Schwinn 231 Recumbent Exercise Bike

Comment: I've been unhappy with this bike, especially for the price. It was shipped with the wrong pedal and had to mess with getting the right one shipped and now 2 years later, that same pedal is now coming off and it appears that the arm for the pedal is faulty and now have to deal with trying to get it fixed and the warranty period is over. So just 2 years after purchasing, am having to once again deal with trying to get it fixed. While the bike has been good to work out on when the parts work, its not the quality I'm used to seeing with past Schwinn products and given the price and the problems I've had, I do not recommend it. Very disappinted.

Comment: This is a great machine. My wife and I use it every day. The easy set-up for different programs is great.
I am 69 and my wife is 73 and it allows each of us to use the machine.
The assembly instructions are the best I have ever used. All tools are furnished and every detail is included. Anyone can assemble this machine, if the instructions are followed. The user manual is simple and very well written.
We highly recommend this machine.

Comment: Too many of the reviews of this product come from people who just purchased it and are still in the early, "honeymoon" period of its ownership. I have owned my Schwinn 231 for more than a year. I have loved this unit and believe that the health benefits and weight loss I have derived from it quite literally saved my life. Like many others who have reviewed the Schwinn 231 on this site, in the early stages of ownership I recommended it and would have given it five stars without hesitation.

So with great reluctance, and taking my entire ownership experience into account, I now can only give it three stars. After having used the unit 2-3 times per week on average for the last 15 months, it is clear that the quality of the Schwinn 231 leaves too much to be desired and it simply will not give you the years of service you would want from an exercise machine. Within about three to four months of use, the unit started to creak and squeak and required a lot of adjustments to get rid of the annoyance (e.g., loosening and tightening of different screws in no discernable pattern). The console-mounted fan stopped working after a few months, which was fine since it was largely useless anyway. Within six months of regular use, the acclaimed smoothness of the pedal motion and magnetic resistance unit, which I loved so much, was gone. Higher resistance levels created a noticeable "clunking" feeling at certain degrees of rotation, but this was something I learned to live with.

I forgave and continued to love my Schwinn 231 through all of these annoyances, because of the health benefits I was deriving from using it. But then this week, the resistance unit suddenly failed. It turned out that the belt that runs the flywheel on the resistance unit slipped off because the spring-loaded belt tension unit wasn't properly fastened when the bike was assembled at the factory (in China of course), so it was a miracle that it didn't fail much earlier than it did. This out-of-warranty repair ended up costing me nearly $200 and resulted in my unit being out of service for several days.

The unit is now working again, and despite the problems I have had with my Schwinn 231, the unit still holds a warm place in my heart because of how much better I feel since I started using it. But I am truly bothered by the way it is steadily deteriorating under nothing more than regular use. The helpful people at Schwinn Fitness (who ultimately referred me to the outside repair service) revealed that there are several common long-term mechanical failures with this unit, including failure of the electric motor, that I have not yet experienced but are probably headed my way. The way in which my unit has deteriorated indicates that my unit was no lemon, but rather, a product that just wasn't really built to be extensively used.

In my opinion, if you're really serious about getting into shape and plan to use a stationary bike regularly and over a period of years, you should just bite the bullet, spend a few hundred more and buy something durable and of higher quality than the Schwinn 231 (like a Vision Fitness semi-recumbent or entry level Life Fitness, for example). The difference in price is insignificant over the long term. When you consider the cost of eventual repairs on the 231, and the loss of progress in your routine you'll experience while waiting for replacement parts from Schwinn (which will be harder to come by since this unit was very recently discontinued), your better option is to buy something else.

A couple of words about the shipping and assembly experience are warranted, also. I purchased two units, one for myself and one for my father. My unit came intact and worked, but my father's unit came damaged and required Schwinn to send out a lot of replacement parts over a period of weeks before it was working. There are a lot of reports, both on this site and elsewhere, of these units arriving with shipping damage. You've probably got a 30% chance of a unit arriving with significant shipping damage. This needs to be addressed.

Comment: After doing many hours of research, I went with this bike, and I am very glad I did. It arrived in great shape from Amazon, and I had it unpacked and put together in less than two hours. It would have been faster, had I not skipped a page in the assembly manual. Any way I have been riding this machine for a week, and love the comfort of the seat, and easy to follow onboard computer, along with its three heart rate programs. I am pleasently surprized at how well thought out the overall design of this bike is. Thank you Schwinn/Nautilus/Amazon.
P.S. I would like to thank all the reviewers for their input. It made my decision, to buy this machine so much easier. Happy Riding Everyone!

Comment: I loved this bike, I really did. I really enjoyed working out on it. It was very easy to just sit down on it, instead of the couch, and watch some TV while pedaling away. It really worked up a sweat, too. It had enough programs to keep things interesting, and enough resistance options to avoid any issues with it getting to be too easy to peddle (after a few workouts).

Here's the problem...it broke. It broke 22 days after I purchased it. Schwinn was very helpful, at least to the best of their ability. I had multiple contacts with them, and they sent me multiple parts. All of the parts they sent me, they sent without delay. We were never able to get the machine to work, though, as the part I needed was no longer available. That's right, they no longer made the part that had broken. Basically, it was a small pulley arm that held the belt on to the bike. This arm was bent, so the belt would keep slipping off. They tried to send me a replacement part, but they kept sending a part for another bike, which was shaped completely differently than the one that needed replacement.

Finally, after being tired of dealing with it for 3 months (that's right, I spent 3 months getting parts, trying them, etc., only to have it come down to needing a part that didn't exist), I gave up on it. Amazon, much to its credit, actually accepted a return. I told them about the difficulties I had, and they paid to have a delivery company come out, take the fully assembled bike out of my home, and ship it back to Amazon (who gave me a full refund).

So, I loved the bike, and I would consider purchasing another as I really liked all of the features and the feel of it. I would probably get a newer model, though, with the hope that a newer model would have better part availability. I was dissatisfied with Schwinn's ability to provide replacement parts, though they tried, thus the 3-star rating. Just the fact that it broke after 22 days is pretty sad. I was REALLY pleased with Amazon and their willingness to provide a refund.