Sole SB900 Spin Bike

I am very happy with my bike, the only negative I have is that that I feel that the lowest resistance setting is too heavy. I usually go to fitness first classes, and those bikes seem to have much lower settings which is better for the sprints.
I had no issues with set up, very easy.

Great exercise bike, it is HEAVY so if you have to move it anywhere besides to the first floor and you can't press 150 lbs. get help. Heavy is a good thing when you are getting on or off or standing up in the petals. I work out pretty vigorously and I weigh 110 kg. and the bike never moves, even if I stand with all my weight on one petal getting on or off. Great adjustments for handle bars, and seat for both me 5'10" and my wife at 5'4".Super quiet and even pedaling with the belt drive. Easy to adjust tension, although I wish it would take fewer turns of the tension knob to go from easy to difficult. This is a terrific bike with all the great features one wants, except a user friendly computer. Basically, it is just to hard to figure out for me, so I just use a timer and work out as hard as I want to, the heart rate meter is fairly easy to use if you have a matching chest strap. This is my first belt drive, seriously go the upgrade to the SB900 if you are a serious exerciser.

So I was a little worried about buying this bike after reading some of the reviews on Amazon, however I looked at reviews elsewhere and the positive feedback on other sites led me to purchase it.

First off, my package arrived in great condition and was delivered by a very professional and courteous driver. There was no noticeable damage While it was heavy, the box was manageable enough for my wife and I to get it upstairs into the room it will stay in.

I opened the box, expecting a nightmare of parts. To my pleasant surprise, the bike was already mostly assembled. Installation of the bottom support bars, handle bars, pedals, and monitor was very easy. I was actually able to use the tools provided for the entire build and never felt the need to get my "real tools" from the garage.

My first ride was pretty good, and I didn't experience any issues with the resistance as some have mentioned. I weigh 122 kg and never felt as if the bike was unstable. Admittedly, I am not in the best shape, so I am unable to really test how much resistance this thing can have, but the mid-range resistance I did have felt smooth while I was riding. I did stand for portions of my workout, and once again the bike was solid.

Have had a great experience with this bike. I am a trainer and have two of the SB700 bikes and needed another one, so I upgraded and got the SB900 because of the magnets and how quiet it claimed to be. The claims are right it is very quiet, there are no pads rubbing and even at a high pace with huge watts it is quiet. I often ride in my office before clients come it and I have starting riding the 900 most often since I can run the TV at the same time at normal volume. I was a little nervous based on some of the reviews about sizing on this unit, but it is built on the same frame, as far as I can tell, as my 700 bikes and they are all fully adjustable. I run clients from 6' 5" down to 5' 2" no problem. It it was a problem I could not use them since part of my service is micro adjusting my people into a perfect bike position on the bikes in my shop, and then duplicating it on their road and mtn. bikes. SPD pedals are a nice add on but none of my clients including myself use SPD's but I see a lot of spinners that do still use them.

Overall good bike, just as good as the 700's but the magnet resistance it worth the upgrade, wish I had three 900's.

I have had the bike now for 6 months. There is rarely a day that goes by that at least one of us is not on the bike. Typical ride is 45 minutes. We are also avid outdoor road cyclists. Where we live, traffic makes riding outside after work dangerous, so this has been a GREAT option. Previously we used an old road bike on a trainer. I simply quit using it because it took too long to change the bike - I am 5'9" and my wife is 5'3". I am glad to be able to cycle daily again.

Surprisingly there are numerous mediocre and poor reviews. Primarily they center on: lack of usefulness of the resistance knob. Some complain it does not work. Neither did mine. In shipping, the wire between the magnet and the tension knob may come apart. Simply remove the bodywork and place the wire back in the receiver. It takes about 5 minutes to remove the body work and 10 seconds to fix the wire. I called Sole and they stayed on the phone while I did this. That was the only problem. The other complaints were about how far you had to turn the knob to notice an increase in resistance. That is true and I think its a benefit. It takes about 10 full turns to go from ridiculously easy to Col de Tourmalet hard. Plenty of settings in between. NOT like a cheap, noisy spin bike with only a few settings... One said it was too heavy. Why didn't you read the specs before you bought it? The heavy flywheel also makes it durable, quiet, efficient, and have a great range. You're probably never going to move it anyway. If you need something that goes in and out of a closet - this is not for you. Some said it was a lengthy process to reset the monitor. I guess if you call pressing the right button while the unit sits on total time for 3 seconds lengthy...

This is a great piece of equipment and was nearly half the price of the Keiser - the only other I would consider after MUCH research. I expect this to be more heirloom than disposable. There really aren't many things made like this anymore.

CONS: Not a po...

I've never had an exercise bike before so I don't have a real point of comparison but I have seen them in stores and tried them there and at friends' homes. I can say that this Sole SB900 feels sturdier and of better quality than most. I've had it for a couple months now and love it. Just got cycling shoes recently and it's a better experience than using the cage part of the pedals with regular shoes. The bike gives a great workout and I always want to use it. I had read some complaints about the monitor but it's fine. It's not a fancy integrated one like on certain bikes but it definitely does its job. It's a standalone/wireless monitor that receives a signal from a component connected to the flywheel. It gives readings for all relevant data for proper motivation and monitoring: speed/rpm, calories, distance.

When I received it, there did not seem to be any damage to the box. However, when I opened it up the part of the frame that connects to the front crossbar that contacts the floor was bent. Must've happened at manufacturing because, as I said, there was no damage to the box to indicate it had been dropped. Rather than go through all the trouble of repacking and shipping (it's very heavy - flywheel and frame - which I correlate to good quality) I hammered it out with much effort because it's strong and thick steel and got it to fit the floor crossbar. The blemish/damage isn't visible because it's at floor level and on the inside, not visible (hard to describe beyond that).

Overall, though, great bike and I'm really happy with it. I paid extra for the magnetic resistance flywheel on the SB900 (vs. the SB700) and it seems great. The 900 is also supposed to be quieter than the 700 but I've never tried the 700 for comparison. But I can say it's a very quiet bike even at high speeds, and much quieter than my brother's cheaper exercise bike (different brand and cheaper quality). So far I think this bike was well worth the investment and would have no qualms recom...

Not quite as user friendly as our previous bike. But the price was right and shipping was good.

The box is big....and heavy! But so worth it,the bike is amazing,quality craftsmanship.only noise You hear is the sound of your heart beating out of your chest...no joke,whisper quiet & smooth the many adjustments are fast and appreciated,my spd's clicked right in...again very nice. Would buy again no problem