The Assault AirBike Classic is one mean-looking indoor cycle, and has gained in popularity as one of the best exercise bikes for more intense home workouts. While it's made for gyms, it's affordable enough for home use and looks super-cool too – this is not your average-looking fitness bike, people.
The Assault AirBike Classic is made by LifeCORE and used by the military, so you can imagine the sheer levels of strain these bikes are put under and what they have to endure. Let's see if it's worthy enough to make space for alongside your current home gym setup...
Assault AirBike Classic review: overview
The Assault AirBike Classic is built to offer serious workouts to anyone who sits on that incredibly comfy seat. The comfort stops there though, as this indoor bike is purpose-built to deliver a real beasting, should you be up for it, working both your arms and legs for a more thorough cardio workout. If intense cardio exercise is your thing, also take a look at our guide to the best treadmills.
The large fan system means there's unlimited resistance, so that no matter what level you're at in terms of fitness, this bike push you to progress and fast. It also means it'll offer fan cooling, so you won't be left sweltering in the middle of a high octane workout.
The warranty for the frame is five years, with parts at two years and labor at a year.
Design: Upright
Workout modes: Seven
Supported weight: 300lbs
Warranty: Five year frame
The bike uses a wireless heart rate monitoring system that's built to work with Polar heart rate chest monitors. We recommend you checking out the best fitness trackers to make sure you have a compatible device so that you can track your workout data beyond what the bike offers alone.
This is especially important if you're training for an event, or to achieve a particular fitness or weight goal, and need to clearly see how far you're moving towards your target each week.
Assault AirBike Classic review: design
The Assault AirBike Classic is a bit of a showstopper with that huge, 25-inch six blade fan. This is flanked by two steel arms that are solid and move smoothly, as do the pedals. In fact, the whole air bike feels smooth to the touch, thanks to 20 sealed bearings dotted about the bike.
The bike supports riders of up to 300lbs. (If you weight more than that, check out the hardier AssaultBike Elite.) The central console features an LCD display to show your training data at a glance, again, helping you to stay on track with what you're trying to achieve.
The seat is fully adjustable without the need for tools, with a six-way adjuster feature meaning you'll get movement fore, aft, up, down and tilt. It also comes with a wide shape and supreme padding for maximum comfort. The bike even comes with wheels so it can be moved about easily enough, despite that heavy, 100lb solid steel frame.
Assault AirBike Classic review: features
The mighty 25-inch fan is the main feature here. Thanks to the six blades, it can offer resistance to work your arms and legs much harder. When you think about how this is made for the military, you can imagine it's been tested to breaking point, so rest assured it'll go the distance with you.
There are pegs in the fan centre for your feet, which means you could choose to just work your arms at certain points. Similarly, you could leave the arm bars to move freely and just work your legs.
The onboard computer is basic, with seven workout programs available. That said, the LCD display is clear and works with a Polar heart rate monitor, so you can view data on screen. It allows for super-intense Tabata workouts and offers data on total time, segment time, distance, RPM, watts and heart rate.
If you want a wealth of workout programs from your exercise bike, take a look at our NordicTrack S22i Studio Cycle review and our Nautilus U618 Exercise Bike review, as both indoor cycles offer plenty of cool workout features.
Assault AirBike Classic review: performance
The Assault AirBike Classic's big fan offers unlimited resistance and smooth use, but it also offers a cooling fan system to help you power through the tougher parts of your workout. What you shouldn't expect from this is quiet use. The fan is noisy, so if you want to use this while parked in front of the TV, you might want to think about throwing on some headphones too. And definitely keep the noise issue in mind if you live in an upstairs apartment.
The padded, six-way adjustable saddle is super-comfy, but some users said that the seat was a little wobbly. If you want, you can swap out the original seat for a bike saddle of your own. The one year labor and three year parts warranty also alleviates any worries here.
The display offers limited workouts but enough for most people and with plenty of fitness data to chew over. Again, the money you're spending here is going on that solid, ultra-durable bike, and not on the digital extras. So if you want to take data analysis further, add in your fitness tracker or one of the best smartwatches that are more fitness-focused to get the data crunching sorted.
Assault AirBike Classic review: verdict
The Assault AirBike Classic is an exercise bike that offers a gym-level quality build but with a price that makes it accessible for home use. The huge fan allows for unlimited levels of resistance, so it will grow with you as you gain in strength and stamina.
While the onboard computer is basic, you do get heart rate monitoring and some workouts built-in. The bike is well built and can easily be moved around, plus you get an upper body workout too. Overall, this is an attractive indoor bike for those who want to feel the burn.
