Marcy Regenerating Recumbent ME-706

Just so you know, when you receive this item, the box is quite heavy. It is not easily moved by one person without an aid of some sort, such as a dolly. Assembly was time consuming but not difficult. The directions were a bit lacking in places, but with some head scratching and common sense, they were adequate. Once assembled I had only one issue. The workout program I chose to work with uses the pulse rate to automatically adjust the resistance. For some reason the sensors in the handle seemed to not pick up my pulse rate very well. It would work for a bit, then quit working, then start again. I thought that there was possibly some residue from the manufacturing process on the sensors. I wiped them well but it made no difference. It seemed that once I grabbed onto the handles and did not remove my hands at all, things worked better. However, if I removed my hands to wipe my face and then grabbed the handles again, continuity was hit and miss. I have since began to wipe the sensors after every workout and I do not remove my hands once I start exercising. By doing this everything seems to be working well. I guess the bottom line is to not take your hands off the handles once you begin exercising. Outside of that one issue this is a nice piece of equipment. It is not the quality of what one would find in a gym, but at this price that was not expected. I expect to receive many years of service and would recommend it to anyone wanting an exercise bike, unless you are preparing for the olympics! Follow up: The pulse rate monitor has now completely stopped working. It is now out of warranty and I probably should have returned it. Everything else is still working well. Not sure if the pulse rate monitor was defective and went bad, or if it was of poor quality. Either way, don't count on the pulse rate monitor.

It makes such a difference in staying with the workout when the program module leads you through it. The ME-706 has 13 pre-programmed workouts + several user programmed possibilities. Was easy to build from a picture only diagram and the tools included, but if you have your own tools that you like to use then you'll probably get it together even faster. Very quiet in operation. I am a 6' 7" long-legged guy and the maximum length se at position is just right for me. We are very pleasantly surprised with such a solid product at such a good value! ***NOTE: We had a pretty busted up box with a damaged computer head unit for the first delivery. Fear not! Amazon picked up the disappointing unit promptly and within 2 days the new proper one was delivered.

Overall it's been a great experience. As far as assembly was concerned, it was fairly easy. It did help to have it elevated to about waste level or so to do some of the work. Like with most things, the first time you do something there's a learning curve. We bought two of them so the second one was a little bit easier to put together. Having two people or more did help. I think the average person wouldn't have too much trouble. If you are completely non-mechanically inclined, it would be better to have some help while doing it. As far as using the bike, I do like the fact that you don't have to plug it in, and also I don't. It's convenient not to have to plug it in because you can put it wherever you like, but,... if you slow down just a little too much you could lose all your exercise info, like how long you've been exercising, calories You've burned, how many miles you've ridden etc. It has good overall comfort, and is very sturdy. Personally I prefer leaving the foot straps off so that it's easy access to all kinds of footwear. I haven't used them since I started using the machines, and my foot has never slipped off. There are only two things I don't like about it. One is the speakers, not very good quality. I rarely use them. They do include a cable that plugs into the bike and the other end plugs into your device if you care to use them. The other is that the adjustability of the seat could be a bit better. The position of the seat release can be a bit inconvenient depending on how you put it together. Also you definitely need to be on the bike to adjust the seat. Very hard to do with any accuracy off the bike. Just to let you know, it's not the type of seat where a pin goes into a hole. It's more the type of seat that is clamped in position so you need to make sure the lever is completely down in the locked position. That being said I've never had it come unlocked on me using the bike. My overall experience with it so far is very good.

I should have deducted a star because of the very poor instructions but after getting it together it is great to use, well made, sturdy and comfortable. I had parts left over that didn't go anywhere and were not on the instruction sheet and I am sure do not go with this exercise bike. There were a lot of extra parts not belonging to this bike but they were in the box. At first this did cause some confusion. Overall, I would buy the bike again.

The bike worked great for 4 years then the computer died. The bike is comfortable and easy to use. My wife and I both ride the bike for about 1 hour/day 4 to 5 days/week. I can’t find a replacement computer anywhere to fit this bike. For the price the bike did not last very long.

I am just recovering from a knee replacement, and needed an exercise bike to help me get back into shape. I was looking at some of the more expensive models, but my wife convinced me to get one that was more economical until I knew that I would use it consistently. Found the Marcy ME-706 and it seemed to fit the bill exactly. Assembly was not too difficult, and took about an hour and a half to do (I assembled it on my own, and an extra set of hands would have reduced this a good bit). I don't remember having any troubles following the instructions, and there were not any really difficult sections. I had more difficulty getting all the packaging material off the bike than I did assembling it. I set up my bike in our home gym, and put my video game console on the tv in the same room. In the past two months, I have ridden the bike every day for around an hour a day. The bike has a good range of very smooth resistance, and is nearly silent in operation. The only complaint that I have is that for the longer rides, the seat was not overly comfortable. I did purchase a memory foam seat made for a rowing machine, and this seems to work perfectly. The bike has a good amount of pre-programmed exercises, and honestly they fit my needs perfectly. Just as a frame of reference, I'm a fairly big guy (6'2", 270 pounds), and I had no difficulty adjusting the seat to fit my frame. Bike seems to be very solid with only a few minor squeaks when I move around suddenly. I had originally planned to get this as a short term test case to see if I would actually use the bike. I had planned to replace it with a more advanced model if my test went well. But honestly, this bike is perfect for me, and I don't plan to trade it out any time soon!

Noise level is outstanding. Very quiet compared to my old bike. My first major issue with this exercise bike has to do with the setup of the display monitor. There is little to no directions on how to enter your personal info like weight, height, age. The things that are needed for some of the built in programs to work. The written directions only reference "during the setting mode". The only video available that is somewhat helpful, is only about changing KPH to MPH. You have to press and hold two buttons. This lead me to try various combinations which eventually got into the personal settings. I don't recall which combination it was. How difficult would it be to make a short video and post on our website? Poor customer service. Second thing is a design flaw. My old bike had a stick design lever to be able to change the seat location. This one has a 90 degree bent lever that is way under the seat. It also takes a fair amount of pressure to set the location. This by itself is fine since it locks the location firmly. However, since the bent lever is way under the seat and the amount of force needed to release the seat, the inner portion of your wrist forcefully hits the edge of the seat. There is a fair amount of pain from this let alone the huge bruise it leaves. I didn't pay $500 to physically abuse my wrist. I'm going to keep it since the amount of effort needed to return is too much. With a bit of design forethought on the seat lever and adequate directions for setting up the monitor, this could have been a four or five star review.

I was originally looking at more-expensive bikes including the Nautilus 614 and 616, and Schwinn 270. But I'm glad I went the cheaper route as the Marcy bike is fantastic and easy to use. 20 levels of resistance is more than enough, even for doing HiiT-style routines and the display is nicely back-lit and easy-to-read without being obtrusive like the other bikes. A plus is that it generates its own power similar to gym -style bikes so you can place it anywhere and there is no power cord to trip over. Build quality feels good and the instructions were easy to follow - took a little over an hour to assemble. Overall footprint is much smaller than the Nordictrac, Proform, and Nautilus/Schwinn models. Resistance is smooth and very quiet. Very happy with the purchase.