As most fitness enthusiasts know, the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic originally caused most physical activities to come to a temporary stop, such as forcing gyms to close down indefinitely. Nevertheless, while a few selected gyms are starting to get an official permission to re-open, many are still remain closed. Now, whether you find yourself able to get back to your home-town gym of choice or whether you’re still unable to renew your gym membership, there’s still a better and more reliable way of continuing your fitness journey without having to rely on having an open gym in your proximity. That would obviously be by getting yourself an exercise bike for indoors use, which you can easily set up at home and use to perform your personal fitness workouts on your own schedule. So, if you’re looking to purchase an exercise bike for using at home, consider going with the Echelon Connect Bike EX-5s.
The Echelon Connect Bike EX-5s is a smart exercise bike for indoors use that comes equipped with a 22” HD Rotating Screen, an Ergo-Adjust Resistance Knob with 32 levels of magnetic resistance, a 6” Fore/Aft Seat Lever and a Seat Height Adjustment Lever for adjusting the bike’s seat position and height, a set of Adjustable Toe Cages on its pedals, and 2 Power Ports for charging your devices while working out.
And those are just a few of the many new and improved features that this smart indoors exercise bike has to offer to enhance your performance.
Coming designed for maximum comfort, smooth functionality and total immersion, this smart exercise bike is one of the most versatile smart indoor bikes you can currently find available. With it, you can greatly broaden your fitness horizons and transform all of your workouts at home to ultimately overcome any barrier.
Now, without any further ado, let’s have a more detailed look at this smart exercise bike and check out everything that the Echelon Connect Bike EX-5s has to offer you.
DESIGN & SPECS
Starting with the bike’s size, the Echelon Connect Bike EX-5s comes at a reasonably compact size, measuring exactly 52 inches long by 20 inches wide by 50 inches tall (132 x 50.8 x 127 cm), which ultimately makes it easy to have it installed at just about any corner of any room. In addition, the bike also has quite some weight to it, weighing exactly 124 lbs. (56 kg), for which the bike’s Flywheel weighs just 29 lbs. (13kg).
Keep in mind that this exercise bike can support up to 300 lbs. (136 kg) of weight (for its users’ weight).
With just a quick look, you’ll easily notice the bike’s very discrete and ultra-minimalist design, which, thanks to its black and red colors, makes it very aesthetically pleasing to look at. Not only that, but the bike also features a very solid construction, integrating an ultra-durable Powder-Coat Frame that makes its whole body resistant to scratches.
Now, moving on to the bike’s several components. Starting right at the top of the exercise bike, we have a set of two (x2) Padded and Slip-Resistant Handlebars, which are extremely comfortable to grip, even during longer workout sessions.
Just above the bike’s Padded Handlebars, we also have its dedicated 22” HD Rotating Screen, which can be used to cross-train as well as to monitor your progress both when you’re on and off the EX-5s Smart Bike.
In addition to that, the bike also comes equipped with 2 Power Ports (located on the bottom-front and back-side of the bike) that can be used for conveniently recharging your devices’ battery (such as your Smartphone or tablet) while you’re working out. There’s also an Ethernet Port at the rear-side of the bike, which can be used for accessing some extra Exclusive Fitness Content (more on that at the end of the article).
Then, right below the bike’s Padded Handlebars and its 22” HD Rotating Screen, we also have an Indexing Ergo-Adjust Resistance Knob that can be used to adjust the bike’s Direct-Link Motorized Magnetic Resistance System, allowing users to swap between a total of 32 levels of magnetic resistance for increasing / decreasing the difficulty level of your cycling workouts.
Overall, the bike’s Direct-Link Motorized Magnetic Resistance System works super great, and all of the resistance levels transition well between each other. Still, I’d like to note that since this is indeed a smart connected exercise bike, you’ll obviously have to wait between 1 to 2 seconds of time before the bike actually swaps between two different resistance levels, so keep that in mind.
Going slightly further down to the middle of the bike’s frame, we have its Extra-Large Cushioned Seat, which offers users a very comfortable riding experience, even during those cycling workouts that are meant to last for multiple hours.
And just below the bike’s Cushioned Seat, there’s also a 6” Fore/Aft Seat Lever for adjusting the bike’s seat forward/backward position, which basically offers users an ergonomic Fore/Aft Adjustability with seven (x7) different Forward/Backward Positions / Levels, thus ensuring that users can always have a comfortable seat position (offers you a 13.3 mm adjustment per / level).
