If you could only buy one piece of cardio equipment what would it be?

I own an elliptical, a gazelle,a cardio-rider and a weight bench. I love my elliptical....hate the cardio-rider and find the gazelle just so-so. I have thought about getting a excersize bike(though not sure what kind since there seem to be several), but someone else said I should skip it and get a good treadmill. I have used a treadmill and like my elliptical better.
I eventually want to join a gym, but time and money are a factor right now, but I get so bored with just my elliptical, but don't feel my other two work as well. I would like to be able to switch on and off between machines.

So what does everyone else have/like, and is one more effective then the other?

Maybe I missed something, but are you buying cheap cardio equipment? It seems (at first glance) that if you can afford to keep updating your home gym, you could afford a gym membership.

For example, if I were to buy an elliptical, it would cost $1,000 or more. However, my YMCA membership is $50/month= $600 for a full year.

But if I had a choice over cardio equipment, I would get an elliptical. When the weather is nice I run outside and it's a nice low-impact compliment.

Wow junebug, my gym membership is only $140/year for a full gym with pool and all. Eek!

I LOVE elliptical. As a second choice the exercise bike, and then the treadmill.

I just paid $1300 for 15 months (well if you pay annually then they give you 3 months for free) at a gym for my husband and I. I looked at the Y, but honestly I didn't like it at all. It smelled, the equipment was old, and the rooms were very small with no windows! Maybe it is just the one near my house. I hear others are much nicer.

Edit - forgot to answer the original poster's question I like stationary bikes. I've been using them a lot at the gym!

Yes my YMCA is MUCH nicer, everything is brand new and state of the art with TV's and such, it is small though, it all depends on where you find your place.

What is a cardio rider???

I think you should get an ipod and step out the door. you have plent of equipment at home, but I do like the tread climbers, and walk outside for variety change routes.

I belong to the Y too, same 600 a year. We have n windows BUT it was redone 2 years ago and it is really nice AND I can use any Y on the north shore....

Well....I got the cardio rider at a yard sale for $20, the gazelle off of freecycle for free and paid $150 for the elliptical off a local yard sale site. The weight bench is about 5 years old and bought with tax money for about $150. With the exception of a curves type program($75 sign up and $34 a month), the cheapest gym membership is about $63 a month not counting joining fees, except planet fitness which has no child care. I can't do curves(and have no desire to because the one here is a bunch of snobs) because of the child care thing....I work evenings/weekends and DH is working days...there is no one to keep the kids.
So if I know what kind of equipment I want I can usually find one fairly cheap off of several local free/cheap sites that I am a member of. My elliptical, bought new was about $500....the woman I bought it from used it for a few months then used it for a year as a clothes rack....so I got it cheap. I figure in about three months everybody who made "new years resolutions" and bought cool stuff will be looking to unload it to make room for the new toys they buy with tax money

Oh I walk too...usually about 3 miles every other day while my little one is in preschool. However I hate winter....and the cold air makes my asthmatic cough kick in and makes me miserable, so when it's only 30 degrees outside I need indoor stuff. Come spring I will be outside most days and just using the indoor stuff for off days and to kick my butt in gear in the morning.

Hmm, well in that case I need to go yard sale-ing more often! You could also check craigslist. I have cruised the exercise section from time to time before the Y when I just could not take another day without breaking a sweat.

Absolutely, Y's vary from area to area. The one here is GREAT (Denver). It's in an old building downtown, but they've made it work really well by keeping it stocked with well-fuctioning, updated equipment and TONS of classes. Some states do have better systems than others- I went to a few in TN and was very impressed, too.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you have some bargaining room. I worked for a really nice athetic facility for 5 years and there were so many specials and packages. Also, depending on who you speak with, you can talk them down on top of the deal. I can't recall ever paying an initiation fee...ever. I think they are gym urban legends.

I don't have the space or the cash for a nice elliptical, but tae bo w/ Billy Blanks got me through some really cold days

AJ - I completely agree with cold weather. We have finally "warmed" up into the 20's this weekend. The last couple of weeks (I think - I kinda loose track) have been below zero. We pretty much stay indoors here for about 7-9 months a year.

A few years ago my DH bought me a tredmill and I love it!! I try to get up before everyone (I have 2 small kids) and walk. It was hard at first to get up at 5:30 (on tredmill by 6am at the latest) but after a while my body just started waking up at 5:30 without the alarm and I am pretty much jumping out of bed to get on the tredmill. I have walked and showered before 7:10am then the kids start to get up and we have breakfast. I hope this helps.

I support getting a treadmill if you can find maybe a gently used one for a good price. I have an elliptical I got from Dick's Sporting Goods last year for $350 - it's not great gym quality, but it's good enough for my 40 minute workouts. I was lucky enough to get a free treadmill a couple of months ago from my fiance's parents. It is old and not the best quality, but it still works great. I find that I am using the treadmill more than I use the elliptical because I am starting to run, plus I love putting the incline up and getting a great butt and thigh walking workout in. I think if you can find a good deal on a treadmill, it doesn't need to be anything fancy, then that is the piece of cardio equipment I would buy.

Well, if I had to buy just one piece of cardio equipment... I wouldn't, I would get a gym membership instead. Because it is boring to be stuck using just one piece of equipment all the time. I can't think of a single cardio exercise that I would want to be stuck doing all the time. Currently I switch between swimming, spinning, and two different ellipticals (one with stationary arms but lots of incline settings, one with no incline settings but arms that move). And when I get over my knee injury, I'll be adding the treadmill and the stairmill into the rotation as well. Someone else made a great suggestion of going to asking the gym you want to join if they can lower the price. In my experience, the cost of a gym membership is always negotiable.

But if you absolutely can't afford the gym, then I guess I'd go with the elliptical. It's a good workout and you don't have to worry about knee injuries. I definitely prefer running on the treadmill to the elliptical, but now that I have this knee injury (runner's knee, not at all uncommon), running is out of the question. If the only cardio equipment I had access to was a treadmill, I'd be . But if I owned an elliptical, I can always just run outside if want to run (barring knee injuries, of course).

Treadmill. But whatever you get get a good quality one so it would last longer. I use the treadmill a lot during the winter because of the weather..