True Fitness PS900 User manual

800.426.6570 / www.truefitness.com
PS900
Recumbent & Upright Bike
Owner’s Guide

In 1981 Frank Trulaske
launched True Fitness
Technology with one goal
in mind – to make the
finest fitness equipment on
the market.
His team began by
manufacturing premium,
handcrafted treadmills
with a focus on quality
and durability. Now, 25
years later, True Fitness
has established its
reputation as one of the
oldest and most respected
fitness equipment
manufacturers worldwide.
While True treadmills
continue to enjoy top reviews from
major consumer magazines and
fitness experts, its line of products
has expanded.
Today True also produces
award-winning exercise
bikes, ellipticals, and
TrueStretch, our patented
flexibility unit.
True Fitness is dedicated
to always staying a step
ahead of the competition
and supplying its valued
customers with the finest
workout equipment
in the industry. True’s
equipment is designed to
accommodate the needs
of everyone from the
professional athlete to the
weekend warrior.
So, with a solid 25 years
of fitness experience, you can count
on True Fitness both now and in the
future to meet your goals for a happy,
healthy lifestyle.
Thank You For Selecting True
“Our original
goal was to build
the world’s best
fitness equipment,
and today we
believe we’re
doing it!”
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3
PS900 Owner’s Guide
Review for Your Safety
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When using this exercise machine, basic precautions should
always be followed, which includes the following:
Read and understand all instructions and warnings prior to use.
Obtain a medical exam before beginning any exercise program.
If at any time during exercise you feel faint, dizzy, or experience
pain, stop and consult your physician.
Obtain proper instruction prior to use.
Inspect the bike for incorrect, worn, or loose components and do
not use until corrected, replaced, or tightened prior to use.
Do not wear loose or dangling clothing while using the bike.
Care should be used when mounting or dismounting the bike.
Read, understand, and test the emergency stop procedures before
use.
Disconnect all power before servicing the bike.
Do not exceed maximum user weight of 350 lbs.
Keep children and animals away.
All exercise equipment is potentially hazardous. If attention is not
paid to the conditions of equipment usage, death or serious injury
could occur.
3

Just Get On
and Ride!
Starting Up
PS900 Owner’s Guide 5
Quick Start Guide
Pausing
Your
Workout
Change
the Data
Display
The best way to learn to use the PS900 Bike is to keep pressing
keys to see what happens — explore it at your own pace.
• Begin pedaling.
• The display will wake up and prompt for your weight,
workout selection, and workout time.
• Enter your workout parameters and press , or
immediately press for a quick start into a manual
workout.
The bike will retain your workout data for about 15 seconds after
you stop pedaling.
Press the Change Display key to change the workout data display.

Table of Contents
PS900 Owner’s Guide
6
1 - Riding Your
Bike
page7
2 - The Display
page 15
3 - Manual and
Pre-Set Programs
page 19
4 - Heart Rate
Control
page 23
5 - Designing an
Exercise Program
page 29
6 - Care and
Maintenance
page 39
Appendix A
Maximum Heart Rate
and Target Heart Rate
page 41
Appendix B
Specifications
page 45

Chapter One
Riding Your Bike
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Chapter 1: Riding Your Bike
Chapter 2: The Display
Chapter 3: Manual and Pre-Set Programs
Chapter 4: Heart Rate Control
Chapter 5: Designing an Exercise Program
Chapter 6: Care and Maintenance
7

Getting Comfortable
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Setting Your
Weight
Seat
Adjustment
The body weight setting does
not affect the calorie expenditure
calculation. Unlike treadmills or
other weight-bearing exercises,
calories burned during exercise
biking does not change with
different body weights.
Adjust the seat so that
when your leg is fully
extended with your
feet in the pedals, your
knee is slightly bent.
While standing next to the bike, pull out the
seat adjust knob and lower the seat to the
lowest position. Next, get onto the bike with
one leg fully extended in a pedal, supporting
most of your weight. Grasp the horn of the
seat and pull it up under you to a snug fit,
letting the ratcheting mechanism lock the
knob and pin in place.
PS900 Owner’s Guide
8
Upright
Bike Seat
Adjustment
Variations in human
exercise efficiency are another
potential source of error,
with differences of plus or
minus 10% common in the
population.

