Review: Schwinn 270 Indoor Exercise Bike

I previously blogged about selecting an exercise bike and what led us to select the Schwinn 270. Now that I've been using it for 2 weeks, here's my review.

The Schwinn 270 is a recumbent bike, meaning it has a full-size seat you can recline in. It is comfortable; you aren't hunched over, and the seat distance adjusts easily with a lever on the right side. It has a magnetic flywheel which avoids the wear and tear of a direct contact flywheel, and is nearly maintenance free.

Heart Rate Monitoring

You can grip the side bars or the front handlebars, but the side bars have a heart rate monitor. The right side of the display shows your heart rate. This is a bit finicky: if you don't grip the side bars just right with both hands, your heart rate won't register. Since my focus is on weight loss, I'm not terribly concerned about heart rate monitoring. If I was, I might invest in the optional heart rate chest strap sensor.

Pedals

The pedals are a bit shorter than I expected: you pedal with the balls of your feet, and the lower portion of your foot isn't supported. The pedals have adjustable safety straps, which help keep your feet on the pedals. Pedaling itself is very smooth.

Quiet

It's a delightfully quiet bike, except for the panel beeping loudly whenever you press a button. That kills any thought of exercising quietly in the early morning before your spouse is awake. Fortunately, you can turn off the beeping in the settings. Now when I exercise, the loudest sound I make comes from the Velcro straps when I'm putting on my exercise shoes.

Panel

The Schwinn 270 has a nice panel with a good size display on top and a reasonable button layout on the bottom. My only complaint is that the button panel is not backlit: if you're up before it's light, you either have to turn on a light or find the right buttons by touch.

There's no on/off switch. The panel eventually turns off when idle. Pedaling or pressing any of the buttons will bring it back to life.

Multi-User

Up to 4 users are supported, which is nice for keeping your exercise stats separate. The first order of business is to press the User button until your name is displayed.

Programs

You can click Quick Start to begin a manual workout. To run a programmed exercise sequence, press the Programs button. Use the up/down arrows to sequence through the available programs.

Quick Goals gives you flat terrain with little resistance.

There are plenty of more interesting sequences, grouped into categories like Fun Rides (Rolling Hills, Ride in the Park, Easy Tour, Stream Crossing), Mountains (Pike's Peak, Mount Hood, Pyramids Summit Pass), and Challenges (Uphill Finish, Cross Training, Interval, Stairs). You can also create a custom program, but I haven't done that yet.

Goals

Once you select a program, you're asked to set a goal. You can choose a time goal (such as 30 minutes), a distance goal (such as 4 miles), or a calorie goal (such as 200 calories). Once the program starts, you'll get a countdown to your goal. For example, the display below shows a 100-calorie goal counting down. Regardless of which type of goal you choose, the bottom of the display always shows your time, distance, and calories.

Adjusting Resistance

Resistance (pedaling difficulty) will change with the program you're running. You can adjust resistance manually with the Resistance up/down controls or the numbered resistance level buttons on the left and right. Even when you're running a program, you can change the resistance manually any time you wish, which is nice. When the resistance changes, you hear some minor mechanical sounds from the flywheel area.

Phone & Tablet Integration

The panel has a shelf for holding a phone or tablet. I'll sometimes put my phone there and run the Explore the World app, which shows biking sequences at a rate synced to my pedal rate (the bike connects to the phone with Bluetooth). I'll be doing a separate blog post on this app in the near future. The bike panel also has a USB phone charging port and an audio jack.

Cycling through Tuscany: Explore the World app

Workouts

We put our bike in our bedroom against the window, from which the TV can be seen. We got the bike two weeks before the end of the year, knowing full well we'd be eating a lot for Christmas and New Years celebrations. Nevertheless, I thought it wise to get started on building the habit of daily exercise. I knew I'd have to motivate myself to exercise. I eliminated as many negatives and excuses as possible when we selected this bike, and provided as many incentives as possible for entertainment.

My wife Becky and I now each do our workouts in the morning, before we shower and dress. In the first week, my goal was 30 minutes of exercise time each morning. That went okay. I started simply and tried some different programs each day. I'd watch a countryside sequence on the Explore My World app. By the second week, I'd purchased workout clothing and upped my time goal to 45 minutes each day. Watching TV definitely helps the time pass. I'm binging a series on Netflix and only allow myself to watch it when I'm exercising.

I'm pleased that we're keeping up the daily routine: it helps to do this with someone else. Neither of us wants to be the one to abandon the routine. Even that one day when we went to the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens and walked all day, we still did our morning exercises. We can now exercise year-round, regardless of what's going on with the weather.

It's too early to expect results from our modest start, but I'll be posting my progress periodically to stay accountable. Now that January is here, it's time to be eating more responsibly and keep up the daily exercise routine. As food intake decreases and exercise increases, we're on our way to a good place.

In conclusion, I like the Schwinn 270 very much. It's sturdy, comfortable, quiet, and easy to use. Its display and button panel are well-designed. It comes with a decent number of exercise programs, and supports multiple kinds of goals and multiple users. Its most annoying feature, loud beeping, can be turned off. If you're thinking of getting an indoor exercise bike, I recommend it.