FourMat
Sat, February 21st, 2004, 11:01 PM
About three weeks ago we purchased a Weslo 710 Elliptical Trainer. We picked it up at Walmart for $194.71. We had a hard time finding it because it was a very popular item, and was selling out pretty quickly when new shipments came in.
We tried it in the store and liked it better than one they had for about $150. It had a much better range of motion, seemed pretty smooth and felt a lot more solid.
When we got it home, it was totally unassembled in the box. We had to assemble everything except the inner workings of the magnetic wheel, which wasn't a problem for me but may not be easy for everyone depending on their mechanical skills.
The machine had no roller bearings but utilizes greased bushings. You are required to assemble the pivots and apply the provided grease. This can get extremely messy, so be warned not to assemble it on your carpet. You WILL get grease on the floor. Put down some old sheets or something until it's totally finished and ready to use. Have some rags or paper towels ready. The instruction manual was adequate and pretty easy to understand.
After using the machine every day for three weeks, we found that the machine started to knock and squeak. It wasn't too afully bad, but I found it annoying.
But I have a $3.00 easy fix! When you assemble the machine, get some nylon washers from the local hardware store and insert them at the pivot points as shown in the photos. Use a little bit of grease on there and you'll have a solid quiet machine.http://www.racenerd.com/weslo1.jpg
http://www.racenerd.com/weslo2.jpg
http://www.racenerd.com/weslo3.jpg
As far as the electronics are concerned, I wasn't that impressed. The hear rate monitor is about useless. It comes on randomly when you grab the handles, and you have a hard time getting it back to the heartrate when it scans the rest of the information like mph and distance. If you buy it, don't plan on using the built in heart rate.
In summary: I would recommend this machine if you are on a budget, don't need the electronics, and don't mind a little tweeking to get it just right. Now that's it's quiet again, I'm happy with it.
We tried it in the store and liked it better than one they had for about $150. It had a much better range of motion, seemed pretty smooth and felt a lot more solid.
When we got it home, it was totally unassembled in the box. We had to assemble everything except the inner workings of the magnetic wheel, which wasn't a problem for me but may not be easy for everyone depending on their mechanical skills.
The machine had no roller bearings but utilizes greased bushings. You are required to assemble the pivots and apply the provided grease. This can get extremely messy, so be warned not to assemble it on your carpet. You WILL get grease on the floor. Put down some old sheets or something until it's totally finished and ready to use. Have some rags or paper towels ready. The instruction manual was adequate and pretty easy to understand.
After using the machine every day for three weeks, we found that the machine started to knock and squeak. It wasn't too afully bad, but I found it annoying.
But I have a $3.00 easy fix! When you assemble the machine, get some nylon washers from the local hardware store and insert them at the pivot points as shown in the photos. Use a little bit of grease on there and you'll have a solid quiet machine.http://www.racenerd.com/weslo1.jpg
http://www.racenerd.com/weslo2.jpg
http://www.racenerd.com/weslo3.jpg
As far as the electronics are concerned, I wasn't that impressed. The hear rate monitor is about useless. It comes on randomly when you grab the handles, and you have a hard time getting it back to the heartrate when it scans the rest of the information like mph and distance. If you buy it, don't plan on using the built in heart rate.
In summary: I would recommend this machine if you are on a budget, don't need the electronics, and don't mind a little tweeking to get it just right. Now that's it's quiet again, I'm happy with it.