new bike, first impressions
So I just picked up an exercise bike. It’s a FitnessQuest Excel 396 bike (I’ll post up a pic or two later).
So far, first impressions:
(1) user capacity warnings should propagate to the box and the technical specs. They do not. So I’m ignoring it (which is a matter of necessity … if I don’t, I’m going to pay 1500 bucks for a bike that’s rated for someone my weight).
(2) it’s a little small. My knees just barely graze the front handlebars when I’m using them. Which means I’m going to have to find a way to raise the bar a fraction of an inch or so, to make my knees not touch it.
(3) Disappointingly, the computer is battery powered, not powered by the capacity of the disk o’ magnets to generate resistance.
(4) also disappointingly, the computer is just a data collection center, it doesn’t offer things like programs, and can’t control the resistance (which is controlled by a tension knob on the frame).
(5) The max tension is a bit lower than I’d like. But still pretty adequate.
I’m glad I finally went and got this thing, but … it’s definitely not perfect.