Product is defective! After spending 3 hours putting it together, battling incomplete instructions, the VERY last component I tried to attach (the left pedal) was defective. Either the part of the pedal that screws into the crankshaft was too large, or the hole on the crankshaft where the pedal screws into is too small. But the pedal simply won't fit. So my options are (1) I could request that the manufacturer send me just a replacement pedal. Who knows if they would even do that, and if they did, if it is in fact a defective pedal. It might turn out that it's the crankshaft that's defective, in which case, to get the pedal to fit, I would have to (2) find someone with a boring device to widen the hole on the crankshaft (without ruining the threads), or (3) return the whole unit and reassemble another one (which I can tell you now, is NOT going to happen). So, now that the biggest flaw has been covered, let me tell you about the poor instructions. They leave out, between steps 2 and 3, that you need to feed the computer's cabling through the front upright tube. Thankfully, I had the common sense to realize this before attaching the piece to the unit's main frame. But getting the cables through the pipe was a pain. You'll need to undo and then rebundle the cables yourself (I reused their twistee). My solution was then to feed some twine through the front upright tube first. Make the string long enough that you can tie it off somewhere (I wrapped it around the tension adjustor knob. Then tie the other end of the twine around the cabling that you bundled. Now, you can't just pull the cabling through, because you need to first connect the tension adjustment control wire from the front upright tube to the main frame (their Step 3). Below, I've listed two things they left out of the instructions that were fundamental to me being able to assemble this. First: turn the tension adjustment knob all the way down... you'll see the control wire extend about a centimeter (believe me, you'll need all the length you can get). Second: just below the metal bracket on top of the lower cable that extends from the main frame (figure 3 in their instructions), there is a small nut. If, like the bike we purchased, after adjusting the tension knob all the way down, you are still unable to connect the thing, you'll have to loosen this nut, and screw it down to the bottom of the bolt it is on. Then you'll have to rotate the metal bracket down along the same bolt (you'll have to pinch the part the resistance wire connects to each time you rotate the bracket) until it is also at the very bottom of the bolt. NOW, there will be enough length to complete step 3b. Remember, once you've snapped the resistance cable into place (step 3c), to rotate the bracket and nut back up the bolt so that there is once again a good deal of tension in the line. Beyond that, the wrench that they included was slightly too large for the bolts. It kept slipping as I was trying to tighten the various bolts in the assembly process. I just used my own tools whenever I could. Also, for Step 7, even though the electrical connectors protruding from the seat cushion adjustor are available and usable without untying them, make sure you untie them. It seemed to me that if one didn't, they would get cut when you tightened the handlebar tubes into place. There... if this didn't scare you away from this product, I don't know what will. (although I think this diatribe pointed out most if not all of the pitfalls along the way). I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with mine. (sorry... Overstock's review box doesn't accept line breaks, so apparently this is all one run-on paragraph.)
- How often do you shop at Overstock.com? First time
- Are you a Club O Member? No
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