Marcy ME-709 Recumbent Exercise Bike Review

The Marcy ME-709

Marcy has a solid reputation for making quality, premium, easy to use exercise equipment. The creator of Marcy has been training with professional athletes since the young age of 19 and knows exactly what his customers want. His passion and innovative approach to exercise equipment manufacturing shows in all of the Marcy products. Their idea of creating high-quality equipment while still trying to pass savings on to their customers is a breath of fresh air in the exercise equipment market.

The ME-709 demonstrates the Marcy mission by providing a solid exercise bike at an affordable price point. This allows everyone the opportunity to get in on one of the best exercise bikes to get fit without going broke in the process. This particular exercise bike is not aimed at appeasing professional athletes as those kinds of products are more expensive and offer more rigorous workouts than the average person really requires. The design is impeccable as it feels as if the designer knew exactly what to look for that the average person really needs. Attention to detail is evident as almost everything a beginner would want is included on this model. Read the full Marcy ME-709 recumbent exercise bike review below to see if this bike works best for you.

If you are new to exercise bikes, make sure you read our tips on using your exercise bike for the first time to get the most out of your workout.

Portability and Space Saving

One of the better features with the Marcy recumbent bike is that it allows you to set up your workout area almost anywhere you desire. The wheels and lightweight nature of this product allow you easily move the exercise bike throughout your home (even upstairs without much trouble). Moreover, this is a low profile exercise bike and doesn’t require a ton of room for you to be able to operate it effectively. As the bike is easily moved, it can be set up in the living room for some entertainment during your workout and then moved back to storage after the workout has been completed without too many problems.

While this is a lightweight piece of exercise equipment, it is still manufactured in a way to promote stability and sturdiness. It is rated at being able to support up to 300 lbs., but many have reported exceeding this limit without any issues. Although it is always advisable to heed the manufacturers recommended limits, it is nice to know that should the need arise, it can most likely handle the additional weight.

Affordable Exercise Bike

Recumbent fitness bikes can often be very expensive equipment to purchase for the average user. While gyms and fitness centers commonly purchase the top-tier versions of these, the average person isn’t usually willing to shed that much money on an exercise bike. Fortunately, the Marcy ME-709 provides a nice balance of features, solid construction, and affordability. While you may not get all of the features that you would expect from one you use in the gym, it does do a good job at what it is designed for…getting you to sweat. Solid materials are used during construction, but lightweight enough to keep the weight reasonable (60 lbs) for portability purposes. An LCD display is available to help you measure distance, speed, time, and calories. While it may not be as high-tech as the more expensive models, it provides you with need to know information that helps to perfect your workout.

Highly Adjustable and Simple Assembly

Exercise bikes are notorious for being difficult to use if you are very short or tall. The Marcy ME-709 has a very wide range of adjustable seating. Unless you are very tall (6’ 6” +), you shouldn’t have any problems with using this equipment to the fullest. On the flip side, those who are at least 5’ 2” tall, should also be within range. But, if you are shorter than 5’ 2”, there is a way to comfortably get a workout on this exercise bike. Simply drilling new holes in the seat post and setting the adjustment bar in the shortest position, allows the seat to be closer to the pedals to accommodate shorter users.

Assembly is a breeze with the Marcy. Equipment such as this can often be a real pain and time consuming. Fortunately, Marcy provides excellent detailed instructions that are very easy to follow. One person can easily put the entire bike together, but obviously, an extra hand is never a bad thing. Although the provided tools work well enough to get the job done, some of your own household tools may be easier to help manage the assembly of this unit.

Minimal Resistance Settings without Pre-Programmed Workouts

The Marcy bike provides excellent value to those who aren’t interested in professional training, but as is often the case with budget models, there are a few problems associated with this model. While not a killer, the lack of resistance settings can inhibit the ability to gradually increase the intensity of your workout. There are 8 settings that you can manipulate to provide greater resistance to your pedaling. Compared to other models which can support up to 30 resistance settings, this is a limiting number of resistance modes. Many of us prefer to start at a light setting and gradually increase our workout. With only a few resistance modes, the jump to the next level can sometimes be surprising. While you eventually get used to it and gain strength, the upper level also leaves something to be desired.

Some of the features of the Marcy ME-709 are also lacking in functionality compared to the top-tier brands. For example, there are no pre-defined workout modes such as “mountain” or “beach” to help you get up and going as fast as possible. You can always adjust the resistance based on how you want your workout to go, but that isn’t the most seamless method to keep yourself “in the groove”. Another example is the calorie counter. While many exercise bikes offer this feature, they often get it wrong in how many actual calories you are burning. The Marcy exercise bike is not alone in providing subpar calorie counting, but it worth knowing that you will need to track your own calories to get an accurate estimate of how many calories you are burning during your exercise routine.

Final Verdict

The Marcy ME-709 Recumbent Exercise bike review shows that it offers quite a bit of value, considering the low price. Many of us don’t really need top-tier equipment like the Schwinn 270 offers. That kind of equipment is usually intended for those who have extreme workout needs. This Marcy bike provides a great balance between affordability and providing a good workout for the average person. Working out every day will help you get in shape and promote a happy, healthy lifestyle. We don’t all need to spend hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars on exercise equipment to ensure we can stay in shape without needing to constantly fight traffic on the way to the gym at inconvenient times of the day. There may be a few drawbacks to purchasing a budget variety piece of exercise equipment, but for those of us who don’t want to go in debt, that is perfectly fine. Besides, the 2 year warranty is great at ensuring piece of mind and reducing buyers remorse.