Marcy Home Fitness Personal Exercise Bike with Adjustable Magnetic Resistance for Cardio Workout and Cycle Training

This was well-packaged and the instructions were very clear about the assembly. My only concern, which was very minor, is that the wrench provided was not bent to a sufficient angle to avoid tearing the seat material when tightening the frontmost nut for the seat. It just needed an eighth of an inch to do it perfectly. My only other difficulty came when I was tightening the screws to secure the handlebars to the front post. There was plenty of thread in the post but it took more and more effort to turn the screws.I finally had to resort to adding the wrench to the Allen wrench to get enough leverage to fully tighten the screws. This problem could have been avoided had I used a thread chaser or tap to clear the threads in the front post. Otherwise, everything went smoothly. I inspected the pedal arm where the pedals are screwed into to see if it looked more substantial than my last bike which had the pedal arm break at the hole. This one had more metal and seems to be made in a stronger design. Plus, this time, I checked that the bike was rated for my weight. It honestly looks as though it is truly rated for 300 pounds. This is the first exercise bike that I have had that used magnetic resistance and I am very satisfied with its operation. The tension knob is calibrated and marked and features detents to make the tension choice precise. Then I was very surprised at how absolutely silent this bike operated. Not just quiet, but no sound whatsoever. And because I have to been able to get the proper amount of tension, my workout time has been shortened because I have to exert more effort during my fast-pedaling routines, thus getting me worked out better. I can now rest assured that my doctor's recommendation for my exercise routine will have the desired effect. I had never worked out before but upon examination, my doctor told me that he wanted me to go for a few minutes at a regular speed; then go for a minute at the best speed that I could muster; then repeat the sequence. This recommendation was because my heart's recovery rate was sub-optimal. With this bike, now I know that I am getting the proper work-out. And I feel that this bike will last a long time because it does not rely on friction to provide resistance. I am really happy with this purchase.

My Marcy ME 709 Recumbent arrived when expected and had no shipping damage. This is my 3rd exercise bike, and hands down the best one yet. My previous flywheel model with the chain drive was very noisy, and the tension adjustment system was just pathetic. The belt-drive tension adjustment on my more recent Walmart "bargain recumbent" never worked that well to begin with and went south in just a matter of weeks.Anyway, this Marcy was easy enough for me to assemble by myself in a little over an hour. However, there was a small problem with my unit which the factory may or may not have already addressed by now, but one nevertheless, which I thought I should mention here. Mainly, the u-shaped mounting brackets for both the seat and handlebars were a slightly too wide, and slightly too deep, hence both seat and handlebars could be moved forward/backwards, and from side-to-side when I finished the assembly. This was a fairly simple fix for me (probably not so easy for those of you without tools and/or mechanical skills, though); I just put each side of the brackets in my bench vise, and then carefully bent them inward until they matched the width of the mounting frame. Then I cut two rectangular pieces of black fiber gasket material (hardware store stock) and put them in the flat parts of the brackets. Using a little "elbow grease" to line up the bolts, I bolted everything back up, and eureka!—handlebars are nice and snug now. A big hammer might work too, although I would highly recommend using a couple of blocks of wood (one about the width of the frame) to avoid damage and uneven results.The bracket issue notwithstanding, this unit is very well made, very quiet, and the display not only works, but is easy to read too. I've been riding this machine three times a day, for about 15 minutes each time, on tension level seven and incorporating Tabata training at about the halfway point since day one—for about a month now. I'm very satisfied with this purchase. Bike's a very good deal at this price point!Update: I've been using this bike for almost three years now (up to level eight after a few weeks) and it's still functioning perfectly. I've been using it two or three times a week to warm up before doing some light weight training, and using it more often in the colder months when I'm just not in the mood for riding my real bikes in the snow.Being the occasional outside-the-box thinker that I am, I tried mounting the handlebars upside-down as an experiment, and much to my surprise ... discovered I really prefer them upside-down. Especially when doing Tabata on the 20-sec all-out-push cycle, because I'm able to push harder against the bars, thus achieving stronger contractions in upper-body muscles, pedal faster, and raise the overall intensity level of the workout.