Fiit X Assault Fitness AssaultBike Pro Review

Fiit is a connected fitness company on a mission to make exercise a habit for everybody. Based in east London, the company was founded in 2017 by three friends, two of them former Google employees, who recognised the potential of uniting smart fitness tech with in-demand fitness influencers. By 2020 the start-up had become established as one of the UK’s highest-rated fitness apps and one of our best workout apps – then the pandemic supercharged its growth. 

Now the company is aiming to conquer the connected fitness category and has established a transatlantic partnership with equipment specialist Assault Fitness, renowned for building some of the most respected cardio kit in the business. This has allowed Fiit to offer its community a connected workout experience on the American brand’s sector-leading air bike, which is affectionately known in the trade as “the devil’s tricycle”. Here, we put Fiit and Assault Fitness’s debut air bike partnership to a two-month test to see if it can be classed among the best air bikes for your home gym.

The Set-Up

First, a confession. Long before I heard Fiit was rolling out air bike workouts, I was already a convert, having relied on its library of strength, cardio and rebalance classes (which include yoga, Pilates and breathwork) to get me through winter lockdowns.

I was intrigued to see how the home workout model could be adapted for cardio kit, yet sceptical that an air bike could be seamlessly integrated into the typical home set-up. Once the bike had arrived at my door, and I’d managed to manoeuvre it into position in my sitting room and hopped on for a test spin, those doubts were somewhat confirmed.

For starters, it's noisy. Like a helicopter-taking-off-in-my-living-room noisy. The harder you pedal, push and pull, the more noise its large fan generates. Of course, that’s the idea, to make you work harder with each revolution, and why the apparatus has earned cult status among the functional fitness scene. But designed for optimal feng shui it is not. Rather, the device was built for the gym floor. 

The AssaultBike Pro, which is the company’s mid-range model, is a rock-solid machine with a 54kg frame, a silky-smooth drive train, an LCD screen and Bluetooth compatibility. It retails at $899 in the US; in the UK it costs £949.99, but via Fiit you can get hold of the bike with free delivery to mainland Great Britain, a 30-day free membership to the app and Fiit heart rate tracker for £1,099. 

It’s customary to compare such bikes with the market leader Peloton, from which a bike and one-month membership package starts at £1,345 plus a £30 monthly subscription. Fiit’s basic package doesn’t cover home installation – that’ll cost another £300 – but includes a pair of hex dumbbells and a Fiit workout mat.

The air bike typically arrives packaged up with assembly instructions but my bike came pre-assembled, so all I needed to do was adjust the seat height using the app’s handy explainers, then get cracking. 

The Experience

To put Fiit’s air bike classes to the test I tackled a month-long programme dubbed Airbike Academy. Described as “an education on athleticism”, the plan combines sprint training with metabolic and aerobic conditioning, split between five classes per week for four weeks.

Week one begins with a 10-minute “compete” class combining all-out sprints on the bike with combinations of half and full burpees. Syncing the app to my heart rate monitor and the bike’s internal computer, I’m able to track my calories burned and reps earned for an overall score. This will establish a benchmark of my general fitness.  

After a warm-up and pep talk from Gede Foster, Fiit’s head of fitness, we dive into the workout, and it’s an impressively slick production. High-tempo house music ebbs and flows with each interval, while a vibrant light show unfolding in the background helps distract from the lactic acid flooding my quads with every revolution.

Cranking up for the final push, Gede bellows “30 seconds of pain, a lifetime of fame” as she accelerates to the finish line, urging me to keep pace. Lungs searing, chest pounding, I survive the final onslaught and earn a final score of 66 points. A brief warm-down concludes the class, and I’m then shown my workout metrics, including average RPM, average BPM, and my lowly position on the overall leaderboard. 

The rest of week one comprises a 25-minute “sprint” class with Sean, an ominous-sounding 40-minute “endure” workout with Gus, an equally concerning 40-minute “metcon” blast with Luke and a rather more inviting 25-minute yin yoga recovery session with Lina. 

