I bought a stationary bike with 10 kg flywheel. I'm disappointed to find that the resistance levels don't suite my muscle strength and cardio fitness level. My adequate level of resistance lies right between resistance knob levels 5 and 6 on this machine. 5 is too light on the thighs and I would need to tax my cardio respiratory system more to achieve my target HR. 6 is too tight for the thighs, and the speed doesn't allow the cardio respiratory system to reach my optimal HR. I'm highly trained and can routinely do 180 HR on a resistance level that is just right for me. On this machine though at level 6 I'm already tearing my thighs at 170 HR and also can't sustain it even beyond 15 mins (I routinely do 1 hour).
While shopping for the bikes, I had come across some heavy flywheel (20 kg) cycles with front placement. I went with the 10kg rearwheel model that I bought thinking that flywheel size perhaps isn't as important because I can always turn up the resistance level. After the disappointment with my cycle I'm thinking may be there is a difference in the same difficulty level achieved via flywheel weight vs magnetic resistance. I think at the same difficulty level may be the former allows a more strenuous cardio workout without overly stressing the thigh muscles out than the latter which tries to cheat the difficulty level with magnetic resistance, that it can't more naturally give via its flywheel weight.
The peak exercise I used to do in the gym was regularly on a rear flywheel machine, as the wheel is covered in this model I couldn't see the wheel direclty but it is certainly taller than the one I have bought. I could also achieve my target exercise throughput level on front flywheel cycle at the gym (which is a heavy flywheel) or on a real cycle on the road.
I'm very disappointed with the cycle I bought, as I really need to reach 180 HR and also there is no chance it seems of doing HIIT on this machine.
Should I dump this machine to some buyer and go with a heavy flywheel cycle?