UPDATE (10-25-2008)
My Gazelle finally died. The front bar has bent, not a lot, but enough over the years that the right foot pedal hits the right stabilizer bar. For nearly 3 years of use, I can't complain. I'm going to buy another one at Amazon for $109 and free shipping.

Review
What an absolutely great product. Nearly 9 years ago I bought a $700 Nordic Trac 600 skier machine, and it lasted about one year before it started squeaking so loudly that I would wake up someone sleeping while using it. There were two little nuts causing the problem, one with little bumps on it that I couldn't find at the hardware store. I called up Nordic and was told they could send them out for $25 + S&H. No way was I going to pay $25 for 25¢ worth of nuts. So I greased them before every use and it worked. About four months ago the unit pretty much fell apart (flywheel, skis, you name it). Overall, 9 yrs, average of 3 uses a week and $600 I can't complain. Then I saw the Tony Little commercial and the word "quiet" really got me interested in the product. So I bought it and over the last four months here's what I've found.

Assembly & Setup
Directions are very well written and illustrated. I had the Gazelle together in 15 minutes. It folds and unfolds with ease, for easy storage in a closet or under the bed.

Use
Unlike the skier, you don't have to get your balance to use this machine. Just step up and start using it. It does have a 250lb weight limit, so be careful if you weigh more than that.

Standard position is looking straight ahead. You can change your workout by either speeding up or angling your body up or down.

Included Monitor
The unit has a nice built in distance/time LCD unit that comes with it. While their is a little heart visible, there is nothing in the instructions or any attachments to get your pulse/heart rate. I imagine they made the capability at one time but it didn't work right.

The unit works very well, and length of stride nor speed changes cause it any problems. It is quite accurate. It also has a nice "scan" mode, where it circulates every five seconds between speed, distance and time.

Getting Serious
The machine is so much fun to use that I couldn't help getting serious with it after the first few uses, and here it has some flaws. I started angling my body down (this requires more arm use because you now are pushing your own weight). Well it was doing such a great job that I kept going further and further, until I was almost looking down at the floor (90 degrees would be looking right at the floor, I was probably about 75 degrees), when the back pole lifted up and nearly flipped me on my head.

OK, so I won't look at the floor during a workout, but I could go really, really fast. Well not exactly - if I get anywhere above a 9 on the speed gauge, my momentum begins to rock the Gazelle and the back pole shifts forward a bit.

None of the above mean you can't build up a serious sweat using this machine, but for those who like to finish a workout by going as fast as possible the last few minutes, this machine may not be able to handle it.

Quiet?
Is it quiet? It makes some minor squeaks, but they haven't gotten worse than the first use, so I'm crossing my fingers the design is a solid one and I won't be waking anyone up during my early morning workouts.

Conclusion
After four months, about 50 workouts, and no one in the house claiming they can hear me (and thus disturbing their precious sleep), I declare this a winning product. Its not perfect, but for the price, the quiet and the arm workout, I've fallen in love with my Gazelle.

Recommended: Yes