8 years on, I'm looking forward to a test ride on an ElliptiGO next week, and showed up here because I mistakenly thought there'd be serious discussion of pros/cons. Instead I find a bunch of running neckbeards behaving like d1cks and, inexplicably, worried about looking like dorks.
I've been running for 40 years, used to work with the running press, and in general I've found runners to be the best of amateur athletes. Smartest, nicest, most civic-minded, least given to misogyny, homophobia, racism, all the rest of the bigotry, least given to pissing on other athletes, and least given to caring about looking like the dorks we all are. And I've been surprised lately at some of the behavior I've seen online in running fora, especially from other women, and wondered where this was coming from. I think I found it.
Fwiw, it's pretty plain to me that ElliptiGO isn't meant for commuting -- you need only look at the frame. It's less a bike than a very long, bulky, elliptical/chain-powered scooter. Has nothing to do with how bike lanes and streets are built, doesn't look like it'd be nimble in traffic (maybe I'll be surprised), and if you're old/injured enough to be choosing this to stretch out your running days, you probably don't want to be riding it on a significant downhill -- the mass is real. The advertised top speeds are not, to my mind, an advantage -- too fast. It's built for running replication, not transportation, and the ideal territory for these looks to be a long, long well-maintained paved rails-to-trails path. However, if you're looking to prolong your running life, it looks like just the thing. If you don't live along a good trail system that's not crowded, you'll probably be driving your ElliptiGO to get to one -- but then you'd probably be driving to the gym, too. It knocks some of the shine off of running, because one of the best features of running is that you can do it anywhere, but at some point you make your tradeoffs. I'm a little concerned about wooded trails -- I can see small sticks getting kicked up by the front wheel and catching in the mechanism, they wouldn't have to go far -- but we'll see how it goes.
There's a university study on ElliptiGO's site with a good rigorous comparison of running, biking, and ElliptiGO-ing, and the machine comes out remarkably well. Across a range of measures, replicates running well, which is pretty amazing. If you're looking to simulate your sub-5 or even sub-6 pace over long stretches, you probably need to ride faster outdoors than is safe (and need a lot of road); otoh, if you're a normal adult distance runner with a mid-30s pace somewhere between 8 and 9 min/mi, you should be fine, and can probably get by with a training trail as short as 5 or 6 mi - do some laps, go home. I don't know how well you can simulate a fast pace indoors, either, because much of that simulation at fast paces seems to depend on wind resistance from the upright stance. But few of us will need to care about that.
It is expensive. Otoh, it's way less expensive than the Octane Zero Runner or Cybex is and looks hardier and like better running replication, you can use it outdoors, the customer service is spectacular, and you're probably going to have it for a long time. Even if you reach a point where speed/balancewise it's just not a good idea for you anymore, you can put it up on a trainer and continue to "run" indoors. I paid more, inflation-adjusted, for my treadmill 20 years ago, and I still use it near-daily. If you're given to throwing money at fitness toys and think in terms of "entry level" and trading up, working unsustainably like that, maybe this is not for you. But if you buy things with an eye to permanence, it's looking pretty good. Basically at this point the only thing that'd put me off buying is a bad test ride.
