I frequently ride a bike outdoors during the summer, but in the winter when the weather is not as good I often go to the gym to ride the exercise bike. None of the indoor bikes I had ridden ever had the smooth feel of riding outdoors until I tried the Keiser M3 at a health club. I loved it so much, I bought one for myself for home use (the first time I''ve ever bought home exercise equipment as an adult), and while I''ve only owned it now for a short time, it is fantastic. Due to the unique design, utilizing magnetic resistance, the feel is very similar to riding outdoors. It is very quiet and very smooth. So I can spin at a fairly rapid rate and still get my heart rate up. And, though I don''t do this much, you can also crank up the resistance and make it as hard to peddle as you would like (it has about 24 "gears" so you can continually increase the resistance to virtually whatever level you would like what is really happening of course is you are simply increasing the magnetic resistance). This is a first rate bike for anyone who is serious about biking and wants something to use indoors that feels like biking outdoors. It is great exercise and does not feel like the typical gym or spinning bikes.It was easy to assemble even for someone like me, who views changing light bulbs as a modest maintenance task. In total, it probably took about 30 minutes to set up and required little more than a Philips head screw driver, an Allen (sp?) wrench (which I have for my outdoor bike), and either a pedal wrench (again I have one) or an adjustable wrench that would fit the pedals.
Lastly, I would recommend ordering via Amazon or Keiser directly since some of the small third party sellers do not deliver on time. I would not buy from Indoorcyclingstore.com, who appear to be either terribly managed or are dishonest; we initially placed an order through them and six weeks later we still did not have the bike, but they still had our money.
Then I found all of these fantastic reviews on the M3. I called around, but it turned out none of the stores that sell them in the area, had them on the floor as demo. Finally, one sales person admitted to me that even though he (and everyone else agreed) thinks it''s a fantastic bike, they don''t keep it on the floor because their margin of profit on them is much smaller than it is on other bikes.
I didn''t want to invest without trying them out, so I called Keiser and found out who our local rep is. Sure enough, he had one we could try in his garage. This is the most amazing piece of engineering I''ve ever seen on a bike!!! This guy had been with Keiser for 18 years, and knew every detail of what''s going on. Basically, they started developing this bike after years of taking losses because they conformed to the price standard in the market, and at that price, could only manufacture bikes that like every other bike, would break and need maintenance. The maintenance cost them too much money, and they got tired of it. Being a small independent company, they decided to do something about it, and the M3 was born. They are ruthless about their price policy of it, even if you buy 250 of those, the discounts are fairly minimal. On the other hand, these bikes require NO maintenance!!!
If you look at their 3 year warranty carefully, you''ll see that labor is not included. I called to ask about that, and they claimed on the phone that labor is not NEEDED, because everything you might ever need to do, is so simple you could do it yourself. Well, my spouse has a strong engineering background (experimental physics), and we inspected every aspect of this bike. They''re right. It is TRIVIALLY simple to put together, and there''s basically nothing that could break!! If you can handle a screwdriver, you can handle this bike! The engineering is GORGEOUS, someone really put a LOT of thought into the design. And the ride, oh the ride... Smoothest ride EVER! And SO comfortable! Everything from the saddle to the positioning, just perfect!!! The balance feels just right, it''s super quite, and most importantly, there are really no parts there that could break, except perhaps the computer. As far as maintenance is concerned, according to this guy, it''s limited to cleaning up your sweat from the bike, after a workout...
I should mention, when I was looking at the Schwinns, they offered me the floor model at a ~15% discount. The flywheel looked pretty scratched, basically it looked used. The demo we saw, is the same demo the guy has been using for 5 years, to show gyms, take to shows, show private clients, etc. If he had told me he only unpacked them yesterday, I would have believed him. They looked brand new, 5 years later!
Finally, Schwinn spin bikes division has been sold and resold and keeps moving hands. You really don''t know who you''re buying from (the Schwinn A.C. are on the Nautilus website their latest buyer, rather than on the Schwinn site). Keiser is solid, made in the USA, and you know who "their daddy" is... And keep in mind if a sales person tries to sell you a schwinn over the keiser their margins of profit are MUCH smaller for the keisers, and they usually work on commission.
Anyhow, to make a LONG story short, we bought the bike. It was a no brainer. I''ll update my review after I''ve used them for a couple of months at home, but I fully expect the 5 starts to remain. If you can''t find this bike anywhere to try them out before buying, I recommend you call Keiser, and they''ll help you out.
*** ADDED A FEW MONTHS LATER *** (Jan 2011)
Now that I''ve tried these in my pregnant and non-pregnant state, I can stay 100% I absolutely adore this bike!! I''ve been using it almost daily. It''s SO smooth, quiet, and comfortable in seated AND standing positions! I don''t get the people who talk about wrong fit. I am 5''6", my spouse is 6'', and it adjusts to each of us perfectly. Maybe if you''re extremely tall or extremely short it might be an issue, but then I bet a lot of other bikes would be too. This is just a very natural ride, the computer is fantastic, and overall, I can say only good things about this bike (and I''ve tried many other bikes at gyms, including the popular Schwinn Evolution. I *far* prefer this one to any of them!)
