going longer. Isn’t that the important part of riding indoors?
