Web-Wired Bikes Let Spa Clientele Stay Online While Staying in Shape

Talk about multi-tasking: The Spa at South Coast Plaza is letting patrons both surf and sweat.

Bonding with San Francisco-based Netpulse Communications Inc., the Spa has installed several Internet terminals to its recumbent bicycles, hooking the machines to the global network through a high-speed connection.

The result: Exercisers can check financial and sports news, send e-mail and watch television on a small digital screen tucked into the corner of the terminal. All the while, banner advertisements scroll across the bottom of the screen.

Members can surf the Net free of charge and jump from site to site by simply pressing on the machine’s touch screen.

The terminal normally limits workouts--and online browsing--to 20 minutes, unless otherwise programmed by the user. A person’s access to the Net also ends when the bike stops.

“It’s dead easy to use, and the bikes are always packed,” said Dave Powell, a personal trainer at the Costa Mesa health club. “You can’t hurt it. Though, if your 20-minute workout ends and you haven’t finished writing that e-mail, the machine cuts you off and the message dies. That can be troublesome, say, if you’re on [e-Trade] and in the middle of buying or selling some stock.”

Displaying savvy insight, Netpulse was among the first to realize that health clubs teem with a captive audience, desperate for something to take its mind off its workouts. Clubs throughout the country--including those in the 24 Hour Fitness Chain--offer the digital link.

Creating a marriage between Net marketing and fat-burning, Netpulse now uses its terminals for various promotional means. Last fall, U.S. Senate and gubernatorial candidates in California tapped the device as another outlet for their political advertisements.

More recently, Netpulse launched a frequent-flyer promotion with United and American Airlines: A person received one free mile for every minute spent on the exercise bike or stair climber.

P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com.