Stryde Bike Review
This is the Stryde bike, and today we’re going to take a closer look at this bike, and I’m going to give you a review of it, including the good and the bad, and help you decide if you should consider buying this ride bike or not. This webpage is based on my original Stryde Bike review I posted on my TailHappyTV YouTube channel:
But the very first thing I want to do before we get into any of that is tell you the most unique and big differentiating factor about the Stryde bike compared to like a Peloton bike, or Echelon, or NordicTrack S22i, or really any of the competition out there.
It’s an open platform, robust high quality bike with a tablet attached to it, so you can run Peloton Digital app on here for only $12.99 a month (instead of the required $39/month on a “real” Peloton… see the difference in my Peloton App vs Peloton All Access Membership video). Or, you know, you could pull up Netflix on here or YouTube, or you could pull up an Echelon class on here if you want, or anything you want really.
You could pull up iFit, which is a very unique thing. You know, if you get a Peloton bike, for example, you have to join that full access Peloton membership, which is $39 per month, recurring forever. And if you don’t pay that $39 per month, the thing does not work.
You can’t do the classes on the screen. And the same thing goes if you buy an echelon bike that has a tablet attached to it, you have to sign up and do the echelon classes. You can’t do a Peloton class on the Echelon EX-7s because it has a locked tablet.
Over here on the Stryde bike, it’s a very different situation, it’s an unlocked tablet and you can just scroll down and look at these different apps here. Netflix comes on it already.
I downloaded the Peloton app, which I’ll make a separate video. I’ll put a link down to that below. I’ll be making that video soon on how to download the Peloton app. It’s a little bit tricky, but it’s not too difficult if you follow the steps.
But yeah, the basic idea is, you can use this tablet for a lot more than just the Peloton app. There’s a browser you can open up, and once you have the browser open, you can literally just go to YouTube and search for free exercise bike workout videos and using the Stryde bike tablet.
Here, you can literally just do free classes on YouTube and not pay for any subscription if you don’t want to.
And of course, you do get the Stryde app installed on the tablet directly from the factory. Now, the really cool part about this is you can do a free ride session down here, and once you pullup the free ride session, you get your power output and what’s cadence resistance, total power output as well as distance. But the really cool part about this is you can minimize the whole thing down in the corner. So all you have to do to get this down in the corner and do a picture in picture is tab.
This button right here and it moves down there. And now from here, you can pull up any app you want, you know, like watching YouTube or Peloton or Netflix, and you can get all your metrics right down here in the corner and then follow along with any class you want for from any platform, whether it’s Peloton or Echelon or iFit, whatever you want. You are not locked into any particular platform with a stride bike and you get your metrics.
And then the other really cool part about this is on the Peloton bike, you have to pay that $39 per month to use the membership on the Peloton bike. This is actually the Peloton digital app, which is only $12.99 a month. So if you’re really concerned about a high recurring costs for membership fees for Peloton and you want a quality bike, The Stryde bike is a really nice indoor exercise bike with a tablet attached that you’re not locked into any particular platform.
So anyway, let’s log in and check it out. And boom, there we go. There’s the profile log in from here we can scroll through and find like what we want to do, what you cycling, obviously, and we’ll go ahead and just choose this first one as an example.
Click on Start. Smooth as butter. And here we go. We have the Peloton app on the screen here, the cycling classes starting, and you can see all of your metrics right down here in the corner and the resistance as measured on a scale from zero to 100, which is the exact same scale that’s used on Peloton.
Additionally, your cadence is displayed right here, as well as your power output and your total energy output measured in kilojoules. So as you’re doing a Peloton ride or a ride with any instructor or any platform of your choice, you’ll have all those metrics right down there.
So the way I see it, one of the biggest benefits of the Stryde bike is you are not committed to any one particular platform, and you can use that Peloton digital access on this bike for $12.99/month and not have to worry about the expensive $39 per month fee on the Peloton bike itself.
And then, of course, another really big benefit to this open unlocked tablet is, well, the Netflix app is already right here preloaded on the tablet for you. So if you just want to watch a movie while you ride your bike, you can do that.
