Diamondback

A nightmare! – This costs more than 3 times the usual price of a kids bike. I bought this only because it said it is easy to assemble. But what they don't mention… Read more

is you need to grip strength of a mechanic to do most of the work. After all the work I noticed there that the crank does not spin freely. It gets stuck when twisting and a lot of force is needed to make it spin past that point which means there is some issue with either a bearing or the chain itself. Bigw agreed to pay shipping to get this delivered back to them for inspection but the bike is impossible to disassemble to put it back in the original box.

- Not really a quick assembly - Disassembly is impossible - Some visible cosmetic damage out of the box

Researched heavily before buying this – Whilst previously using an actual road and mountain bike set up with a fluid trainer, it was often difficult to make the necessary changes… Read more

accordingly. Meaning I would waste a good 5 to 10 minutes to make micro adjustments putting the bicycle with the trainer sitting on the rear wheel; and then riding endlessly with no actual challenge or at least some sort of diversity involved. This ultimately made it boring.

Furthermore, whilst using the fluid trainer, the rear tyre on the rim would over time wear out quicker than actually riding it normally on the road and over other outdoor terrain. Overall, I had to find something that would replace my fondness of riding indoors when the weather didn't go to my liking.

A lot of research went towards my purchase and as such, initially it was an upright bike or a recumbent, but seeing how I have been use to riding road bikes; I wanted something that mimicked a similar riding geometry, and subsequently that led to spin bikes.

Looking at various brands out there on the market, I wanted to look at a computer controlled resistance type over a manual one. Based upon costs and the reliability factor, I narrowed it down to the 510Ic and the 910Ic. Both were from the Diamondback Fitness range and even though the 510Ic was more robust and better in terms of build quality, the 910Ic just looked a heck of a lot better. There were some concerns regarding the 910Ic reliability issues, but after being told what to look for; especially the manufacturing batch numbers, I ended up picking one up.

Unfortunately, this came in one very heavy box. It took a bit of time to load it into the car and even worse when unloading it. As the construction of this spin cycle is mostly strong metal with a mixture of steel, the most noticable aspect was the fly wheel; which actually had better resistance than the 510Ic.

Removing the 910Ic from the box was a chore, the assembly instructions and tools came in a fancy plastic pencil case-like packet; however it was quite bad and immediately reminded me of something from IKEA. The 910Ic was partially put together, the colour console attachment was the last bit to put together and came with rechargeable batteries though recommended through their instruction manual to keep it connected with an AC adaptor to ensure that the battery in the console is constantly charged.

Not entirely sure whether that was a good thing to begin with.... overcharging the console battery.

Anyway, after putting it together and making several adjustments quick quick release knobs every where; such as the seat and handlebars; was every bit intuitive and interesting just as it is when riding a real bicycle. The 910Ic has many programs to keep any cycling enthusiast challenged, programs can easily be chosen or manually adjusted.

The only problem I found with the 910Ic is that the coloured console not where it should be, meaning the rider would constantly have to tilt their head downwards in order to look at the display.

When using toe clips or optional cycling pedals with cleats; it only takes a few seconds before the 910Ic's coloured console lights up. But only takes a few seconds again without pedaling before it shuts down. I didn't quite like this option, I would have preferred if the 910Ic's console stayed on for at least 30 seconds to allow the user to copy down statistics obtained from their session workout.

When the need is required to move the 910Ic, unfortunately I must say that you will need two people to do so; or if the individual user has a certain amount of muscle mass (strength), otherwise it will become literally impossible to move. The 910Ic is very very heavy.

Lastly, there is one thing that I am not overly happy about, is that there is a useless piece of metal/steel that is used to protect the front section of the 910Ic. If you buy this from a shop and it is raw requiring an actual full assembly, you will notice it when you remove the 910Ic from its packaging. The manual dictates that this piece is to be thrown away.... upon further inspection, for me, its just a waste of material and makes you wonder when purchasing something such as this, you'd expect that everything that comes with it should be used fully without wastage. Heavy Flywheel along with many computer operated programs gives you a good riding workout; adjustable riding position to cater any one; cost; looks expensive even though made in China; highly customisable Not very mobile despite wheels, need to be fairly strong to move; pedaling is required to keep the computer console on (otherwise turns off too quickly); IKEA instructions; wastage of material that ends up being thrown away and for nothing