Merit 720B Recumbent Exercise Bike Review

If you're looking for a low-cost exercise machine the Merit 720B recumbent exercise bike could be a good choice. It's sold for only $235 and has all the basic features that make a good exercise bike. The followings are some of the good and bad points for this recumbent bike.

Pros

Being a basic exercise bike the Merit 720B only use 9.9 pounds flywheel. It's light and while serious cyclist would frown about the lightness the average people would appreciate the smooth and easy ride. Such a lightweight flywheel is also easy on your joints especially the knee. And since this is a recumbent exercise bike you can get into more comfortable position compared to upright models.

With rich foam padding on the seat and back rest you can easily have a 45-minutes exercise session with this bike without fatigue on your hip or lower back. The seat is adjustable so if the default position isn't comfortable enough you can easily adjust it. This bike also adapts the step-through design so it's easy to mount and unmount. You don't need to lift your feet high when you want to get to the seat.

The Merit 720B recumbent exercise bike comes with eight tension levels with smooth transitions between levels. It also has six preset programs; interval, manual, weight loss, rolling, cardio burn and fat blast. For novice and intermediate cyclist these programs along with the different tension levels are quite challenging and can help keeping the workout interesting. The lower handles has built-in pulse sensors so if you want to monitoring your heart rate you just need to grab them during the exercise.

Cons

The Merit 720B's manual is seriously lacking when it comes to adjusting the LCD display. It does not tell how to use the features so you need to tinker with the buttons and see what comes up.

Conclusion

If you just want to get in shape but hate the thought of spending over $1000 for an exercise equipment you could consider buying the Merit 720B recumbent exercise bike. Sure, it's nothing like the bikes you see on the gym but you can still get quality exercise on it (while shedding pounds at the same time). The assembly is a pain but once you got through that it's a joy ride.