I was surprised when I found out that manual treadmills have come as far as they have. It was not all that long ago that these machines needed a tremendous amount of effort just to get going. But after reading one of the dozen or so Treadmill Reviews at Gym Exercise Machines, it seems that these manual machines have advanced to the point where the problem is not getting them going, but slowing them down. With heavier flywheels and better drive systems, the belts cannot slow down like they do on electonic devices; they need you to physically slow them down, which is a nuissance, I think.