Foot
Position
Riders are most efficient if they place
the ball of their foot in the center of
the pedal.
Other riders are more comfortable
if the arch of their foot is against the
pedal. Riders are encouraged to be as
efficient as possible, but use your own
judgement in the comfort/efficiency
tradeoff.
Most riders will find a comfort/efficiency sweet spot at a
pedal cadence around 80 rpm. More serious riders desiring
maximum performance typically pedal at around 100 rpm. For
electromechanical and safety reasons, the bike will not provide
the fully requested workload when your pedal cadence falls below
55 rpm.
Breathe in a regular and relaxed manner. Many exercisers do
not breathe enough, which reduces their exercise capacity and
comfort. You might want to try breathing deeper and more
frequently to see if it helps your exercise regime.
PS900 Owner’s Guide 9
Pedal
Cadence
Breathing
Riding Efficiently and Comfortably
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The PS900 Bike has two ways of monitoring your heart rate:
...By using a chest strap that transmits your heart rate to the bike
via radio...
...or by using the metal contact heart rate pads on the handlebars.
Although your bike functions fine without using the heart rate
monitoring feature, this kind of monitoring gives you valuable
feedback on your effort level. Chest strap monitoring also allows
you to use Heart Rate Control, which is the most advanced
exercise control system available.
Using the Chest Strap
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Monitoring
Your Heart
Rate
ES 9.0 Owner’s Guide
10 PS900 Owner’s Guide
Monitoring Your Heart Rate
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10
Upright HRC Pads Recumbent HRC Pads

When you wear a Polar® or compatible transmitter strap, the bike
will display your heart rate as a digital beats-per-minute (bpm)
readout.
The transmitter strap should be worn
directly against your skin, about one
inch below the pectoral muscles/breast
line (see picture below). Women should
be careful to place the transmitter be-
low their bra line.
Some moisture is necessary
between the strap and your
skin. Sweat from your exer-
cise works best, but ordinary
tap water may be used prior
to your workout if desired.
PS900 Owner’s Guide 11
Using the Chest Strap Monitor
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Examples of Heart Rates
Found in Daily Life
An average 30-year-old might have a
resting heart rate, when sitting totally
still for several minutes, of 65. During
hard exercise that can be sustained for
10 to 15 minutes it might be around
140 continuously. A maximum heart
rate that requires maximal exercise for
several minutes to attain is 185.
A 30-year-old in good shape might
have a resting heart rate near 55, and
might exercise for 20 minutes at a heart
rate of 160.
A world-class distance runner or
professional cyclist might have a resting
heart rate near 45.
Chest Strap
Heart Rate
Monitoring

Contact
Heart Rate
(CHR)
PS900 Owner’s Guide
Contact Heart Rate
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12
The contact heart rate system lets you monitor your heart rate
without wearing a strap.
Gently grasp the contact heart rate pads as shown below.
When the system detects your hands, a red heart will appear in
the Heart Rate field of the data display and will flash in time with
your heart beat. During this time, the system is analyzing and
locking in your heart rate. Within about 15 seconds, your digital
heart rate in beats per minute (bpm) should be displayed.
A Note on CHR Accuracy
CHR monitoring may be a bit less
accurate than a chest strap, since
the heart rate signals are much
stronger at the chest.
About 5% of the population cannot
be picked up by any CHR system.
This is because their heart is po-
sitioned in a more up-and-down
manner in their chest, as opposed
to leaning over to one side.

PS900 Owner’s Guide 13
For Best Results
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For Best
Results
1. Exercise with smooth body motions. Avoid excessive body
motion, especially in your arms and upper body.
2. Breathe smoothly and regularly, and avoid talking. (Talking
will cause unrepresentative heart rate spikes of 5 to 10
bpm.)
3. Grip the pads lightly, not tightly.
4. Make sure your hands are clean, free of both dirt and hand
lotions.
When using a Heart Rate Control (HRC) workout, it is best to
use chest strap monitoring. These workouts work best with the
extra accuracy gained from a chest-contact heart rate monitoring
system.

