Fitness EU Hybrid Elliptical/Upright Bike

I love this bike. For the price it is good quality and relatively quite. There was a lot of assembly and I am proud to say I was able to put it together myself. If you are uncomfortable with assembly you might want to get some help.

ProsHeavy, solidly built, and compact; base does not shift (when placed on a mat), but also mobile with wheels on back endQuiet operation and simple, good-looking design (all black, fades into background)Relatively high levels (up to 24) of resistance (compared with other, similar units for sale) and gives a good workoutComputer works well and gives a decent selection of metrics (pulse, distance, calories)Customer service was helpful when I needed one part replaced (it didn't fit). I received the replacement in about a week. They also sent me a small bolt I had lost during assembly at no charge.ConsAssembly is detailed and time-consuming with over 50 individual partsNarrow structure and will wobble if the exerciser sways from side to side, but that can be averted by not swayingExercise space is also cramped and may not be appropriate for tall people or those with long legs (I hit my knee a couple of times at first with the elliptical but then adapted my stride and have not hit it once after many sessions); the adapted stride is also a little hard on the knees at first but I don't notice that any more after getting conditioned to the machineFor the bike function, there is no transverse hand bar for a more upright and relaxed posture, only two small vertical hand bars that require a bent forward posture

A family member assembled it for me. It took about an hour. The size is perfect for small dwellings. Its IS FULL SIZE just compact. I have had this for 5 days & I'm in love. I needed exercise thru Chicago's winters. Very comfortable as a bike. Love it as an eliptical. So easy to switch back and forth. I do eliptical first and close with the bike. The stride is perfect. It feels sturdy and easy to move around. The pre-programmed settings are great. You enter your info and go manually or pick one of 15+ pre-programmed workouts. I'm only 5'3" about 135. It's perfectly sturdy. If you are taller or larger it's easy to adjust. GREAT QUALITY AND GREAT FOR THE PRICE!

Received the bike and began assembly. Unable to continue as the pedal bolt sleeve was too long for the pedal bracket so bike assembly could not continue. Communicated via phone and email to Spirit Fitness. They eventually sent replacement parts (bolts and sleeves), that unfortunately were that same as the original parts. Additional communications with Spirit Fitness to discuss the problem and I provided the requested photos. Some time later they suggested I modify the pedal brackets. Unfortunately, the pedal sleeve bolts were not long enough for the suggested modification. Returned the bike to Amazon in the original box with original packing material.

This is actually my 2nd Xterra elliptical/bike. My first one was ruined in my apartment fire. I had it for four years, and loved it. Not too fancy, but very effective. I assembled both myself without issues. It’s definitely a great workout equipment. I was so excited to be able to get the exact same model to replace the damaged one.