And this is going to be a topic of another video entirely, but Stryde does have their very own subscription plan and membership at $29.99 a month. However, the beauty of it is you do not need to sign up for that in order to use the unlocked features of this tablet.
Stryde Bike Mechanics
Anyway, let’s take a closer look at the Stryde bike, what it looks like and how it functions and what the components are, what the flywheel masses and how this thing rides. And is it worth it to buy now?
First of all, this is just a personal opinion, but I think the frame and geometry of this bike and the flat black welded powder coat steel of this bike just looks really nice. Sure, it’s very subtle, and the Peloton Bike looks good, but you know, in my opinion, I think the Stryde bike actually looks better.
The handlebars also have kind of a cool look to them. So, yeah, it’s great to have a good looking bike, but honestly, none of that really matters if it doesn’t have quality components on the inside. So let’s talk about that now.
The Stryde bike is a belt driven bike. You can see the belt right there beyond the smoked out transparent plastic. And up here by the flywheel, you can get a closer look right there at the belt that drives the flywheel.
In addition to that, Stryde bike is magnetic resistance. And as we can see here, there are magnet stacks on both sides of the flywheel that come down and gives you a resistance from 0 to 100, which makes it very convenient and easy to use with many apps that measure resistance on this traditional scale.
And it’s a little bit difficult to show here on camera because it’s kind of tight quarters down here, but there are three fairly large magnets on both sides of the flywheel. And those three magnets, they do create a very strong maximum resistance, and we’ll talk about that in just a little bit.
Stryde Bike Flywheel Weight (mass)
The Stryde bike flywheel mass is 30.5 lbs, which is definitely sufficient and creates a very good drive train feel while riding this bike. If you take a closer look at the flywheel of the Stryde bike, you can see that there is this metal perimeter weighted mass here on the flywheel.
Comparing that directly to the Peloton bike flywheel, you can see that they have the same sort of setup with a metal perimeter weight and a very similar look.
Dual Sided Pedals
Another feature offered by the Stryde bike is dual sided pedals, so you get a SPD style pedal on one side so you can ride with just normal shoes. And also, if you’re a more serious cyclist on the other side, you have a speedy clip in so you can actually clip in and ride this bike with clip in shoes. The choice is yours and there is standard threading on the crank arms, so you can, in theory, swap out these pedals for basically pretty much whatever pedal you want.
Resistance Knob
So let’s take a closer look at the resistance knob. This is a physical resistance knob, and it takes about ten or eleven turns to go from minimum resistance all the way to maximum resistance, which really isn’t too bad at all.
There are 100 levels of resistance measured on the screen, so each turn will turn at about ten resistance points. This resistance knob is a physical resistance knob, so by turning this, it will physically move the magnet stack here.
And as you can see, the magnet stack actually moves really quickly just by rotating this knob. Since that resistance knob is a physical resistance knob, that means that you will not have access to any sort of automatic adjusting resistance on the Stryde bike, unlike the Peloton Bike Plus and the NordicTrack S22i that has automatic adjusting resistance.
So basically on the Stryde bike, you’re getting a very similar magnetic resistance setup as the standard Peloton bike.
Stryde Bike weight and size
Once the tablets attach, the Stryde bike weighs 135lbs. However, it’s really not too difficult to move because you can just kind of lean the whole thing forward and there are these mobility wheels up front.
The footprint of the bike is very similar to the Peloton bike. It’s about four feet long and about two feet wide. So I guess what I’m saying is if you live in a small space, you can fit one or two or three of these bikes in your place and they don’t take up too much room.
On top of that, the Stryde bike is actually very silent. So if you have neighbors above or below you, or you just need to be quiet, it’s a very quiet bike. And while we’re talking about specs, the minimum user height for the Stryde bike is 5’1″ and the maximum user height listed at 6’5″, which I’m six foot five, and I feel like I fit perfectly fine on this bike. If you’re taller than 6’5″. The bike may be possibly a little bit too small for you. Also, I should mention the maximum user weight for the Stryde bike is 350lbs according to the user manual.
