BowFlex IC Bike SE Review

BowFlex is known for quality exercise equipment and the IC Bike SE is no exception. While the company seems to be enduring some turmoil with bankruptcy and acquisitions, this bike can be used without the support of BowFlex or any of its associated apps.

Performance Comparison

Exercise Quality

The IC Bike SE has a distinctive, sleek look. It is supported by a single frame post with a thin, aero-looking flywheel in the rear. The steel frame doesn't suffer from any unwanted flex from the design, even while out of the saddle. There are 100 levels of magnetic resistance, which should satisfy even the most engaged indoor cyclist. With a 36-pound flywheel, the bike gives a realistic feeling of spin and counterweight while slowing. The rubber-coated handlebar provides multiple positions and has a stout feel for sprints and hill workouts. The bike features 170mm crank arms with a q-factor of 184mm, giving it a bit more width than a traditional road or gravel bike but fairly common for a spin bike. We were impressed with the amount of adjustability, and all of our testers were able to dial in settings that felt appropriate for hard workouts and significant time in the saddle.

The bike can be operated without an app or connectivity and still provides a quality experience. Some connected exercise bikes feel lacking if you use them without an app and screen, while the IC Bike SE provides a helpful screen that is well laid out and engaging. The screen provides an abundance of information to keep you informed, including cadence, resistance, elapsed time, speed, and power in watts. It's probably the best screen experience we've tested without an app.

The bike's stability and adjustability provide an excellent platform for spinning out the miles. The bike isn't as stable or reactive feeling as a Peloton, mostly due to the quality of connections in the adjustable sections. We found the exercise quality quite good at many levels, with the weighted flywheel and magnetic resistance coming together for a naturally heavy feel. Getting your heart rate up doesn't take long; the bike feels built for exertion. As with other connected exercise bikes, the IC Bike SE comes to life when you connect with a workout app. We have a section below where we discuss connectivity, but adding an app greatly increases the level of engagement and, for us, the enjoyment of the workout. The JRNY app is pretty good, but a highlight of this machine is that you can choose from a variety of apps.

Under the handlebar are a set of dumbbells that stay out of the way in a hard sprint but are, conversely, a little difficult to retrieve when you want them. The dumbbell holder angles up toward the handlebar, creating a pinch point if you don't carefully extract them, which isn't always easy to do while pedaling. We prefer having the weights mounted behind the saddle, but this is certainly no deal breaker. The resistance knob is in a similar place to most exercise bikes, but the positioning of this one feels a bit easier to grab. The upper levels of resistance (85-100) provide a tremendous amount of resistance, and we found little reason to go that high in any of the programmed workouts we did.

Companion App/Connectivity

Many of the exercise bikes we test seem to be more about the app than the bike. This is less the case with the IC Bike SE, but connecting an iPad or smart TV to an app does create a more interesting experience. Front and center for this bike is the JRNY app, which provides some basic programmed workouts, on-location classes, and gym-style spin classes. JRNY connects to the bike via Bluetooth, but it doesn't carry as much functionality as a Bluetooth FTMS machine. The app shows all of the relevant data from the bike instead of displaying it on the bike's screen, but you're still responsible for adjusting the resistance by hand. The programmed workouts have “virtual coaching” that uses a computer voice to encourage you to follow the speed, cadence, and power output of several dozen workouts. They feel impersonal and a bit contrived, but the structure of the workouts is solid, and if you don't mind some Siri-esque encouragement, they make for a great workout.

The on-location workouts can be quite enjoyable if you enjoy beautiful natural scenery. These workouts take you to the coast of Portugal, through New Zealand, and the Scottish Highlands, just to name a few. They're far superior to the Echelon on-location classes with much higher quality videos, and the speed of the video pairs with the speed you pedal. Sometimes, the rides go over landscaping, through water, or abruptly change at dead ends, but that just keeps it exciting. The videos are likely shot from a bicycle or drone, so they feel mostly realistic and offer incredibly compelling scenery. Unlike iFit, there is no coach or narrator along the ride with you, and the bike doesn't react to changes in elevation.

The studio-style spin classes are exactly that, but they're less engaging than most other studio classes we've tried. They have a small selection of instructors who aren't nearly as enthusiastic as those you'd find on Peloton, Echelon, or Apple Fitness. That said, you can you this bike with all of those apps and enjoy their production quality without any additional equipment. The classes are generally a single rider in an empty room, depicted from several camera angles. You can select your own music from a selection of about a dozen different genres, and notably, you can change music in the middle of a workout without interrupting your exercise.

The JRNY app also allows you to stream media from sources like Netflix, Disney +, HBO Max, Hulu, and Prime. In streaming mode, JRNY becomes more than just an intermediary; your workout data is superimposed over the top of your chosen media. It's a cool feature that allows you to engage in entertainment and workout simultaneously. The JRNY app costs $20/month or $149 annually, making it one of the lower-priced apps in the home fitness market. The bike currently comes with a two-month free trial of the JRNY app and free access to JRNY Essential, which gives basic workout functionality.

Comfort

The Bowflex IC Bike SE is a fairly comfortable spin bike with a good range of adjustability. Bowflex claims this bike should fit users between 4'10" to 6'5" with a maximum weight limit of 330 lbs. There is an abundance of adjustments for sizing, and we don't dispute BowFlex's claims, but the bike seems to be better suited for average and below-average-sized riders. At the far end of the adjustments for the seat and handlebar, very little overlap results in quite a bit of additional flex that we found undesirable. Riders over 6' 1" or 275lbs found the flex from adjustment interfaces to be detrimental to the exercise experience.