Going even further down, below that same 6” Seat Lever, there’s also one Seat Height Adjustment Lever that can be used to adjust the bike’s seat between seventeen (x17) different Height Settings (offers you a 15 mm adjustment per / level).
Moreover, just behind the bike’s Cushioned Seat, we also have two (x2) Handheld Weight Holders that are convenient located behind the bike’s SEAT, which users can use to store a lower-weight set of weights.
Last but not least, at the bottom-side of the back, on each side, we also have a a set of Adjustable Toe Cages on its pedals, which even come equipped with built-in SPD Clips integrated directly onto its pedals.
That ultimately makes this exercise bike compatible with both normal sneakers, as well as with SBD Shoes and SBD Shoe-Clips. That said, no special shoes or shoe-clips are required for you to ride and workout on this bike.
EXCLUSIVE FITNESS CONTENT & THE COMPANION APP – The Echelon Fit App
Now, as this is a smart connected exercise bike, not only does the Echelon Connect Bike EX-5s allows you to customize your own cycling workouts, but it also features some extra Exclusive Fitness Content, which can all be accessed via the Echelon Fit App (available to download for free for both iOS and Android devices), which you can connect to and interact with via the bike’s 22” HD Rotating Screen.
It’s still important to mention that for those extra functionalities, you’ll be required to have an active Echelon United Membership, which once activated, can get you access to Live and On-Demand Classes (both for beginning and advanced riders), which can range from just 5 minutes all the way to 45 minutes long.
For the bike’s Live and On-Demand Classes, users with an active Echelon United Membership can choose between endurance, climbing, and HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) classes, as well as scenic rides, and also many others from the company’s (meaning Echelon’s) world class instructors.
In my personal experience, I loved all the classes that I tried out, and as such, I’m pretty sure that it’s safe for me to say that all classes (including the ones I didn’t get to try) should all be great. What’s even cooler is that the company is always adding new classes, and the instructors are also extremely good at explaining everything within the classes they lecture (although you’ll probably end up having one or two favorite instructors, as most people do).
Particularly, I loved the challenges brought by each of these classes, as those same challenges help to create a daily routine that actually pushes you (and your overall fitness level) to try even more classes that normally you wouldn’t really take.
In addition to all of those classes, that same Membership also gives you access to Echelon’s Fitpass Programs, which include yoga, strength, pilates, boxing and much more!
I also tried out a few Echelon’s Fitpass Programs, for which I also enjoyed the Fitpass exercises as well, just as much as the bike’s On-Demand classes to be honest, as the Fitpass Programs are equally great for working out and maintaining a better and healthier fitness regime.
Best of all, for fitness lovers that already own other Echelon workout machines, you’ll be happy to know that one Active Membership actually works for all of the company’s machines, including Echelon’s bikes, rowers, treadmills and even Reflect fitness mirrors.
SET UP / INSTALLATION
On a side note, I’d also like to point out that the bike’s Set-Up / Installation process is very easy to do, and the whole thing shouldn’t take you more than 15~30 minutes to set up.
That said, embedded right below, you can find the Echelon’s official video tutorial of the EX-5s set-up process:
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Echelon Connect Bike EX-5s is a smart exercise bike for indoors use that comes equipped with a 22” HD Rotating Screen, an Ergo-Adjust Resistance Knob with 32 levels of magnetic resistance, a 6” Fore/Aft Seat Lever and a Seat Height Adjustment Lever for adjusting the bike’s seat position and height, a set of Adjustable Toe Cages on its pedals, and 2 Power Ports for charging your devices while working out.
Coming designed for maximum comfort, smooth functionality and total immersion, this smart exercise bike is simply awesome. Overall, it’s extremely comfortable to ride, as well as easy to adjust to different difficulty levels for easier or harder cycling workouts.
Best of all, with an Active Echelon Membership, the sky as the limit, as both all of the Live and On-Demand Classes as well as the Echelon’s Fitpass Programs can offer all fitness enthusiasts an ultimate away of transforming all of their workouts at home to ultimately get to the fitness level they so desire.
If you’re interested in buying it, this smart exercise bike is currently discounted from its normal price of $1.999,99, and is now going for just $1,599.99 (saves you a total of $400). You can either pay in full or in monthly payments of as low as $42 (or more). You can order the Echelon Connect Bike EX-5s directly from Echelon’s official shopping page, which you can access via this link here.
Then, to activate your Echelon United Membership Pass, you can choose between a Monthly Membership of $39.99 per month, a Yearly Membership of $33.33 per month, or a Two-Year Membership of $29.99 per month.
