Reebok Titanium TC3.0 Exercise Bike Review

As one of the best known brands in the cardiovascular equipment market, Reebok Fitness have built a strong reputation for providing good value machines at the entry level. Now, Reebok Fitness have set their sights at the upper mid to premium side of the market with the launch of their Titanium range of equipment. To find out more, we’ve got our hands on the top of the range exercise bike in the range: The Titanium TC3.0!

Like most home fitness equipment, the first workout comes from assembling the machine! Thankfully, the TC3.0 is fairly straight forward to put together with the main unit with the flywheel being one piece and the nuts, washers and bolts being clearly labelled to avoid confusion.

Once assembled, one can really admire the elegant design of the machine. Reebok Fitness really do have the knack for producing stylish looking machines! Once we finished admiring our handiwork, it was time to see if the TC3.0 worked as well as it looked….

As you’d expect from all machines at this sort of price point, the seat is adjustable for both height and reach, meaning that pretty much all potential users will find an appropriate riding position pretty easily. We’re pleased to see a nice, big, gel padded seat on the TC3.0 which ensured your reviewer didn’t finish the testing suffering from saddle sore 🙂

Once positioned, we were raring to go and initially gave it a quick spin using the quick start mode to get straight to the pedalling action. Reebok’s investment in a fairly heavyweight 11 kg flywheel certainly pays dividends when using this bike as it feels nice and smooth. Resistance can be adjusted easily using the sleek rotating dial on the console (which also has quite a nice feel of quality about it).

After a few minutes, the realisation came that this is no ordinary exercise bike with fixed resistance levels, but a true ergometer. The reason we think this is that on most exercise bikes, you have a fixed number of resistance levels (typically 16 to 32), but on the TC3.0 adjusting the resistance actually changes the target WATT rate. Watts (same measure as used in lightbulbs!) are a measure of the level of power generated and it’s a straight function of the resistance level and the pedalling speed. The TC3.0 allows the target level to be set between zero and 400 watts, in 5W increments and subsequently offers 80 individual levels of difficulty! You should keep in mind, however, that the pedalling speed is also a factor: So, for example, if you’ve got the setting at 200W and are pedalling at 30 rpm and then start pedalling twice as fast (60 rpm), there’ll be half as much resistance. Being so used to standard resistance levels of other bikes, this took us a bit of a getting used to… One last thing on the resistance: we can confirm that even the fittest users will be able to get a challenging workout out of the TC3.0, as keeping up at 400W level for more than a few minutes is seriously hard work!!

When not going through the quick start route, you can make full use of the rather feature rich console. We’re pleased to see user profile functionality which allow up to 5 separate users to store their gender, age, weight and height and this data is used both for more accurate calorie consumption estimates as well as working out personalised target heart rate zones.

The display on the console is a decent size, backlit and logically organised. Dedicated segments of the display provide all the important exercise feedback and pretty much everything is accessible by just using the shiny rotating dial (called an “i-Drive knob” in Reebok speak). In addition to the manual mode (with which target time, distance or calories can be set), there are 12 pre-set programmes (each can be used for different duration and difficulty level), user defined programmes, heart rate control ones (very pleased to see these and a wireless heart rate receiver built-in) and for those that like a surprise, there’s even a random programme which generates different course profiles on each use! Interestingly, there’s a fitness test programme which has you exercising for 8 minutes either holding the pulse grip sensors, or wearing an optional wireless chest strap transmitter (far better and more accurate) and at the end of the test, the TC3.0 provides a fitness rating between 1 and 5.

The warranty on the Reebok TC3.0 bike is the standard 2 years parts and labour warranty offered across all the products in their ranges. However, the lack of an increased warranty on the Titanium product isn’t really reflective of the visible difference in the build quality of this bike in comparison to Reebok’s previous ‘Z’ / ‘ZR’ range of exercise bikes. The TC3.0 is clearly coming from a different, better quality factory!

Best Price

The Reebok Titanium TC3.0 is not currently available from any retailers we're aware of in the UK.
It may be worth looking for a used machine on ebay

Review Summary - In Brief

The Reebok TC3.0 is a high specification exercise bike with the distinctive design accents of Reebok in its looks. It's a decent bike, but at this sort of price point, the competition is tough and that 'always in watt mode' resistance system stands out but for the wrong reasons. You set the watt target and the resistance increases or decreases based on pedalling speed which does work but feels strange. This upshot is that if you put the TC.30 in a room on its own, it stands on its own merit as a pretty good bike.

Reebok Titanium TC3.0 Specifications

    • 11kg (24 lbs) Flywheel
    • 25-400 Watt, 75 Levels of Resistance
    • 20 Console Programs (12 pre-set, manual, target time, target distance, target calories, Watts control, heart rate control, fitness test, random, target zone) + 5 User Profiles
    • User Profile Memory
    • Heart Rate Control
    • Feedback: Speed, Time, Distance, Calories, Pulse, Watts, RPM
    • Hand Pulse Sensors & Wireless Pulse Receiver (optional chest strap)
    • 7” LCD Display Screen
    • i-Drive Console System
    • MP3 Input With Built-In Speaker System, Compatible with Apple/Android, iPad connectivity
    • Extras: Ergonomic Seat Design with vertical and horizontal adjustment,  Bottle holder, Self-leveling pedals,
    • Max User Weight: 145kg (319.7 lbs)
    • Dimensions: 111cm (43.7”) x 55cm (21.6”) x 142cm (55.9”)

Reebok Titanium TC3.0 Exercise Bike - Console / Display Unit

Reebok Fitness TC3.0 Exercise Bike Console

Reebok Titanium TC3.0 Exercise Bike - User Reviews

The Pros

  • Very comfortable seat
  • Easy to use console
  • Smooth pedalling action

The Cons

  • Resistance mechanism takes some getting used to
Reebok Titanium TC3.0 Exercise Bike Reviewer Ratings

 

Appearance - 8
Smoothness - 8.5
Comfort - 9
Programmes - 6
Ease Of Use - 7
Warranty - 7.5
Value for Money - 5
Best Price

The Reebok Titanium TC3.0 is not currently available from any retailers we're aware of in the UK.
It may be worth looking for a used machine on ebay

Also see our Exercise Bike Comparison Table

Whilst every effort is made to give you accurate information we cannot guarantee the technical specification. Models change on a regular basis and may differ slightly from the above review. We recommend you contact the retailer if you have a question regarding technical data. Please read our Legal Disclaimer

Exercise Bikes We Like

Under £300

£301 - £600

Over £600

Recently Added Reviews