Adjustability
We’ll take a closer look at this 22 inch high definition 1080p tablet here in just a moment, but before we do that, I want to show you one other thing. The Stryde bike is three way adjustable, meaning the handlebars can come up and down and the saddle can come up and down, and also the saddle and come forward and backwards.
However, very similar to the Peloton bike, the handlebars don’t have the ability to move forwards and backwards. They’re locked in place here. One really great thing about the adjustability on this bike is there is no holes that you have to click into for raising and lowering the handlebars, so you do get micro adjustments for moving the handlebars up and down.
The adjustment levers on this bike are also high quality and really easy to use.
Similar to the handlebars, raising and lowering the saddle can do the exact same thing. There is no hole you need to click into, and the adjustments go from one all the way to ten plus max, so effectively eleven. You can also move the saddle forwards and backwards along this rail here with micro adjustments, no holes to click into and you get six levels of adjustment.
The saddle that comes on the Stryde bike is perfectly acceptable, and I think a lot of people would be happy with the saddle. It’s got a bit of squish to it, so it’s not too firm. However, in the case that you did want to swap out this saddle, you can definitely do that or you could put a gel cover over it if you feel that you need something softer. For whatever reason, you wanted to swap out the saddle, you could easily do that just by adjusting these bolts here and popping it off and put whatever saddle on you.
Dual Weight Holders + Water Bottle Holders
Another great thing about the Stryde bike is there are dual weight holders here on the back. The bike doesn’t come with any weights, but if you have some weights, you can just drop a set of dumbbells right on in the weight holders and you’re good to go.
And up here on the front of the bike, there are dual water bottle holders, so you can simply drop your water bottles right in there. And it’s very convenient and easy for you to reach when you want some water and the handlebars on the bike are really nice.
I like the grip material. They are a nice soft touch material, a good diameter and multiple handgrip positions. So you know you’ve got your position three here, for out of the saddle here and here as well a nice handlebars.
Stryde Bike Metrics
So I just pulled up a free ride session here, and as you can see, the bike does give you your power output as well as your cadence here in terms of RPM, and the resistance here in terms of 0-100.
So as I mentioned before, here I’m going to crank the resistance knob here. One turn bumps it up about ten resistance and it’s pretty snappy. The resistance responds quickly and it works nicely. Down here, you can see that your total power output is measured in kilojoules, and it gives you that metric as well.
And over here on the left, you get your distance. And yes, Stryde does have their own app on this bike, however, the really neat feature about this bike is you can just take this whole app here and minimize it down to the corner, and then you can pull up and run whatever app you want, you know, and you still get your metrics and everything right down here.
Stryde Bike Q-Factor
I want to talk about the Stryde bike Q factor, which is the distance from the left crank arm to the right crank arm.
Basically, how far apart are your feet when you’re riding the Stryde bike? According to my measurements, I came up with approximately 183mm. And to give you perspective on what that number means, the Peloton Q factor is 170 millimeters, whereas the NordicTrack is even more narrow at 150mm.
And the Keiser M3i has a wide Q factor of nearly 200 millimeters. The Schwinn IC4 has a Q factor of 190mm as another little range comparison down here. Generally, 140mm is considered too narrow for most people, whereas 140mm to 170mm is considered to be narrow for somebody with a more narrow hip distance and then 170mm to about 210 is considered wide. So with a Stryde bike having a Q factor of about 183 millimeters, I find it to be kind of a middle of the road Q factor.
It’s not super narrow, like on the Peloton bikes and the NordicTrack bike. I feel like this Q factor would work for most people.
Stryde Bike Ride Feel
So now let’s talk about one of the most important things about the Stryde bike, and that is how does this bike feel to ride? What’s the drive train feel like? What’s the max resistance like?
And let me just get on it and explain what it’s like to ride? For this test ride, I’m gonna wear my clip in shoes and clip in to get the full experience of the Stryde. So first thing, getting on the bike, the SPD clip in pedals work perfectly fine. I was able to clip in with no trouble whatsoever. And also, it’s really easy to unclip when you want to get off the bike.
