Excellent, Solid Recumbent Bike
I got this bike after much research, needing to replace the ******** I had for 12 years and which was just worn out. The negative reviews in the past couple of years for the ******** bikes convinced me that ******** was doing the corporate cost-containment thing and going cheap with their quality, and I can't afford to spend money on stuff that breaks down.
This bike arrived when promised. The carton was a bit beat up, but everything was there and there was no damage to the parts. Careful when assembling this bike - the parts list shows many nuts, washers, and bolts which are already attached to the bike, which I didn't spot; so I thought a couple bags of parts were missing from the box until customer service told me they would be attached to the bike already. Assembly took 90 easy minutes, and everything went well.
The bike is solid and utilitarian - it has good resistance, smooth operation, noticeable changes in the 24 levels of resistance (once you get past the first 4 or 5 levels, which all seemed to offer the same low level of resistance). The biggest surprise was the pulse monitor - this one is actually accurate. I am skeptical of heart rate monitors on exercise equipment, as they seem to have such wild ranges; but the SB2.5 was dialed in right at the same pulse rate that my 'thumb' monitor showed. And, it does have the connection for a chest strap monitor if you want to buy one of those.
After a couple days of use, I had to re-tighten the frame bolts securing the front and back frames, as they had worked loose. If that continues, I'll just replace the bolts with longer ones that are secured by lock nuts. The electronics worked fine, even though there is an anomaly in connecting the readout wire harness with the base harness. One pair of wires is brown-yellow; the other connecting pair of wires is brown - brown/white; so it is a bit of a guess as to how to connect them. I was fortunate in that I guessed right the first time. If you guess wrong in connecting this basic wiring harness, you'll just have to remove a few bolts holding the display on, and change the connection.
This bike has more of a recumbent position than my nautilus, which I like. It's very easy to reach 140 heart rate, and the display shows all measurements at once - speed, calories, distance, time, pulse. resistance level. I don't use the programs - just set it on manual, and increase the resistance levels at different intervals. This bike seems to be a good, functional, solid recumbent bike.
