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o.pwuaioc wrote:I was hoping you'd chime in! I saw your post from years ago. How intense of an exercise can you get on these things? I was concerned the wheel wasn't heavy enough to do a lot of high energy cardio, but that might just be a bias I have from looking at the folding ones.

Like most equipment the intensity of your workout depends on what you put into it, but I think it's more than capable of giving you a good, sweaty workout. This bike has a tension control knob that goes from 1 to 8. I just keep it stuck on 4 and that works well for me. After a hour of use, my watch usually says I burned about 300 active calories, 380 total calories (the bike also has a display clocking your time, speed, and calories burned). It was an important part of me losing 25 pounds at the start of the pandemic. And the one I have is certainly sturdy. I've had it about 10 years, and I've used it about 6 days a week the last 3 years and other than the seat getting a bit ratty it's still going strong.

Golgo 14 wrote:Like most equipment the intensity of your workout depends on what you put into it, but I think it's more than capable of giving you a good, sweaty workout. This bike has a tension control knob that goes from 1 to 8. I just keep it stuck on 4 and that works well for me. After a hour of use, my watch usually says I burned about 300 active calories, 380 total calories (the bike also has a display clocking your time, speed, and calories burned). It was an important part of me losing 25 pounds at the start of the pandemic. And the one I have is certainly sturdy. I've had it about 10 years, and I've used it about 6 days a week the last 3 years and other than the seat getting a bit ratty it's still going strong.

As a point of reference, covering a mile on foot is equivalent to about 100 calories.

That can help provide a gauge of intensity.

o.pwuaioc wrote:I actually thought about getting a trainer first, but I don't have a great bike (need to buy a new one, too, actually), and it seems like it was a hassle to be constantly putting the trainer on and taking it off to ride again. Is it easier than it looks? Maybe it was only the ones I saw that seemed to be a hassle.

Difficulty in hooking up the trainer depends a lot on the trainer. Some can be pretty quick and easy. But it's not nothing.

If you're not in love with your bike and space is not a concern then maybe a trainer isn't such a good idea. You want to make getting on your bike as easy and convenient as possible so you're more likely to do it.

I did the trainer thing and didn't like it much. I just prefer my exercise bike instead.

Could just be a combo of my trainer and/or bike not clicking with me though, who knows.

Still running a bunch. Outside now, since spring has arrived (officially at least). Running my first 5k with my daughter come summer.

God, how old is your daughter now Bone?

Ack wrote:God, how old is your daughter now Bone?

Ten! And my youngest will be seven on Sunday.

Yeah, time flies. When I joined this forum I didn't have any kids. I wasn't even married!

BoneSnapDeez wrote:

Ack wrote:God, how old is your daughter now Bone?

Ten! And my youngest will be seven on Sunday.

Yeah, time flies. When I joined this forum I didn't have any kids. I wasn't even married!

Jesus, making me feel old, man!

Congratulations though. I hope you and your oldest have a great time together.

Ended up getting an Echelon Connect EX-15. It seems it's being marked down and on sale for $400 (plus tax), so I snapped it up asap. Put it together this evening after work and rode 4km to test it out. The thing is solid! Seems well-built. No complaints so far. I was able to connect to the Echelon app and get some basic metrics without issue. I'll try it out with some other apps to see if that works.

One big reason for choosing this over Sunny is that the latter consistently has a ton of reviews saying customer service was horrendous. The only downsides I've seen about Echelon so far is that they tend to click, but luckily mine doesn't do that. (Not sure if it will in the future.)

@Limewater, ultimately, I decided to go for a higher end bike to get some of the benefits of having bluetooth connectivity and a magnetic flywheel. I figured it's cheap enough that I'm not going to feel the difference in the long run. Plus, it looks cool in my apartment, so I'm happy with it (so far).

Ack wrote:

BoneSnapDeez wrote:

Ack wrote:God, how old is your daughter now Bone?

Ten! And my youngest will be seven on Sunday.

Yeah, time flies. When I joined this forum I didn't have any kids. I wasn't even married!

Jesus, making me feel old, man!

Congratulations though. I hope you and your oldest have a great time together.

Agreed! That’s awesome, Bone.