Category Archives: Exercise Bikes

LifeCORE Airbike Released – High Quality, Affordable Fan Bike

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Yes, this is the week for new Fan Bikes to hit the market. I just found out about the totally new LifeCORE Airbike LS-XT a few days ago and it has just become available on the LifeCORE Fitness website.

Lifecore Airebike LS-XT

LifeCORE Airbike LS-XT

The LifeCORE Airbike is a Dual Action Fan Bike  that is very affordable (currently selling for $499) and gives you a high quality alternative to the original Schwinn Airdyne Fan Bikes.

The Lifecore Airbike comes with an electronic console and a generous Lifetime Warranty on the frame. This fan bike gives you a good upper and lower body aerobic workout with a comfortable, smooth and stable ride.

I had just learned that Lifecore Fitness had supplied the LifeCORE Airbike to the CrossFit organization to be used with their intense workout routines. The Airbike held up just fine in this demanding environment and the people at Crossfit were very impressed.

To find out more about the LifeCORE Airbike (or the Crossfit program) see the LifeCORE Airbike LS-XT Review.

New Affordable Schwinn Airdyne (AD2) Dual Action Fan Bike

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Schwinn has finally come out with a high quality and truely affordable Airdyne Dual Action Fan Bike. The new model is the Schwinn Airdyne AD2 Fan Exercise Bike.

The Schwinn Airdyne Fan Bikes have been the industry standard, for both in-home and

Affordable Schwinn Airdyne AD2 Fan Bike

Schwinn Airdyne AD2 Dual Action Fan Bike

commercial use, for many years now but the problem has been  that they are very expensive.  Unfortunately, they were the best and the only alternatives were very cheap, low quality fan bikes. It was almost impossible to find a good quality,  affordable, mid-range  Fan Bike.

Well, we now have an alternative to the high priced Schwinn Airdyne Fan Bikes and it still comes from Schwinn ~ and still even has the same excellent warranty as the original Schwinn Airdyne Bikes ~ that is currently selling for $399.

The biggest advantage to the Fan Bikes is that you can get a cool Upper and/or Lower Body workout. You can use the pedals and handlebars for the full body workout, the pedals only for a lower body workout or rest your feet on the pegs for an upper body workout.

Fan Bikes give the impression that you are not getting as intense of a workout as on magnetic resistance exercise bikes, but you can actually get a good workout by pedaling faster (to increase the resistance) or simply by increasing your workout time.

In addition to the excellent warranty from Schwinn, this Fan Bike comes with an electronic console that measures Time, Distance, Calories, Calories per Hour, RPM, Workload, and is even telemetry enabled to measure your heart rate.

I was actually very glad to finally see a good quality, affordable Dual Action Fan Bike hit the market (and still even in time for Xmas (if you are looking for this style of exercise bike)).

For more information on this new Fan Bike from Schwinn and to read our review and the positive customer reviews that are already out there, go to  Schwinn Airdyne AD2 Fan Bike Review.

Bike Rider Gift Ideas and Cyclist Gift Shop

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Yep, it is that time of year again and time for our annual Bike Rider Gift Ideas and Cyclist Gift updates.

When you are looking for gifts for bike riders you can simply go to Amazon or any other large internet website and browse their cycling products – or – you can get ideas from those of us who have spent countless hours riding, have ridden thousands of miles and have used and researched numerous cycling products.

Some of the most popular gifts for cyclists are often Bike Electronic items such as Bike Computers (magnet transmitter or GPS based),  Heart Rate monitors, Helmet Cams and Bike Lights.

The big news for 2011 is that GPS Based Bike Computers have come WAY down in price from where they were last year or even at the beginning of the summer. Last year, the high-end Garmin units (like the Edge 705) were selling for $700 to $800. This year you can get these units for $400 to $450 and you can get the more basic units for even less.

I was going to post the other cyclist gift ideas in this blog entry (as I did last year) but since there are so many gift ideas and online resources, I have decided to post a separate web page for Cycling Gifts and Resources this year.

