Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you've had the BANGING issue with this bike, skip to the end for notes on my fix *********************************** Initially I had looked at buying the Peloton bike because of their really great app but ultimately decided it was not worth the investment considering spinning was completely new to me. My intention was to use this bike in conjunction with the Peloton app ($12/mo). So far I am very satisfied with my purchase. Delivery - I paid just under $300 for the bike which included shipping. Which is really unbelievable in and of itself. I'm not sure how the UPS guy even got it up the stairs to our landing because the box weighed over 120 pounds. This bike is *very* sturdy. My first concern was that for $300 you would get a rickety piece of garbage. Not the case. Peloton charges $250 just for shipping. Assembly - honestly, the actual assembly part took about ten minutes. But it took 10 minutes to get the box into the basement, 15 minutes to unpack the box and unwrap all the parts and another 5 to sort of gather everything together. There are very few actual pieces, like I said, the bike is very sturdy when put together. "Add ons" / changes - I made a few minor additions to the bike to improve the use. 1 - Added a pair of Shimano SPD pedals ($35). These are fantastic pedals, I *highly* recommend them and they work great on this bike. Took only a few minutes to swap out. So far zero issues with the pedals. Please not if you have never used clip-in pedals before, you will need bike shoes with SPD cleats on them to use. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ZMDK5C 2 - Simple ipad holder for the handlebars ($20). I have a beat up, cracked-up old ipad4 that I planned to use on the bike and this clip works perfectly. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D5YTO5K 3 - Bike mat ($30) - perfect size, seems to work great so far. Its a mat, nothing fancy. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001THTUAO 4 - Wireless computer from spinning.com ($65) - I tried two of the Cateye models and just did not like how small they were and one I could not get to work with the spin bike. The spinning.com computers are made to work with their brand spin bikes but seems to work great with this model. Look I am not an engineer, I'm not going to guarantee that these are insanely accurate and are really only made for their brand bikes - but its worked fine so far. I was most interested in something that was wireless, would display time/cadence at the same time and that was easy to read. So I spent $150 or so on other options and am completely happy right now with my setup. ***Notes on use with the Peloton app*** - As I said, I bought this bike specifically to use with the Peloton app. I am very impressed with the app so far. They have dozens of live classes every day or thousands of on demand ones. The app has a pretty simple filter that allows you to search/sort by class type, time, instructor etc. I wish there were a couple of minor tweaks - like letting you save your favorite rides into some kind of favorites menu - but so far I am very happy. The ipad version of the app is $12/month whereas if you have the Peleton bike they charge you $40/month. Even at that price, IMO, its worth it since I have been using it every day. Spin studios in the DC area can run upwards of $175-200/month for unlimited rides. ***Notes on FIXES or things that might break*** - As has been noted in other reviews there seem to be a couple of quality control issues, both of which I ran into. 1 - Squeaky resistance pad - Definitely happened to me over the first week. I used it every day and it seemed to get worse. I bought a $7 can of liquid graphite spray off Amazon and I gave it a few shots, it cleared right up. I could see just giving it a shot every couple weeks. Nothing major here, very easy fix. 2 - That BANGING or knocking on every peddle stroke. - If you've had it, you know what I'm talking about. It sounds like the bike is broken and goes BANG BANG BANG on each peddle stroke. I emailed the company and they sent me a PDF with pictures about making some adjustments to the belt with the two adjustment screws on the front. I spent @ 20 minutes screwing around with it and eventually it did stop. It was a pain in the neck and very annoying to have to deal with but it did finally stop. - Take the belt cover off - screws on the two sides and bottom - take the big side nuts off from the fork - adjust the screws I circled in yellow. Experimentation and patience required! Look, this bike cost $300 shipped. For that price, I had a reasonable expectation that the bike would not be perfect and would probably need some adjustments. If I wanted to buy the $2000 bike with $250 shipping charge, I would certainly have expected a higher level of quality. But for the cost I am very happy with my purchase.