If you’re thinking of buying an exercise bike, you should have heard of Lifecycle. Quite simply, they are the Rolls-Royce of exercise bikes. However, what follows is not a glowing recommendation; instead, you’ll find out what models are offered, their features, price, and whether or not they’re a good buy.
Life Fitness has been manufacturing exercise bikes for over 30 years and is in the enviable position of being considered the market leader. The company’s customer list speaks volumes about the quality of its machines. Clients include Gold’s Gym, 24-Hour Fitness, and entire sports teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, San Francisco 49ers, Houston Astros, and Colorado Avalanche. A fitness company can’t get a better recommendation than when its machines are the first choice of professional athletes.
The company’s entry-level vertical model C1 retails for around $1,000. It sounds pretty absurd to say both entry level and $1,000 in the same sentence when talking about exercise bikes, but remember we’re talking about the best in the industry. For the same amount of money, you could buy a high-end Schwinn exercise bike.
So what exactly do you get for your money? Well, you will get a very well made bike. The company is so confident in the build quality that it offers a lifetime warranty on the frame, 3 years on parts, and 1 year on labor.
Another thing to note is that with every bike there is a choice of Basic Console or Advanced Console. The Basic Console comes with 5 programs; Manual, Hill, Random, EZ Incline and Sports Training. The LCD console displays the following information; level, time, speed, distance, heart rate, target heart rate and calories. The Advanced Console has the same 5 programs and 5 additional ones; fat burn, cardio, heart rate hill, heart rate interval and extreme heart rate. You also get 2 special training programs; purpose and habit. The cost of any Schwinn exercise bike will be an additional $300 for the Advanced Console, so the C1 model would cost about $1,300 equipped with the Advanced Console.
The next model up from the C1 is the C3 (C3-5). The bike has a stronger construction and has a higher user weight capacity of 400lbs (the C1 has a 300lb weight capacity). It is also self-powered. With the Basic Console it sells for around $1,500.
The third and most expensive of the vertical series is the C9i. This is the home edition of Lifecycle’s exercise bike gym model. It comes with its own console. Key features include wireless digital contact and LifePulse and special trainings; programs include around the world, waterfalls, foothills, Kilimanjaro, speed training and interval training.
For each upright there is a corresponding Lifecycle recumbent exercise bike. So for the C1 the equivalent recumbent model is the R1, for the C3 and C9i the corresponding models are the R3 and R9i. You get the same consoles, programs, and other features as the uprights.
All of the Lifecycle exercise bikes are excellent machines and it’s really hard to fault them. Perhaps one area you could find fault with is the seat on the recumbent C1 and C3 models. Whether or not a seat feels comfortable is a very subjective matter, but I have a Tunturi exercise bike and find its seat to be more comfortable than the Lifecycle, but I’m sure others would disagree.
Also, one could find fault with the price. They are good machines, but the cost makes them unaffordable for many. And it could well be argued that you could find a machine of the same quality, or better, for less money. For example, my Tunturi E60R costs around $1000, but it comes with 8 scalable training profiles and 8 user profiles that adapt to individual fitness goals, iFIT, and you can edit and adjust the preset profiles even when you exercise.
A Lifecycle exercise bike is a great piece of equipment; it’s well made, comes with a console option, fancy software, and is made by a company with one of the biggest names in the industry. However, my advice would be to look at models from many other manufacturers and compare them; you are going to pay a lot of money, so you have to be absolutely sure that it is the right machine for you.
