Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was in the market for a piece of exercise equipment that would provide my wife and I with a good cardiovascular workout. Any additional benefit such as lower body, upper body, core was secondary to that. Also my wife is still recovering from leg injuries and she never really used an elliptical we bought before all that much. The elliptical was well over twice the price of the 900 XL and it broke just after a year. So I wanted a recumbent bike that was good but I did not want to pay for a mid or even premium priced one. I am also around 260 lbs. For all those reasons I decide to go with the 900 XL. Set-up: We were actually very impressed by how the bike is shipped to you. If you open the instruction booklet you are likely to freak out by all the parts listed. But the vast majority of pieces are already put into the machine. Now you will have to take bolts out and then back in, but there were only 6 loose bolts. Where they reasonably could have done the construction before shipping and still fit the item in a box, they did. It took us about 2 and half hours. Including the one hiccup we encountered which took about 30 minutes. This was the tension cable set up. We had to get a wrench and loosen a screw. The instruction booklet does not tell you to do this. But after trying everything else this was the only other thing to try. We did that and then everything went smoothly. The instructions are straight forward and not a single piece missing. If we didn't need to loosen that screw all the tools would have been included, there is a handy `multi-tool' that handles everything needed. The bike itself is a pleasure to use. It is very easy to get to my target heart rate and keep it there. The seat and back rest are both very comfortable. There is a `computer' and it is very simple but useful. You get elapsed time, speed, distance, heart rate (which seems pretty darn accurate), and calories which has to be a guestimate since you do not enter weight anywhere. The tension settings work and the bike goes from way too easy to peddle to way too hard (for me and my wife at least). There are NO programs. No hill programs, nothing of that sort. You can set the computer to count down time instead of up but that is about it. The one big downside is if you have people of different heights who all want to regularly use it. The seat/ back rest is held in place by 3 knobs. You need to get all 3 out and all 3 back in to adjust the seat distance. Is this is a pain? Yes. My wife and I are luckily just close enough that there is a setting just slightly too short for me and slightly too long for her that does work for both. Also I would be remiss in not reporting a couple of things. One the manual says 300 lbs not 325. This is a big deal as the 325 kind of sets it apart. Also we called support when we were having the tension cable problem and they never called back. Not good. The warranty also might be misleading. It says 3 years but then right below basically says anything I could think the warranty might cover as 90 days. So I am not sure. Given those negatives, would I still recommend it? Yes I would. For the price I am getting a very comfortable and effective cardiovascular workout . This is exactly why I bought the bike. Would I like some programs, perhaps. But without programs I still am getting the workout I want. The biggest downside would be people of different heights in a household who all wanted to use it. Would everyone get use to adjusting the seat? I am sure they would. Is it a deal breaker, not if you want a good, solid piece of exercise equipment that gives a good CV workout at a good price. I did debate on 3 stars versus 4 stars. I don't like products that say one thing, 325 lbs on Amazon then you open the instruction boolet and it says WARNING maximum weight capacity is 300lbs. They should fix the listing or fix the manual but not leave people wondering. Also not calling back was not very good customer service and does not leave me with a lot of confidence should something go wrong. The manual is also very evasive as to what is actually covered up to 3 years versus 90 days. I can usually parse that out, but not the way the company choose to word it. However right now it is working great for us, was exactly what I was looking for, is quiet and fun to use, so 4 stars.