Lifespan Fitness RC-300 Recumbent Bike

Look carefully at the warranty as it will indicate true life of product – I bought a LifespanRC-300 Recumbent Bike from Harvey Norman online mainly because I thought it would have an association with local store. Was wrong. The Lifespan site implied a 5 year warranty life but after I had a problem I realised I should have read further. The real warranty is for 12 months and is only about providing parts with the risk of being hit with costs if they decide the failure to be your fault. Remember the RC-300 is mostly a sealed unit. I had previous exercise bikes which had lasted well over 5 years and expected the same from this unit at twice the cost but barely got over 19 months before it stopped working. Contacted Harvey Norman who replied with Lifespan response - out of warranty, determine what is wrong, they will send parts but I will have to pay for them or send bike back, pay transport each way plus parts and labour. To send it would cost over $200! Add parts and labour! In all probability to have to do it again in around the same time frame. I would not recommend buying this bike as I believe that it will not do what most buyers will expect. I am an elderly person and except for a few occasions I have used this bike on the lower manual settings (it gets to hard to quickly) so if it only lasts a short time for me how long would it last for a younger stronger person. I am unsure of I will do next. In all probability it may be better cut my losses, scrap this bike and buy a cheaper one from another supplier .

A "Top Notch" recumbent exercise bike – First off, I am a fitness freak. I exercise 2-3 hours a day. I have found that recumbent bikes burn alot more energy than upright bikes. Over the last 20 years i have burned my way through many recumbent bikes, some last a year, some even less. I have 2 of these bikes, and they are still going strong after 3 years each. I ride on a heavy setting (2 from the top) for 2 X 55 mins a day, and they haven't fallen apart yet!!! Much better than any crap bike that you'd find on eBay.

I have no idea what the other reviewer was bitching about, it has 20 levels of resistance, for heavens sake did they expect the bike to ride for them????

I highly recommend this product!!!

This is not a true Recumbent Bike – I purchased this Lifespan Fitness Recumbent Bike from a dealer online. After 2 hours of building it, I was very disappointed to find it isn't a true recumbent bike just an exercise bike with a chair on it. I have osteo-arthritis and was looking for a "low-impact" bike that I could build up my strength for a hip replacement in a few months. This bike has large crank arms 170mm in the wrong place, making a very large circumference, which means your knees go up past the 90 degree angle and all the impact goes through your knees, this is very painful. Recumbent bikes should not cause any impact through the joints as they are advertised.

The seat is not height adjustable just length of leg, so I could not lower the seat so my legs would go through a 30 degree angle, they just went higher. I tried every setting to get this bike to do what is advertised and that is be low-impact on joints.

Total waste of money, unreturnable unless at considerable shipping cost paid by yourself.

If you suffer from knee arthritis, hip arthritis or both, a recumbent bike is probably not for you. All this bike does is save your back and should be advertised as such.