While 40 minutes sounds about par for an in-person workout class, it feels like a lifetime when exercising at home. I’m used to grabbing 25 minutes before breakfast or during my lunch break, so that perhaps explains why I skip the 40-minute sessions altogether and have to play catch up in week two. 

When I eventually tackle said classes, I notice a discernible ratcheting up of intensity in the air bike studio compared with the workouts I’d done previously. Sean Kazab, usually the charming boy-next-door type, adopts a gritted-teeth, jaw-clenched, take-no-prisoners persona when the air bike is involved. 

Luke Baden, another of Fiit’s trainers, manages to have me in stitches while inflicting me with a side stitch in one breathless 40-minute class, dropping entertaining soundbites throughout like “mobilise then terrorise”, “welcome to the pain cave” and – my personal favourite – “time to ride it like you stole it”. 

At the end of one punishing metcon class, Brazilian trainer Gus Vaz Tostes declares: “Heart pounding, legs burning, there’s no better feeling.” While our world view might differ slightly, his enthusiasm, as with all of Fiit’s coaches, is infectious. 

That class, alternating 90-second bouts on the bike with a gruelling full-body dumbbell complex, epitomises how Fiit is throwing down the gauntlet to the rest of the connected fitness competition. 

“The human body creates energy in one of three ways,” Luke tells me later, explaining the theory behind Fiit’s air bike workouts. “Most fitness content only targets the anaerobic energy system associated with HIIT training and/or the aerobic energy system. If you only work one, no matter how much you improve you’ll only be tapping into a third of the benefits.”

Fiit’s air bike workouts, by contrast, tick all the boxes, he says. “Endure classes will help you become more aerobically fit. Sprint classes will lead to increased strength and power. Metcon classes will deliver a sky-high calorie burn and, if done properly, increase your metabolism after class.” 

The Verdict

Luke’s theory stacks up on paper, but will it in reality? The final class to end my air bike schooling is a repeat of the original 10-minute compete class with Gede. This time I score 73 points, an improvement of seven, placing me 18th on the overall leaderboard (“Ryan R” holds pole position with 127).

After four weeks my aptitude on the bike has improved, and having a tangible target to beat no doubt helped me dig a little deeper. But, in truth, I only managed to complete half of the plan’s 20 classes, typically shying away from the 40-minute workouts for fear of disturbing my wife (or neighbours) with the Air Bike’s deafening din. 

To rectify that issue, I tracked down an Assault Fitness Air Bike at my local Fitness First for what Luke would describe as an “anaerobic threshold monster” of a metcon class. Initially, the transition from home to gym was seamless, but then the studio’s Wi-Fi kept dropping out mid-class, freezing me deep inside the hurt locker until Luke came back to life.

Teething problems aside, using Fiit on the gym floor gave my session far more purpose and direction, armed with all the weights, space and options you’d be hard pressed to find at home.

Crucially, it also demonstrated why the UK’s number one fitness app is so well equipped for the predicted hybrid future of fitness, capable of blending traditional in-gym workouts with effective, engaging and entertaining classes at home.  

Since I started reviewing the air bike classes, Fiit has added treadmill workouts to the app, again in conjunction with Assault Fitness, and rowing workouts are expected to be available soon. 

The company hopes this ecosystem of connected cardio devices will set it apart as the functional fitness brand of choice, and help carve out a niche apart from the Pelotons, Mirrors and Tonals of the home workout category. 

Personally, however, I’d rather stick with Fiit’s excellent on-demand strength, cardio and rebalance classes at home, save the air bike workouts for the gym where the kit really belongs and truly comes into its own, and reclaim the serenity of my living room. I imagine my wife (and the family next door) would agree. 

Buy from Fiit | From £1,099 + £7.99/month membership (first 30 days are free)