We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.
10 Best Exercise Bikes for Boosting Your Fitness at Home
Because (we’re going to say it) we’re bored of running
The key to a successful fitness routine? Fun. While racking up the miles in your running shoes and smashing out burpee after burpee might seem like the right thing to do, if you’re not enjoying yourself then it’ll never become habitual. That’s where the latest innovative at-home exercise bikes come in.
The tech-filled bits of fitness kit have large touch screens mounted behind the handlebars, giving you access to hundreds of live and pre-recorded workouts. These vary in duration, difficulty and type, with classic spinning sessions supplemented by the likes of meditation, yoga, HIIT and strength classes to help you stave off workout boredom.
Why Should I Buy An Exercise Bike?
Alongside the huge variety of classes on offer, there are several other benefits to swapping your 5K staple for a 45-minute sweat session on an exercise bike.
“Cycling is a very low impact exercise, a benefit running can’t boast,” says Michael Jennings, personal trainer at Suffolk’s Airborne Fit. “When cycling, it’s easy to maintain the same intensity as running, boosting your cardiovascular fitness and health in the same way, but you’ll decrease your risk of picking up injury as you’re putting less stress through your tendons and joints,” he says.
Crucially, Michael also points out that while it can take a lot of willpower to lace up your running shoes and get out the house, hopping on an exercise bike at home is a much simpler and less daunting prospect.
What Is The Best Exercise Bike?
If that teaser trailer has persuaded you to get back in the saddle, or give exercise bikes a go for the first time, then all that’s left to do is find the right make and model for you.
We asked a panel of testers to try out the latest premium spin bikes and give their verdict, while the Esquire editors have also chipped in with their pick of the pedal-powered kit that has kept them fighting fit while WFH.
Tried And Tested:
- Best exercise bike: Peloton Bike+
- Best for training: NordicTrack Commercial S22i Studio Cycle
- Best for simplicity: Echelon Smart Connect Bike EX-5S
- Best for comfort: Technogym Bike
Esquire Editors’ Picks:
- Best for getting moving under your own steam: Domyos 500
- Best for studio classes: Peloton Bike
- Best for recovery: Nero Sports Upright Exercise Bike Indoor Studio Cycles Aerobic Training Fitness Cardio Bike
- Best for gym-standard fitness: Technogym Bike Personal
- Best for full-body punishment: Schwinn Airdyne AD8 Dual Action Air Cycle
- Best for a silent revolution: Saris H3 Silent Smart Trainer
Do I Need To Subscribe To An App To Use My Exercise Bike?
While many of our editors’ picks just require you to saddle up and get peddling, our four tried and tested bikes will need you to subscribe to their brand’s app. These vary in price from £24.99 to £39.99 per month, and for this fee you gain access to a huge resource of workout classes.
Most will include a plethora of spinning, cycling, HIIT and strength workouts, while others include dedicated yoga and stretching sessions to keep your body in fighting shape.
The bikes will also track your stats such as calories burned, distance travelled and speed in each workout to monitor your progress, and provide live leaderboards so you can compete against fellow riders around the world — a fail-safe way to boost our motivation levels.
How We Test
We took some of the best exercise bikes and subjected them to a rigorous testing process. Each model was trialled by three people of varying fitness levels, with each rider asked to try their bike at different speeds and resistance settings.
They were then asked how smooth and stable the bike was in use, and if it kicked up a fuss or provided a near-silent performance. Ease of use and overall design — including how well each bike would fit in testers’ homes — were also considered before we decided on our favourite four.
Our editors also shared their top picks after plenty of pedalling over lockdown.
‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, the old adage goes. However, the bigwigs at Peloton clearly aren’t familiar with the saying, and it’s a good job they’re not.
The logically named Bike+ makes some nifty additions to the brand’s popular Bike, including the ability to link it to your Apple Watch through Apple GymKit and auto-resistance — a feature that does exactly what it says on the tin, saving you from fiddling with the resistance knob mid-workout. The slightly larger 23.8-inch touchscreen can now rotate too, so you can follow along with yoga and strength workouts on an exercise mat elsewhere in your home gym.
