Sunny Health & Fitness Evolution Pro Bike

Okay, I really wanted to like this bike but as I will explain, it's just not working out. I have been into exercise and fitness for about the past 30 years and have used a lot of different machines. These have ranged from exercise bikes, incumbent bikes, treadmills, and ellipticals. I chose to get a bike at home because there are few moving parts, and frankly, bikes have been around for so long I thought a relatively inexpensive one should be able to perform very well. This Sunny bike is replacing an $80 discount store bike which is just simply worn out. I originally had a hard time choosing between this particular bike and a different Sunny model. The customer service folks at Sunny were very helpful and actually sent me two videos explaining the differences between the models I was looking at. I had a concern about the weight limitations of the 1110, but they assured me they had never had problems or faced challenges due to weight. The weight limit on this particular bike is 250 pounds, and I weigh about 200 pounds. I chose the 1110 model because it had a heavier flywheel, was slightly less expensive at the time than the other model, and frankly I simply like the looks better. There were very few reviews at the time, but the folks at Sunny assured me that they had not had any problems with this model. I ordered the 1110 on Black Friday. It came several days later with the box and packaging seeming to be in okay condition. Since it was to be a Christmas present to me from my wife, I didn't open and assemble the bike until several days after Christmas. After opening the box everything still appeared to be in good condition with the exception of several scratches on the frame directly below the seat. I assembled the bike. This has now been documented in a couple different reviews, but the handlebars have what I would call a severe wobble. Nothing that really affects the performance but it just seems like they could certainly be made more solid. The seat also wobbles a bit but again nothing that really affects performance. Being a bit taller I did have a small issue with the fact that the handlebars will not raise further, so I feel slightly uncomfortable but again nothing major. I hopped on, and started pedaling, starting slow as the flywheel is heavy, and then picking up bit of speed. Almost immediately there began to be some chain noise. Being new to the model, I thought it was probably an appropriate amount of noise, so I continued to pick up speed. When I got to a cadence of about 100 the chain came off, nearly launching me through the wall in front of me as the pedals immediately locked up tight. I then had to take the chain guard off which had several different holes drilled in it as a result of probably a mistake at the factory. Overall not a big deal, but just a reflection of some shoddy workmanship. I put the chain back on, readjusted the flywheel. Hopped on again and overall except for being a big greasy it performed better. I continued to have intermittent chain noise at higher cadences though. As I continued to experiment with it though, I discovered that the tension knob is EXTREMELY sensitive. By that I mean that literally 1/32 of a turn significantly increases the tension. I immediately thought that was going to be problematic as when I do intervals, after a high interval I'm going to be too tired to have the fine motor dexterity to move the knob 1/32 of of a turn to reduce tension. Another thing I noticed, was that when I was down in the "racing position" the flywheel tension was much easier than when I sat up in the seat such as you would to take a drink. This also was going to cause a problem as after a high interval, when you want to drink you don't want the tension to self adjust to continue your hard work out. I contacted the company with these basic concerns: 1.Could I please get some touch up paint to touch up the scratches on the frame so the frame doesn't corrode from perspiration, 2. The chain makes noise and pops off is there a better way to adjust it, 3.The tension knob is really touchy and self adjusts when you sit up on the frame (probably because of the cantilever design of the seat). At this point in time, I was outside the window to return to Amazon. Went back and forth a little with customer service, and they basically said the bike is made in China so they have no touch up paint, if the chain is adjusted and working fine now it's a nonissue, they never had that problem before with the tension knob for the self adjusting, and they would have to work with me a little bit on it after consulting with their engineers. We went back and forth in a series of emails over the next several months, and I will say that they were very polite listened and responded generally quickly. However after much discussion and me shooting a video of the actual problem with the tension knob and the self adjusting, they sent back rather detailed diagram of what they perceive the problem to be, along was saying they have never had this problem before. At this point, I noted to them that this situation had been going on for a while (three months at this point), it didn't appear as if there was going to be a consumer end fix, and could I crate the bike up and send it back for replacement. I was then told that no, the engineers considered this to be normal function, and replacement would not be appropriate under the warranty. I commented that in an earlier email they had said they had never seen this before, therefore it could not possibly be "normal functioning". Literally, a day or two after receiving that email from them (which really provoked me), I was doing a high interval and the chain broke , rendering the bike unusable. They are supposed to be sending me a new chain. This is obviously not what I expected, or had hoped for. Given that the bike is in my basement with a broken chain and I haven't been able to use it in 10 days I have to give this product a one star rating. Of major importance and really the point I would like to get across is that the tension knob and self adjusting when you change position in the seat is a major problem with this model and seriously affects how you might do your work outs, and that in my opinion is a design flaw.