| Enjoy an efficient full-body workout without heading to the gym with the Sole E95 elliptical trainer. Boasting a heavy 30-pound flywheel, a high gear ratio not found on most comparable models, and a pair of upper body handles, the E95 delivers an extremely smooth workout with plenty of top-end resistance. Users will also appreciate the unique oversize and adjustable foot pedals, which were designed in collaboration with a leading physical therapist and sports enthusiast. The pedals are not only extra large, but also feature a 2-degree inward slope that reduces the ankle and knee stress that's common in other elliptical machines. The collaboration also produced a revolutionary foot pedal angle adjustment not found on any other elliptical. Taking into account that not everyone walks the same way, Sole engineers made the E95's pedals adjustable to fit the way you walk. This also reduces the likelihood of numb toes and sore Achilles tendons. Workout specifics include 20 resistance levels, 10 total programs (including two custom and two heart-rate programs), and a 20-inch stride length. Perhaps the handiest feature from a user perspective, however, is the easy-to-use electronic console, which integrates a red/green display, a cooling fan, and a water bottle holder. Additional features include stationary handlebars with built-in pulse sensors for monitoring your heart rate; a heart rate chest strap for hands-free pulse monitoring; heavy-duty rails with smooth-riding wheels on the back; and a rear plastic shroud that adds additional stability for aggressive use. The E95, which offers a maximum weight capacity of 400 pounds, carries the following warranties: lifetime on the frame, five years on all parts and electronics, and two years on the labor. Specifications: - Stride Length: 20 inches
- Cushioned and Adjustable Footpad: Yes
- Resistance Type: Eddy Current Braking
- Resistance Levels: 20 levels of resistance
- Power: Standard 110
- Upper Body: Yes
- Handgrip: Molded
- HGP: Yes
- Telemetry Belt: Yes
- HR Control: Yes
- HR Autopilot: Yes
- Programs: 10
- Standard: 6
- User Defined: 2
- Heart Rate: Yes, 2 user programs
- Fans: Yes
- Water Bottle / Accessory Holders: Yes
- Plastic Shroud On Rear Rails: Yes, extra rear stability
- Product Weight: 215 pounds
- Maximum Weight Capacity: 400 pounds
- Speakers and MP3 Plug-in: Yes
Manufacturer's Warranty
Frame - lifetime, parts / electronics - 5 years, labor - 2 years About Elliptical Trainers
Elliptical trainers represent the next wave of advancement in low-impact cardiovascular exercise machines and continue to grow in popularity. By simulating motions experienced through walking, stepping, cycling, and skiing, elliptical machines allow for a smooth and fluid motion while building strength in the arms and legs. Similar to the exercise position for treadmills, elliptical trainers are used by standing in an upright position while holding the handrails of the machine. With elliptical trainers, however, your feet remain in the foot pedals throughout the exercise regimen and circulate in a smooth and seamless motion, resulting in little to no impact on the knees, back, and hips. Elliptical trainers are compatible for all ages and fitness levels and allow you to select the difficulty level through the incline and intensity settings. Additionally, elliptical trainers allow you to determine the complexity of your workout based on your needs, all while listening to music, watching television, or reading a magazine while exercising in the comfort and safety of your own home. Although different types of elliptical trainers offer an assortment of features, many of them include an array of challenging programs, forward and reverse directional movement, EKG grip pulse handles, a lightweight portable design with easy fold-up capability, and a monitor displaying calories burned, distance, speed, time, and heart rate. Other types of exercise machines, namely treadmills and bikes, offer excellent cardiovascular exercise and muscular training for the legs in a forward-motion exercise. Elliptical trainers take this to the next level by offering an upper and lower body workout with dual motion, challenging and diverse programs, and a low-impact exercise machine that won't strain sensitive joints. |
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 Best Elliptical Trainer...period - Features, Reliability, & Price |
| Review Date: April 22, 2008 |
| Reviewer: S. Wu, New York, NY USA |
We originally purchased the E55 in 2007, but then we gave that model to a relative and upgraded to the E95. We love the upgraded screen and rail covers and even at the additional price, we are still about a third of the cost of a Precor. I have included our original E55 review for reference and hope that it will be of help to perspective buyers :)
My wife and I searched and searched for an elliptical because we were fed up with signing up for gym memberships and not using them. Having to go to the gym just wasn't practical for us. So we embarked on a quest to find the quietest, most reliable and feature packed elliptical we could find.
Our budget was 2K or less. Online research led us to many brands and many models - too many actually. It was a dizzying array of choices. So we decided to visit fitness equipment stores and sporting goods stores to try out a few ellipticals in person. The fitness stores carried mostly high-end brands like Precor, which we liked, but were all WAY out of our price range. Besides, after looking at the fine print, we noticed that Precors only come with a 1 year warranty. After that, the frame is good for 10 years but parts and labor are at the owner's expense!
