Echelon Stride 50 RCX Review – The Smart-Money Pick of the Range?

Treadmill Review

The Echelon Stride 50 RCX is the smart-money pick of Echelon’s treadmill range. It shares the same 2.0 CHP brushless engine as the £1,499 RCX-22 but skips the built-in touchscreen, so you get a proper running treadmill that folds away for £999 and use your own phone or tablet with the Echelon Fit app. This review covers how it runs, the real cost of the membership, where it sits in the range and how it stacks up against rivals at the price.

By the HomeTreadmill team  |  Updated for 2026  |  Researched and compared, prices checked regularly

Who the Stride 50 RCX is for

This is the Echelon to buy if you actually want to run, not just walk, but you do not want to pay a premium for a built-in screen you may never use. The combination of a 2.0 CHP brushless motor (rated up to 3.0 HP at peak), a 12.5 mph (20 km/h) top speed and 15 levels of powered incline gives it the headroom for steady runs, intervals and hill sessions, while the deck still folds up between workouts. A high 150 kg (331 lb) user limit means it suits a wide range of people rather than just lighter, lighter-footed runners.

It makes most sense for someone who already owns a phone or tablet, is comfortable propping it on the console, and would rather put the £500 saved over the screen-equipped RCX-22 towards a membership, a pair of decent running shoes, or simply keep it in their pocket. If you mostly walk or jog gently and want to spend less, the Stride 30 Sport covers that brief for £499. If a large built-in display is genuinely important to you, the Stride 50 RCX-22 is mechanically this exact machine with a 22-inch touchscreen added.

Motor and running feel

The 2.0 CHP brushless motor is the part that earns the RCX its place at the top of the range for value. Continuous horsepower, the figure Echelon quotes here, is the rating that matters for sustained running, because it describes the power the motor can hold rather than a brief peak. In practice that means the belt keeps a steady pace under a running load without the laboured, surging feel you get from underpowered budget machines when you push the speed up.

Brushless motors also tend to run quieter and cooler than the brushed units common at this price, which helps if you train early in the morning or in a room near sleeping children. We would not call any treadmill silent, you will still hear footfall and belt noise, but the motor itself is not the loudest thing in the room.

The 12.5 mph ceiling is more than most home runners will ever need; it covers comfortable tempo running and short faster efforts, and only genuine speed-interval runners chasing sub-four-minute-kilometre paces will find it limiting. For the overwhelming majority of buyers, this is plenty of treadmill.

Deck, cushioning and incline

The running surface measures 55 by 145 cm (22 by 57 inches), which is a full 22-inch belt width, the same as many commercial gym treadmills, so you are not running on a narrow strip. That width matters more than people expect: it gives you margin for a natural arm swing and the occasional off-centre footfall without feeling like you are about to clip the side rails.

Underneath sits a six-piece elastic cushioning system that takes a useful edge off the impact through the knees and hips. It is firmer than a sprung gym deck but noticeably more forgiving than running on pavement, which is the point of training indoors in the first place.

Fifteen levels of powered incline are where a lot of the real training value lives. Incline lets you raise intensity and recruit different muscles without increasing speed, so you can get a hard session in a small space and at a joint-friendly pace. It also opens up popular structured workouts that lean on gradient rather than pace.

Folding, footprint and moving it

In use the RCX takes up roughly 182 by 89 cm on the floor (around 72 by 35 inches), so you want to allow for that plus clear run-off space behind it. When you are done, the deck folds up and the footprint shrinks, with the folded height coming down to about 106.5 cm. This is an upright fold, the deck lifts towards vertical, rather than the near-flat fold of the auto-folding 6s, so it tucks into a corner well but will not slide under a low bed.

Transport wheels are built in, and at 120 kg the machine is sturdy rather than featherweight, so moving it across a room is manageable on a hard floor but a two-person job up or down stairs. If you have a dedicated space, none of this matters; if the treadmill has to share a living room and be moved daily, factor the weight in.

