Lemond RevMaster Pro

By far “The King of Spin Bikes “ – I have been running spin classes in our studio for the past 4 years. When I joined the group, the fit out consisted of 16 yellow rev master classic spin bikes. As spinning is the most popular class we run, when it came to upgrading we have put a lot of consideration into the upgrade. After trying out 4 different commercial spin cycles the Rev Master Pro won hands down.

It is by far the heaviest duty bike and most stable – this is very important in intense spinning.

The new full loop handlebars are a winner too, giving a more comfortable feel in multiple positions, sitting/sprinting.

Adjustments – very versatile and customizable and most importantly easy to adjust quickly.

The tension levers have a very solid and tight feel. Very heavy duty.

Resistance is the smoothest out of any spin bike I’ve ever been on.

The revmaster pro spin bike isn’t cheap, but if you’re after the best, then you have to try this bike, I can guarantee that once you have been on this model, everything else will fell like cheap toys.

Also worth a mention that now we have 21 units in the studio. 16 Black and 5 the older yellow colour, and none of them required any service as yet apart from general care like cleaning and oiling the brake pad. Solid, great design, very high quality

A great bike but not without some teething issues – This is a great looking spin bike that can take a lot of punishment. The handlebars and seat heights can be adjusted to an upright or road bike setup. The pedal spacing is a lot closer together than most other bikes and you can crank up the resistance and stand on the pedals with very little flex in the frame. The cam handles are a nice touch too.

The quality control could do with some work here. The first Revmaster Pro I got had an irregular shaped flywheel that caused the resistance to vary as the flywheel went round and made an awful sound that was very distracting. It also had a noisy belt that clicked every second pedal stroke. A technician examined the bike and agreed there was a problem with the flywheel and insisted on replacing the bike instead of fixing it.

The replacement bike has the same off-centre flywheel problem - it's not nearly as pronounced but it still makes the same irritating noises. There also appears to be large patches of corrosion on the side of the flywheel which cannot be removed because it's beneath a clear protective coating - not what you'd expect for a top dollar bike - but fortunately it does not affect the performance of the bike.

The new handlebars were missing a finishing coat and were very rough to touch so they were replaced with the handlebars from the original bike. The seat post also kept slipping and the cam handle tension had to be tightened several times before it stopped slipping but now it's so tight it's very difficult to operate.

The flywheel was out of vertical alignment and the top of the flywheel was almost touching the left fork. The brake pad was not square on top of the flywheel and that caused uneven wear on the pad. The hub and front belt pulley were also skewed and this may have been causing unnecessary wear on the belt. Support weren't much help here so I fixed the alignment problem myself - there was enough play in the bolts holding the flywheel hub in place that it could be straightened up. The belt tension was done up way too tight and after correcting the tension and the alignment the bike is much smoother. Clearly these bikes need to be tuned before you can get the most out of them.

After using the bike for just a few weeks the bearings in the pedals are already on the way out with enough play in the left pedal to cause knocking when riding out of the saddle. The vibrations can be felt all the way through the crank to the right pedal. Replacing the factory pedals are a given. And you'll probably want a new seat too - the factory seat has been 'domesticized' and is too big to feel like a road bike seat and too small to feel like an exercise bike.

The bike has a belt drive and while it doesn't have the same feel as a chain it does make less noise and doesn't require regular oiling/adjusting. The gearing seems far too low and the bike really needs a larger crank pulley or a heavier flywheel to better simulate a road bike. The bike is already a heavyweight at 65kg so higher gearing would be better. The bike does simulate steep uphill riding quite well though. The resistance pad is leather so should provide good mileage but it does need regular oiling to prevent it from drying out.

The aero bars are useful but the top handlebar loop just makes the handlebars very heavy and has no practical purpose other than to attach a drink holder and the pilot console.

The pilot console is really just a cadence meter and while helpful as that is most frequent riders will know their cadence by feel anyway. The device will also report speed and distance but these are purely a guide only since the bike only has one fixed gear and the resistance is not tied into these calculations. The pilot also supports a heart rate chest strap but to get a remotely accurate measure of calories burned certain personal details need to be entered into the device. And since the device is designed for a gym it has no memory and the same details need to be entered every time the bike is used.

Given the problems out of the box with this bike I couldn't recommend it but if you really want one then consider a second-hand one - the price should be more reasonable and it would have already been through its teething issues so you shouldn't have to worry about dealing with the poor warranty service and support. Handlebars and seat have great height adjustability, strong crankarms, rigid frame, ease of maintenance Very expensive, inconsistent quality control, cheap factory pedals, uncomfortable seat, unhelpful support