Body Champ 2-in-1 Upright Exercise Bike

Before New Year my wife and I decided that we would make an honest effort to maintain a regular exercise program, winter or summer. We gave up on going to a gym, even though there is a county-run facility near-by, because our life-style is too chaotic. We wanted an exercise machine that would work out our arms and legs, so that refined our search down to either a rowing machine or elliptical. We have a small house, so a full-sized Nordic Track was out of the question; one of those machines might fit into our garage, if our garage was empty. We also wanted a computer on the machine for programmed exercise routines and a heartbeat monitor. We also realized that the best chance of using an exercise machine was by integrating it into our living space (as opposed to keeping it in our - unheated/non-air conditioned - garage). After considerable searching, we settled on this machine. It's actually small enough to fit into our den, so we can use it while watching television or listening to music which is important. It does offer a full-featured computer, and the price is competitive with larger machines that accomplish the same thing. I also thought the bicycle option was intriguing as my wife and I do a lot of bicycling during non-cold seasons. Delivery was quick, and assembly was relatively easy with all the bits and pieces nicely packaged and identified along with the provided special tools. However, when we started using it we discovered there was an issue with the computer. After a few minutes the screen display would dim out almost to the point of shutting off. I called the customer service number provided on the instruction manual, and was amazingly pleased with the response. My call took me right to a real live person, without ten levels of phone tree numbers and being told to press "1" for English. The customer service rep was extremely helpful, talking me through troubleshooting, then arranging to send out both a new computer and the internal wiring harness. I didn't even need to give her a credit card number in advance, and shipping was free. I received the replacement parts and after changing out the computer discovered that the wiring harness was the problem. Again, the instructions provided were easy to follow and the special tools provided were all I needed to take the machine apart and replace the wire harness. This fixed the problem, and return shipping of the old parts was taken care of my customer service again no at charge to me. The bicycle feature is not so useful as a bicycle machine, but I find the seat very useful for my cool-downs. After an hour of exercise, I'll sit down on the seat and monitor my heat rate while slowly peddling for a few more minutes. I've worked through all twelve exercise routines, and modified them, and can honestly say I get a great workout. The machine does shake a bit (I weight around 170), but it doesn't feel unstable or seem like it's going to fall over at any minute. The computer does provide the exercise time, mileage "traveled," calories burned, and heart rate along with the graphical display of the exercise routine. The display is large enough to read without my reading glasses. The machine looks nice, complementing the style of our den's metal-and-glass furniture, so although we may not win any home and garden decorating awards we're good. After using it for a couple of months, I can completely recommend this for an in-home exercise machine. It offers a great opportunity for keeping fit at a very reasonable price, and we're actually using it on a regular schedule!