For more excellent gift ideas and resources see our new Bike Rider, Cyclist Gift Ideas page.

Small Business Saturday for Exercise Bikes, Bikes and Bike Accessories

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We  have all been seeing these commercials for Small Business Saturday recently and I was thinking that this is actually a really good idea but the commercial ads seem to be all about Brick and Mortar Small Businesses.

Although support for the B&M businesses is  totally legit and it makes a lot of sense to support them, it may not be real obvious that there are a lot of Small Businesses Online (like about-bicycles.com ), that provide a great service through our research and product reviews, that may be overlooked as being small businesses.

So when you are looking  to support Small Businesses Online, keep in mind that we here at about-bicycles.com are a small business that can only survive through your support.

Our passion is Bikes, Bike Products and Accessories and Fitness Bikes and Fitness Equipment. We spend a great deal of time and effort researching and reviewing Bikes, Bike Accessories, Exercise Bikes, Trainers and Indoor Cycles.

When you purchase items through the online merchants that we recommend they help to support our web site.

So please browse our site for the Bikes, Bike Accessories, Kids Bikes, and Exercise Bikes and Indoor Cycles and if you find helpful cycling information and/or reviews please keep in mind that when you click through to our recommended merchants (usually large businesses) and purchase an item, you are still supporting a small online business.

Thanks for your support.

Rob – www.about-bicycles.com

Black Friday, Cyber Monday Deals on Exercise Bikes and Bike Accessories

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As you would expect, there are  a ton of Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) Sales going on  right now both online and in the stores.

I’ve found bigger sales on Exercise Bikes and Spin Bikes (Indoor Cycles) than I have on outdoor (adult) bikes although there are some good sales on kid’s bikes and bike products going on now and through Monday too.

For the Fitness Bike sales, I have put together a separate page with pointers to the best online sales that I have found. See Black Friday and Cyber Monday Exercise Bike Specials for more on these deals.

The best sales that I have found on Bikes (limited) and on Bike Products is going on at Performance Bike. They are offering 20% off Everything. At least that is what the large banner on all the Performance Bike pages say. The small print says that there are exclusions.

I looked into the exclusions and what I found is that many (but not all) of their Bikes are excluded from the sale, but almost everything else is really 20% off including Bike Riding Cloths and accessories, Bike Trainers, Bike Electronics (including bike computers and GPS units) and Kids Bikes.

I am having a hard time keeping up on the latest prices with all of these Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals going on but I am updating the pages that I can as quickly as possible. The links above will get you to our Bikes and Bike product pages but you’ll need to click through to Performance Bike (from our pages) for the 20% off deals.

The 20% items at Performance are clearly marked in red when you take the links from our site to the Performance site.

Many of the cycling products at Amazon are also reduced in price but it is hard to find which exact items have been reduced unless you know what the price was before the sales. One of the easiest way to get to all of our recommended online resources for these sales is to go to our Online Bike Stores page.

Note: This is a great deal going on at Performance Bike and their website is running very SLOW due to the volume of visitors and sales so please allow a little extra time for the pages to load. (I guess you have to deal with the larger crowds at the B&M stores and, in some cases, the longer response times online).

Fitness Club, Personal Trainer and Exercise Bikes

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I am in the process of checking out some of the Fitness Clubs in our area to get into better shape, check out what exercise bikes (and other equipment) that they have and even to check out the Spin Classes that they offer.

I think that Fitness Clubs are pretty big business so I have been expecting a pretty hard sell at the places that I plan to visit. I checked out the first fitness club on my list yesterday and sure enough they were trying to get me to sign the papers right then and there! Well, I was not ready to sign-up, of course, so I made it past that hurdle.

I did have quite an experience which is definitely worth mentioning. Bally Fitness Logo

My first stop was Bally Total Fitness and I met with the club manager first. Step one in their process was to find out all about my fitness goals so I mentioned that I do a lot of cycling and want to stay in shape or improve and to lose some weight too, of course.