Buy With Computer Keiser M3 Indoor Cycle Stationary Indoor Trainer Exercise Bike Now
I ordered this bike from Amazon (Brands Cycle and Fitness) on a Wednesday evening and had it in my basement on Friday afternoon. Shockingly good service in today''s world. The bike was well-packed and arrived in perfect condition. Taking my time, assembly took about 25 minutes because I had all required tools on-hand. If you''re a directions-follower, you''ll need 15mm and 16mm box wrenches, a deep-socket 15mm or 16mm socket, a torque wrench, a 4" socket extension and 15mm and 16mm crowfoot wrenches (see MIT 10 Pc 3/8" Drive Crowfoot Wrench SetMetric).As indicated by other reviewers, the Keiser M3 is very quiet; so quiet that my squeaking mountain bike cleats started to annoy me. Shifting the bike involves moving a bar-mounted lever up and down for "gears" 1-24. Lift all the way up and you''ll activate an "emergency brake" which stops the flywheel immediately. In reality, just lifting the shift lever to 15+ will stop the flywheel very quickly.
Adjusting the bike to your dimensions is simple and smooth. Unlike most spinners, the lock-down bolt doesn''t have a spring-loaded pin that inserts into pre-drilled holes. Hence, you can set the seat and handlebar heights to an infinite number of settings over their entire range. Since my wife and I share the bike, I marked a small black line at my height settings and a blue line at hers. I''m 5''8" tall but have long legs and a short trunk so I was concerned about the nature of the M3''s adjustability. Namely, moving the seat and handlebars up moves them away from each other. Look closely at the frame geometry and you''ll see what I mean. The good news is that I was able to adjust the bike to a proper riding position for my build.
The workout computer has all the necessary data to measure workout performance (watts, kcal, distance, time, gear) but see #2 below.
Two items to improve the bike:
1) A clutch that permits free-wheeling. Apparently, Keiser did offer this in the past but it wasn''t a strong seller so they dropped it from the M3. Here''s one vote to bring it back as an option.
2) Add workout programs to the computer. For those of us using the M3 at home (i.e. not in a spinning class), it would be nice to have a few pre-programmed "rides" to call up. Better yet, let us create a program from a riding session and save it.
Bottom line, I love this bike and recommend it highly to those looking for a smooth, high-quality spinner. If you appreciate machinery, the M3 is a true work of industrial art.I use this bike every single day at LA Fitness sometimes I go to class twice a day. When I first started taking cycling classes, I thought these bikes didn''t look like much. But after using them everyday for the past several months, I can tell you without hesitation that they are fantastic.
LA Fitness uses them in all their clubs in Atlanta (and probably around the country), so you know they can take a beating. Since I have been going to class, I''ve only seen a couple of the 34 bikes at my club experience any issues. According to the staff, they are pretty minor things that come from them being used several hundred times a month each. Put one in your house and use it daily yourself, and I doub;t you will ever have a problem.
Definitely would recommend this. A tough bike and a great workout!
And when I come up with $1350, I''m getting one for home.
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I purchased this indoor trainer to replace a bicycle mounted trainer. Three members of my household are avid cyclists and need to train through the winter months, so we end up with three bicycles cluttering the gym area waiting their turn to be mounted on the trainer. Our old trainer has a rather primitive form of resistance that isn''t very smooth. You can feel variations in resistance while pedaling and it doesn''t increase with speed exponentially (like real world cycling). We tried several indoor trainers that used heavy flywheels with mechanical braking pads, such as the Cycelops, and found the same issues. They were inconsistent in maintaining resistance, and did not increase exponentially with speed. They simply don''t feel like cycling. I think you could expend some calories and get a decent leg workout with the heavy flywheel/braking type trainers, but it doesn''t feel like cycling. In real world cycling the resistance goes up at a rate above the square of speed due to the exponential nature of power/speed, and wind resistance. The Keiser M3 uses a rare earth magnet to create Foucault currents (eddy currents) in the lighter weight flywheel. Those foucault currents create an opposing magnetic field that creates resistance/drag according to Lenz''s law. The resistance increases exponentially, just like real world cycling! In other words a cadence of 100 isn''t double the power of a cadence of 50, its over four times the power due to the exponential nature of foucault resistance. On the heavy flywheel/mechanical braking type trainers the reistance increases linearly, and then fades as the brake pads begin to get hotter. I tried hard to like training on the Cycleops machine because I really liked the computer that came with it, but just couldn''t overlook the primitive resistance system. The Keiser is ultra quiet, easily the quietest I''ve ever experienced, and far quieter than a bicycle mounted in a trainer. It can be adjusted three ways (with a three letter/number system to help you repeat settings) and fits my 60" wife as well as my 70" son and myself. The computer give realistic feedback that will help you train more effectively. Its not quite as capable as the computer on the cycleops machines, but the cycleops machine (brake pad/heavy flywheel)is primitive compared to the Keiser''s Foucault resistance. This is a superior design in most respects to other indoor trainers. I would enjoy the computer on the Cycelops, but gladly trade the lack of ride data storage in the Keiser to have the superior resistance system. Try this machine and you''ll be very pleasantly surprised at its performance compared to real cycling. Don''t worry about the 24 levels of resistance, that 24th level is so intense that you''ll generate greater than 600 watts at a moderate cadence. Is that enough for you?
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