When last we discussed it (and I am not linking to it, because it is in a post about election night plans and I don’t think any of us want or need that right now), I had chosen this Exerpeutic Recumbent exercise bike: the same brand as the one we’d had and liked, but recumbent in case that was better, and a good price. The only downside was that the estimated delivery was a MONTH later. But it was the bike I wanted, and I still had well over two months before my knee surgery.

After a month had gone by and the bike still hadn’t even shipped let alone arrived, Amazon canceled the order without explanation. This was a blow: it was okay to wait when we were waiting for The Right Bike, but now we’d wasted a month of waiting, a month when I could have been using the bike pre-knee-surgery. William and I tried not to plummet into despair. (He uses the exercise bike regularly and was quite affected by the breaking of the earlier bike and then the delay.)

I asked William if he would be willing to research a new bike, and he said he was. His research mostly involved asking around in his various online exercise communities, and he came back with the information that there were two camps: first camp says you cannot get a good exercise bike for under $500 (that was my cut-off) and in fact not for under $1500; second camp says Sunny bikes are inexpensive and terrific. We allied ourselves with the second camp, and ordered a Sunny bike. (William suggested the Standard, but I thought I might want some of the app availability of the Smart model.)

(image from sunnyhealthfitness.com)

The bike arrived a week and a half later (there were holidays in there) with free shipping, and it’s exactly what I was looking for. We’ve only had it a few days, so I can’t report on its durability, but it is QUIET and it is COMFORTABLE, and the recumbent style makes it MUCH EASIER to read and/or play on my phone while using it, which makes me MUCH MORE LIKELY to actually use it.

My only complaint involved the ordering process: I found it very difficult to tell the differences among the various bike options—and some options were only available if you clicked on a bike and then selected a different level of expense (Elite, Standard, Smart, etc.). William and I sat at the computer for perhaps half an hour, saying “Wait, is that the one we clicked on before, or a different one?” And they’re all basically named the same thing. Even knowing which one we ordered, I had to go back into my order history and literally click on it so that I could give you an accurate link and a picture. The main differences between one bike and another seemed to be (1) whether the back of the seat was mesh or solid, (2) number of app features, and (3) arm-exercising options.

There is a Cyber Monday sale (it is of course extended, as all Cyber Monday sales are, so it is still happening through Wednesday and possibly for the rest of our natural lives): 20% off with code CM20. If I’ve done that math correctly, it brings the $270 bike down to $216. I THINK if you click this link to the site and then buy something I get “points” for referring you, but don’t worry if it doesn’t work, and ESPECIALLY if it doesn’t work with the sale (GET THE SALE): the points are discounts off future orders, and I am not likely to be purchasing many more pieces of exercise equipment. But if you DO click the points link, and then you want to find the same bike I bought, the product number of the bike is SF-RB4616SMART. (And if you are reading this after the 20% off sale has ended, I THINK the link is supposed to give you 15% off—but let me know if it doesn’t, because there’s an option for me to send an email to a friend giving them 15% off.)