Next they took a Body Fat reading with an Omron hand held body fat measurement tool. This was actually very disappointing for me (I need to get in shape!) but it lead me to research these devices along with other body fat measurement techniques online after I got home. It turns out that these devices are not completely accurate but they are somewhat accurate (when used correctly) and they are very convenient.  I may purchase one of these soon.

Next, they showed me around the club a little and the manager set me up with a Personal Trainer to get me warmed up and inspired to get into shape I guess.

Wow, this was an experience! I had never worked with a personal trainer before and it was very enlightening. All we really did was various calisthenics with very little equipment. we used a 15 pound ball and some dumbbells for a few of the exercises, but that was it. I can’t believe what a major workout you can get just from calisthenics! We did a 20 minute workout and was was exhausted and am very sore today.

Since I mentioned cycling we did a lot of exercises for the lower body and legs and I can feel that today. I jotted down the exercises that we did when I got back for future reference.

So after my Personal Trainer workout, I was exhausted but I still had not completed my mission so I proceeded to the Exercise Bikes to check out what they had and to try them out (and in this case wind down a little).

They had some Star Trac Uprights and Recumbents plus quite a few  Life Fitness bikes (Upright and Recumbents). Once again I preferred the Life Fitness bikes (models 9500HR) over the Star Trac bikes (I did not see the model number on them). The Star Trac upright bike did have a nice feature that allowed you to adjust the handlebars (horizontally so they were closer or further away).

The heart rate monitors on the Star Trac recumbent were on the upper bars only which is not as comfortable as having them on the lower bars (by your side) like the Life Fitness bikes.

Riding the exercise bikes seemed like a break compared to the personal trainer workout that I just did. Of course, I took a pretty easy pace and I believe that I am in much better shape for riding than for other exercises.

My last stop was to check out the Spin Bikes. They had a room full of Star Trac Spinner Pro Spin Bikes setup for their Spin Classes. I did ride on one of these just a little and it was fully adjustable and worked well but I did not do a major workout on it.

What I am really hoping for is to be able to go there next week for one of their Spin Classes. I have a free 7 day trail pass but I am not sure if it covers the Spin Classes. I will find out about that and if I am able to do it I will definitely keep you posted.

Livestrong Exercise Bike Deals

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I was just checking the latest prices on Livestrong Bikes and discovered that Livestrong is offering the same deal that I wrote about below (in the Horizon post)  on all of their exercise bikes. This makes sense since Livestrong and Horizon exercise bikes are produced by the same company (Johnson Fitness in Cottage Grove, Wi.). Livestrong Incentives

What Livestrong is offering is Free Shipping,  a Free 1 Year Extended Warranty (worth $90) and a Free Mat (worth $36) on all of their exercise bikes until 11/17/2011.

In addition to the current incentives from Livestrong, your online purchase also ensures a contribution to the LIVESTRONG® Foundation and the fight against cancer.

The original Indoor Cycle that Livestrong produced was the Livestrong LS9.9IC Indoor Cycle. Livestrong now offers a good selection of Indoor Cycle / Spin Bikes plus a full line of high quality Exercise Bikes.

See Livestrong Exercise Bike Review for reviews on all current Livestrong exercise bikes and indoor cycles and easy links to where you can purchase them

Good Deal on New Horizon M4 Spin Bike

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Horizon has just come out with a new Spin Bike, the Horizon M4 Indoor Cycle, that I became aware of this summer when I was at the Horizon headquarters (Johnson Fitness in Cottage Grove Wis.) and have just reviewed on this site.

The Horizon M4 Indoor Cycle is a high quality spin bike, from a major manufacturer, that is selling for $349 at Amazon.

The Amazon price is great (if the lowest price is your objective) but the deal that I just found out about is at the Horizon Outlet. They have a sale going on until 11/17 where the Horizon M4 Indoor Cycle is selling for $399 with Free Shipping, a Free 1 Year Extended Warranty (worth $90)  and a Free Mat (worth $36).

This gives you a couple of options (go for the absolute lowest price (on the bike alone), or go for the lowest price for the bike and the additional options.

