Schwinn 231 Recumbent Exercise Bike Reviewed

When I first tried out the Schwinn 230 recumbent exercise bike, I was extremely pleased.  For the price of $400, I thought it was an excellent deal.  Then the Schwinn 231 exercise bike came along and captured my attention.  It was$149 more than the 230.  Was it worth it?  I had to find out.

My favorite thing about the 230 was that it was quiet.  Oftentimes the only sounds made were coming from me -- either from the material of my pants rubbing together when using the bike, or an occasional satisfactory grunt from getting a good workout.  Would the 231 have the same silence?

Indeed it did.  I love having a virtually silent exercise bike, and the Schwinn 231 achieves just that.  In the past, it was unheard of to get such silent operation from any exercise bike.  Which kind of was a drag because I loved to use my bike while watching television.  However, sometimes it gave me a headache because two sounds were competing for my attention -- the sound of the exercise bike and the sound of the television.

The one drawback to the Schwinn 231 is that it took me longer to assemble it.  It only took me about an hour to put together the 230, while it took me closer to two hours to assemble the 231.

While I cannot speak from personal experience, I had a friend who has used Schwinn exercise bikes in the past.  He was the one who turned me on to the Schwinn 231.  One of the things that he liked about Schwinn was that they have excellent customer service.  He said that he had something he thought was wrong with his bike, so he gave customer support call.  It turns out he had assembled the bike improperly, and with a few minutes they guided him on how to fix it.  Problem solved!

Do not mistake this for a minor point.  If you've ever had to deal with customer support for fitness equipment, usually you'll find you're dealing with somebody who knows even less about the equipment than you do.  Which is a bummer because most exercise equipment is an expensive investment. 

However, even though I have a lot of good things to say about the Schwinn 231, I do not think it was worth the extra they were charging.  In the end, I'd be completely happy with the Schwinn 230.  However, if I could find a Schwinn 231 for the same price, then I would go with that.

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