How To Choose The Best Exercise Bike

Before You Buy An Exercise Bike

Choosing the best exercise bike for your personal goals is crucial. Exercise bike workouts can improve cardiovascular fitness, tone muscles and burn fat. So how to choose the best exercise bike for you? Start by thinking about your fitness goal.

We have a team on the phones during business hours ready to provide customer service or personal training advice. If this page doesn’t help you find your perfect exercise bike please do get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

Upright Exercise Bike Or Indoor Cycling Bike?

You’ll see from our exercise bike range that we stock both upright bikes and indoor cycling bikes.

Reasons To Buy An Indoor Cycling Bike:

• Increase physical and sports performance (Fitness, Strength and Speed) and Physical Health (Weight Management, Cardio Benefits, Reducing the Risk of Illness)
• You enjoy regular road bike cycling outdoors or spinning classes.
• Your priority is a higher intensity workout. Using a combination of changes to resistance, standing/sitting and speed, indoor cycling provides a great format for interval training.
• Some users also find indoor cycling bikes easier to stand up and pedal on for higher intensity and replicating uphill riding.
• Indoor cycling bikes can also be used with an iPad or tablet to connect to apps to complete home-based classes.
• You like the idea of following online workouts or pumping up your favourite tunes to help you keep up the pace of your workout.

Intensity level: 5/5

Reasons to buy an upright bike:

• Regular home workouts to increase physical health (Weight Management, Cardio Benefits, Reducing the Risk of Illness)
• To start or keep up a regular fitness programme or weight management plan.
• Your priority is a comfortable ride with good cardio benefits. You can watch TV or listen to a radio programme at the same time.
• The onscreen programmes can take you through a range of fitness workouts including warm-ups and cool-downs.

Intensity level: 3/5

Choose Your Fitness Goal:

Best Exercise Bike for Weight Loss

Most upright bikes come with workout programmes specifically designed to help you burn fat and lose weight. The programmes will help you to stay motivated and will display your progress throughout your workout. If your budget can stretch to an upright exercise bike with responsive heart rate programs it’ll enhance your training experience and help you to burn fat more efficiently.

Check out our exercise bike workouts to help give your new fitness regime a great head start.

Upright exercise bikes are also one of the smallest types of home gym equipment. So if you are short of space these are probably the best place to start.

We think that the best exercise bike for weight loss should feature:

• A good range of exercise programmes that include interval training.
• Responsive heart rate training programs. This will allow you to exercise more efficiently.
• Clear warranties, returns policies and independent reviews.
• A comfortable, padded, seat.
• A large flywheel will provide a smooth ride.
• Electro magnetic resistance.
• A high maximum user weight. Your weight may be comfortably within the user weight guidelines but they also indicate the build quality of the machine.

Best Exercise Bike For Event Training

If you are training for a cycling event these bikes will provide you with the best alternative to cycling outdoors. Don’t let the British weather put you off your training plans. Indoor cycling bikes allow you to use a racing style posture and are great for sprint, interval or endurance training.

Best Exercise Bike For Group, HIIT or Gym Training

Indoor cycling bikes are often used in gym cycle classes, with high-intensity interval workouts, led by a coach. These classes use a mixture of resistance and changing seat positions to ensure the workout is challenging and improves fitness quickly. They have a broad range of resistance and heavy flywheels. The seat and handlebars should be fully adjustable to offer all users a comfortable riding position.

A Spinning® or Spin® bikes are a brand name owned by an indoor cycling bike company. But you can stream free Spinning® videos with your phone or tablet and follow along on any exercise bike!

The best indoor training bikes have these features:

• A large fly wheel size (minimum 20kg) to provide a smooth ride.
• Emergency stop breaking feature.
• Clear warranties, returns policies and independent reviews.
• No creaks or squeaks. These bikes should be made of high grade steel and have a large footprint for stability.
• Fully adjustable saddle and handle bar positions.
• A high maximum user weight. Your weight may be comfortably within the user weight guidelines but they also indicate the build quality of the machine.

The JTX Cyclo-3, JTX Cyclo-6 and JTX Cyclo-Studio are all excellent options for group, HIIT or gym training.

Best Exercise Bike For Low Impact Workouts and Injury Recovery

Recumbent bikes provide the best low impact workout. The seat offers full back support and encourages a better posture than upright or training bikes. This is better for the long term health of the lower back (lumbar spine).

Your knees and ankles also have much less weight exerted onto them with a recumbent cycling position. This means they are less likely to be strained or injured than other forms of exercise.

Recumbent bikes are also thought to be more comfortable because of the wider seat…no need for padded lycra shorts!

