Cycle while you work?

Kickstand desk offers extra height so bike-starved workers can keep up the mileage.

Plenty of people are buying home trainers at this time of the year but usually to use in the garage and purely for a sweaty workout while the snow piles up outdoors. Dan Young, an IT worker from Cleveland, Ohio has been using his at work, however, and the special tall desk he designed to allow it is now on sale for like-minded office-bound cyclists.

If the Kickstand desk looks like it was engineered by a bicycle framebuilder, it's because a local bike workshop does the welding of the sturdy 50mm-square tubular steel structure which in turn supports either a tempered glass or recycled maple 150 x 75cm worktop.

According to BikeBiz Young says, "Many days I've been tied to my desk, looking for any break where I could cut out for an hour or so to get on my bike and ride. The problem was, the time wasn't there. On the weekends, when I did have a chance to get out for a few hours, I felt slow and sluggish. This wasn't good."

The price of the special desk, just the first from the new Kickstand Furniture concern with the aim of bringing 'cycling into the workplace' is $2,500 which is pricey by IKEA standards but in line with similarly-engineered architectural office furniture.

The next step, we reckon, would be to hook up the trainer to a generator and battery supply so that the office lighting, heating and computer can be human-powered.    

Details: www.kickstandfurniture.com