TRUE Fitness UK: ADX Fan Bike and Rō Rower Reviewed (2026)

TRUE Fitness makes two of the most interesting commercial cardio machines you can buy in the UK right now: the ADX Fan Bike and the Rō Rower. If you know these machines under an older name, you are not wrong — Octane Fitness became a division of TRUE Fitness in 2020, and both names still turn up on spec sheets, quotes and retailer listings.

The short answer: both machines are genuine commercial-grade kit at £2,394 each, and because the price is identical the decision is purely about what you want the machine to do. Buy the ADX Fan Bike if you want maximum intensity with nothing to learn and nothing to plug in. Buy the Rō Rower if you want full-body, low-impact volume and a resistance level you can dial precisely for a mixed membership. If you came looking for a TRUE or Octane cross-trainer or elliptical, we don't carry those — our cross trainers are Star Trac, and we say where to look further down.

Is TRUE Fitness the same company as Octane Fitness?

They are the same company today. Octane Fitness's own About page states that Octane "operates as a division of TRUE Fitness, a global leader of premium fitness products for over 40 years," and that as part of the TRUE Fitness family it "continues to evolve." So a machine sold as a TRUE ADX and a machine sold as an Octane ADX are the same machine.

The transaction behind it is documented. Nautilus, Inc. announced the sale of Octane Fitness to TRUE Fitness Technology, Inc. on 14 October 2020 for $25.0 million, with TRUE additionally assuming $3 million in warranty liabilities and $0.5 million in vendor recourse lease obligations. Nautilus CEO Jim Barr framed it as a move to "streamline our operations and accelerate the transformation of the consumer side of our business" — in other words, Nautilus went domestic and connected, and the commercial cardio line went to TRUE.

One practical note from our side of the counter: our own product listings still carry Octane Fitness as the vendor while the machines are badged TRUE, which is exactly why UK buyers search both names and find half the picture each time. If you have a quote, a spec sheet or a service record under either name, it refers to the same range.

Which TRUE Fitness machines can you actually buy in the UK?

Three, and it is worth being specific rather than pointing you at a global catalogue you can't order from here.

All three carry the TRUE name on the frame. The two cardio machines come from the Octane side of the business, which TRUE acquired in 2020; the Stretch Cage comes from TRUE's wider strength and mobility line.

Kit for this: both cardio machines are the same price, so order on training goal, not budget — and if you're specifying a recovery or mobility zone at the same time, the Stretch Cage is the piece people actually walk up to and use.

TRUE ADX Fan Bike£2,394View product →TRUE Rō Rower£2,394View product →

ADX Fan Bike or Rō Rower — which should you buy?

Because they cost the same, this is a straight question about what the machine has to do on your floor.

The honest split: an air bike is the most brutally effective conditioning tool per pound of floor space, and it is also the machine members avoid. A rower gets used more often by more people, scales from a rehab client to an athlete on the same frame, and asks for technique coaching you may need to provide. A commercial floor generally wants both; a single-purchase home gym should pick the one matching how it will actually train.

We go deeper on the bike side in our guide to why the air bike is the hardest conditioning tool you can own, and on rowing in Concept2 UK: RowErg vs BikeErg vs SkiErg explained.

Is the TRUE ADX worth £1,234 more than a cheaper air bike?

Sometimes. Here is our actual air bike range, which is the clearest way to see what the money buys.

The difference is the fan and the frame, not the feature list. The ADX uses a 26-blade performance fan on a single-stage belt drive with solid steel cranks, so it moves more air at the same cadence — more watts and more work for the same pedal speed. On a floor where the bike is used by strangers, all day, every day, that construction is the whole argument.

For a home gym used by one or two people, a £1,160 air bike delivers most of the training effect. Be honest about which situation you're in before paying for commercial duty cycle you won't use.

Kit for this: if you're buying for a home gym rather than a membership floor, start at the Attack end of the range and put the difference into flooring — an air bike is heavy, static and hard on a bare garage slab.

Attack Fitness Air Attack£1,160View product →All air bikesFrom £1,160View range →

Is the Rō Rower worth £1,299 more than a Concept2 RowErg?

It depends entirely on whether you row to numbers. The Concept2 RowErg is £1,095 and is the benchmark for comparable data — every RowErg score in the world is measured the same way, which matters if you train to splits, test members, or compare against anyone outside your own gym.

What the Rō adds for the difference is the magnetic brake working alongside the fan, giving ten discrete resistance levels. That makes intensity repeatable and settable rather than purely effort-driven, which is what a studio wants when a beginner and an athlete use the same machine between classes. It also tilts upright to store, with a footprint built to clear a floor between sessions.

Put simply: a rower who trains to numbers usually wants the Concept2. A studio, hotel gym or mixed-ability facility usually wants the Rō.

Concept 2 RowERG£1,095View product →All rowing machinesFrom £1,095View range →

Does TRUE Fitness make a cross-trainer, and do you stock one?