So starting out on Resistance zero, I’m just going to start turning the pedals over here and getting the flywheel turning over and right away I can tell that the flywheel mass carries a good amount of inertia and momentum. It’s it’s kind of like a middle of the road flywheel mass. So it’s not like super heavy, but it’s also not too light.
What this means for the rider is when you start turning the pedals it’s not excessively difficult to get the flywheel turning over, but once you get the flywheel rotating it actually does carry a solid amount of momentum.
So when you get out of the saddle, you can feel that flywheel carrying over each pedal. And right now, I’m on a free ride session here. It feels like a very quality built machine. Also, there is a very small amount of noise. And it is very minimal, just like it is basically completely silent. It’s quieter than the Peloton Bike+. And now what I’m going to do here is crank on a little bit of resistance, so I’m on resistance zero now, giving a one turn up on set up to Resistance 13, and I can actually feel that resistance come on pretty quickly. It makes the a fairly decent difference, like just going from, you know, zero to 13. So cranking out a little bit more here, one more turn, I’m at 25 resistance and yeah, I can feel that really starting to kick in pretty heavily, actually.
And one more turn at 35, and I feel like 35 is like enough resistance to get out of the saddle and it feels really smooth. The bike feels really stable and planted under my feet. It definitely feels like a very smooth, robust like studio quality bike, so I can tell already that this bike the resistance is on 35 right now and it’s already challenging. So like, I started cranking it up a lot more than that.
The resistance actually gets really strong. Yeah, resistance is now on 85. And yeah, this is a very strong max resistance on this bike.
So I’m 6’5″ by the way, about 185 lbs. And yeah, that’s measuring my power output there at about 650 watts. But yeah, just taking a little glimpse at that maximum resistance, on resistance 95 right now and like, this is very, very heavy pedals.
If you’re concerned about max or resistance, I can say that the Stryde bike is definitely sufficient on the maximum resistance. So let me take this back down to like a reasonable level here. I put it at about 60 and honestly like this still feels like pretty like too strong and really pretty equivalent to the Peloton scale.
So, yeah, I’d love to back down to like 32 and when I’m doing a normal Peloton ride, I find a lot of times I’m in the resistance range of like 30 to like 60. And on this bike, the scale feels very similar to what the Peloton Bike Plus is bumping the resistance back down to about 15 here.
Turning the cadence over a little bit quicker here at about 120 or so, power output is 170. I mean, it’s a very good feeling bike. I like the way this bike feels to ride.
So to touch on the flywheel mass a little bit more, it’s listed at 30.5 lbs and I feel like that works really well for this bike, the way everything is set up on it, for example, like out of the saddle riding, it feels like that momentum like really carries through the pedal. It’s like pretty evenly and consistent. So riding out of the saddle on this bike is really smooth and nice, and I like the feel of the Stryde.
So to give you a little idea of what a free ride here looks like, it was like a little 20 minute test ride session here I did while filming 2.4 miles. Resistance is currently on 31 and kilojoules output are 64 here on the little test ride.
And as I mentioned before, this is a 22 inch high definition touchscreen. So it is ten app and the resolution of this screen actually looks really nice. one downside of the screen potentially is it cannot rotate side to side like the Peloton Bike Plus, but really, I mean, you can’t really compare it to the Peloton Bike Plus because this thing is priced below the price of a standard Peloton bike, which that cannot rotate around the standard Peloton bike either. And also, I should mention there is an accessory available for the Stryde bike that will allow you to add basically a little connection right here. That’s super easy, and then you can rotate the stryde monitor with that accessory.
Stryde Bike Speakers
There are speakers on the back of the tablet here on the Stryde bike. They work, they play, they sound just fine. The audio is perfectly acceptable, but they’re not going to blow you away like on the Peloton Bike+, for example. The speakers on the Stryde bike remind me a lot of the sound quality on the standard Peloton bike. Here’s what the volume rockers look like over on the side of the tablet to adjust the volume.
But the really important part about this audio setup is there is a 3.5 millimeter jack so you can put headphones in while you ride this bike. And also on top of that, there is Bluetooth connectivity, so you can hook up your AirPods or wireless earbuds while you ride the bike.
