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13 Indoor Cycling Bikes That Turn Your Home Into a Gym
Indoor cycling no longer feels like a ride to nowhere — stationary bikes now have a slew of high-tech features that make pedaling at home feel downright exciting.
There was a time — not even that long ago! — when SoulCycle had cornered the market on indoor cycling. Now, you don’t even have to leave the house to get the same heart rate-boosting, calorie-scorching benefits that used to be reserved for dark, sweaty studios.
Indoor cycling skyrocketed in popularity this year — while Peloton reported $1.8 billion in total revenue for 2020, a 100% increase year-over-year, at-home exercise bikes have been sold out all over the internet, with wannabe at-home riders waiting for popular machines like the Wattbike Atom and the Wahoo Fitness Kickr Bike to come back in stock.
The current crop of at-home stationary bikes were made for this era of at-home fitness, boasting major technological and connectivity advancements that make it feel like you’re riding outside or alongside other cyclists even when you’re in your own basement or living room. These days, there’s an indoor cycling bike for every preference and budget. See which one best fits your needs.
Has any company disrupted the fitness industry quite like Peloton in the past decade? The bike is nice, but it’s the required Peloton membership (for $39 a month) that really makes this machine so special.
Via the 21.5-inch screen attached to the bike, you can livestream more than 90 classes per week. If you want to ride on your own time, there’s an on-demand library with thousands of additional classes ranging from 5 to 90 minutes.
The digital membership also gives you access to the Peloton app, which offers running, walking, bootcamp, strength, and outdoor (audio-only) classes for cross-training.
Want an at-home bike but don’t want to sacrifice the space in your living room or bedroom? This compact bike can be folded to half its size and easily wheeled into a closet or under a bed when you aren’t riding.
It looks bare bones, but it still has eight levels of magnetic tension so you can adjust the resistance throughout your workout, and the LCD screen shows everything you need to see how effectively you’re working: distance, calories burned, time, speed, and heart rate.
Prefer the feeling of shifting gears outside to increasing or decreasing the resistance on an indoor bike? This stationary bike lets you switch between standard training workouts and hill simulations which require you to use the paddle shifters on the handlebars — as the gradient changes from anywhere between -3% up to +15%, you’re responsible for shifting into the right gear to maintain the most efficient power and cadence.
Data nerds will geek out over the integrated 7-inch LCD console, which displays real-time feedback on cadence, watts, speed, distance, gradient, heart rate, selected gear, and gear ratio.
This smart spin bike requires three calibration rides to determine exactly how hard you need to ride to reach your max power. From then on, its algorithms calculate the resistance you need during each session and automatically applies it during your hardest efforts, so all you have to do is push the pedals. Whether you’re riding for less than 10 minutes or for a full 30 minutes, the bike promises to double your fitness in two months if you ride just three times a week.
With a study steel frame and 50-pound weighted flywheel, this bike isn’t going anywhere. That flywheel resistance system gives the machine a more realistic, road-like feeling, and keeps things quiet so you can ride at home without disrupting whoever you share your space with.
Otherwise, it has all the basics — an adjustable seat and handlebars, caged pedals, and a bottle holder — to keep you riding comfortably at an affordable price.
Like Peloton and Flywheel, NordicTrack offers steaming and on-demand workouts. But the instructors in the iFit app — which comes free with the bike — can actually digitally adjust the incline, decline, and resistance on your bike as the “terrain” changes, so a) there’s no cheating and b) you can ride without fiddling around — don’t worry, you can easily override the automatic settings via the manual controls on the handlebar if you do want to make the workout harder or easier.
The 22-inch, 360-degree rotating display screen also makes it easy to take advantage of cross-training workouts in the app.
At half the price of a Peloton bike, it’s hard to beat Nautilus’ Bowflex C6 — especially since you can actually sync it to the Peloton app, among others.
While there’s no screen attached to the bike, you can use your smartphone, tablet, or even TV to stream Peloton’s live and on-demand classes or compete in Zwift’s virtual world.
You can also subscribe to Nautilus’ Explore the World app, which pairs high-definition video with real-world routes and automatically adjusts your speed to make you feel like you’re riding somewhere exotic rather than your living room.
Some of the fancier stationary bikes are essentially marketed as stylish pieces of furniture. But what if you don’t want to stare at a workout device all day, or you don’t have room to keep a bike out in the middle of your living space?
This device folds down to just 18 by 18 inches when not in use, but it's still sturdy enough to hold up to 225 pounds. The small LCD screen clearly displays your speed, distance, time, and calories burned, and you can monitor your heart rate with the pulse grips on the handlebars.
Bonus: The seat is oversized and cushy for extra comfort.
Another more affordable option, the classic Schwinn IC4 delivers on everything that matters. It’s a smooth, quiet ride, the built-in LCD screen tracks time, distance, calories, RPMs, and even heart rate, and there’s a built-in smartphone or tablet holder.
This bike was also designed to work with the Peloton, Zwift, and Explore the World apps — so you can access multiple libraries of workouts and distract yourself from the monotony of spinning in place with virtual trails and locales.
Invest in the MYX Plus Bike and you not only get a professional grade machine, but also a Polar OH1 Heart Rate Monitor, an XL exercise mat, a stabilizing mat, a kettlebell, three sets of hand weights (light, medium, and heavy), a SPRI stretch band, and a foam roller — basically everything you need for a solid at-home gym experience. And for $29 a month, you get access to hundreds of workouts on demand through the MYX Membership. (Just want the bike? It’s $200 cheaper.)
The YOSUDA bike doesn’t come with many frills, but that’s OK — it’s one of the cheapest bikes in the bunch, and great for beginners who aren’t ready to invest multiple paychecks into a piece of exercise equipment.
Most spin bikes use a magnetic flywheel, but this design relies on a 35-pound, chain-driven flywheel — more like what you’d find on an outdoor bike — for a more familiar feel. It also comes with an adjustable nonslip handlebar, a padded seat, an LCD monitor, and a tablet holder.
Another Peloton competitor, Echelon’s connected bikes were designed for performance. The Aero handlebar system and competition seat are adjustable for max comfort, and a new motor provides 32 levels of precise magnetic resistance.
Pop your smartphone or tablet into the fully adjustable, 180-degree rotating console for on- and off-the-bike workouts — Echelon’s “FitPass” features live and on-demand trainer-led rides, yoga, stretching, pre-and-post workout sessions, meditation, pilates, kickboxing, Zumba, and more.
You don’t have to live near a SoulCycle studio to reap the rewards of the high-intensity, interval-based class anymore. Clip into the at-home bike and use the 21.5-inch touchscreen to stream rides in real time, or ride to an on-demand class — you’ll break a sweat doing the same sprints, hill work, choreography, and arm exercises from an IRL studio class.
The app (which costs an additional $39 per month) also streams classes from PURE Yoga, Precision Run, and Equinox for a well-rounded fitness experience.
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