Overall this is a 3.5 star product, but since Amazon doesn't give that option I went with the more conservative 3 star rating as a cautionary note to prospective purchasers. The relatively cheap price ($212.99) that I paid is the main reason that the product got 3-3.5 stars. instead of lower. Other reviewers mentioned problems with delivery, parts being broken, parts missing or not fitting into their mate, electronics not working; I was lucky that absolutely nothing arrived broken, all parts were accounted for and fit together and the machine turned on and worked (yay!). But given the pain it was to assemble, if anything had been damaged, missing or not working, the inexpensive price would not have been enough to prevent me from giving it 1 star and a really, really unflattering review.Here are some additional things to consider:1. Packing for return. As a reviewer noted this machine comes in an heavy, but impossibly small box for all the parts it contains. The parts are packed in the kind of styrofoam that disintegrates into teeny little balls. Some of the longer metal tubes/rods were not surrounded by styrofoam, but rather just placed in the box. The Spouse took one look at the jumbled contents of the box and concluded that parts must be missing because the contents were such a mess. I mention this because if you get unlucky and have to pack this machine up to return it, it will be quite a chore. Maybe take a pic of the arrangement of the contents of the box before removing the parts to make repacking more do-able.2. Those 2 cardboard sheets with the nuts, etc. attached. The nuts/screws/washers/bolts needed for assembling the product came on 2 cardboard sheets that were shrink/blister wrapped so poorly that the entire contents essentially jumbled together. (By contrast, a customer-focused shrink wrap job would have shrunk each type of nut, screw, etc. to the place on the cardboard where the drawing of the item and its description was located in a way that you could take it out without having the parts in the blister next to it shift around. (We bought a cheap recumbent bike a few weeks ago from Amazon and that manufacturer did a masterful job of shrinking each piece to the cardboard backing. Not here.). If you are good at assembling stuff you can probably easily match each type of part to its drawing on the corresponding cardboard sheet and then follow the assembly instructions/diagrams. Spouse and I had no such skill, but we heeded the reviewer who advised to resist the urge to break open the shrink wrapped cardboard sheets and spread the contents out and the try to match them to the parts in the Manual. So, we put each shrink wrapped cardboard sheet in a clear plastic bin and then cut open only the portion of the blister pack that we needed, then taped the cut shut so the other parts wouldn't fall out or move around too much, put the cardboard back in its bin until we needed to take out the next part(s). Sounds stupidly tedious but without some system for managing the parts, it would have been very hard for us to know if something was missing (because the manual/diagrams are awful). Note that if you tear the cardboard you tear through the drawing of some of the parts. We took up-close pics of each cardboard sheet being careful to get a view that showed the part and the corresponding assembly "number", mm size (yup, this is all metric), etc. Some parts have only small differences in size, diameter or shape. We actually measured some with our metric ruler just to be sure.3. The abysmal EU150 Owner's Manual. The assembly instructions and associated diagrams sometimes do not match in ways that make following them a leap of faith. Go slowly. Make sure you have the correct part, and for the correct side of the machine.4. Is a part really missing or is it mated to some other part, or otherwise hiding in disguise? (a) We are eternally grateful to the reviewer who raised this red flag. Be forewarned that some screws/bolts/rods/etc. are pre-assembled with their mate, or onto some other part and the assembly instructions (text, diagrams, or both) do not always mention this. The reviewer noted that the 4 Phillips head screws needed to attach the computer monitor to the upright/holder were not actually 4 screws (as identified in the assembly instructions) but were 4 screws MOUNTED on the BACK of the monitor itself. When you are at the point of having to attach the monitor, remove the 4 screws from the back, noting which holes (of the many holes on the back) are actually the holes for the 4 screws, place the monitor on the holder and use the 4 Phillips head screws to attach the monitor. A note in the manual to this effect would have been nice. (b) Part 46 (16mm x2) are two impossibly thin, "nylon" rings that aren't excess/shavings filings, but rather washers (called "Wave Washers"). Super easy to lose or to cut through as you open the shrink wrapped cardboard. We thought they were junk when they fell out of a hole in the cardboard. Be careful. Find them. (c) Parts 45 R/L and 48R/L are identical-looking lock nut-hinge bolt assemblies packaged into the shrink wrapped cardboard with their underlying pictures facing in opposite directions. THEY ARE NOT IDENTICAL. One is for the Right foot pedal tube assembly and the hinge bolt has a small, engraved "R" on the mushroom shaped head, which you can't see until you tear into the shrink wrap (and mix the two assemblies up, as I did); the other is for the Left foot pedal tube assembly and the hinge bolt has a (similarly not-visible) engraved "L" on the head. The "R/L" in the Parts numbers refer not to the right or left side foot pedal/arm assembly, but to the right and left "HALVES" of Part 48 and of Part 45. Yes, at the appropriate time in the assembly process you need to separate (unscrew) Part 48 R/L into its two "halves" (a mushroom cap shaped hinge bolt portion and a lock nut-capped portion) even thought the instructions don't say to unscrew the Part. You then use the unscrewed "halves" (plus the additional Washer and Wave Washer) to install the corresponding pedal tube assembly. When finished following assembly instructions for that side, do the same with Part 45 R/L for the other side of the machine. All this craziness is found in the Manual, Step 4, p.9. Check and double check before you tighten the whole thing down. (d) You'd think that all of the parts for a particular step would be in order, or at least on the same shrink wrapped cardboard sheet, but this is not always the case. We thought we were missing parts that turned out to be on the other cardboard sheet.5. What's up with "Grommet (61)? Perhaps no one else would have this problem, but we hunted forever for Grommet (61) and even longer to figure out how to get the Hand Pulse Wires (63) "through" it. Grommet (61) is the little, rubber "ring" on the side of Front Post (13). In fairness the Manual shows this--if you have a magnifying glass handy. This part the Manual does not say: Gently pull the Grommet OFF the Post; the Grommet is actually a little rubber tube with a tiny slit in it. Even though the instructions say to "Insert the Hand Pulse Wires (63) through the Grommet (61) . . . then pull it out from the top of the Front Post (13) . . . ." we couldn't get the end clips of the wires "through" the Grommet. Instead we FIRST inserted Wires (63) with the end clips going first through the hole that the Grommet previously covered and into the Front Post (13), THEN we opened the Grommet (61) at the tiny slit, slipped it onto the Wires (63) and then slid the Grommet back into/covering the hole on the Front Post from which we removed it. The diagrams for all this are on Step 5, p. 10 but the written instructions are on p. 11. Hope this helps.6. Be gentle with the wires and their terminal clips. All of the wires are tiny and easy to bend/crimp to the point where the monitor may not function. Where the instructions indicate to mate or position wires before screwing down a part (e.g., the computer monitor), follow the order of the instructions because it may be the only way to get the wire/clips into a tube or locations without severely bending (and possibly breaking) the delicate (flimsy) soldering or connections. Some of this happens in Manual, Step 5, p. 10-11.7. This elliptical IS electric, not battery-operated! We had recently put together a bike that had a similar monitor with a battery compartment and Spouse swore that this elliptical also used batteries. Nope. There are no instructions in the Manual for installing batteries. This elliptical uses a power cord and plugs into a wall outlet--which other reviewers mentioned. If you want a battery-operated model, consider other products.8. Stride length is 13 inches! I am 5'2" and have never used an elliptical before, but have seen others do so in the gym, so I know what the stride is supposed to look like. I was debating whether to buy a more expensive (with equally poor reviews) elliptical-recumbent combo with a 15" stride length but chose this elliptical-recumbent solely based on its cheaper price. I have used it only once so far but do notice that the stride, even though I am pretty short, seems to be a very short ellipse. It feels a bit more "up and down", like stair climbing, than I expected, but I can manage with it. A 15" stride length probably would have been more comfortable even for me. I do feel that the moving handles have a swing/stride length that is unnaturally short, even for me, and I stopped using them in favor of just balancing using the fixed-position handles until I get the hang of the striding/stepping without holding on. Some reviewers said that they found the stride to be ok even though they were taller, but my Spouse is 5'10" and I think that the 13" stride might be too short for him. As a reviewer noted, the stride tends to "stick"/not feel continuously fluid/smooth at certain places in the elliptical motion; I guess you can't expect a gym quality machine at this price. Also, if you weigh much more than (my) 140 lbs and/or exercise very vigorously, note that the fairly compact base (especially the width) might not give you a lot of stability. At 5'2" I've got a pretty low center of gravity, but I still feel a little uneasy at the top of the stride, as if I might go over the handlebars if I leaned forward too much. I guess I will improve my core strength and posture by not leaning forward on this!Hopefully, I will get more than a year out of this machine. Even though it was on the low end of price, I would not be pleased if it didn't last at least that long.Hope all this helps in your purchase decision.