Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We have this entrance level recumbent bike Exerpeutic 900XL Extended Capacity Recumbent Bike with Pulse. It is very useful for a good cardio workout. But it has no programs, you cannot adjust the seat easily between users of different heights, and I found myself wishing often for a fan and especially a rack to put a smartphone or tablet. When I found out I had a chance to try the 230 (2013) I was very excited. From the product page here it sounded very well thought out with a lot of useful features. Very curious as to how it would perform in person. I can say overall, I am very impressed, it has exceeded my expectations. I will get into more detail below but I really like the quality of the resistance and switching from higher to lower. And the variety of programs are very useful. Set up is always a concern with exercise equipment. Schwinn actually did a good job here. As much as they practically could install in the factory they did. The frame from the drive mechanism all the way to the back is one (heavy and long piece). So the box is huge. The box had minimal damage. But inside pieces were packed very well and well-cushioned. It took my wife around 2-3 hours of very easy, laid-back assembly to get it done. Of note all the pieces lined up. She never had to work hard to have holes matched up. She only needed my help to hold a couple of pieces in place a couple of times. Overall, not an item to avoid because of setup fears. This is a relatively easy assembly with clear instructions. Once assembled I input my user information. It will store age, weight, height in your profile. It uses this to calculate your target heart rate and also various zones, such as fat burning, or cardio zone. This is also where my biggest gripe about the 230 comes in and why I took off one star. You can only store 2 users. 2! This works fine for my household but it is clearly an artificial limitation in order to get people to buy the next highest priced model. For $400 or certainly the list price of $700 Schwinn should NOT have limited it to 2 users. Obviously for all the computer does, it is not a software or hardware limitation. This may or may not be of concern to you depending upon your household and you can edit user stats fairly easily. Four users would have been a plus though in many households. In any event once you get your user profile in you have a range of programs. I really like the hill programs. The resistance levels are fantastic on the 230. From totally easy to sweat-inducing, muscle challenging feel it the next morning heavy resistance. The transition up and down in a pre-set program is smooth. I also like that you can set a time goal, a calorie goal, or a distance goal. You also have heart rate programs where you can say I want to stay in the cardio zone and resistance gets changed to keep you in that zone. I find the pre-programmed ones to work better for me. The speakers work pretty well. Not great, but more than good enough and loud enough to enjoy music without headphones during your workout. Love the fan, I usually keep it on the highest level. But it is great to make the workout more pleasurable. Speaking of pleasure, I enjoy the seat comfort wise. And I think plastic will be easier to keep clean as opposed to padding. But it is a tad slippery. However it is super easy to move for people of different heights. Thank you Schwinn this is a great feature. It charged my iPhone 4 fine and my wife's 5 fine. It would not charge our iPad 3. It said not charging. That was annoying. Overall though if I was in a focus group and said this is what I want in a recumbent bike, Schwinn nailed almost everything. They produced an excellent piece of exercise equipment that will help people get healthier in their homes. I applaud that. I am not a fan of limiting only putting in two users. Our daughter is 3, but if she was older I would find this very annoying. For all the things the computer can do more than two users seems like it would have been an easy addition. Only flaw I could find in an other wise fine and very user-friendly product. In spite of that, I am still a fan of the 230 and it is recommended. Great way to get a good cardio workout at home and not have to spend the time getting to and from a gym.