Bluefin FitnessHome Gym Equipment

Nice bike, feels sturdy and good to ride. Trims are a bit cheap plasticky but that’s fine for the price. Made my decision to buy this bike purely because it’s advertised as being able to connect to kinomap, well that doesn’t work 🙁 it won’t connect so don’t know if it actually has the Bluetooth ability installed. And there is a “random” option on the menu but this does not light up so that you can select it. Oh, and it won’t save my user details like height, weight, age, etc and you’re supposed to be able to add up to 4 users but you have to put your details in every time you start it up. Good bike for exercise but doesn’t do as advertised

Super quick delivery! Once set up after a fewChoice words with myself as I forgot to read (small parts may already be fitted) it feels very sturdy. It took me a while to get the Kinomap working. However for those who need some help with that, once you’ve set up an account online then sign into the app. Make sure you allow Bluetooth to access the app it should then find the equipment. If you say no you can find the app on settings and click to allow access there. I did have to delete the app and reinstall for mine to work after I messed around with it. Absolutely brilliant using the app and tour 5.0 together! Hope this helps others!

The bike is lovely but, not as described. For this reason I am in the process of sending it back.

Great exercise bike!Easy to assemble for one person ( I’m female and it took about 30 mins)The onboard computer can be fiddly to navigate I’m still learning that part. The bike is super silent so doesn’t disturb anyone watching tv or reading and the programs are great - I am still only using program 2 three one hour session per week as I am new to cycling but it’s fantastic workout I’ve only had the bike a couple of months and I’m already seeing and feeling results in my health and fitness. This is a bike that will not be shoved in a corner and forgotten about once lockdown is a distant memory. It doesn’t come with a bottle holder and that’s a shame and my only gripe with this bike. Oh and the seat is really comfy!

WeightAlthough, in the box, this was too heavy for me to lift on its own, my daughter’s boyfriend was able to carry it up two flights of stairs for me.Putting it togetherThis was reasonably straightforward. The instructions left a little to be desired, but that seems fairly normal and they were better than many that I’ve come across. There were a couple of steps where I put things together then had to take them apart again because I hadn’t done them right. But that was fairly minor.AdjustmentYou can adjust the height of the seat and you can also move it forward and back a bit. Not a great deal but probably enough for most people. There is no up and down adjustment for the handlebars: you can only adjust the angle. So if you’re particularly short, this could cause a problem. I’m about 6ft and it’s about right for me.The strap on the pedals is difficult to adjust. That’s OK if there’s only one person using the bike, but if you have more than one and they want the strap adjusted differently I think you’d probably get frustrated pretty soon.AccessoriesThere are none. No phone holder. No drinks holder. But these are relatively cheap to buy on the Internet if you want them.OperationThis bike is extremely quiet! My panting is much, much louder than any noise that the bike makes. It’s stable and the braking/resistance is smooth. Changes to the resistance are via up and down buttons on the console. The changes aren’t instant, but that’s fine with me.Moving it aroundThere are wheels on the back stabiliser bar. It’s not particularly easy to lift the bike to the right angle in order to use these for moving it.ConsoleHmmm. This is where the bike loses marks, for me.When you first plug the bike in, it allows you to enter your details - sex, weight (in kg only), height (presumably cm), etc. Presumably it uses this information for something. You can also enter one program per user. However, once you’ve done that I’m not sure how you do it for another user and the manual isn’t very good at explaining how you change users.If you happen to unplug the bike it seems to lose all of this information. You’ve spent ages setting up segments and resistance levels and then they’re gone! That is very annoying!There are a number of built-in programs. The maximum resistance is typically between about 15 and 18. That is pretty high for me! I’m currently cycling comfortably at between 5 and 7 and resistance level 10 is quite high for me, so extended cycling in the high teens is way out of my league. And, although I haven’t done much cycling for a while, I’d have thought I have a reasonably high level of residual fitness. You can reduce the level of the program to some extent, but there are still none that I feel that I could complete.The heart rate monitor doesn’t seem very accurate - I’ve had readings in the high 180s when I know that I’d be gasping for breath at even 160. Also, when you take your hands off the handlebars to take a drink or towel yourself down, the rate goes back to 72 and takes about a minute to get back to your actual heart rate. That’s not much of a problem to me, but it does cause issues if you’re using the heart rate mode.There are five readouts:Heart rateTimeRPM and speedDistanceWatts and caloriesWhen there are two measures in the same readout it will cycle between them (I think it’s about every 5 seconds but I haven’t timed it).Speed (and hence distance) appears to be linked solely to RPM, so increasing the resistance doesn’t register as higher speed. I guess that you can look at it that you’re going the same speed up a steeper hill, but I’d prefer to think that I was using a higher gear and hence going faster. I believe that would give me a better indication of my progress. Also the distance measurement is preset to either kilometres or miles and you can’t change it. I got kilometres but would prefer miles. But that’s reasonably minor to me - I don’t really believe it on any exercise bike that I’ve ridden.Watts and calories ARE linked to the resistance, so I can see that I’ve used more calories if I’ve cycled at a higher resistance level.There is a “recovery” button, although the instructions for it are vague. If you press it, the resistance goes down and it bases the fitness results on how quickly your heart rate comes down. However, the manual doesn’t tell you whether you’re expected to stop pedalling or continue. The manual also says that you can do this at any time during the exercise. I’d assumed that this meant that it would carry on with your exercise afterwards, but I was wrong.So there are annoyances, but in its defence the monitor and the readouts are large and clear and I can read it comfortably even without my reading glasses on - something that I’ve found a problem with other cycles in the gym.ConnectionsThe manual tells me to download a particular app but when I search for it in the Play store, I can’t find it. There is a similar looking one that I’ve tried to download but it just says “pending” and never actually downloads. There are lots of downloads of that app but no reviews, which suggests to me that there’s a problem with it. I don’t know what functions that app has.The manual tells me to consult my smartphone manual for Bluetooth audio connection instructions. I’ve tried to connect directly via Bluetooth to what I think is the bike and it tells me that I need an app in order to connect. Presumably that’s the one that I’ve failed to download above. It also goes back to entering my personal details, so it’s obviously doing something. However, when it says “Bluetooth audio”, it’s not clear whether the console has speakers hidden in it. I can’t see it and there aren’t any sockets to plug in headphones, so I don’t know if the audio is for you to play music/podcasts through the console or if the console is going to shout encouragement or something to you. But as the connection doesn’t work anyway…OverallIn terms of an exercise bike that you can get on, adjust reasonably and change the resistance levels as and when you want, this one does the job. It’s quiet and smooth and you can move it around. It’s also got some basic measurements. And for that I think it’s a reasonably good price.