Exercise Bikes - Upright, Recumbent Bikes for Home Fitness, Indoor Gym Equipment, Seat Cushion, Touch Screen/LCD Display Options, Sole Fitness Models SB900, SB1200, LCB, LCR, R92, B94

After a bit of setback (company delivered a rower instead of a bike, had to have the product exchanged) and some hassle in delivery (delivery company doesn't take the equipment to your apartment they drop the 150 pound box at the building door), finally the bike is here, and it works much better than the Schwinn bike I had before for 9 years. The Schwinn bike broke every 3 years, but this bike looks sturdy; the ride is also much smoother. It is easy to assemble but you have to be two of you to assemble it.

I have had the bike now for 6 months. There is rarely a day that goes by that at least one of us is not on the bike. Typical ride is 45 minutes. We are also avid outdoor road cyclists. Where we live, traffic makes riding outside after work dangerous, so this has been a GREAT option. Previously we used an old road bike on a trainer. I simply quit using it because it took too long to change the bike - I am 5'9" and my wife is 5'3". I am glad to be able to cycle daily again.Surprisingly there are numerous mediocre and poor reviews. Primarily they center on: lack of usefulness of the resistance knob. Some complain it does not work. Neither did mine. In shipping, the wire between the magnet and the tension knob may come apart. Simply remove the bodywork and place the wire back in the receiver. It takes about 5 minutes to remove the body work and 10 seconds to fix the wire. I called Sole and they stayed on the phone while I did this. That was the only problem. The other complaints were about how far you had to turn the knob to notice an increase in resistance. That is true and I think its a benefit. It takes about 10 full turns to go from ridiculously easy to Col de Tourmalet hard. Plenty of settings in between. NOT like a cheap, noisy spin bike with only a few settings... One said it was too heavy. Why didn't you read the specs before you bought it? The heavy flywheel also makes it durable, quiet, efficient, and have a great range. You're probably never going to move it anyway. If you need something that goes in and out of a closet - this is not for you. Some said it was a lengthy process to reset the monitor. I guess if you call pressing the right button while the unit sits on total time for 3 seconds lengthy...This is a great piece of equipment and was nearly half the price of the Keiser - the only other I would consider after MUCH research. I expect this to be more heirloom than disposable. There really aren't many things made like this anymore.CONS: Not a portable machine - it needs a permanent home. The monitor unit could be more robust, but if you're serious, you probably already have some Garmin device you are going to use anyway.PROS: Should be able to leave this in your will to someone. Virtually maintenance free. Extremely quiet. You really won't need to raise the volume on your TV while you watch the Tour de France on your DVR. Incredible range of resistance adjustment. Ability to pedal backwards with resistance (like on an elliptical) and exercise different muscles. You change out the pedals and seat just like on your outside bike easily. And the best of all - it takes about 20 seconds to make 4 adjustment to go from my wife to me (there are marks on the sliding elements, but we highlighted them in permanent marker for old eyes)I would give it a 6, but 5 is as high as it goes

PROS:-Pretty quiet-Service guy gave nice suggestion on extending longevity of resistance pad-No cords-Rack to put your remote control/book/water bottle on-Real resistance. A technical fault isn't going to end this bike.-Sole Fitness customer service knocked it out of the park. (see below)CONS:-HEAVIER than my mom after a Golden Corral visit. Seriously, if you plan to move this in front of your TV 4 days a week, even though this is a bike only, you won't be skipping arm day. It has wheels on the front to help, but I'm 5'10" and not weak, and this thing takes it out of me. Luckily I'm not short on space, so it's fine where it lives.-You'll have to replace the resistance pad from time to time. I was told by service that life expectancy could be a year, to 5 years if you coat it with spray.-Tiny 2-button screen that doesn't tell you much more than your watch does ). You can buy an add-on to track your heart rate, but considering there are a multitude of great wearable tech that do this (and a fresh burst in smart watches that will only get better!) I didn't get it. For the list price given on this bike, you'd think you'd get some sort of quality screen. What it can tell you is the reps. It also gives you generic calorie estimates you could google anyway.My primary reason for rating this item as highly as I do is Sole Fitness customer service:I waited for some time for this bike to arrive, before checking Amazon which stated it as "Delivered." Well it certainly wasn't, so I checked the tracking, and this item was listed as so badly damaged in transit that mid-transit, they shipped it back. They then proceeded to mark it as "delivered" because the original shipper signed for it. So amazon's coding picks that up as "delivered." Genius. So we emailed Amazon, they apologized and sent a new one via Overnight. Despite Overnight, it made it here a day later than expected delivery day. OK, none of this is anyone's fault than UPS and maybe Amazon's coding and maybe me for not tracking it until so late.The new package was covered in huge holes. Keep in mind this box is SUPER HEAVY and marked "machine lift only". As I assembled it I saw marks on some parts, but I didn't buy this bike to show it in a fashion show, so not bothered. Then I saw the quarter of the fly wheel that had been facing outwards towards the edge of the box. It had small gauges in it that had displaced the metal. so now there's pointy metal sticking out that scratches up the resistance pad (making a super annoying noise). I tried filing it down, but didn't even make a mark on this metal. Seriously, when you buy this bike, what you're paying for is a thick chunk of metal in this very high quality flywheel. Amazon's site lets you choose to return it (so I could schedule a pick up, then take my chances that UPS won't damage my 3rd bike, then assemble again when it arrives). I chose to call Sole Fitness. They literally connect you straight on through to what amounts to "Joe at Joe's Specialists down the street from you." I know this scores big bonus points for some people, so worth mentioning. The guy was totally understanding, they shipped me a new fly wheel and installed it themselves.So it's installed now, all support guys I spoke to (including installer that came to my house) were nice and friendly, and worked to fix my problem ASAP making sure to respect my schedule as much as possible.