Gear · 2016
ElliptiGO 8C review: cross-training for an injured runner that isn't miserable
The machine everyone points at on the bike path, tested properly rather than for an hour.
Most runners meet the ElliptiGO the same way: something goes past on a bike path, standing upright, pedalling an elliptical motion, and the group has opinions about it within about four seconds. This review started from exactly that position and ended somewhere else.
Why bother
A persistent calf injury had taken the reviewer out of racing and out of most of the outdoors. The requirement was something that would load the cardiovascular system and the legs hard, without loading the calf, and without being so tedious that it would not actually get done. Stationary machines fail the last test comprehensively.
The manufacturer’s standard trial is an hour at a local bike shop. The reviewer declined that as inadequate for a real assessment and arranged an extended loan instead, delivered by a rep who is in his fifties, runs, cycles, and had completed the California Death Ride on one of these — which is its own kind of product endorsement.
The machine
The 8C weighs about fifty pounds. Setup for a 6‘2” rider was a few adjustments to the handlebar neck. From the waist down the motion is close to a gym elliptical: foot pads run up and down a track, bars from the pads turn the crank, the chain drives the rear wheel.
Balance was not an issue from the start. Tight U-turns were, and needed practice.
What it’s like
The two things the review keeps returning to:
It is genuinely fun. Not “good for you” fun — actually fun. That matters more than it sounds, because injury cross-training fails on adherence far more often than on physiology.
The position is strange and excellent. You stand upright in something close to a running posture, which on a tall rider puts your head around seven feet up, moving at speed. There is nothing else that feels like it.
The workout
Hard, and specific. The review’s verdict is that it taxes the cardiovascular system and the legs properly rather than acting as gentle recovery. For a runner used to measuring effort in miles, the calibration takes a few sessions.
Who it’s for
Injured runners who need real intensity without impact, and anyone whose training has run aground on the tedium of the alternatives. The price puts it in the same conversation as a decent road bike, which is the fair comparison — and a bike does not keep you in a running position.
The unit was provided on loan for the review period.