Not one we stock — and we would rather say so than send you round in circles. The elliptical heritage in this range belongs to the Octane side of the business: founded in 2001 specifically to build the best elliptical machines in the world, pioneering SmartStride, MultiGrip and Converging Path handlebars, then inventing the recumbent elliptical category with the xRide in 2008 and the lateral-motion LateralX after it. That heritage is real, and it is why so many UK searches around this brand are actually searches for an elliptical.

What we stock from TRUE today is the ADX and the Rō. If you want a commercial cross trainer from us, the Star Trac 8 Series is the range to look at — the 8CT Cross Trainer at £3,795, the 8-RDE rear drive elliptical at £3,594, and the 8VS Versastrider at £5,259, with the 4CT at £2,681 as the entry point. We cover the range in our Star Trac UK review.

Star Trac 8CT Cross Trainer£3,795View product →All cross trainersFrom £2,681View range →

Will they fit, and what do you need to run them?

The ADX Fan Bike needs 140 × 66cm of floor and stands 135cm tall, and it needs no electrical supply at all — it is self-powered, so it goes where the floor plan wants it rather than where an outlet happens to be. For a garage or outbuilding with limited sockets, that is a bigger practical advantage than it sounds.

The Rō Rower is the one to measure carefully. It is 239cm long in use, which is the real constraint on every rower, and you need clearance behind it to get on and off safely. It tilts upright for storage at 236cm tall, so check ceiling height before assuming you can stand it in a corner — a standard UK ceiling at roughly 240cm leaves very little margin, and a garage with a beam or a low door header may leave none.

Both machines are rated to 160kg maximum user weight, so neither is the limiting factor on a commercial floor.

Are these actually commercial-grade machines?

Yes, and the distinction has a written standard behind it rather than just marketing. ISO 20957-1:2024, Stationary training equipment — Part 1: General safety requirements and test methods (third edition, November 2024) sets the classification framework separating equipment built for regulated training facilities — clubs, studios, schools, hotels, rehabilitation centres — from class H equipment intended for domestic use. Duty cycle, frame construction and component life are what the classes actually describe.

The warranty is the commercial tell in practice. Both the ADX and the Rō carry 5 years on the frame, 3 years on parts, 2 years on the console and 1 year labour — a structure that only makes commercial sense if the manufacturer expects the frame to outlive several consoles.

It matters because the floor is getting busier. Sport England's Active Lives Adult Survey for November 2024–25, published on 23 April 2026, recorded 15.3 million adults taking part in fitness activities, an increase of 921,000 on the previous year and more than 2 million higher than eight years ago. Equipment specified for domestic duty cycles does not survive that kind of traffic.

Frequently asked questions

Is TRUE Fitness the same as Octane Fitness? Yes. Octane Fitness operates as a division of TRUE Fitness, following Nautilus, Inc.'s sale of the brand to TRUE Fitness Technology on 14 October 2020 for $25.0 million. Machines in the current range carry TRUE branding, and Octane-era products remain supported under the TRUE Fitness family.

Why does the TRUE ADX Fan Bike sometimes appear as the Octane AirdyneX or ADX? Because the same machine has been listed under both the Octane and TRUE names since the 2020 acquisition, and retailer catalogues updated at different times. If a spec sheet or quote refers to an Octane ADX, it is the same bike as the TRUE ADX — same 26-blade fan, same self-powered design, same 160kg user rating.

Does the TRUE ADX Fan Bike need to be plugged in? No. It is self-powered, generating everything the console needs from the flywheel, which means no socket, no power supply and no firmware to fail. That is why air bikes tend to be the longest-lived machines on a commercial cardio floor, and why the ADX can be positioned anywhere in a room.

What's the difference between an air rower and the Rō's dual resistance? A pure air rower's resistance is set only by how hard you pull — a lighter rower simply gets less. The Rō adds a magnetic brake alongside the fan, giving ten fixed resistance levels, so the same machine can be set light for a beginner or rehab client and heavy for an athlete without either of them changing their stroke rate to get there.

How much space do I need for the TRUE Rō Rower? It is 239cm long and 61cm wide in use, plus clearance behind it to get on and off. It tilts upright for storage at 236cm tall, so check your ceiling height as well as your floor area — a standard UK room at around 240cm will take it, but a garage with a low header or a beam may not.

Which is better for weight loss, the fan bike or the rower? Neither has a decisive edge on calorie burn at matched effort — the one you will actually use several times a week wins. In practice the rower gets used more often because it is low-impact and full-body, while the fan bike produces harder sessions in less time for people who will genuinely push it.

Do you deliver and install TRUE cardio equipment across the UK? Both machines come with free UK delivery, arriving by courier for self-assembly, and we can arrange delivery with on-site assembly instead — ask when you order. For a facility order, tell us your access route and we'll confirm what's needed before the pallet leaves.

Pro Gym Essentials — premium home and commercial gym equipment, delivered across the UK. Prices verified 15 September 2026.