AGoodrich

Hello, new to the world of cycling and purchasing a home exercise bike but I don’t know what to look for. Some people recommend peloton but seems very expensive is it worth it?

ive looked at watt bike and echoleon but a friend of mine said can be better just getting a bike an adding iPad to it so I’m completely lost.

many recommendations the bike is for my wife and I beginner to intermediate cyclists

any advice? Or recommendations would be great as happy to spend up to £1000 but not sure if need to spend that much

datlas 

What are your goals?

If you already have a bike you could buy a trainer to convert current bike to stationary. If you want interactive experience get a smart trainer, which will still be cheaper than Peloton and allow you to do Zwift etc.

AGoodrich

I have a bike and my wife doesn’t so need a home exercise bike I think your right for my wife it’s to maintain weight and tone up a bit for me it’s to get fitter so like idea classes or races. Il maybe look at smart bike and use iPad or tv. Any brands you recommend?

coffeesnob

We have an echelon. We use the monitor only for looking at our cadence, watts etc....I put up a large flat screen and use les mils for training. It's a prettty decent bike. My advice..if you are serious don't go cheap or you probably wont use it.

AGoodrich

I looked at that bike looks great they seem to all have good reviews when spending that money so maybe go by quickest delivery time ha

PeteHski

The biggest decision here is between a "Spin bike" vs "Smart bike".

Spin bikes typically have a manual resistance control knob and don't simulate slopes or gearing. Peloton is really just a fancy spin bike. A good packaged solution for bringing the traditional gym bike spin group exercise experience home.

Smart bikes can do it all. They can be used like a spin bike or used to simulate real life riding with slopes and gear changes, typically used with Apps like Zwift. This kind of bike would be my preference if you are looking at a complete bike:-

Yahoo Kickr Bike
Tacx Neo Smart Bike
Stages Smart Bike
Wattbike Atom

My personal experience of both spin bikes and smart bikes/trainers is that you soon get thoroughly bored of the former, especially if you are looking to improve your outdoor cycling performance. If you get a smart bike you have every type of bike training covered.
I made the mistake of buying a spin type bike first (Matrix U50) and while it had ERG mode for training accurately with power, it wasn't smart enough to connect with 3rd party apps like Zwift. I used it for 1 winter before moving to a smart trainer with my own bike. But those complete smart bikes I listed above are standalone versions of their smart trainers. None of those smart bikes existed when I bought my spin bike otherwise I would have gone straight down that route.

Hope this helps a little.

bikehoco

The Peloton price + classes are very expensive but worthwhile if you use it. I know some who are daily ride and others who barely use it.

pgjackson

I like Peleton. Lots of great classes of various levels and lengths, plus they have tons of yoga, stretching and weight training classes available as well. Very well rounded content for total fitness.

AGoodrich

thank you great advice I will look into them models

guachi

If you're interested in riding outside on a bike and want to supplement that riding inside I'd recommend a trainer that you can attach that bike to. I'd recommend a smart trainer of some kind (I have a Wahoo Kickr Core, though there are others) and I really like it. Because weight and aerodynamics of the bike don't matter a smart trainer is perfect for attaching a cheaper, secondary bike to it should you have one available.

We've got her old $450 hybrid attached to it and it works fine for both of us. A Kickr Core is $900 for a total of $1350. That's less than £1000 and you have a bike you can ride outside, too.

mattcalifornia

The thing with Peloton is that you're not buying it for the bike itself. The bike is a fine spin bike, but you can get comparable quality spin bikes much cheaper. The only reason to buy a Peloton is to take advantage of the large universe of classes. If you just want to get in shape through biking and other fitness classes (yoga, Pilates, strength training, stretching, etc), then the Peloton is hard to beat for in-home exercise programs. It works particularly well for families because there are no extra charges for additional users and the variety and quantity of classes is outstanding. However, if your primary goal is to train yourself for outdoor cycling, you should get a road bike with a smart trainer and use Zwift. (There is a whole thread elsewhere debating whether spin classes are good training for road biking. I think they are, but it depends on what kind of spin classes and what kind of riding you are training for.) For me, the Peloton is a good deal when compared with a gym membership, and much more convenient for me. It's not a good deal if you compare it to a smart trainer or a generic spin bike. If I had a generic spin bike, I probably wouldn't use it. It's the classes that keep me motivated and coming back for more. YMMV.

Our family has Peloton, a NordicTrack iFit incline trainer/treadmill and a subscription to Apple Fitness+. The Peloton is leaps and bounds better than the other platforms at this point. I would strongly advise against any iFit products (they have some great features, but they charge extra for every user and the software has a lot of glitches, lags bugs and annoying features). The Peloton just works almost flawlessly (the only caveat is that the power/wattage readings can be wildly inaccurate if your bike is not calibrated properly because the bikes don't use true power meters. It's annoying, but it's still a great product).

Apple Fitness+ is a pretty nice app, but it is still pretty new and has relatively few classes. I haven't tried their cycling classes, so I can't comment on how good they are. I've only done yoga and such. The nice thing is that if you are an Apple household, you can get a combo monthly subscription ($30 I think) that inlcudes full access to Fitness+, News+, Apple Music, AppleTV+ and some iCloud storage, so it's kind of a no brainer.