Chapter Two
The Display
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15
Chapter 1: Riding Your Bike
Chapter 2: The Display
Chapter 3: Manual and Pre-Set Programs
Chapter 4: Heart Rate Control
Chapter 5: Designing an Exercise Program
Chapter 6: Care and Maintenance

Your Display
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Your Display
The bike display has two jobs: to let you control the bike opera-
tion, and to give you feedback about your workout. The
controls are simple and designed to be foolproof; it’s hard to press
a “wrong” key. You can monitor eight different kinds of
physiological data, and your workout progress is tracked
graphically with the center matrix display
PS900 Owner’s Guide
16

PS900 Owner’s Guide 17
The Upper Panel
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Time: The amount of time remaining in your workout. If you press
, this becomes
elapsed time: how long you’ve been working out so far.*
Work Level: The selected workout level.
Distance: An
estimate of how far you would have traveled on an out-
door road bike.*
Watts: The amount of mechanical power the bike is receiving from your exercise. This is not the same as the amount of power your body is using, since the average person is only about 20% efficient at generat- ing mechanical power. *
RPM: Your pedal cadence. *
METs: Your METs rate.*
Heart Rate: In beats per minute (bpm).*
Calories: An esti-
mate of your calories burned. This doesn’t include your basal metabolic rate, which is about 72 calories per hour for a 150- pound person.*
*Pressing the “Display Shift” key switches the readout from the top values to the bottom values and will light up the LEDs of the values now being displayed. If you press and hold the “Change Display” key for one second, the display will enter “Scan Mode” and switch between the two sets of values.

The Lower Panel
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PS900 Owner’s Guide
18
Start: Starts a workout
Workload: Adjusts work-
load up and down. Keys repeat if held down.
Enter: Accepts the current data entry.
Pre-set Programs: Selects desired program profile.
Random: Generates a different program profile each time
Clear: Zeros- out current data entry.
Numeric: Used for data entry in workout setup. During a workout, used to change workload by entering a numeric value and pressing .

Chapter Three
Manual and Pre-Set
Programs
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19
Chapter 1: Riding Your Bike
Chapter 2: The Display
Chapter 3: Manual and Pre-Set Programs
Chapter 4: Heart Rate Control
Chapter 5: Designing an Exercise Program
Chapter 6: Care and Maintenance

How These Modes Work
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Manual
Mode
Manual control mode changes workload in 10-watt increments.
The workload stays the same at any pedal cadence (called
constant power control) unless you drop below 55 rpm. Below 55
rpm, workload is reduced along with pedal cadence, to prevent
the sensation of the pedals “locking up.”
Three different preset programs are available:
• C-V Workout, with the workload gradually rising until
you reach the middle of your workout time, then
gradually decreasing to the end.
• Weight Loss, with a warmup stage increasing to a
steady-state workload for the majority of the workout,
then a cool-down at the end.
• Hill Interval, with four work intervals separated by four
rest intervals.
The Random program creates a different program profile each
time you press the key.
Sixteen different levels are available to change the difficulty of a
program. The workload intensities expand and contract
depending on the level.
PS900 Owner’s Guide
20
Pre-Set
Programs

PS900 Owner’s Guide 21
Program Profiles
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Program
Profiles
C-V Workout
Weight Loss
Hill Interval

PS900 Owner’s Guide
22
How Your Bike Controls Your Workout
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The PS900 Bike closely controls how
hard you’re working, so that you get
just the workout you’re looking for.
It does this by keeping track of both
how fast you’re pedaling and how
hard you’re pressing on the pedals.
At any given level in a workout
program, the PS900 Bike will keep
your exercise intensity constant,
no matter how fast you pedal. Technically, this kind of workload
control is called constant power.
How the
PS900 Bike
Controls
Your
Exercise
For comfort reasons, if
your pedaling speed goes
below 55 rpm, the PS900
Bike reduces the
resistance on the pedals,
so they won’t feel like they
are “locking up.”