The sporting goods stores turned up the typical mass market brands like Reebok, ProForm, Horizon, Ironman, and New Balance. Most were pretty flimsy feeling and wobbly or the stride just didn't feel right. The Reebok ellipticals came close but they didn't offer wireless heart rate monitoring and the stride still wasn't quite right. Our eureka moment came at Dick's sporting goods when we noticed one brand that we had never seen before, Sole. They had the E55 model on display and we tried it out. It was very solid feeling and the stride was natural. There was very little heel lift which is a key component for a low-impact workout - also, the foot pads are adjustable which virtually eliminates any heel lift. I was also pleased that the Sole elliptical had both pulse hand grips AND wireless chest strap heart rate monitoring. This is important not only to improve your endurance but also ensures a safer workout. There's also a great HRC program that varies the resistance based on your heart rate in order to maintain a constant heart rate.
Since I'm not an impulse buyer I was still concerned that I had never heard of Sole before. Searching online turned up a few reviews about their treadmills. Digging deeper yielded a wealth of information about the treadmills and it turns out that Sole makes a very reliable product and their treadmills are well reviewed and used exclusively at Hilton and other hotel chains. With an endorsement like that I was sold. My online research also turned up the official Sole company site and I was happy to learn that I could order online with free shipping and no sales tax. The delivered price was still $500 below our budget! We also learned that the Sole ellipticals came with a great warranty, 2 years labor, 5 years motor and lifetime frame and deck. Not bad and twice as good as the Precor which was 3 times more price-wise.
In summary, this is absolutely the best bang for the buck as far as ellipticals go. Sole ellipticals are the best ellipticals under $2000 and they even compete very well with the ones above $2000 as well!
Lastly, the best place to buy them is from the company's own website, soleellipticals.com |
great elliptical for the money
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| Review Date: February 6, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Chris Allen, Indiana |
Love it. Would recommend to anyone wanting a quality elliptical.
I searched around quite a bit for an elliptical machine - I had a few requirements.
1) Must have longer stride - I'm six ft tall - most machines didn't feel natural to me because of a shorter stride.
2) Must be smooth running and sturdy - many machines felt cheap and creaked when in use.
3) Must have decent display - something akin to a gym quality machine - clear displays of stats such as heart rate, level, time, distance, etc...
I ordered the machine and it shipped within a couple of weeks. This is a large item - delivered on a half skid. Get a couple of good sized folks to help you move it!
Went together easy enough - probably in about 2 hours - and that was really taking my time. The parts are VERY well organized - there are only four "steps" total each with their own packet of parts. Comes with the tools you'll need - although a socket wrench and a good screwdriver wouldn't hurt. My only complaint with the instructions is that there is a little vagueness in some of the final assembly. Some part numbers that didn't make sense - a couple of covers that simply don't fit. I think this is do to the e95 being a very close cousin to the e35. The major differences being a much improved display and fancy covers.
Complaints? I can see where one bolt may have to be re-tightened (after a week's usage), and the cup holder is a joke - it's at a 40 deg angle.
I use this everyday - I couldn't be happier with this purchase. Everyone who has tried it loved it. They're impressed by it's level of quality - its smoothness / quietness especially.
I wanted a quality machine and was willing to fork over some $. I think you could only do better if you spent twice as much and purchased a LifeFitness model.
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Very sturdy, feels good, just like the gym
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| Review Date: June 8, 2008 |
| Reviewer: M and G, Dover, NH |
I'll come back to this review again soon, having gotten this unit just recently. For now, I'll focus on assembly while it's still fresh in my mind. In case it matters, the instruction packet that we got is 2008 version B, as marked at the bottom right of page 2 in the manual. This is a long review, mainly because of the cost outlay. Please accept our apologies for any wordiness.
Pro:
-Unit is sturdy and smooth... it is very solid-feeling.
-Assembly of the 22 steps using the 4 CAD illustrations took me 2 hours using their basic (but acceptable) tools. They provided most everything you need, with only the eyeglass screwdriver not being included, which is needed to put the watch battery into the cordless heart monitor.
-There were some clear signs of clever thinking to help the consumer with the assembly process. For instance, a "wire tie" was added to one of the cables that you'll need to feed through the handle bar post. That wire tie added length making it easier to feed, plus gave me a way to secure the cable to keep it that way while I did other things... thank you!
-Most everything went together without any binding, cajoling, or extra effort. The screws did not strip/show wear after tightening like many "some assembly required" items that you find today
-Many pieces came pre-assembled, minimizing your assembly effort, time. Also, the hardware was well-packaged (see the related photo that we uploaded)
-Hardware illustrations are mostly to a 1:1 scale, meaning you can hold the screw/bolt/washer/etc. up to the "assembly pack check list" drawing and quickly identify most hardware items (see Cons for exceptions)
-We used a "white glove" delivery option that delivered the pieces/boxes to our second floor room... this thing is very, very heavy and a little awkwardly shaped to carry! I'm 6' and 200# and it gave me a good workout just moving it around in the room. It was expensive, but it was worth it. I think that two people are required for a safe lift up or down stairs.
