CalTrainer - bicycle trainers instead of seats

Idea: Provide bicycle trainers for cyclists to sit on their own bicycle in public transportation.

Benefits: Replacing seats and bike racks with bicycle trainers will allow better use of train bike cars.  Cyclists will get a better user experience and will be more likely to take public transportation when cycling only is not practical instead of driving on long commutes.

A trainer like CycleOps wouldn't need more room for a person and a bike than a full seat + bike rack. Nicer fluid or magnetic trainers would be great.  Wind trainers' noise shouldn't be that big of a deal on a train, especially if everyone is using one.  When the train is moving we can reroute some external wind for a more realistic biking experience.

Idea history:

On the annual MIT bike ride to Tiburon yesterday, someone in great cycling shape was riding a not too fancy bike.

He explained he took his cheap bike on CalTrain.  (Use of bike locks is prohibited on board Caltrain)

I also wouldn't take my race bike on CalTrain if I can't be on top of it.  I might put my race bike on a trainer occasionally.  If he uses the indoor trainer on Caltrain every day, Leon may still want to use a cheaper bike, but he will keep his fantastic shape.

Bonus extensions:

• Generate electricity instead of just waste it for magnetic resistance trainer
  
  

  I've got to keep 300W output to get a $1 discount on the roundtrip

  While we'll have to get a really good workout out of the cyclists to get any real electricity,
  but if this is sold back at premium to PG&E clean electricity
  
  
• Provide spinning classes
  
  

  I have to catch the 8:12 train for Melissa's spinning class.

  After we get occasional bike commuters in great shape they will ride to work every day.  Maybe I will start riding CalTrain more regularly even if I don't have to :)  

Business model: A real usability study is needed to decide on the space needed and economics of this solution.  Must experiment with pricing and whether CalTrain should provide this for free for all, should it be premium service, or would users get a discount.

Ideas are dime a dozen

We'll mostly focus on gadgets I'd like to use if someone were to build them, or gadgets I'd like to build if someone else were to pay for them. Novelty is always a bonus, but I hope readers will help in pointing out existing solutions. Most importantly I'd love to get feedback on what you'd use or if you know someone who would. 

This blog will be dedicated mostly to the ideas that "I don't have time for" but I need to pull out of my head

to make room for more.  Most of these would likely be patentable: useful, novel, and non-obvious, even if half-baked. Yet, if you do want to build and sell something based on ideas from this website, you will be best off contacting me early so we can file jointly for a US patent.

Legal disclaimer: you are getting every penny worth of legal advice you are paying for. 

It looks like the prudent approach would be for me to describe not only the idea and application, but also a few implementation directions. If you do have better solutions how to build these, read the disclaimer below and drop me a line in private. Be careful when you post implementation idea details as they will have the same patent  barring effect, but at least rest assured I won't claim them as my own. I will preface the unlikely case of patented postings with a warning.

• If sufficient details how to build the gadget are disclosed, these posting will likely bar an international patent being filed by anyone, including me.  Nobody can use the 'first to the patent office' international patent rule as this is still prior art.
• If you try to get an US patent, this blog can be invoked as prior art to bar you, or you'd get an invalid patent that will easily be brought down in court.  You can count on Google's archives to provide an undeniable priority date
• If I have skipped salient details on how to build this in my postings, you might be able to defend your patent as not being invalid.
• If I have filed for an US provisional patent, you can contact me to become an assignee
• If I have filed for an actual patent, you can contact me to license it
• If I have filed for an actual patent, you might have a chance to patent only if you have an alternative solution to my actual patent.
• If I haven't filed the patent in a year, you may be able to practice this invention, but so would copy-cats

That being said, I do hope we don't kill any actually good ideas by talking about them prematurely.
Destroying the incentives for someone to go and actually bring these to market, may make this blog a burial ground for impractical businesses based on improbable technologies.  I do hope that someone excited about making better products and having the advantage of first to market will simply use these as a starting point.

For sure, I hope at least we'll exercise some brain cells and have some fun.