BowFlex Indoor Cycling Exercise Bike Series

A friend had one, and now I have one. Very sturdy and comfortable to ride, even if you have more than one rider. Finally got my wife to ride and she has a blast traveling around the world riding. The lean feature is no joke, after cycling in the outdoors for several years, putting in150+ miles a week, wasn't ready to move inside, but due to where we now live, this is by far the safest option. This bike will do everything your road bike will do, except for one thing: you have to realize you can not free spin, that takes a bit of getting use to. If you are quick with tension knob, you can back it off to zero and hold a pedal position, or just power thru it. The graphics and audio are great, as are the videos of the places you can travel. You can also do the peloton workouts on this machine with your journey membership. This gets used 4-5 a week by each of us, and we are glad we got it.

I wish I could have given this bike 6 Stars. I've never been able to say this before about a complex piece of exercise equipment. It was EASY to assemble! Taking my time, I was able to assemble it alone in under an hour. However, it might not be a bad idea to have a second person just for safety. The instructions were very helpful (another thing you don't hear very often). All of the parts fit together perfectly without any force. Just be sure to pay careful attention to how the pedals thread. One of them tightens counterclockwise. Once assembled, there are three well-designed adjustment handles for setting (then tightening) handlebar height, seat height, and seat distance. The angle of the VERY large screen can also be adjusted. Every part just feels solid and well-made. All of the moving parts such as the lean mechanism works well without sticking or jamming. I did a lot of research before purchasing, and in terms of features, quality, and subscription content, this Bowflex bike easily won over Peloton and other brands. It has the double drink holders, the double dumbbell holders, the heart rate monitor, the pedals that work with cycling shoes, the lean feature with easy lock/unlock system, the massive screen with pre-designed auto and guided workouts including an initial assessment workout. The ability to store multiple profiles for all members of your household as well as the companion app that works with other Bowflex products. To top it off, sometimes, when you don't want a guided workout and just want to catch up on your Netflix, Amazon, or other streaming shows, this bike has those streaming apps built in and watchable on the very, very large screen while you ride (and even has a discreet workout overlay so you can track your workout while you watch without obstructing your show). Hands down, the best exercise bike I have ever used, seen, or even heard of. I HIGHLY recommend.

I purchased this bike on an extreme discount and Amazon delivered it in to my garage. I got help from a friend of mine to assemble it. I will say that the bike itself is very sturdy and the assembly is quite easy. Bowflex definitely put a lot of thought into the instructions and a positive out of box experience.The immediate problem we noticed with the bike is the seat. This bike has the most uncomfortable seat of any bike I have ever experienced. After a few workouts, I still could not get used to it and had to stand half the time. Nautalis sells an "Extra Comfort" seat for this bike on their website. Unfortunately, I didn't keep the bike long enough to give it a try.The electronic screen on this bike is very, very cheap. The picture and sound quality are nice enough, but it's immediately evident that this is where costs were cut on an otherwise fine product. The thing performed a software updated three times for me. Updates are good, but they only happen when you wake up the screen. So, when you're ready for a workout, turning on the screen could trigger an update that takes 10-15 minutes. You cannot select to perform the update at a later time.The buttons for the screen are on the back of the bike. There is no reference to what they do on the front or side of the bike. If the bike is against a wall, you will have a hard time until you learn their position. The feel of the buttons is extremely cheap. They sometimes have to be pressed more than once to register.The most serious problem with the bike occurred less than a week in. All of a sudden, crackling sounds were coming out of the speakers while the bike was in standby. It sounded like someone endlessly trying to tune an AM radio. Rebooting the bike did not help. Reorienting the cable that comes up the support tube did not help. The only thing to get the crackling to stop was to unplug the bike and leave it unplugged. The moment you plugged it back in, the crackling would resume. This tells me it's a hardware fault since the software hasn't even had time to boot yet.I looked this issue up online and you can see for yourself that there are a bunch of people experiencing this defect. Everyone I see complaining about it claims that replacement screens are also defective right away or eventually begin to exhibit the same problem. I don't know what to make of this, but I decided that I didn't want to deal with this problem for the next 5-10 years of ownership and send the bike back to Amazon. It was a tremendous pain to disassemble and box it back up, but it was worth it to save my sanity. Thankfully, the return process from Amazon was quick and easy.Based on my experience with this bike, I am now very suspicious of any exercise equipment with "advanced" electronics. When I look at the MSRP of this bike and then feel the hollowness and cheapness of the screen, it doesn't add-up. For sure, I will avoid such products from Bowflex / Schwinn / Nautalis in the future.

We received this item in a timely manner. Putting it together is not too bad. Sturdiness is great, it does not shift or rock when riding. The screen is huge and the features on there are great. It does have an annual fee after your first year, which is free, but you could use the bike itself without the subscription. You just wouldn’t be able to watch shows or track your workouts, but if you kept track with your phone or watch or something, that would work too.The bad: the heart rate monitor bracelet stopped charging after about a week and a half of use so we can not use it. The flywheel creeks after about 5-10 mins of use, it used to be silent when we first bought it, but after a few uses it started creeking.We emailed bowflex about the issues 3 weeks ago and have not heard back.Overall though, no regrets, good purchase.