And even on the Peloton bike plus it does have like a really awesome speaker system on there, it’s honestly like too loud, like for an apartment complex. I can’t blast it. So what I do is I just use earbuds on the Peloton Bike Plus, and that’s the exact same thing I do on the Stryde bike.
So, you know, it does have that option for wired or wireless earbuds on this bike, and I know a lot of people are in the exact same situation as me. You know, you just want a quiet bike that you can zone in and dial and do your own workout, and not disrupt family members or roommates or whatever your situation may be. So the Stryde bike works perfect for that.
There is also a webcam built into the tablet, and if you flip the whole thing over, you can see the ports here on the bottom. There is a wired Ethernet port just in case you have trouble with the Wi-Fi, which I have not had any trouble with the Wi-Fi whatsoever, but it is an option there for you if you need it and then you have these additional USB ports and these two on the right.
Stryde Heart Rate Monitor
Another feature I want to talk about on the Stryde bike is this bike is ANT+ compatible, so you can hook up your heart rate monitor in a variety of ways here, depending on what app and stuff you want to use. On the Peloton app, what you want to do here if you want to hook up your heart rate monitor to the Peloton app is just click on that heart rate monitor thing on the right and then enable this allow and then it’ll connect right up here in just a moment.
So there goes it pops right up there, just hook it right on up, and it works smooth as butter here. So this is super convenient if you want to use the Peloton digital app here, you just get your heart rate right up here in the corner and and down here in the bottom right corner, you get all your other metrics like your resistance, cadence, power output, total kilojoules. So it makes a super convenient to follow along for a Peloton class. You get all your metrics right up here on the screen, and you don’t have to worry about bringing your own tablet or anything like that and following along with the Peloton class here on this screen, the resolution is the same as the Peloton Bike Plus ten app.
The screen is a little bit smaller at 22 inches, whereas it’s 24 inches on the Peloton Bike Plus, but it’s a 22 inch screen on the standard Peloton bike, which comes out to be the same as the Stryde bike.
So what I’m saying is the resolution and what it actually looks like on the screen. When you ride, it’s very crisp and clear and it’s a beautiful display.
Stryde Bike Price
So let’s talk about the price of the Stryde bike. It’s not a cheap bike, but you know, it’s a quality machine.
So the list price of the Stryde bike $1745. However, there is usually a discount available on the Stryde bike, and I do have a link below this video in the description box so you can check whatever current price and promotions they have going on.
And also, if you did buy through that link, it would help support TailHappyTV, so if you’re planning on buying this bike and you want to get the best price, check out this link for the current price and I would greatly appreciate your support.
Final Thoughts
So let me give you my bottom line on the Stryde bike. This bike, I think, is a great option for somebody who wants a quality bike with a tablet attached to it, but you don’t want to be committed to any particular platform and worry about a really expensive, recurring monthly cost that you’re locked into to use the bike.
With the Stryde bike, you can save yourself potentially a ton of money. You know, if you want to use the Peloton classes and just pull up the Peloton digital app on there and pay, you know, like 13 bucks a month instead of like $39 per month on the Peloton.
Or, you know, if you want to try out like the iFit stuff or Echelon and just whatever you want, you know, you’re just open to try different stuff and you’re not locked into one particular platform like almost every other bike out there on the market.
On top of everything else I’ve said about this bike, when you order this bike online through the link below this video, you can actually get it and one to two weeks. And on top of that, there’s a 30 day return period if you’re not happy with it, for whatever reason.
Also, Stryde does offer a 12 month warranty on the bike, so in the event that you did buy the Stryde bike and for some reason you decided you’re not happy with it, they do offer that 30 day return period.
And if something were to go wrong with it down the road, you don’t have to worry about paying for maintenance and stuff because they do offer that 12 month warranty on the product.
So if you’re still here reading, check out that link below the video and see what the current prices are, you know, and if you did buy through that link, it would help support this channel, and I would greatly appreciate it.
However, as always, find the bike that’s right for you. Browse my channel. I have a lot of indoor exercise bikes reviews on TailHappyTV on YouTube, so, you know, just take a look around and find the bike that’s right for you.