So here' s my first review of the Sole E35 Elliptical Trainer. I will plan to give another review after a few months of use and of course will append as necessary if there are any issues.
Ordering & Delivery
Ordering directly from
SoleTreadmills.com saved me the sales tax over going to
Dick' Sporting Goods. Also included in the price was free freight delivery to the doorstep. Ordering could not have been easier online. I got a confirmation that night in email and a shipment confirmation with a tracking number the next day. They said it would take 10-14 days but got a call from the freight company saying they had it in Atlanta just 6 business days later. It was delivered to the sidewalk in a large heavy box, undamaged.
Assembly
All in all it took about 1 hour to move the parts upstairs and assemble. Hardest part is the flywheel unit which must've weighed 100 pounds. Would definitely recommend some help with moving it. Assembly is pretty clearly laid out and easy to follow. I bought some Locktite thread glue to put on the bolts to keep them from loosening but forgot to use it. Oh well.
Overall
First off this machine is very impressive in its durability. It seems like it is made very heavy-duty with big heavy steel parts and tightly fastening bolts. I don't see how normal use could hurt the frame components. It has the look of a stripped-down industrial machine. Operation, thus far, has been very quiet. I worked out this morning just one thin wall away from my light-sleeping wife who did not notice. I was careful to really tighten all the bolts and make sure of no cross-threads when assembling. If any do work loose I will locktite the threads to keep it from happening again. I bought some 3/8" thick interlocking floors pads from
Wal-Mart for the mat over my wood floor. The base sits only about 20" wide and 82" long. Seems very strong. The machine weighs some 220 lbs and has a 30-lb flywheel.
Console
The console is appears to be no-frills. Only a few buttons, no crazy displays, no crazy stickers. A lot of cheaper treadmills seem like they put a lot or colors and lights on the console to sell them. This is not the case with this machine. It has a fan that does almost nothing (don't even notice when it is on). It has simple speakers for your iPod and interestingly also has a headphone output that I can't figure out what it is for (if you had an iPod why plug it in to the machine just to plug your headphones in to the machine?). The workouts seem adequate (hills, intervals, fat burn, manual and a user-programmable one) as is the 16 levels of resistance. Weirdly there is also a heart-rate control program, but the Sole website says this machine does not have that setting. Interestingly the console will record you running in "reverse" mode but doesn't have any programs that take advantage of this like the gym models.
One point of interest is that it seems like the console reports about half the calories burned as the
LifeFitness models I use at the gym. On the LifeFitness, a comfortably hard workout for me burns 15cal/min. A similarly "comfortably hard" workout on the Sole burns me only about 8cal/min. There is obviously wide variability in these calculations and it may change after the machine is more broken-in.
Pedals and Smoothness
Very smooth. No jerks, very comfortable and natural. The 20-inch stride is the same as the commercial LifeFitness models I have used. Trying out the cheaper shorter stride ellipticals at Dick's was useful to really see the difference. The shorter the stride the less like running and the more like bicycling. Also practically no swaying or rocking. The pedals have a 2-degree rotation on them to take pressure off your knees, so it is more like running. Also they have adjustments to add up to 10-degrees of forward tilt which they claim helps with the problem of some people's toes/feet going numb after a long workout.
Heart-rate Monitor
The chest strap seems to only work when I am really sweaty and it is pretty tight. The palm grips work best after your palms are sweaty but is much more reliable. After reading some other sites out there it seems those chest straps are universally notorious for unreliable monitoring. So far have not been able to get the heart-rate controller to work because can't get the chest strap to pick up my heart for long enough.
First two workouts
No complaints. Pedals are comfortable enough for barefoot (though maybe not recommended). The heart rate strap reliability is not quite there yet. There could be more frills with the console, like saving workout/user data, etc; but the simplicity is nice too. The calorie counter being "different" from the other machines I use is a little disappointing, but I don't know which is more accurate anyway. All-in-all it felt like I was on a commercial-quality machine, and so far would recommend to anyone wanting a "home gym".
