Echelon EX-4S Exercise Bike w/screen and 1yr membership $999 in store at Costco YMMV

Points off this device for being walled garden proprietary approach. I was all obsessed with Peloton or similar for a couple years until I started looking into actual cost of ownership, and some shady stuff the do to keep people always on the hook to pay them more, etc.

Recently got a smart Wahoo trainer, and been using it almost daily for the last month. Hooks up to my Wahoo computer, but even without, it hooks up to Zwift. This Echelon does not look Zwift compatible, which makes it a show stopper for me to recommend to anyone. So if Echelon sells out to another company or goes out of business, you've got a really expensive paperweight on your hands. And you can't use their hardware without their subscription service. At least they did bundle the first year of service into the price, something stingy Peloton won't even do.

Zwift has training plans created with Olympians, world class cyclists, runners, triathletes, etc. They customize them all based on your actual metrics like age, weight, HR, power, cadence & speed. You participate with your 3D character in any of around 10 Grand Theft Auto open type worlds (no cars or prostitutes to deal with) and decide if you want to ride up a mountain, through the desert, in Central Park NYC, Paris, London, etc. You can ride on your own, join a league, select group rides with "Mario Kart" type physics where no one is dropped or have a legit competitive race with awards. You can race for a cause (ie: I'm going on an hour ride tomorrow to raise funds for Crohn's) or create a meetup with friends. There was a Thanksgiving ride with the Zwift CEO last week where 3000+ people joined in that one event. You can "play" on your phone, tablet, Windows/Mac, AppleTV, etc.
Zwift does have a 7 day trial, then $15 a month - something I can even charge to my HSA card. And then detach my bike from the trainer and go ride it outside.


TL;DR: I'd recommend against this exercise equipment which is locked into a subscription service, which may increase in cost or turn off at any time. Get a real bike for outdoors and a trainer for about the same price, connect to Zwift, and have equipment that's higher quality and will last far longer than some future bad decision of a CEO or PE group's money grab.

https://zwift.com/hardware

A few things here...

• This appears to be a deal from an Echelon Costco road show that is currently happening at many clubs across the U.S. Here is the schedule: https://www.costco.com/echelon-fi...edule.html
• Since the tablet is Android based, you can potentially sideload other apps to it.
• Sam's Club is selling this ProForm bike for $399, if you're not interested in the display and want to use the Peloton mobile app: https://www.samsclub.com/p/proform-sport-cx-stationary-exercise-bike-w-dumbbells/prod25090547?pid=_C... [samsclub.com]

I went with the Peloton because of the wide variety of content and high-quality instructors. I also have a Chase Sapphire credit.

Anyone compare the Costco ex4s to the Walmart Sport version?

I bought the Walmart echelon and have really enjoyed the classes. But when my free membership is done I'll probably go pelaton because... Well... 13 a month vs 40 a month. I do love the leaderboard but not for 27 dollars a month.

That link talks about the EX5 which Costco is also selling on the website for 1599 or something. Delivery only item and negative reviews for long delivery time. I also don't know that that 1599 includes any months of class.

My only fear is that I will open this box to find out that the "free year of app" is for some basic plan that doesnt include online classes or something. Will see on Dec 25 (or 26 if I am lazy).

My mantra is "can always return it to Costco" so I grabbed it and then posted here to tip off others

You mean you will just use the bike as a dummy bike and load up the cheaper Peloton app on your iPad I assume. I could do that on this bike too right? Would just need to put the ipad over top of the screen.

So you used your iPad for the Echelon app? Did you get good stats and leaderboard etc from the bike? How does that Walmart bike hook up to the iPad? Bluetooth?

I can't vouch for the Echelon equipment (I'm sure its fine), however I can't recommend the Peloton bike + service enough. I bought my Peloton bike 16 months ago and I have about 475 rides in and another 300+ in their other classes. The instructors, content, and community are what make Peloton. If you know you have no problem with getting motivated to exercise, then by all means there are cheaper methods/hacks out there. Pre-Peloton, I exercised about once a week. Now, I exercise daily and put about 500 miles/month between my Peloton and road bike. I toned up and lost about 18% of my body weight and overall feel much better. Some will complain about the Peloton bike ($1900-2500) and the $40 monthly fee, but I can honestly say it's probably the best money I've spent. I'd rather pay more for equipment and service that keeps me engaged vs saving money with another service that just collects dust.

I also got the $499 Walmart bike. If I had to do it all over again, I might not have done it.
1. I didn't wanna spent over $1000 on the bike, regardless if I use it every day. I thought I would just use many tablets I haven't used in ages to use it with the bike.
2. Unfortunately, this became a problem pretty soon- the Bluetooth module wasn't the greatest. It often disconnects. It could be very frustrating to keep trying to connect it every time you wanna ride.
3. Without a screen, even though you could still ride it, you are adjusting the resistance blind. You can't tell what number you are on.
4. That's why if I had to do it all over again, I might pay for the screen just so I don't have to worry about the finicky connection.
5. My unit went from finicky connection to completely dead within a month. It also came back to life SOMETIMES. it would stay dead for days (no light, no sound, nothing) and all the sudden came back to life.
6. Good thing that Echelon has pretty decent customer service. After chatting with a rep and took some pictures, they are sending me a new bike. I don't know how to pack up the old bike but I do need to send it back to them.
7. I tried joining the online classes. They are not for me. I am more of reading Facebook while biking kinda person. I decided I would just stick to Facebook and bike for now.

And you can't use their hardware without their subscription service.

My only fear is that I will open this box to find out that the "free year of app" is for some basic plan that doesnt include online classes or something. Will see on Dec 25 (or 26 if I am lazy).