My Review: Folding Floor Bike

When I was able to increase my steps as my leg therapy progressed, I always felt really good about the days I could reach my personal goal of 7000 steps.  As someone who works from home, it's shocking to see how little you can actually move throughout the day even including your workout if you're counting steps.  When I was finally able to combine cycling and walking to hit that "magic number" of 10,000 steps, I was quite happy though completely beat foot wise as the fascia is the slowest to heal.  (We know there's no magic behind that as studies have shown 7-8k steps are just as effective but coming from a woman who barely got in 1000 per day, 10,000 indeed seems magical.)  

Unfortunately, I couldn't always do that taking actual steps due to the foot pain I'm still dealing with.  I would try to squeeze that number in by using my floor bike that is stable and comfy.  The only problem was I couldn't lug that thing on vacation.  I wanted to try to get the majority of my steps on vacation by walking but knew I wasn't in control of that based on how my feet felt hourly (like crap) and thought I'd roll the dice on a folding bike.

I got this model as it was the highest rated and affordable.  It did scare me a bit that there was a stability strap included for strapping it to a table or chair leg and people did complain about it being unstable.  I tried it out before we left so I would know how bad it potentially was and if I needed to return it or not.  Honestly, once I got a rhythm going, it stayed stable for me as long as I was on a carpeted surface.  (I don't think this would work well at all on wood floors and honestly would put rubber feet on the bottom before I'd ever consider it.)  I folded it up and miraculously it fit in my carry on which basically serves as my traveling PT office now which my chiro tells me is a lot more common than I think.  

I was quite happy that it folded down pretty small.

It was able to comfortably fit into my carry on...

...with room for other necessities as well.

When we got to the first rental, they had wood floors everywhere so I grabbed one of the bathmats with a rubber backing and sat on the couch and used it there.  I didn't have an issue at all other than the nights I might still have 4k more steps to go.  How do I accurately track those?  A little searching confirmed wearing my watch around the ankle gives a more accurate step count than the previous method of resting my watch hand on my knee the entire time which got real old, real quick. 

My solution?  I would tuck the watch into the front of my sock and wait to make sure my heart rate was registering and then start pedaling!

(Yep...nerd)

I know, seems janky but it works especially given you're going to be sitting in the same spot so you won't lose the watch.  I have never had it come out of the sock ever.  It was much easier the nights I maybe had 1-2k more steps to reach because I could still be in my jeans and watching the tube to wind down the night.  

I will say I couldn't tell you the first thing about the screen on the bike.  I've seen other people complain about it so I never relied on it.  The numbers always seem radically off so it feels worthless to me and if you have a fitness watch, you're probably not going to use it either.  

Overall, for the purposes I needed this for which was to be highly portable and stable enough to squeeze out "steps" on days I was falling short of my 10k goal, this was perfect.  I have gunboat feet (11 wide) and I was able to wear my barefoot shoes with them when adjusted to the largest setting on the pedal strap.  

When I did it actually barefoot, it did make my foot fascia tight and sore the next day so remember that if you have flat feet like me.  I would say on a 16 night vacation, I put it to use just over half of the time since the rest of the time I got actual steps.  I feel like I put it through it's paces and I'm so glad I can fold it in my carry on and still have room for my foam roller, lymphatic tool we use to dig out knots, various balls of the spiky and smooth variety, deep muscle tool and even fit our travel mugs in there!  I am the packing queen so that made me very happy! 

I would highly recommend this lil bugger if you're still wanting to get in some exercise and steps as you travel.  It's also a great way to cheaply see if that will work as a no impact option if you're babying a fussy body for one reason or another.  (With your doctor's okay, of course!)    It's also a cheap way to dip your toe into this method if you want to see if it's something you want to add to your chill time at night.  It folds up small enough to tuck under a couch, between furniture or pack up in a small bag to travel with.  It sure as heck eliminates any excuses.  🙄

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