Mid-Heatwave Workouts are Bearable Thanks to This Fan

During quarantine (you’re still quarantining, yes? I increasingly feel like I’m the only one) I’ve been spending a lot of time with my soulmate (my stationary bike) and my besties (Peloton instructors).

I cannot express how much riding this bike to nowhere has helped my mental and physical health. Also, things like this article and a guy on TikTok (NOT linking to this fool) ranting about how he hates that Peloton supports charities and BLM makes me love Peloton even more.

I built my own DIY Peloton setup (more on that here) and I’ve been learning more about how to optimize it, sometimes to the point where I feel like a fool for not figuring some things out sooner (3 month update here). The latest “Wooow, how did you not know that?!” moment was when I learned about the one tiny thing that has transformed my time on the bike: A clip on fan.

In my initial setup, in my guest bedroom, I had this Dyson fan set up in front of the bike. When I moved my bike, the fan didn’t come with it - there wasn’t a good place for it - and I quickly realized it wasn’t worthwhile to move the fan each time I got on the bike. So I was just… really sweaty. I was before - the fan really didn’t make that much difference - but then I found out about rechargeable clip on fans, which apparently everyone with a stroller or stationary bike already knew about.

The battery has a cover, don’t worry.

This fan is so perfect, it’s like they bought the 50 bestselling small fans and then figured out what each was missing, and built this fan to address every possible problem. It comes with a funky little battery, that you just put in once, and from then on you charge it with a USB charger. Since I only use it while I’m on my bike, I charge after every two or three rides, so I don’t really know how long it can go without a charge (reviewers say about 12 hours). It also has speed control. The little wheel on the back turns the fan on and off, but it also lets you control the speed, so you can have a light breeze or a wind tunnel, whatever you like.

The fan is adjustable in just about every way you can imagine. If you’re looking at the above photo, that half-circle that connect the fan to the clip spins 360°, then the fan itself rotates 360° on that half-circle. You can truly have this fan in any configuration you want, which makes it endlessly versatile. I’ve tried a few different places on my bike, but for now this setup is the best for me:

I put my hands on all the other parts of the handlebars throughout a ride, and if I clip it to the tablet holder it will make my iPad less secure, and I’d rather not end up with my iPad falling on the floor mid-ride. It is a bit crowded with my iPad, phone, and fan, but once I get riding I don’t even notice. I also like having the fan within reach so I can move it and adjust the speed throughout my ride. I was a bit worried about the clip breaking, because the bike handlebars are pretty large, and we’ve all broken a chip clip by overestimating its strength, but this this is SOLID. It’s not extended as far as it can go, and I make sure not to like, rip it off the handlebar when I’m done, but I’ve never felt like it was going to snap and be irreparably broken.

You don’t realize how many Clorox-wipe fuzzies are stuck to your bike until you take a close up picture and debate photoshopping them out.

This fan makes the hardest, grittiest rides much easier to handle. The first few times I used it I thought I hadn’t gotten a good workout, because I was much less sweaty than usual. Then I realized it was the FAN (again, a moment where I felt like a dang fool). For $20 you can completely transform your workouts, be less of a red-faced sweaty mess when you’re done, and feel like you’re racing down a mountain on your bike, when you’re actually staying in your living room. It’s a complete game changer.