AGoodrich

thanks for feedback I will look into this more I think peloton looks great but I don’t think my wife or I would get much use for the other class I thinking now best to get spin bike with iPad and use peloton app

Ed Wiser

You might want to read thru the forum here on indoor cycling.
https://www.bikeforums.net/indoor-st...cycling-forum/

You will see threads on all the different types of indoor cycling.
I have been riding indoors as part of my cycling since the 1980’s using rollers and have worked my way thru all the various types of trainers over the years.
Spin bikes are fine if you like to do classes.
If you enjoy riding out doors a smart trainer or smart bike would be a better fit.
Cycling programs like Rouvy
https://rouvy.com/
and Zwift
https://zwift.com/

rwmct

There is also the Concept 2 bikerg, and similar clones. I don't know if people in the cycling community use them, but people in the fitness community often do, often as a second machine to the rower.

majmt 

I think the good ‘ol no frills Schwinn Airdyne is still of one of the best pieces of exercise equipment out there.

jaxgtr

I was looking at one of the indoor bike to allow (stages) so my wife and I could have a single platform to use with my Rouvy account. I really like the idea of not having to change the cassette on my Kickr and swapping bikes around, that has just been a pain. However, I just could not stomach the price and will probably be just be picking up another Kickr so she can just have her bike on it and my dedicated trainer bike on my Kickr.

PeteHski

I'm thinking of getting a dedicated indoor smart bike. I've been using an Elite direct drive trainer for a couple of years and while it's great, I don't think it does my bike a lot of good. I could buy a cheap bike to keep permanently on the trainer, but I prefer the idea of a complete standalone solution. Expensive though, so that keeps putting me off. My smart trainer was £500 vs £2k+ for a decent smart bike. But I would use it enough to justify the expense. A Kickr trainer is £1k these days, so by the time I add the cost of another bike to go with it I might as well just get the full Kickr bike.

burnthesheep

My random thoughts........

-If you instead buy her a bicycle also then go the fluid trainer or basic smart trainer route, she both has a bike herself to use outside, you both can ride inside, AND you don't have to fart around with adjusting a stationary bike each time you swap who is riding it. I used to go use the Cycleops Pro bike in the work gym next door but tired of needing to waste time setting up my fit on it every time I rode it.

-Pelotons are expensive, but for a "fitness" based desire like your spouse has, this tends to be the easiest and most reliable way to go. Simply due to having prepared sessions. People who aren't cycling nut cases probably would be stone bored to death using a fluid trainer and having to randomly figure out workouts. People who aren't cycling nuts would probably be turned off by the amount of "rub bell while patting head" actions necessary to setup a smart trainer to Zwift. They just want to get the workout in and done.

-If the Peloton is too expensive, research which smart trainer can operate without being turned on as a normal "dumb trainer". Certain ones can. Then buy her a normal bike that can be put on that. That is actually possibly faster than turning several knobs to get your setup "just right again".

mizer2167

When I decided I wanted to get back into cycling after a ~15 year break, I bought a Schwinn IC4 and then soon after connected to Rouvy so I could get in a quick workout regularly. That decision, once I got a bit fitter, sent my back out onto my road bike.

I like having it set up, being able to jump on, connect with Rouvy for performance feedback and go. However, the IC4 ride feel isn't similar to the road. I can spin at a much higher cadence than I typically pedal on the road (100 vs. 85) on the IC4. Also, I'm not positive the power readings are accurate with the IC4 inputs to Rouvy, but have no way to test it at the moment. I do know I can average >25 mph on level terrain on the IC4/Rouvy when I sustain closer to 20.5 mph on the road. So either I'm creating much more drag on the road than the calculations estimate (which is probably, as I have a long torso and fairly upright position on the bike), or the power reading for the IC4 is off, perhaps both.

For me, now that I'm cycling outdoors more, I wish I'd gone with a Kickr Core and set it up for my bike. I may eventually sell the IC4 and go that route and make my old road bike a dedicated trainer bike.

But my goalposts have moved. Initially, I just wanted to get fitter. Now, I'd like to be a better cyclist.

While they're not mutually exclusive, I think the smart trainer might give an experience closer to riding on the road. I really don't like indoor training, it's hot, sweaty and boring in comparison to riding on the road, but I do see the attraction now of something like Rouvy, Zwift, etc. in combination with a smart trainer, which weren't available the last time I was using an indoor trainer on my road bike. I like the performance tracking and find some of the game-ification to break up the monotony and provide a little motivation to keep going.

Whatever you do, get a really good centrifugal, not axial fan. Keeping cool indoors is much harder.

PeteHski

Without a doubt it will if you get a high quality smart trainer like the Kickr Core you mentioned.

coffeesnob

i think you have to buy their shoes too

coffeesnob

we do les mils they it all as well.

spelger

didn't i see a thread here about a aluminum trek with cracked frame for like 300$? the bike needn't be good, just functional. front wheel purely optional on a DD trainer. i already have a Kicker but if i didn't and were in the market for a means to ride indoors i would never even consider a smart bike. but don't let me stop you, everyone has their own perspective.

mattcalifornia

No, that's not correct. They typically include 1 pair of shoes with the initial purchase, but you can use any shoes with Look Delta cleats. Or, you can swap out the pedals for any pedal of your choice. I threw on an old pair of Look Keo pedals so that I can use the same shoes for my road bike.

PeteHski

Well I wouldn’t call a cracked frame functional, but I get your point. I just think the Kickr Smart bike would be a great indoor setup and it includes the slope simulator. It is more expensive for sure, but it will get loads of use so I’m okay with that.

For now I’m pretty happy with my Elite Direto X Smart trainer, but it is a bit of a pain using my only road bike on it. I am planning to get another road bike for next year and was thinking of keeping my current bike for the trainer and as a spare, But it looks like I could sell it for pretty much what I originally paid pre-Covid. Then I could just buy a Kickr Bike instead. Obviously I wouldn’t then have a spare road bike, but that’s not a big issue for me.