Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Mine just arrived and I've enjoyed my first workout. Here's the good and the bad so far. GOOD - I was one of the lucky ones who received a more or less intact box. The Styrofoam was badly ripped apart, but it took the blows and protected the parts inside. It takes about 1hr to unpack everything as assemble the bike. The instructions are excellent and the parts well laid out. If you have an electric drill or impact driver things will move along faster, but tools are included with the bike and they will suffice. I'm 5'11" and the everything fit me perfectly. I found the seat very comfortable and the display bright despite being in a very sunny room. The display is easy to read and understand. The heart monitor works, but is pretty rudimentary - I plan to use a chest monitor instead. I found it very quiet and one of the best recumbent bikes I've ridden. BAD - When I finished assembly and turned on the monitor I quickly discovered that the magnetic resistance was locked on high. Repeated attempts to reduce the resistance failed. I called the helpline and they wanted me to disassemble the plastic housing covering the magnetic resistance system; I agreed to do so. Inside, there are two wheels. One turns a belt which drives a second heavy iron wheel. A powerful magnet, driven by a motor, is moved close to the iron wheel and the magnetic force acts to slow the wheel down requiring you to push harder to keep the wheel moving. In my case, the magnets were sitting at the max resistance. The motor that moves the magnets back and forth wasn't responding to key presses on the console. I quickly discovered that a tiny wire going to the motor got kinked during assembly. With the plastic housing unscrewed I had just enough room to repair the broken wire - a real pain in the a**. That took care of the problem and I reassembled the unit and went ahead with a workout. I knocked off a star for having to play recumbent bike repairman. I'm not sure how this bike got out of quality control because turning the pedals would have revealed that it wasn't doing what it's supposed to. The folks at Nautilus were helpful enough and willing to help me diagnose the problem, but I never called them back since the problem was easy to spot and repair. I've read several reviews from people experiencing the same problem - no response to resistance adjustments. After looking under the hood this could be caused by a bad console, a broken wire, a bad connection between the console and the motor (you have to make this connection during assembly), or a failed motor. If it turns out to be the motor ship it back because replacing it would require taking the plastic housing completely off and that's more than anyone should be asked to put up with. More later as I put more miles on this thing...