A decent little machine but some other imports are more appealing. Until you get to the T4 in the BH line, the treadmills really lack the features you expect from a treadmill priced at nearly $2k. Sole, Smooth, and Pacemaster outshine them at every turn in this range.
General Information
BladeZ was sold by DK Fitness to BH Fitness in the summer of 2007. DK is one of the largest manufacturers of treadmills in the world and has been around for over 30 years. They make some cool scooters that you may have seen in stores and have developed a number of different fitness machines. Although the BladeZ brand (now BH Fitness) is a relatively new name to the US market, DK has been producing treadmills for years for many of the name brand US manufacturers.
Quality / Philosophy
They put decent parts into a good package and they are putting more value in the machine on average. None of the designs are too fancy (save for the TV models).
Outlook
We expect BH to get lost in the shuffle in the US market this year. There are simply too many brands being offered and too few specialty dealers and many of those dealers are dying off. Dealers are now choosing lines that they once had to fight over and unless a brand can bring people in the door, many retailers simply do not want to fool with having to educate the public on a new brand. BH is being very aggressive in marketing to the dealers but this has a strong potential to come back to bite them and the consumers that end up as the proud owners of a BH machine.
