DKN EB-2100i Exercise Bike Review

Having recently tested DKN’s excellent RB-4i recumbent bike we jumped at the chance to test their heavy-duty upright bike, the EB-2100. DKN have been busy building their reputation over the last few years by introducing a range of high-quality home fitness equipment at a reasonable price. All of the current range makes use of the latest existing mobile tech to great effect and each machine we’ve tested so far has been pretty impressive. Set at a higher price point than their other upright bikes we were keen to see what the EB-2100 offered for that higher price. So, how did it fare in the hands of our testers?

First, the assembly. With each component packaged really well, the bike was delivered in perfect condition. Once out of the box, the assembly was straightforward with clear instructions and good diagrams to guide you through. Like the other bikes in the DKN range, the main body is in one piece so having attached the front and rear stabilisers the rest of the unit went together quickly enough. It took one of us around 40 minutes in total to get it up and running which is about what you’d expect.

How does it look? Well, the first thing that strikes you is just how hefty it looks. It’s clear from the first glance that this is a more heavy-duty bike than your average home upright model. Big stabilisers, oversized pedals, thick seat post, thick front post, big handlebars, big seat, big water bottle holder and a big computer. This bike is definitely ‘big-boned’ and looks the part. Predominantly black and silver with yellow trim and nice clean lines, it looks like a modern piece of kit. If you saw one of these in your local gym it wouldn’t look out of place.

The seat is adjustable horizontally and vertically with the sort of quick release mechanism, you’d normally see on gym bikes for the horizontal adjustment. The vertical adjustment features the standard quick release mechanism you’d see on most other home bikes. The handlebars are not adjustable but instead feature a two position fixed set up allowing for both fully upright positioning and also for a ‘racer’ style position. Handlebars being fixed can sometimes be a disadvantage in terms of getting comfortable on the bike, however because of the two-position handlebar set up we found it was easy to get a good posture without having to mess around. The fact that the handlebars are fixed adds considerably to the how sturdy the bike feels. It’s rather like sitting on what feels like an immovable object! The seat is large and padded and unlikely to cause the initial saddle-soreness that you often get with more entry level bikes. The oversized pedals are nice and wide and are self-levelling so there’s no fiddling around with the pedal to get your feet into position, which is nice.

The body of the bike is quite high and while the fixed handlebars provide a good grip and the bike itself is very stable, providing great support for getting on and off, this height may make it more difficult for those with mobility difficulties to get on and off the bike.

The console is mounted on a hinge that ensures you can tilt it towards or away from you so that regardless of your height the display is always clear to see and provides you with a great view at all times. As you would expect on this sort of machine the console has a built-in wireless receiver, but on the EB-2100 they’ve gone further and the industry standard and used as BlueTooth receiver for increased accuracy and reliability which is a nice touch. In addition, both positions on the handlebars are fitted with hand pulse sensors providing hand pulse feedback if you don’t want to/can not use an HR transmitter. The console is a sleek, black modern looking unit that features a two colour high contrast LCD screen, tablet holder and BlueTooth receiver for connecting a smart device. The layout of the controls for selecting programmes, adjusting resistance and resetting the computer has clearly been thought through and makes sense. The buttons themselves are easy to read and always a nice distance from you so it’s easy to make changes to your workout during exercise. The screen itself is is a two colour 5” (12.7 cm) high contrast LCD that provides a wide viewing angle. All the characters on the screen are large and easy to see, displaying time, pulse, speed/rpm, watt, distance with a clear segmented readout showing where you’re at in your selected workout.

The console has plenty of scalable programmes including, manual, beginner (4), advanced (4), performance (4), watt and cardio. The fact the pre-set programmes are scalable as well as being able to set target heart rate and watt control really does add to the appeal of this console unit as effectively it means there’s pretty much no chance of ever outgrowing the bike, no matter how fit you get. To use the cardio programme, like most other machines on the market, you’ll need a chest belt transmitter as the hand pulse sensors just aren’t accurate enough (a trait shared by pretty much all home fitness equipment on the market)

Going from zero resistance to maximum resistance at level 32 took 9 seconds in our tests and back down to zero took 11 seconds. This makes the EB-2100 nice and responsive allowing for quick incremental changes. This great not just for interval training but also means that the target heart rate programmes respond quickly to your change heart rate providing a faster response to changes in your heart rate, helping you to stay in the correct zone at all times.

Like all the new machines in the DKN catalogue, the EB-2100 can connect to a host of different tablets and mobile smartphones via BlueTooth allowing it to connect and make use of some of the latest fitness apps out there to make your workouts just a little less dull 🙂

The console allows for 4 user profiles as standard. Setting up a user profile setting age, weight, height, sex provides more accurate feedback in terms of calorie expenditure which is always nice to see as it avoids having individual users to keep entering their data each time they want to work out.

With a monster 14kg flywheel and high-quality internal components, the EB-2100 provides a really smooth and really quiet workout. It’s clearly very robust and really does feel like it’s been designed to last a very long time. With a footprint of 138cm x 57cm this is not a small bike but it’s certainly well suited to a family environment with multiple users and has clearly been designed with heavy use in mind. The addition of a water bottle holder and additional accessory compartments on the front post is a nice feature as well.

At the current offer price of £549 the EB-2100 is exceptional value and is very serious competition for the more premium brands such as Life Fitness – this is a premium bike at a fraction of the cost. If it turns out to be as truly robust as it felt during our tests we’d say that it’s probably the best value for bike in the price range and is ideal if you are going to be putting your home equipment to serious, sustained and hard use.