I have included links to the Spin Bike at both Amazon and the Horizon Outlet at Horizon M4 Indoor Cycle Review where you can also read the review on this Indoor Cycle.

As I mentioned the Horizon Outlet deal ends on 11/17 and it is also available for the Horizon RC-30 Recumbent if you are looking for a good deal on a recumbent exercise bike.

The Horizon RC-30 Recumbent is the same price ($399) at Amazon and at the Horizon Outlet so in this case the Horizon Outlet is the best deal.

Schwinn 150, Schwinn 250 AC Power Included and Knee Care

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I hope the subject for this post is not too confusing but I wanted to address both subjects that I discussed with a visitor to our site in some recent emails.

The first subject relates to Schwinn AC Adapters. The first email that I received was an inquiry about whether or not the new Schwinn 250 Recumbent Exercise Bike came with the AC Power adapter.

AC Adapters on Schwinn Exercise Bikes

AC Adapters on Schwinn Exercise Bikes

I discovered that we did not specify this on our Schwinn 250 review pages and also that it was not even specified on the Amazon page or most other pages when I searched for this model.

Well, I finally did confirm (via the owner and assembly manuals) that the AC Adapter is included with the New Schwinn 250 Recumbent.   

This question then made me wonder if the AC Adapters were included on the other mid-range and high-end Schwinn Exercise Bikes so I checked all of the “40” and “50” series models and found that the AC adapter (or power cord) is included on all of these models.

I have since updated our Schwinn Exercise Bike Review pages to include this information. See the Schwinn 140, and NEW Schwinn 150, Uprights and the  Schwinn 240 and the NEW Schwinn 250 Recumbents for the updates and/or for the reviews and additional information.

Knee Care, Knee Problems and Cycling – on Bikes and Exercise Bikes

The second subject included in this article has to do with taking care of your knees while cycling. This includes cycling on outdoor bikes or on exercise bikes.

The woman that had asked me about the AC Adapters had also just mentioned that she was planning a “non-weight bearing exercise regimen” that was necessary for her bad knee.

I have had some minor knee problems myself,  in the past, and have also had cycling friends that have occasionally had knee problems and I have looked into this subject before.

What I had found was that, if you have knee problems and need to reduce the the strain on your knee(s) while cycling, you should ride in lower gears (outdoor bikes) or at lower resistance levels (exercise bikes) at a faster pace (higher rpms).

So I just passed this information on as an “FYI” and was happy to get an email reply stating “That’s exactly what my Physical Therapist said!!”.

Thank you for your nice replies and for the updates.

 Rob

New Livestrong Exercise Bikes Released – LS6.0R, LS5.0R and LS5.0U

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I’ve known that the New 2011/2012 Livestrong Exercise Bikes have been coming out since last June when I visited the Johnson Fitness headquarters in Cottage Grove, Wi. (just outside of Madison) and have been waiting for them to be released ever since then (I was not allowed to release the model numbers or my reviews until they had been released on the Livestrong website).

New Livestrong LS6.0R Recumbent - Just Released

Well, today is the day! The new 2011/2012 Livestrong Exercise Bikes are now on sale online at the Livestrong.com website.

I had already had quite a bit of information on these bikes from my trip when I reviewed the bikes with the product specialist from Livestrong so I’m not going to get into all of the individual exercise bike details here.

The new Livestrong bikes that were just released are the Livestrong LS5.0R Recumbent, the Livestrong LS6.0R Recumbent and the Livestrong LS5.0U Upright.

You can get all the details on the 2 recumbents (the LS5.0R and the LS6.0R) via the links above. Unfortunately, I do not yet have a review for the upright model (the LS5.0U)  just yet (although the links on the LS5.0R and LS6.0R review pages (above) will take you right to the new Livestrong Exercise Bike page.

My preference for the recumbent models is the LS6.0R Recumbent (pictured in this blog post). See the links above for the details on why I believe this to be the best recumbent that Livestrong now offers.