Kettler Golf P Eco Exercise Bike Review

The very first thing that you notice with this Kettler is the striking look with a polished black and white casing that promises quality even before going near the machine itself. Having tested several bikes from this top German brand, our expectations were high and we certainly weren’t disappointed!

There are so many things to mention about this exercise bike that it’s a little difficult knowing where to start! Let’s begin with with its name: The “Eco” in the name is a reference to the bike being self generating. This means that it doesn’t need to be plugged into the mains and that both the console and the resistance system are powered by the electricity generated by and stored from the pedalling action. Kettler claim that this helps to lower your carbon footprint! Whilst this may be very true, a more practical benefit is that this machine can be used anywhere in the home and there won’t be any unsightly mains leads looking untidy or being an accident waiting to happen.

As you’d expect from a mid-priced exercise bike, there is a decent sized flywheel (9 KG) and the bike itself feels very smooth indeed. The seat is both comfortable and adjustable in numerous ways ensuring that you’ll be able to find the perfect position. The pedals are of a good size and have adjustable straps. In addition to the seat position being adjustable, the handlebars are also adjustable and finally the console itself can have can be tilted to ensure the optimum contrast on the 2 displays. The design of the console has more resemblence to an expensive sports car than a traditional piece of fitness equipment!

The Kettler Golf P Eco exercise bike has 8 built-in programmes including 2 heart rate controlled ones. An impressive feature of the machine is that the background colour of the console display changes to indicate whether you are not working hard enough (blue backdrop), are within the target zone (green) or overstretching (red). The console displaye all key information on its screens throughout each session, but we found the colour changing (traffic light system) feature a novel and valuable one. Certainly, you’d never wish to see the red background colour as we found out the hard way! In addition, the Golf P Eco has a recovery test function and also provides the option of displaying metrics in imperial units or metric units (ie. miles rather than kilometers).

With the Kettler Golf P Eco, there are a number of different ways to monitor heart rate. The first is using the hand grip sensors (least accurate), the second is using an ear clip that comes with the machine as standard (medium accuracy) and finally there is an option extra cardio pulse set with a Polar receiver and chest belt (most accurate). Whilst few people in the fitness industry are big fans of the ear clip route of heart rate measurement, we actually quite liked it. The simple reason is that it’s quick and convenient: There is no need to to take your shirt off to put on a chest strap. You simply attach the piece to your ear lobe and plug the other end of the lead into the console. Then you’re ready to use the heart rate controlled programmes – something that you can normally only do using a chest belt.

The maximum user weight is a hefty 150 kgs (over 23.5 stones) and there is a full 3 year parts and labour warranty in the unlikely event of a problem. Finally, it’s worth mentioning that there are 4 independent leg levellers to guarantee that the machine will be stable on uneven floors.