With that caveat aired, let's look at the bike's adjustability. The seat post has 15 indexed positions, which gives the post 8 inches of adjustability. The upper-most setting leaves only 4 inches of post inside the frame, and the tolerances aren't very tight, resulting in a bit of play. The seat also has 3.5 inches of fore/aft adjustability, letting you emulate a steeper seat tube. The handlebar features 7.25 inches of adjustability at a 59-degree angle, giving substantial reach when extended. The handlebar sits on a sliding mount, giving it an additional 4.5 inches of fore/aft movement, and notably, the fore/aft adjustments do not compromise stability, only the vertical adjustments. The adjustments all have indexed measurements that help you record or return to previous settings.

The ergonomic unisex saddle worked well for us, but saddles are often a matter of preference. This saddle measures 260 x 175mm with a pressure relief cutout in the center. The cushioning is medium-density foam, and the cover plays well with bike shorts and gym shorts. The rails are standard, which means it can be switched out for just about any bike seat on the market. The handlebar features multiple positions and uses a rubberized coating that has become ubiquitous amongst spin bikes. It's lightly padded and non-absorbent, and it doesn't get slippery when wet or sweaty. Dual-sided pedals give you the option to use toe cages and straps or clip in on the reverse side. The included cleats are SPD compatible, as you'll find on most spin bikes. There's ample ground clearance to ride the clipless sides of the pedals without the straps and clips hitting the ground.

User Interface

There is a USB-A charging port on the back of the display, which lets you keep your device powered while working out. Bluetooth connectivity allows you to connect a compatible heart rate monitor but not headphones; you may be able to do this separately through your tablet or Smart TV. A padded media rack sits above the display, allowing you to put a phone, tablet, or magazine in the space that is directly in your line of sight. The display on the bike is quite good. Many of the most popular spin bikes on the market rely on pushing your data to a tablet, but the IC Bike SE uses a 7" color LCD that organizes your information in an easy-to-read fashion. The screen has no touch capacity so what you see is what you get, if you're connected to a workout app, the information on the screen disappears and is displayed instead on your tablet or Smart TV.

Like most other spin bikes, the magnetic resistance is controlled by a twist knob on the frame. A turn in the clockwise direction increases resistance, and while the knob is easy to grab hold of, making big changes to resistance requires a bit more wrist motion than on models with fewer levels of resistance. A push straight down on the knob engages the brake and brings you to a stop very quickly. One thing that we really appreciated about this bike is that you can ride it and adjust the resistance without the bike being plugged in. This might seem trivial, but we've been caught unable to use our spin bikes during power outages and found their reliance on power to be unfortunate.

Features

The IC Bike SE isn't exactly brimming with features, but there are a few things that we found to enhance the quality of our time spent aboard. Wheels on the front of the bike are handy for moving it around, but since the weighted flywheel is on the rear, it's more difficult to move than some other bikes that weigh more. A set of 3 lb dumbbells are included and hang below the handlebars, for the uninitiated, spin instructors will sometimes ask you to grab a set of weights and if they're not hanging from the bike, they'll be nearly impossible to grab without interrupting your exercise flow.

The bike has a water bottle cage at the bottom of the seat tube, it's not the easiest place to reach but it works just fine. The bike also comes with leveling feet on the legs that allow you to stabilize it on floors that are less than perfectly flat. Dual-sided pedals are also standard and allow you to work out in a variety of footwear. The bike also has an accurate power sensor built in, so the wattage you see on the screen is within a small percentage of what we found when using our Garmin power meter pedals.

Setup and Portability

Assembling the IC Bike SE was fairly involved, requiring over an hour to get it unpackaged, built, and adjusted. The package is quite compact and, unfortunately, filled with styrofoam, which makes a mess. Mess aside, the actual assembly was fairly smooth, with easy-to-follow directions and a well-laid-out order of operations. Care needs to be taken not to pinch wires.

The IC Bike SE is about the same size as most of the other bikes we've tested when in its most compact form; extending the handlebars grows the bike's footprint considerably. Fortunately for users who use the handlebars extended, they can easily be retracted into the frame when not in use. At 141 pounds, the bike won't easily be lifted or moved on stairs, and it should probably have a dedicated space of its own. We'd recommend a space of at least 60" x 30" to be comfortable. As we mentioned previously, having the majority of the bike's weight in the rear and wheels on the front makes it more challenging to move, but we managed to use it in close to a dozen spaces while testing and got used to its mass.

Should You Buy the Bowflex IC Bike SE?

If you want a great quality spin bike that isn't married to a particular app, the IC Bike SE is an excellent choice. Having a quality display, accurate power data, and above-average adjustability make this bike a great machine to spin out the miles. If you're over 6' 1" and want the most out of a spin bike, we might suggest something else, but this will be a great exercise tool for the vast majority of people. Whether you choose to engage with a companion app or just want some distracting entertainment while you ride, this bike offers that without siphoning off a fee for its use. It has a slightly higher purchase price than some of the others in this review but feels like a solid value that you won't regret.

What Other Exercise Bikes Should You Consider?

If you've decided that spin is your thing and you want the best possible home experience, we don't think there is a better option than the Peloton Bike+. It's large and expensive, but the ergonomics of the bike, mixed with the quality of the app, are nothing shy of excellent. If you want more than studio spin classes, check out one of the bikes with iFit connectivity, like the NordicTrack S22i that adjusts your incline and decline for you based on the workout you're doing. Their on-location rides are amongst the most engaging we've experienced, with beautiful scenery, professional coaches that ride along with you, and often, interesting bits of history mixed in.