The best recumbent bike should feature:

• A large padded seat which is fully adjustable.
• A good range of exercise programmes that include interval training and responsive heart rate programs. This will allow you to exercise more efficiently.
• Clear warranties, returns policies and independent reviews.
• No creaks or squeaks. These bikes should be made of high grade steel and have a large footprint for stability.
• If you are looking for a bike for an elderly or unstable user make sure it has an easy step through feature and handles for support.
• Electro magnetic resistance.
• A high maximum user weight. Your weight may be comfortably within the user weight guidelines but they also indicate the build quality of the machine.

TYPES OF EXERCISE BIKE

Need help choosing which exercise bike is best for your fitness goals and budget? Here’s a summary:

Upright Exercise Bike

Also referred to as a static exercise bike, this is the most common type of home fitness equipment. The position when exercising is similar to a regular shopper bicycle. Upright exercise bikes are frequently the cheapest type of bike to buy for the home and are a great entry level option for anyone who doesn’t regularly exercise. An upright bike is also the best option if you are looking for a compact exercise bike. They are an excellent low-impact option that will improve muscle tone and strengthen your legs and also provide a great cardio workout. We offer two upright exercise bikes: the JTX Cyclo-Go: Home Exercise Bike and the JTX Cyclo 5: Upright Exercise Bike.

Recumbent Exercise Bike

These bikes provide a similar type of workout to the upright exercise bike but allow you to sit in a position which supports the back. The choice between an upright or recumbent exercise bike normally centres on exercising comfort – recumbent seats resemble a chair rather than a saddle. People who are recovering from knee or back injuries also seem to benefit from a recumbent rather than upright bike. The focus of the exercise tends to be slightly more on the glutes (bottom) and has slightly more impact on the lower stomach muscles compared to an upright exercise bike.

Combination Or Hybrid Exercise Bikes

These are a combination of upright and recumbent bikes to suit the whole family. With a combination or 2 in 1 exercise bike you have the ability to work a broader range of leg and lower abdominal muscles and varying your exercise position can be better for your back and posture. They are good for an introduction to exercise, but not advisable if you want to really put your fitness to the test.

Indoor Cycling Bikes or Studio Bikes

If you regularly cycle to work or are training for an event, we highly recommend buying an indoor cycling bike. They have a greater range of resistance levels compared to the traditional exercise bike, which simulates the gears and hills when using a road bike outdoors. These home training bikes are great for more vigorous workouts and training. The saddle is generally as high as the handle bars and the flywheel is open. Spin® bike, Spinner® or Spinning® is the name of a popular brand of indoor cycling bike. Our entry-level compact exercise bike is a great alternative. These bikes can also be adapted into interactive exercise bikes, with the addition of a pair of power pedals and a tablet or iPad. Shop or browse indoor cycling bike reviews.

Self-Powered Exercise Bikes

No external power sources are needed for these bikes. This means you don’t have to worry about placing the bike near a socket or about getting tangled up in wires. They can go anywhere inside your home. The generator inside the machine produces all the power needed for the bike to run. These bikes are generally more expensive than their mains powered counterparts due to the advanced power system. If you are looking for a self-powered exercise bike, the JTX Cyclo 5: Upright Exercise Bike upright bike has a self-powered upgrade option.

AIR BIKE

Air bikes, also known as ‘Assault’ bikes or ‘fan’ bikes are indoor training bikes with two upright handles at roughly chest height that move back and forth, and a large fan that is driven by the speed and power of the pedals. The resistance is created by the fan and increases as you pedal faster, the harder you work the harder it becomes. Most CrossFit gyms will have an air bike as they have become a mainstay in many CrossFit workouts. Air bikes are ideal for those looking to intensify and challenge their exercise routine – it’s an intense workout perfect for HIIT style training.

INTERACTIVE EXERCISE BIKES

Price range: £1,500 - £5,000

Interactive or smart exercise bikes are similar to studio bikes but have additional inbuilt screens that connect to a range of apps or programs. These programs range from interactive cycling classes to group cycling apps. Some smart bikes automatically adjust the resistance according to the apps workout. They are generally much more expensive than other types of exercise bike. Peloton® is a good example of an interactive exercise bike retailer.

If you're interested in using apps with your regular exercise bike, or you'd like to know which exercise bike you can use apps with, check out our blog post on exercise bike apps.

WATT BIKE

Price range: £1,599 - £2,250

A Watt bike is designed to mimic road cycling while collecting in-depth data on the ride and technique. By accurately recording power output in watts (hence ‘Watt bike’) the bike measures performance, technique and heart rate. The Watt bike uses a dual breaking system (both magnetic and air) to help it to mimic the feeling of being out on the road, both on the flat and also climbing. The air-braking system recreates the feel of cycling on the flat using different gears.

The watt bike is designed to perfecting road cycling performance – if you are looking to buy a machine to improve your general fitness or to replicate an indoor spin class, it would be better to consider an indoor cycling bike instead.