Treadmill

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  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    Dogmom1978 wrote: »
    lgfrie wrote: »
    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    This has been a great discussion. In terms of electronics, I only need the thing to tell me speed and grade. If I wanted to join a group thing, I'd connect to an external service via a tablet or computer, which is replaceable and has other uses. I'm afraid the built-in electronics cost more than they add.

    Even better if it would transmit both speed and grade in Bluetooth to my phone or watch. Then you could connect to all sorts of services. (I haven't seen that feature yet, but some must have it.)

    I reached much the same conclusion when I was purchasing a new recumbent bike last month. After all these years of struggling with connectivity, electronics, and whatnot, I decided I wanted a bike that gave me the least possible amount of information: time, pace/speed, watts, hill profile, heart rate display from my Polar strap, that's about it, though I would be tolerant of the usual inflated calorie display, since they all have it. I specifically avoided any machine that offered more information than that, connected to web apps, or had a big TV set attached to it. The day it arrived, I propped my tablet on it and get all the entertainment options I need.

    To me the only things a piece of exercise equipment MUST have is HR display, watts, and a shelf to prop a tablet on. The less beyond that, the better.

    Yes to the shelf!!! My life fitness treadmill has “trails” with some nice graphics and they’re fun every now and then, but I mostly pop my tablet up there and enjoy reading (the reading can be tricky at 3.4 mph incline of 10) or watching tv while working out.

    I'm with you on that LOL I enjoy reading my kindle on either of my two recumbent bikes, but on the treadmill or rower, it's strictly TV watching. Too much movement for kindle!
  • autumnblade75
    autumnblade75 Posts: 1,660 Member
    If I had to replace my treadmill today, I would likely go with a Nordictrack model, not for the screens or connectivity, but for the decline. My wishlist features are the ability to measure in both kilometers and miles (but I can do math if I must) and a button to switch between 2 user-defined paces, such as a walking pace and a running pace, for C25K or a running pace and a sprinting pace, later for HIIT. I have no idea if Nordictrack has that, but it was a feature on the treadmill I preferred at the gym, back before my husband bought me my own treadmill.

    I don't know how many years I've owned it, but it must be at least 5 - I remember training on it for a marathon that took place in February of 2016, and the treadmill itself was a Valentine's day present, so I would have already had it before then. It still works, but it's noisy. My husband theorizes that I may have damaged it by propping an aerobics step under the back end to create my own decline feature. I guess that's possible. I was trying to recreate the marathon's elevation profile. FTR, it's a Sole F80, it has weathered marathon training multiple times, and I didn't do a lot of outdoor running. The last couple of months, I've hit the pavement for Pokemon, GO multitasking, but it's probably getting to be time to come back indoors. I don't own any cold-weather running gear.
  • runmotor
    runmotor Posts: 4 Member
    I have a Sole F80. Fast and durable.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    MikePfirrman wrote: »
    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    This has been a great discussion. In terms of electronics, I only need the thing to tell me speed and grade. If I wanted to join a group thing, I'd connect to an external service via a tablet or computer, which is replaceable and has other uses. I'm afraid the built-in electronics cost more than they add.

    Even better if it would transmit both speed and grade in Bluetooth to my phone or watch. Then you could connect to all sorts of services. (I haven't seen that feature yet, but some must have it.)

    That's precisely why I'd go with a Horizon treadmill if it were up to me (because of Zwift). It has a nice tablet holder and is made ready to integrate with Zwift with one touch, using your own tablet. But the treadmill decision is my wife's, so we'll likely go with the NordicTrack with the giant *kitten* screen that will likely break in five years... But she'll be happy in the meantime walking on trails in Australia on a 22 inch screen.

    Happy wife, happy life.

    I have a Horizon treadmill that was purchased over ten years ago and it is still going strong. I have run over 2,000 miles on it. It requires you to do belt maintenance every 300 miles (it shuts down until you reset it after doing the maintenance). It is definitely a basic model without a lot of bells and whistles (mine is not an interactive one because it's old), but it does the trick. The only limitation is that it feels pretty unstable at speeds of 9 mph and over. Fortunately, I rarely go that fast except for 30 second intervals so it hasn't been too much of an issue. It also only has a max incline of 10%, but this also isn't a big issue for me. I would recommend it if you are looking for a good value treadmill.

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