From CycleMania: (Ottawa, ON, Canada)

One of the signs of running a successful BLOG is that you get lots of inquiries from people asking you to link to their commercial websites. I have resisted doing this with Cyclemania as we don’t run this site for commercial gain nor do we want to promote people’s products.

An offshoot to the old link request is something a little different. I get at least 1 inquiry a week from some business asking me to promote their product. Again, no…

But then I got to thinking….. how about doing reviews of cycling-related products? The way I see it is that if someone feels good enough about their product, they’ll have the confidence to allow me to do an unbiased review. In other words, you provide me the product knowing that I am going to review it and provide an honest opinion of it and its usefulness.

Fast forward —– I was contacted by Jeff over at GlobalRide Productions (you can see what they do by clicking the aforementioned link). His initial e-mail was the standard “Can you promote my product for me?” message. Fair enough. After a few e-mail exchanges, he agreed to send me their 3 DVD set of Hawaii rides. The understanding was that I would view their DVDs and provide a fair and honest review of their product. Hats off to Jeff for having the confidence to send me the DVDs. So GlobalRide gets points right off the bat for trusting me enough to send me their DVDs.

On to the product…. slick packaging – nice graphics & well-explained on the outside.

Oh yes, this is a DVD meant for those of us who don’t live in places like Hawaii, but want to cycle year round. Set up your bike on a training stand…. cosy up to the TV and pretend that you are there. And wear all of your gear while the snow pelts your house!

So what do you get for your money (USD $75)? In this case it’s a 3 CD boxed set entitled Hawaii Rides. Each CD has a specific ride:

StrenDurance in Hawaii
Maui Rollers
Oceanside Ride
Cool!

Load the DVD, get a main menu where you have the choice of:

Music or No Music (I need Music when I SPIN)
a Coach or not (I like that option).
Then you get a nifty choice of American, Australian or Italian coaches. Sadly, you get the accents not the language.
From there it’s the normal warnings and instructions (nicely laid out).
5 minute warm up and you are off. I must say that I have a hard time visualizing things. Not to worry. After 5 minutes, I was in Maui. Hint: Crank the volume up nice and loud.

The videography is good. You are riding with Gene Nacey – the Founder of Global Ride (and a pretty strong cyclist!). Note that this is not a HD video.

A nifty bonus is that there is a map that appears as an inset while you are riding. So you can get an idea of where you are, elevation, etc…. sweet!

You climb, you coast, you go downhill, along the ocean….. So there is all sorts of terrain.

Something that I really liked is that each DVD has a bonus training video with stuff specific to cycling. For example there is a really cool Pilates session tailored to cyclists. That is hard to find at your local gym. And the Instructors are knowledgeable and quite good.

Here’s a peak at a video from Global Ride’s YouTube Channel

Oh yes — What do I think about this DVD set? In short – pretty good. It delivers on what I was hoping for. And that is getting an outside workout while I am inside – without getting deathly bored. The price is right. It’s one of those DVD sets that you’ll watch over and over again. Especially if you are stuck indoors for months on end like we are in Ottawa.