Oh I love to hate this thing. One of my advanced clients saw it and was aghast… “why do YOU have an exercise bike?!” She asked. Visions of 80s leg-warmer wearing people cycling while reading magazines, eating bon-bons, and watching soaps churned in her head. I then explained that we’d really only be spending very short periods of time on this evil evil fan bike, and that it was particularly suited to destroy overachievers like ourselves. The secret of the fan bike is that the harder you work, the more resistance there is… needless to say after assembling the Assault Air Bike and meticulously placing the seat I hopped on and tried going “all out”. I spent the next hour coughing and learning that if some website says “all out” then what they mean is that I should do about 95% of what I think is all out… pretty sure they aren’t intending for me to be tasting blood.
So yes, a word of warning, if you or your clients/students/etc. are of the overachieving type, you may want to choose your words of encouragement carefully. Go ahead and tell the slackers to go all out though, that should be just about right.
Back to the bike though – the Assault Air Bike “classic” is built very much like the old school 80s Airdyne bikes, which if you can find one in your area and it’s not damaged, get it. The build of the Assault Air Bike is very heavy duty and I found that assembly wasn’t too difficult especially with their video online. Another word of warning though, when the instructions say tighten as much as possible, be careful… I bent the wrench doing that (once again, the 95% of as much as possible rule would apply here). But following the directions and the video made assembly very simple. To be honest getting the darn thing out of the giant box was the most difficult part (for me, and admittedly I enjoy assembling things, so bear that in mind).
I’ve been “enjoying” this bike for 4 minutes at a time (there’s two versions of the classic 4-minute Tabata interval setup on the bike’s minimalist, battery-powered computer) and found that I really like using my wireless noise cancelling headphones with it. Before I was getting cold wind in my ears and not enjoying the noisy nature of it.
Needless to say I already ordered a backup pair of ear cushions from Bose because the current ones are eventually going to get completely disgusting. The last thing I want to do is grab the headphones for a flight and ewwww uggghh! You may also want to experiment with earmuffs or other forms of hearing protection if you don’t like the wind in your ears experience. It’s not that big of a deal, but I did find that those 4 minutes passed WAY FASTER with the headphones.
I also sometimes use a very inexpensive Polar T-31 heart rate monitor band to keep myself out of the coughing and tasting blood zone. The bike’s computer picks up that simple signal very well. Since I’m not quad dominant at all, I find that this does hit the quads nicely after a posterior-chain heavy workout.
Down the line I will want to experiment more with different ways to use the bike in various workouts, but so far it really has earned its keep already for a brutal burnout at the end of a technical or strength focused kettlebell or calisthenics workout. There are also a number of interesting looking CrossFit WODs out there that make use of this mean mean bike in very creative ways. Strongman Bud Jeffries is also no stranger to the fan bike, and it features regularly in his Instagram feed… alongside giant rocks, axes, and various very heavy kettlebells and other weights he’s lit on fire before juggling them!
Assault Fitness Fan Bike
699.99
Pros
- Lung-blistering cardio
- Perfect for short but intense bouts of HIIT
- Adjusts to your level
- Needs no external power outlet
- Great burnout to challenge yourself and/or your clients
Cons
- Noisy
- Somewhat spendy
- May inspire a sense of dread in some clients as it leers at them from the corner
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