Save Bowflex Series 7 Treadmill

Background: Mid 30s, male, 150lbs. I've been running for about a year (~ 1400 miles in 2007) with roughly half my time outside and half on gym or hotel treadmills. My wife and I were looking at a few different treadmills and liked the main stats of the Bowflex series 7: strong engine, good tread area (20x60), heavy frame, fast enough. For just under $1400 and with no tax or shipping charges, buying it through Amazon seemed like a good move.

I ordered the treadmill late Friday night and received a call on Monday by ABF (the freight delivery company) asking if I would be home on Tuesday for the treadmill to be dropped off. They gave me a 2 hour window of 11am -> 1pm to expect the delivery. Knowing it was a very heavy unit (300 lbs), I asked a friend if he could come over and help me move it in the house and assemble it.

Freight Delivery
ABF arrived a few minutes before 11:00am the next day. I was a bit surprised that there was a single guy in the ABF truck. I helped him move the unit on a dolly to the porch, and then we waited a few minutes for my friend and his teenage son to show up. With 4 of us, it wasn't hard to move the BIG box into the house, but it would have been pretty tough with just two people. Make sure you have a friend or two with some muscles to help.

Assembly
We unpacked the unit and read through the instructions. In general, the instructions were very clear and the screw and components were well labeled. There was one small difference between the instructions and the names printed on the blister packs of screws, but it was pretty easy to figure out. Another thing that puzzled us for a minute was that the assembly guide indicated a philips head screwdriver was included. The 'philips head screwdriver' was actually one of the ends of an allen wrench. It took the 3 of us about 30-35 minutes to assemble the pieces (it would have taken about 1/2 the time if we had a 2nd allen wrench and screwdriver of the correct size).

Trying it out
After assembly, I hopped on the treadmill, getting the speed up to about 9 mph. The motor felt smooth and wasn't very loud, although the noise from the foot strikes was a bit loud (to be expected as the speed increases). The running surface had a little bit of a bounce, giving a cushioned feel. Having the long belt surface made me feel pretty confident as I was running, knowing I wasn't in danger of getting near the back edge. As other reviews have mentioned, the console is pretty weak. The main text area is 2 characters, which makes it awkward to read messages as text scrolls by. I really don't understand why the couldn't have made it 3 or 4 characters, which would have made a big difference. I don't really care much about the console for my personal use, but if you are used to big displays like you see on gym machines, you will be very disappointed in this aspect. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Polar heart-rate strap came with the package. After putting it on, the HR started showing up on the console within 10 seconds or so. The fan is also a bit on the weak side. If you get hot while running I think you are better off putting a "real" portable fan in front of the treadmill.


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