During summer and fall, I wrote about my bicycle travels on Albany and Schenectady streets and highways. I made the last of 20 Albany-to-Schenectady round-trip commutes on Oct. 17, starting with morning darkness and finishing with evening darkness.

Most of my pedaling is over for the year, save for occasional weekend rides in autumn sunlight. Last month, I returned to the Guilderland YMCA, for the cold weather regimen of shooting baskets, lifting weights and animating myself on Nordic-style cross-trainers.

I have never been a big fan of the bike machines at the Y, or any other health club. They’re just too boring. Sure, they give you calorie and mile counts, but the steady stream of blipping red lights has never motivated me into motion. And really, there hasn’t been an all-out, big sweat machine since the original “Stairmaster” of the late 1980s and early 1990s — the one with the rolling, metal stairs.

But the millennium has arrived, and so have the new, high-tech, space-age cycles. The Expresso Fitness Corp. of California has designed stationary bikes with 17-inch LCD video screens that provide realistic graphics, and the Guilderland Y has just invested in four of them. Each “S2” bike offers 30-plus programmed courses that put cyclists up and down big hills, along ocean wonderlands and into mountain snow and glaciers. It’s like riding into a video game, without the hassles of zombies or dudes stealing cars.

Click HERE to check out a company ad and some examples of video cycling.

You have to steer the bike, moving handlebars left and right to travel a given course. When a hill shows up, resistance automatically increases. Coasting down hills, the pedals go ‘round easier. There are other cyclists on the road, all dressed in tight black shorts and tight colored shirts. Sometimes, you pass them, other times they pass you. Everyone seems to ride in the middle of the road, which I thought was odd — for real, most two-wheelers hug the right side.

I’ve been on the “Rolling Thunder” and “Coastal Run” courses on the “Basic” menu. The former cardio course is a nice ride through the countryside, over railroad tracks and past water towers and plenty of green hills. The latter is a roll by the ocean and blue-purple waters. This morning, I tried the “Quicksilver” and “Billy Goat Falls” runs on the “Moderate” menu, and liked the latter course — frozen territory complete with high, ice-covered walls on one side of the road and a long drop into oblivion on the other side.

There are perks on these virtual reality trips. For one thing, no vehicular traffic. No tractor-trailers hitting 60 mph in a 30 mph zone. No idiots in cars who believe they own the road. And there’s music! Bring your stereo headphones and plug into tunes packed into the machine — something any serious cyclist would never consider on the real road. Today, I had Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Rolling Stones, Warren Zevon and Three Dog Night along for the ride. Spiritual, Latin, country, dance and recent rock ‘n’ roll are among other selections.

You also can do things on a virtual road you’d never try on genuine pavement. When some of the “guys” passed me, I quickly caught up to them; I bumped the first guy, and he just disappeared. Poof! So did the second; and the third. Like to try this trick with some of pick-up trucks that zoom by me in the real world.

The female cyclists, I didn’t bother. Especially that cute strawberry blonde in the green-and-white shirt! And the redhead in purple!

Some people might be tempted to drive off an ice-covered cliff or into the ocean, just to see what happens. Nothing happens. There’s a computerized guardian angel riding double, and anyone who veers too far left or too far right never splatters into a road sign, snow-flocked pine tree or giant stack of logs. The program just keeps you on the far side of the road, until you correct direction yourself.

If you are really into the ride, you can get a little ... dizzy. Quick turns had me briefly checking my balance, and rolling down video hills provided the true-to-life sensation — kind of like watching a roller coaster movie that puts a camera in the front seat. Pedaling up hills, I found myself really churning, like exercise on open road. The woman next to me was talking to herself, saying “Come on!” and “Go! Go!” — challenging herself in a race against no one.

I was soaked with sweat after my 40 minutes on the Expresso. That’s a wet — but satisfying — workout. Calories and time spent on the bike are counted and kept online. But trying to find that Expresso site ... is not as easy as riding a bike.

Other courses are waiting. Bridges, small towns, and even space are on the agenda. “Gutbuster,” “Rough Rider,” “Outlaw Rock” and “Apple Grinder” are in my future. The Expresso team has designed a winner for winter bikers — and I’ll bet the graphics and ride effects only improve with age.

When it gets too real, that’s when people will have to worry. I can hear novices now, as they roll haplessly down a steep grade — “Jane! Jane! Stop this crazy thing!”