Stamina Elite Total Body Recumbent Bike Review

Stamina Elite Recumbent Bike – A Good Buy For You?

 

The Stamina Elite recumbent bike is a popular starter bike with something you don’t often find on an exercise bike – upper body arm training.

You can work your legs with the lower body pedals – and your arms with the upper hand pedals.

So you can get a total body workout with this bike.

You also get up to 8 levels of resistance and an adjustable padded seat for added comfort.

Is the Stamina Elite Total Body recumbent bike a good buy for you?

Here’s a review of what to know before you buy:

 

The Basics:

Price: $899 With Free Shipping Here

Resistance Levels: 8

User Weight Capacity: 250 lbs

Footprint: 52 in x 24 in x 49 in

Adjustable Hand pedals

Product Weight: 117 Pounds

 

 

Stamina Elite Recumbent Bike Review – Key Benefits:

 

Work Your Upper Body With Arm Pedals

This is something you don’t usually see on a recumbent bike- upper body arm pedals. You turn them with your arms just like you turn the footpedals with your feet. They are really like rollers that you grasp and then turn.

You can do them at the same time as you pedal – or just work your upper body with the arm pedals separately. They’re easy to reach from the seat – you don’t have to sit forward to reach them (for most people).

You don’t usually find this on a bike – especially a recumbent – so it’s a nice option to get a more total body workout with this bike.

 

 

8 Levels of Magnetic Resistance

The resistance on this bike is old school – you turn the knob to the desired setting and that adjusts the resistance. This can give you some extra workout challenge and let you build in some high-intensity intervals into your training.

 

Padded Seat and Seatback

Both the seat and seatback are padded for extra comfort. And you can adjust the seat forward or back to find the right fit for you. (There is no vertical or angular seat adjustment on this bike).

 

Sturdy Construction

The bike comes with sturdy steel construction which should hold up fairly well over the long term. There are also textured pedals with straps to secure your feet for those heavy, intense pedalling sessions.

 

Hand Grip Pulse Sensors

Stay in your target fat-burning heart rate range with the EKG hand grip pulse sensors. These are located on the handlebars on either side of your seat. You don’t have to reach up to the console to do it – which is a nice, convenient touch.

 

 

 

 

Stamina Elite Recumbent Review – Any Drawbacks?

Unfortunately there are quite a few drawbacks to this bike that you should consider before buying:

 

Small, Non-Backlit Console

The console is very small and simple on this bike. It’s not backlit which could make it hard to read. While it gives you feedback on your speed, distance, calories and heart rate, it toggles back and forth, which can be annoying.

 

Can’t Set the Resistance on the Arm Pedals

While you can apply the resistance to the footpedals for extra challenge you can’t set the resistance to the arm pedals at the same time. So it can feel a bit uneven when pedalling with both arms and legs.

 

Seat Adjustment

While Stamina advertises this as an angled seatback (and it is), some people misunderstand that to mean you can change the angle of the seatback on this bike. And you can’t. You can adjust it forward and back – but that’s about it.

 

No Built-in Workouts

There are no built-in workouts included with this bike. There’s also no working tracking or even an iPod dock so you can play your favorite workout music. At this price point, you would expect at least a few of these things as other brands do have them.

 

Bottom Line?

If you’re looking for an affordable starter bike that lets you work your upper and lower body at the same time, you may appreciate the Stamina Elite recumbent bike. Unfortunately aside from the upper body arms however, it really falls down in terms of value for the money.

It’s fairly simple and frankly, it doesn’t give you as much compared to other brands at a similar price point.

But overall it does what it needs to do – work your upper and lower body with a simple, straightforward workout. And if you can get it cheap then it might be worth considering. Just be sure to review our cons listed above before you buy.

You might also want to compare it to bikes like the Nordictrack VR21 – which gives you a much larger backlit console, a lot more resistance levels more entertainment options and lots of built-in workouts – for about $100 less.

 

 

Where to Buy and Save:

You can get the Stamina Elite recumbent at a discount with Free Shipping here. You can also read the latest user reviews and get a feel for what people are really saying about this bike.

 

Click Here to Save on the Stamina Total Body Recumbent