IS NORDICTRACK GOOD WITHOUT iFIT?
ABSOLUTELY, NordicTrack is good without iFit, but if you’re going to invest in a NordicTrack, you don’t want the experience to be good, you want the experience to be great. I’ve taken rides on other stationary bikes before and had limited or no ability to track the important metrics that would lead to weight loss or performance goals. Riding blindly in that manner makes it really hard to get where you want to physically or from a performance perspective. Getting a NordicTrack and not getting iFit is essentially the same thing.
By not getting iFit, you don’t get the ability to monitor all the relevant performance metrics that come with the iFit subscription. The community interactivity is lost as well, the resistance levels do not automatically change to match the intensity level of the instructor and you have to manually make these adjustments.
Reality is, you’re going to need to get a workout content library to fully maximize the potential of your NordicTrack stationary bike.
What are your options?
As crazy as it sounds, even though iFit is the native workout content library for the NordicTrack, you can do Peloton workouts on it as well.
CAN YOU DO PELOTON WORKOUTS ON NORDICTRACK?
It’s possible, sure, but you may be asking, why would someone want to do Peloton workouts on the NordicTrack, especially since you either have to mirror your device screen where the Peloton App is located to a television within viewing distance of your NordicTrack. Or you have to hack the device, which surely will break your warranty.
The difference between the Peloton App content library and the iFit App content library is that Peloton is focused primarily on instructor led in studio workouts. You can rest assured that whenever you hop on your bike there is either a live bike riding class taking place or one is about to start. Peloton does have some scenic bike rides, but it seems as if the instructor is simply riding the bike with the camera on it and just recording the ride as it takes place.
iFit on the other hand focuses on immaculately crafted cinematic masterpieces for their on location workout content. They do have some live classes and events, but the offerings are very limited.
So you may want to have Peloton installed on your NordicTrack, because you prefer having live instructor led courses as opposed to an assortment of location specific pre recorded content. Just know that if this is the route you are going to take, many of the major Peloton App functionalities are not available. You can’t track your metrics during your ride, the movement tracking and rep counting that’s a feature of the new Peloton IQ AI coaching system is not available and there really is no way to tell if you are keeping your resistance levels in line with what the instructor is actually calling out.
My recommendation as it relates to selecting a workout content library is to stick with the Native App, if you get a Peloton Bike, get the Peloton App, if you get the NordicTrack, get iFit. Doing that you get all the health metrics and leaderboard gamification features that the bike has to offer.
There is a lot more content about NordicTrack and iFit below, but if you want to learn a bit more about the physical Peloton bike, feel free to read this Peloton Bike: Full Length Review & Hidden Usability Advantages post.
IS IFIT AS GOOD AS PELOTON?
Clearly, it makes more sense to get the iFit Workout content library if you’re getting a NordicTrack, but are you going to have FOMO by not getting the Peloton App and is the iFit App even as good as the Peloton App?
The iFit App can definitely be considered as just as good as The Peloton App, but it’s really not an Apples to Apples comparison. Not only, as discussed previously, the main focus of one content library is in studio workouts, while the other content library focuses on location specific on demand content, but Peloton creates it’s content in house, while iFit is a software company that provides workout content to stationary bike, treadmill, rower and elliptical manufacturers.
Sticking with the native content library for the specific stationary bike that you purchase, which in this case is NordicTrack, is going to help you to be able to make a better assessment as to which bike is the best that the brand has to offer.
All the NordicTrack features that aren’t available if you combine a NordicTrack bike with the Peloton App are now available when NordicTrack uses its native workout library, iFit. This hardware software combination is going to allow you to be able to make a better assessment as to the best bike that the NordicTrack brand has to offer.
WHAT IS THE BEST NORDICTRACK?
The Tour De France Indoor Bike could be considered the best stationary bike that NordicTrack has to offer. The company goes to extreme lengths to make the bike feel like a road bike for a professional rider, it has:
- Drop handlebars
- Integrated shifters
- A flywheel that keeps spinning when you stop pedaling on flats and downhill for a real world feel
Most people aren’t training for the Tour De France or any other professional race for that matter, so spending the extra money for unnecessary features isn’t worth it.
For mere mortals that aren’t from Krypton and just looking to create a caloric deficit and lose weight, the best bike that NordicTrack has to offer is the X24.
First off, the bike can sustain a weight of 350lbs, which is awesome, most bikes don’t get anywhere near this weight capacity and that seems strange to me, since the purpose of a stationary bike is to help people lose weight.
From the perspective of the bike itself, it has a 20% incline to 10% decline feature that allows users to burn more calories than any other bike on the market.
Those two features alone make the NordicTrack X24 a great option, if you are looking to lose weight. The bike does come with a price tag of $1,999, so if price is a sticking point for you, it may be worth it to get the S22i, which is the earlier model in the NordicTrack incline series, as long as you can get it cheaper than the NordicTrack X24.
As crazy as it may sound, a lot of the places that sell the NordicTrack S22i sell it for the same price as the NordicTrack X24, which is the newer model. If you can’t find it cheaper, the S22i isn’t worth it and you may as well just get the X24.
Maybe you are still on the fence about whether or not NordicTrack is better than Peloton and if that’s the case, you have to ask yourself one question, Is the Peloton Bike Worth It After the Initial Excitement Fades?
Unlike the NordicTrack, there is no incline or decline feature and the studio workouts as much as the teachers try, are just that, studio workouts with no change in environment.
Whether you decide Peloton is better than NordicTrack or NordicTrack is better than Peloton, pick a stationary bike and start working on changing your life today.
