Overall Good Value
So you know where I'm coming from I'll tell you up front I am a male in the baby boomer generation. In the summer time I enjoy riding my bike around the neighborhood at least a couple times a week. My bike is in the genre called a comfort bike and I'm comfortable with about 10 miles per ride though my goal is to get back up to the 16 or more that I used to do before I took a couple year hiatus. I also bought my wife a bike for neighborhood rides this year but she has not ridden for quite a while and so has a long way to go to get up to even get to be able to do a 10 miler.
We bought the Pro-Form 450 UR so we could stay on it through the cold snowy winter months and be ready for next spring. We bought it from someone who had owned it for a while but never even broke the seal on the box. Our bike was built in December 2006 and assembled and used for the first time in November 2008.
As of this writing we've only had it for a few days and only put a few miles on it. I'm sure you know that one of the features of this bike is that it has games on it. For me the games are a good diversion even though they are very rudimentary. I played the "Tetris" style game and the "Destroyer" game years ago but even then I was playing them in color where as this display is an extremely low resolution monochrome. I don't know how the younger generation would be attracted to these games when they are used to what they have now. Maybe they'd stick to the blackjack and Texas hold-em card games. The obvious point of the games and as I said above it worked for me is to keep your mind off the exercise routine. Of course you could always watch TV or a movie. The machine is very quiet and I found I do not have to increase the TV volume at all to hear well.
The other features seem to be fairly comprehensive though I have not owned another exercise bike so I have nothing to compare it to. It uses the SMR (Silent Magnetic Resistance) which I like much better than cranking some dial to cause friction and it seems to work very well with 16 resistance levels. By the time you get to level 16 you are climbing one heck of a hill at least for a baby boomer. It has 10 built in programs which I have not tried only looked at. There appears to be a good variety keeping in mind that I have no comparison. The readouts are large and easily readable for speed distance time and heart rate. I'm having to assume they are fairly accurate I have no way of checking.
The bike is very solid. Heavy strong metal is used and it gives you a feeling of stability. The seat post and glide are very substantial. The seat is large and soft though I have thought of wearing my padded biker shorts anyway with my bony [...]. It's even quite a good looking machine in case you have it where others might see it. Speaking of the seat it can be adjusted a great distance in height and some in horizontal. My wife is about 5'8" and she has to set it almost to the bottom setting so I wonder about a short person. Maybe by bringing the seat forward they would be okay. On the other hand I think a person of 6' 6" or even taller could use it comfortably with the maximum height.
All in all I would say it is a good investment. However there is one major flaw that you should know about before you make a purchase. If you want to use an exercise program on the machine you cannot also play a game while you go through it. The instant you start a program or switch to a game or vice versa you start fresh. Even if you go from one game to another or you've been in manual mode and you decide to play a game you start all over. All the time info miles calories burned starts from scratch. So if you do want to keep track of any of that information you better not make any changes once you've started. Or if you want to switch around then just forget the calorie or distance count and look at a clock or set a manual timer.More detail ...
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