Screen, app and the real cost of membership

The RCX deliberately leaves out a built-in touchscreen. Instead it has a clear LED metrics display for your speed, time, incline, distance, pulse and calories, and you prop your own phone or tablet on the console to run the Echelon Fit app, which also syncs with Strava, Apple Health and Fitbit. For offline days there are 11 onboard programmes built in.

This is the single biggest thing to understand before buying any Echelon. Echelon Premier costs £29.99 a month or £299.90 a year (around £25 a month) in the UK, and a 45-day free trial is included with the machine. Membership is not required to run: you can set speed and incline manually and use the onboard programmes without paying a penny. There is also a useful warranty wrinkle, members who keep a continuous Premier subscription from the date of purchase get an extra four years of cover on top of the standard one year, so five years in total.

On a £999 machine, that recurring cost is worth weighing carefully: a year of Premier is roughly a third of the purchase price again, so over three or four years the subscription can quietly cost more than the treadmill did. The flip side is that the RCX is the model that makes opting out easiest, because you were always going to supply your own screen, so dropping the membership simply means running manually with your own music or a free app, with nothing built-in going to waste.

Build quality and warranty

Echelon backs the Stride 50 RCX with a one-year warranty for home use as standard. As covered above, keeping a continuous Premier membership stretches that to five years, which is a meaningful sweetener if you were going to subscribe anyway, and a reason to read the small print if you were not.

The frame feels solid for the money, helped by the 150 kg user rating, and the 2.5-inch front and 2-inch rear rollers are a reasonable size for smooth belt tracking. As with any treadmill, longevity comes down to keeping the belt clean and correctly tensioned and not skipping the occasional lubrication; treat it well and there is no obvious weak point at this price.

Assembly and getting started

Expect a part-assembled delivery: the main frame and deck arrive built, and you attach the uprights, console and a few covers with the supplied tools. Most people manage it solo in under an hour, though manoeuvring the boxed machine into position is easier with a second pair of hands given the weight.

Activating the 45-day Premier trial is a separate step done through Echelon rather than the retailer, so keep your proof of purchase to hand. Once the app is paired over Bluetooth you are ready to go; if you would rather not bother with the connected side at all, the machine runs manually straight out of the box.

How it compares

At £999 the RCX sits among the strongest folding runners in the mid-market. The Reebok GT40z is cheaper but a clear step down on motor and is aimed more at walkers, so it is the pick only if budget is tight and pace is gentle. The NordicTrack T Series 5 bundles a built-in touchscreen at a lower price, but on a smaller deck and with iFIT’s own subscription to weigh up.

The British-made JTX Sprint 7 is the obvious rival for buyers who do not care about connected classes and just want a robust running deck, while the iFIT-based ProForm Sport competes on price with a screen-led experience. See them side by side in our best folding treadmills and best treadmill under £1,000 guides, and read up on the rest of the Echelon range if you are torn between models.

Who should skip it

Skip the RCX if a large built-in screen is non-negotiable, in which case the RCX-22 or a NordicTrack with iFIT will suit you better. Skip it too if you need the flattest possible fold for under-bed storage, the auto-folding Stride 6s is the model for that, or if you are a dedicated speed-interval runner who will regularly use the very top of the speed range, where a commercial-grade machine like the 9s Pro earns its keep.

For everyone else, the value case is hard to argue with.

Full specifications

Frequently asked questions

The verdict

The Stride 50 RCX is the Echelon we would point most buyers to first. It puts the money where it matters, a continuous-rated motor, real incline, a full-width folding deck and a high 150 kg limit, and saves it where it does not, by letting you use the screen you already own. The membership is a genuine ongoing cost to plan for, but this is the model that makes opting out painless. If you want to run at home, want the option to fold the machine away, and are happy to supply your own device, it is the best-value treadmill in the range.

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