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Customer Reviews: Average Rating:  Rating :  - Horrible
My eldery father, who has COPD and needed a way to do some low-impact cardio at home, bought this product after reading the product description on another site and mistakingly thought it would be like the stationary bikes he used in respitory rehab. He was very disappointed.
My father, who is not a tall man (now 5' 4"), had a lot trouble getting sitted on the machine. The seat bar does not adjust down low enough for shorter people to get sitted without having to balance on one of the non-locking pedals and using the likewise non-locking arm handles to help hoist yourself up. This is rather dangerous, in my opinion, seeing that in addition to the non-locking pedals and handles, the pedals are small, somewhat slippery (no textured surface for traction) and do not have safety straps, making it very easy for even rubber soled fitness shoes to slip off. Once sitted, he found the very hard, small seat was difficult to balance and rest upon.The machine was impossible to for him to use because he doesn't have the upper body strength to put part of his weight on the arm rests (not a good idea anyhow, as I found out myself - see below). Lastly, it took both my mom and me assisting to get him off the thing, because it's even harder to get off than on.
I'm in my 30's and considerably more fit than my father, and when I tried this machine, I absolutely hated it. I've done my time in fitness gyms and know that machine that cause pain are bad. And boy, this made me miserable. I'm short as well, so getting on and off was a problem. Then I couldn't get the seat adjusted to a comfortable height for me, and the seat was murder on my pelvic bone. I found it impossible to get seated in a way that wasn't causing discomfort. In order to exercise on this, I had to be a very awkward postion, resting part of my weight on the arm handles while still feeling my pelvic bone pressing painfully on the seat as I pedaled. This "best" position was slightly straining for my lower back too. There was simply no way to find a postion that didn't cause improper discomfort or strain. After about 20 minutes I had to stop, and I had bruised, sore palms and bottom for 2 days after, and it was not the good kind of soreness you should have after exercise - maybe after some particularly nasty S&M episode, but not exercise.
In a nutshell, we've found the machine unusable and my mom's going to give it to a charity org for a tax write-off. If you ask me, your money would be better spent on a gym membership that gives you access to proper work-out equipment. + See Full Customer Review |  |
