I purchased this awesome bike to rehabilitate an ankle injury that I obtained during a basketball game.  Some luck, huh.  It works great.  The pre-set programs provide an excellent workout.  There are also different difficulty levels that can really kick your butt.  The seat is tall and comfortable and gives great support to your back.  The seat also has numerous adjustments to accomidate leg lenght.  There are blood/pulse pads on handles on the sides of the seat.  And, there are handles up by the display screen that are positioned in the same place that a "regular" bicycle's handles would be.  The display screen shows calories, miles, and MPH. Oh, and if you need to escape from the burning in your legs, there is a book holder by the display screen, and you can transport yourself into another world.  With all of these features I am in the best shape of my life.  Lance Armstrong's got nothin on me!  Look out Tour de France here I come.

Langfords

Nauvoo, IL

Schwinn 230 is definitely one of the most affordable models on the market. It is a heavy recumbent bike, with a large seat and a comfortable back. The display does require a couple of batteries, but otherwise, the machine operates from an electric plug-in. Schwinn comes with six pre-set programs, most of which, as usual, are too challenging for most human beings. But they're worth a try. Otherwise, you can set the time, distance or heart rate you would like to reach and make a custom program. The controls are not the most obvious, however; I always feel like I'm missing one or two buttons that I would like to press. I suppose if I could find the instruction booklet, this problem would solve itself. So, yes, do not lose the instruction booklet.  Another good feature of this bike is that it has a 4-program memory which can store your most recent custom-made program. So you can have one for 30 minutes and another one, say, for 40 minutes, and just go back to your user settings. The reason I am not giving it a five-star rating is that, unfortunately, it is starting to disintegrate in its third year. Something is rattling inside the resistance hub, and the seat does not seem to hold is well as it used to on its peg. If this is just what happens to recumbent bikes with time, ok, fine, but I was hoping for a bit longer.

lorna79

Lincoln, NE