Very well-made and effective under-desk elliptical trainer and I had no trouble assembling it in about 15 minutes. I'll admit that getting it to its location under my desk and fiddling with it to get the device just right took rather longer, but it's been worth the effort. Like many exercise machines, you'll get the most out of this one if you take the time to adjust the various nuts and bolts and get everything just right. And even then, after using it for a few days, you might need to tighten and adjust a little more. (There's not an exercise machine in the world that doesn't need and benefit from being tuned up properly and regularly.) Pros: - Being right under my desk, I'm tempted simply by it being there to use it more than I do the treadmill on the other side of my home office. Much more. (I am literally pedaling right now as I type this.) - It is meant to be used sitting down, in your own office chair, so there's no 'saddle soreness' which I'd be prone to if using a standard bicycle seat type elliptical. Yes, it is entirely possible to use this from other kinds of chairs, such as when watching TV, but a recliner (especially if it rocks) would be somewhat challenging. - The range of motion is plenty to give your legs a good workout and the adjustable difficulty setting ranges from "noticeable" to "challenging." (I would not say there's an 'effortless' setting however, although it is possible the trainer might loosen up over time.) As noted in the description, the lever for this is positioned so you can use your foot and there are solid clicks to denote the different setting numbers. - The FitDesk elliptical feels solidly-built and not cheap, and when I'm not actively pedaling, the pedals can be positioned rather comfortably as a footrest. Alternatively, the pedals can be pivoted up and out of the way, but I'm trying to resist doing that so as to develop the habit of using it as much as possible. - For ergonomic reasons, my slab-and-trestle style desk has only 25 inches of clearance under it and pile carpeting below. It's close, but I have no problems with room for my legs. (Fair disclosure: I'm only 5' 4" and a little overweight but not obese.) It's possible with a lower chair I might be able to eke out another inch or two, but that's pushing the limit of what's possible. One of the top reasons I went with the FitDesk versus other any other compact elliptical is it's specifically designed not to have a large up-down motion, going instead more forward and back. Your toe may be tracing a circle up to 6-8 inches in diameter (going from the length of the crank-arms), but the back of your foot isn't doing more than flexing and your knees may be going up perhaps 2-3 inches total, if that. If you have a more standard 28-30 inch clearance desk, chance of it fitting go up considerably. (My desk is crazy-low precisely because I'm as short as I am, plus I had a major bout of RSIs a decade ago and really need to pay attention to proper arm positioning. I built this one custom for myself.) - There is a kind of foot-massager bar towards the rear which I'm given to understand you can hook your chair wheel around for added stability while pedaling, but I haven't needed it. My wheeled Aeron chair stays in place pretty well without, even atop a pressboard carpet protector. - I did need to adjust the pedal crank-arm nuts and the nuts holding the rear pedal wheels just a touch to make them looser because they were too tight to start with. However, after using the trainer for a while, I'd imagine they may loosen through use enough to need to be re-tightened. I did hit all the rotating joints with some WD-40 and also sprayed the wheel deck (the black metal part) with some silicone. (Other folks have said furniture polish such as Pledge also works for the plate and rubber wheels, but I'd still use WD-40 or 3-in-1 oil on the metal joints and bearings.) The thing is pretty near silent at this point, with just a very gentle and almost inaudible whoosh noise when I'm pedaling. As with any exercise device, I do expect to have to do a little preventive maintenance now and then, mostly lube but also occasionally to retighten the nuts and fasteners. - There's a 30-day no questions asked return policy (provided the unit is sent back in refurbishable condition) and a really remarkable 3 year parts replacement guarantee. (The guarantee doesn't include the pedals themselves, but replacements if needed are available and probably wouldn't cost too much.) Cons: - To be honest, the device is a little long. My desk is 36" deep and the front end of the trainer still sticks out about 2 inches on the other side. I'd say if you have a desk up against a wall or do not have at least about 6-8 inches vertical clearance under the back-panel of your desk, the FitDesk Elliptical may not fit. (My desk uses a trestle, so the rear height isn't an issue, and I'm in the middle of my room with lots of space out the back so the sticking out is also not a problem for me. However, my spouse in another home office room here is up against a wall and has a short 30" prefab desk, so there's no way this device will fit there.) - Same thing if you are really big and/or the tops of your thighs are already brushing the underside of your desk or center drawer in the desk. Trouble is, it may be difficult to really know for sure until you actually get the trainer whether it will fit or not. I'd say as a general guideline, if you can't get at least 30" forward clearance at ground level from where your hands are right now (i.e., just above your knees, atop your desk), you may not be able to get the FitDesk elliptical to fit far enough under your desk to use it comfortably. As for space between your legs and the underside of your desk, only a few inches are needed. - If you want to have the monitor on your desk (which is a nice feature, really), the cord provided for between it and the trainer is about 2 feet shorter than it ought to be. However, it is a standard 2-wire 1/8" male/female (mono) extension cable and so can be easily modified and/or replaced with something longer. - I found the instructions about the monitor in the manual to be a little confusing, particularly in that they did not mention what the 'Set' button does nor what the unit of measures are. Some are obvious, like Time (minutes:seconds) and CAL (Calories). Speed appears to be an estimate of Meters/second, while Distance (DIST) is kilometers (2 decimal accuracy) and Odometer (ODO) is also in kilometers (but no decimals). I believe someone did the math and it turns out the FitDesk is calculating cranks as if you are riding a 26" wheeled bicycle. More about the monitor: - As the manual says, the display shuts off after about 10 minutes of no detected activity, but as long as the battery is still good, it does keep remembering your current progress. - When in Scan mode (default), the monitor advances to each category of measure (time, speed, distance, odometer, calories, then back to time) about every four to five seconds. - The Mode button, if pressed once, stops the scanning at the currently displayed measure. This is the only time the Reset button will reset the displayed value to zero. If you press Mode again, it goes back to scanning, starting at the next displayed measure. Using the Mode button you can advance to whatever number you want to see, although it takes two presses each time (Scan, stop, scan, stop, etc.) - There is no reset everything function, and the Reset button only works (1) on the value currently displayed and (2) only if the monitor is not currently in Scan mode. (See the note below about the odometer, as it works differently.) - The Set button isn't documented. As far as I can tell, the Set button only works when the display is showing Time or Distance (DIST), and what it does is let you set a target time or distance value that instead of the default counting up, counts down. This could be useful if, for e
