I love spinning. I especially love spinning on a good spinning bike. Instead of spending the money on a gym membership, I decided to spend the money on a bike which is pretty much the only reason I go to the gym.

I prepared for a long distance bike trip (Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City) on this spinning bike. It's comfortable, easy to work and most importantly, I don't have to wipe someone else's sweat off of it.

In short, this item does not ship well. Our first shipment was in such bad shape we should have taken a video of it and posted it on YouTube. The box was severely damaged and parts of the bike were sticking out at weird angles. The first thing the UPS person said was, "you probably want to refuse this." And we did. Amazon was great at shipping out another bike, but even that shipment was delivered in very questionable shape. At 130 pounds, this was no light shipment. After unpacking the bike is in surprisingly good shape. A couple slight blemishes, but nothing major so far. The problem here is that this is very heavy, and the box/shipping materials are not up to the job. I don't see how this bike can be shipped via UPS without any damage.

Oh, and because this is over $400, Amazon will set up a signature requirement with UPS, so you have to be at home to take delivery.

There are a couple things not included that you'll need to assemble the bike. 1) an adjustable wrench in addition to the wrench they supply, 2) Some grease used as anti-seize, 3) Schwinn brake bad lube. I had the first two, but don't know what the third is, or where to get it. It would have been nice to have two little packages of grease and lube included with a $1000 bike.

I'll update the review with comments on the functionality of the bike after we've used it for a couple weeks.

2 stars because this is basically unshipable without a high probability of damage.

I purchased this Schwinn IC Elite Indoor Cycling Exercise Bike after a lot of research and was still apprehensive. I have added look style toe clips for a more realistic experience. Can't beat it for winters, bad weather, and early mornings before work. After 3 yrs I've gotten a lot of use out of it. It provides a great workout. For some odd reason I still feel like it would like some panel reading on distance traveled, but for now I just watch soccer and bike for an hour.

I ordered this bike and after three days of staring at order status of "This order is being readied for shipping and cannot be canceled" I emailed and asked why it was taking so long. Amazon canceled my order and I was forced to get in back of the line again. Amazon has truly gone downhill. I have been a customer for over 5 years and every time I place an order the service gets worse and worse. My advice is that you buy this bike somewhere else

Great bike. Why deal with the gym when you can ride at home?