-Has little wheels for moving the unit within a room. Lift at the back about 3' and the wheels engage the floor (see Cons for more details).
-Instructions are pretty good, but there are some flaws (see Cons below)
-Lubricant, used to alleviate potential squeaking, is supplied. No specific action to add it except a brief mention deep into the manual
-While you can't step on the black cover at the back end of the elliptical (you'll crack it for sure), this appears to be is a good safety feature. This shroud should help keep fingers/toes away from moving parts and related pinch points. Since we have a two-year old, this is a nice feature.
Con (at the moment, please keep in mind that most cons relate to set-up, a one-time thing):
-Parts list, assembly instructions, and assembly illustrations are on different pages, so you must flip back and forth and back and forth constantly
-E35 and E95 elements are somewhat intermingled, and each page is labeled as such in the bottom right. If you bought the E95, I recommend ripping those pages out, and/or crossing those pages out with a big thick black marker when the page can't be removed. This will avoid working to the wrong drawing and flipping fewer pages.
-The 1:1 scale was lost with either poor representations of part #81, #87, and #97 or there were part substitutions that put the instructions out of sync with the hardware. There are ~19 unique pieces of hardware so more were right than wrong in fairness to Sole.
-Typographical errors are few, most notable is on page 9. Here, I think hex bolt #130 is really #103. Other typing errors while embarrassing, should not affect you.
-The little wheels for moving the unit within a room are in our opinion too small, and don't work on carpet well.
-They warn you to be careful of the computer cable that runs through the unit, but they don't tell you how to avoid it, so it's a meaningless warning because either you have no issue or you go "whoops!". All it does it stress you out needlessly, at least for most of us.
-The cables that you connect are keyed, but I'd challenge the statement they make that you can't put them in the wrong way. Also, there was no positive snap or click to tell you connection was made. I pushed hard and hoped.
-Unit requires power... you must plug it in. A more expensive unit will use human power, a few pumps and it's primed and ready, but not this one. Sole, please fix this (see photo for more).
-The drink holders don't look very good, tall drinks will not stay, as the holders are oddly shaped and tilted forward nearly 45 degrees. Sole, please fix this (see photo for more).
-Cord supplied for MP3 units is not iPhone/super minijack compatible... you'll need an adapter (see our other reviews to find a good adapter).
-Fan is not very strong, it runs and moves air quietly, but I don't feel it on my face or body
-MP3s play nicely (I needed an adapter) but there's no power, so you'll need a charged player
Neutral:
-This unit will raise you up at least a foot off of the floor, so keep that in mind when putting this into a room with a ceiling fan, low ceiling, and/or other overhead issues like pipes or light fixtures.
-Manual is 22 double-sided pages. About 6 of these pages can be pretty easily eliminated as they relate mostly to the E35.
-I used the stepper feet, which are recessed, to hold many of my parts. Less opportunity to lose hardware.
-Take nothing out of the bags until they're needed. The bags clutter your space and a few are labeled left and right. Probably should be added to the plastic molds.
-Not for use outdoors (or near high humidity, like an indoor pool) or on plush, heavily padded or lush carpets. You might trying to circumvent the carpet limitation using plastic risers used on beds and sofas to prevent the weight from crushing carpet fibers. I think that these can be found at any hardware store, although I don't know if that'll work well or not. You'd need at least six of them.
-Since this unit is powered by a socket, it is recommended that you plug it into a proper, high-quality surge protector.
-Don't over-tighten any screw that goes into plastic. For this unit, that's any screw with a pointy tip.
-Tools used/provided: 2 philips screwdrivers (one short/stubby, normal-sized one), 12 mm crescent wrench, 13/14 mm double-ended crescent wrench.
Bottom line: Highly-recommended. Assembly was easier than expected and better than average despite the point made. We would recommend avoid paying someone else to assemble it for you (which is a common shipping option). Remember, you assemble it once, so cons made here, while annoying, aren't big and bad enough to tarnish the fact that this unit is truly a great machine. |
Sole E95 Elliptical
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| Review Date: May 20, 2008 |
| Reviewer: A. J. Oliva, Fort Lauderdale, FL |
| Fantastic equipment for the price. Easy setup. However, free shipping from Amazon using CEVA was extremely slow. CEVA never delivered on scheduled date or even call or email to arrange a delivery day. I ended up calling CEVA to arrange a pickup at their warehouse which is 35 miles away. With todays gas prices, this was not cheap, but at least I got my machine! |
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