I’m doing something different today. I’m reviewing an exercise bike I bought recently, with a section at the end especially for people with knee problems.
First, cycling can be a great activity for bad knees. However, a few things are important before you make cycling your knee rehab activity: (1) Your knee must have good range of motion, so that you can go through the full pedal stroke without discomfort during or after (2) Your knee must “like” cycling – different knees like and don’t like different activities (3) You need to be able to control the effort expended so you don’t overdo it.
Number three is why you should consider using an exercise bike as opposed to cycling around the neighborhood, especially if the neighborhood happens to be hilly, or has a lot of traffic lights that cause you to stop and go a lot. Generally, cycling steadily at a low resistance (or backwards for no resistance at all) is much easier to do on an exercise bike.
Now a short lead-in, explaining how this Schwinn wound up in my basement’s exercise room:
The death of my old stationary bike, a Bodyfit 90x (that came with the house that we bought in April 2014) made buying a replacement necessary. The drive belt frayed apart. (As I had a little free time, I disassembled the bike, scavenging interesting-looking bolts and other pieces. There was a beautiful cast-iron flywheel inside, but even thinking creatively, I could see no future use for it, so reluctantly placed it curbside with the trash.)
On to the review:
The Schwinn 170 (MY17) plugs into the wall and has a detailed console. A user can choose from a selection of rides, from mountains to light cruising through the park (or you can just start spinning away on a flat course, if you wish). The Schwinn is Bluetooth enabled (for geeky super-connectivity). It also supposedly syncs with some virtual reality devices (which I think is cooler).
The seat adjusts for varying heights (warning: it’s a bit limited on the top end – a proper cyclist sets up a seat for a near-full leg extension, and following that rule of the thumb on the Schwinn will only get you to a 6’ 2” or 6’ 3” person, it appears. I’m 6’ 0”, and my seatpost setting is only one hole above the safety warning.)
Set up: It comes in a heavyish box. I set up mine in one hour forty minutes and easily could have done it faster, had I needed to. Unpacking the pieces and laying them out on the floor (always your best strategy) took a good fifteen to twenty minutes of that assembly time. The nice thing is there aren’t too many parts to deal with. Some negatives on the assembly: the included Phillips-head screwdriver on the multi-purpose tool isn’t a good fit for the screws, so be careful not to strip them (I used a smaller screwdriver from my toolbox). Also, like most exercise bikes in this price range, it has its share of cheapish molded plastic. The main shroud, for example, isn’t designed particularly well and doesn’t fit as well as it should.
Pros:
* Very quiet and smooth.
* Value: It was $324 on Amazon with free shipping (when I bought it). I would call that a good value for an exercise bike that has all these features.
* The resistance spans an impressive range: 1 is very easy (my wife, a non-cyclist who gets little exercise and who kind of has a bum knee, thought 4 was fairly easy). At the high end, level 25 will grind even a Tour de France rider into dust in short order.
Cons:
* The pedaling speed measurements are terrible. On a regular bike, I can sprint at 30 miles per hour or higher; if I crank up the resistance and put forth the same effort, this bike registers about 24 mph (my old Bodyfit was much more accurate). On the low end, I can barely pedal and still get credit for 10, 11 mph. Because the speed is close to useless, I wouldn’t put much credence in the reported distance (as distance is a function of time multiplied by speed, and we already know the speed is off).
* The seat is spongy and looks ample for the largest of derrieres, but not that comfortable. I did gradually get used to it.
* The “media tray” is friendly to the iPad user or DVD watcher; it is not very good for physical books.
* I think the console could be better laid out. For example, the right side is devoted to showing what percentage of your maximum heartrate you’re at, in 10% increments. To save space, just put that number in a box. Also, a better system would allow the user to input their own maximum heartrate, as there can be high variability here (I know a 56-year-old who has a max heartrate of 185, when “normal” for a man that age is about 165!)
For the knee pain sufferer: Yes, you can pedal backwards with no resistance, if you want to. If you can handle the lowest level of resistance, or 1, you should be able to get in a nice, easy ride. Also, the bike’s smooth ride is favorable for knee rehabbing.
So that’s my take on the Schwinn 170 (M17) – and if you’re wondering why the “MY17”, it apparently signifies the later edition of the bike.
Hopefully I’ll be able to do a few more cycling-related reviews in the months to come. I’d love to review Zwift, which is kind of like an immersive cycling world, but the monthly fee of $15 has put me off. If I’m going to spend money for indoor cycling equipment, I really don’t want to be shelling out for montly subscriptions on top of that, unless they’re really cheap.
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