One of the most exciting innovations that the fitness industry has seen in decades has been launched in Oslo, Norway.
ebove™ is a unique training concept that combines exercise and gaming. Incorporating real motion with socialisation and immersive visuals, the concept aims to deliver the most engaging, entertaining and realistic indoor exercise experience in the world.
Activetainment, the Norwegian startup behind ebove, has formally launched the first ebove product, the B\01 bike, for pre-order in the Nordics. The bike aims to recreate the thrill and fun of outdoor biking, as every move is felt and experienced realistically, inside beautiful immersive visualisations of outdoor surroundings.
The bike features moveable handlebars, brakes, gears and highly responsive incline and decline which responds to visualised terrain and gear resistance. The B\01 bike has been described as ‘the world's most awesome bike simulator’ and ‘the closest thing to trail biking ever seen’. It has already gained interest from consumers and media alike from around the world. All components of the bike’s hardware and software were developed in Norway by Activetainment’s in-house team.
The bike will come with a range of pre-loaded tracks so riders will, for example, be able to ride a leg of the Tour de France or take a tour around Venice, from anyplace they choose, be it the gym, home, office or literally anywhere with an electricity supply. Riders will also be able to compete against others anywhere in the world in real time, as well as race their own ghost rider.
Activetainment hopes that the unique combination of gaming and exercise will also help to address the issue of boredom and motivation that so many experience in the gym. Many are concentrating so hard on the virtual world that they are riding through that they forget that they are exercising. The company hopes the concept might be a step towards creating an experience that will inspire more people to be active.
Jan Arild Svello, Head of Business Development and Co-Founder of Activetainment, comments, “We’re really excited about the launch of our first product, the ebove bike. We’ve had an amazing response from people so far, so many are already really excited about it! We’ve worked hard over the last few years to create a truly innovative product and it’s incredibly exciting that we’re now ready to start taking pre-orders.”
First demoed at CES (The Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas in January 2015, the bike is available for pre-order in the Nordics first, with a wider roll-out expected in early 2016. Activetainment will first look towards selling the bike to gyms, fitness chains and other B2B customers such as hotel chains and corporations.
Jan Arild adds, “Everyone who tries the bike can’t stop smiling. They’re having so much fun that they forget that they’re working out, and we think that’s pretty special. We want to bring indoor exercise to life and we hope that our ebove concept might be a step towards encouraging people to be more active.”
Activetainment is a creative technology startup based in Oslo, Norway. Consisting of passionate bikers, gamers, developers and virtual reality enthusiasts, Activetainment is on a mission to make every exercise session a unique and playful experience.
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Notes to editors
· The ebove B\01 bike will is now available for pre-order in the Nordics. Details on how to pre-order can be found at
www.activetainment.com/pre-orders
· The ebove bike will initially retail at around $6-8,000 (targeting B2B customers) however each region will have its own pricing structure
· Activetainment develops all of the ebove bike’s software and hardware in-house
· The bikes will come equipped with all software pre-loaded, so they’re ready to plug in and play