This feature was a favourite with our testers, who enjoyed being able to change-up their home fitness routine with ease to stop it from becoming monotonous. They found the screen was simple to use and the app was a cinch to navigate, while the bike itself was a delight. It ran smoothly and quietly at all speeds and resistance settings, allowing you to hear the energetic instructors as they help push you to new performance highs.
Key specifications
Screen size: 23.8 inch
Accessories: The Bike+ Basics bundle just includes the bike and screen. However, the Family bundle (£2,745) includes cycling shoes, resistance bands, dumbbells at 0.5kg, 0.9kg or 1.4kg, bike mat, reversible workout mat, water bottle, yoga block, yoga strap.
Weight: 64kg
Price if paying monthly: From £54/month
Membership: Peloton All-Access £39/month
Warranty: Touchscreen - 12 months, frame - 5 years, components - 12 months, pedals - 12 months
NordicTrack S22i Studio Cycle
Cycling uphill is a grind, there’s no doubt about it, but when it comes to feeling the burn there are few better activities. (Un)luckily for us, this cutting edge NordicTrack bike automatically imitates gradients during selected classes on the iFIT app, meaning you’re sure to come away feeling fully worked out. You can also create virtual routes using real locations on Google Maps, taking on challenging cycles from across the globe.
Live classes are available and, like the Peloton, the screen can be rotated for strength and yoga sessions, though we found adjusting the angle could be an awkward affair. But it was the cycling sessions that drew the most praise from our testing panel, who heralded the realistic ride offered by the S22i, as well as the top tips on form and technique provided by expert trainers during classes.
Key specifications
Screen size: 22 inch
Accessories: 2 x 1.5kg dumbbells included
Weight: 93kg (boxed)
Price if paying monthly: £83.30/month for 24 months
Membership: One year iFit membership included, then from £129/year
Warranty: Frame - 5 years, parts - 2 years
Echelon Smart Connect Bike EX-5S
The best tech balances fancy features with ease of use, and the EX-5S bike definitely fits within the intersection of this particular Venn diagram. The depth of the Echelon Fit app’s workout library is impressive, keeping our testers entertained for session after session. Yet the bike is refreshingly simple to set up and get started, with our testers soon feeling confident navigating the touchscreen to track down their workout of choice.
The pedals turned smoothly with next to no noise and we liked the material of the handlebars, which didn’t get too sweaty when things got a little heated in the saddle. The addition of post-workout stretching sessions was also a classy touch that helped prevent extreme morning-after soreness. The resistance controls could lag slightly and the bike wobbled slightly at high speeds, but those were our only complaints.
Key specifications
Screen size: 21.5 inch
Accessories: None
Weight: 56kg
Price if paying monthly: From £67/month
Membership: Echelon Fit from £24.99/month
Warranty: 12 months
A gruelling spin session isn’t exactly designed to be comfortable — quite the opposite, in fact. But the Technogym’s cushioned seat and well-positioned handlebars meant there were no back pains to add to our aching legs post-session. This bike is also a solid option for beginners, with comprehensive instruction videos helping you to get started and handy introductions to each trainer’s respective specialities via the apps (it links to both the 1Rebel and Revolution apps for a single monthly fee).
You can’t filter classes by difficulty level, which made it a bit trickier for our testers to find a suitable session. But once they’d settled on a session they found the trainers engaging, saying they helped motivate them to push harder than they would on a regular solo exercise session.
Key specifications
Screen size: 22 inch
Accessories: 2x1.5kg dumbbells included
Weight: 67kg
Price if paying monthly: £53.10/month for 36 months
Membership: 1Rebel + Revolution available for £29/month
Warranty: 24 months if bought outright, 36 months if paying monthly
Esquire Editors' Picks
Best For Getting Moving Under Your Own Steam: Domyos 500
The Domyos 500 is powered by your pedalling, so you don’t need to search out a plug socket or stockpile batteries to get started. You could even drag it outside to make the most of that elusive patch of sunlight in the garden. Specs-wise, it packs a 6kg flywheel with 15 levels of resistance, which should be more than enough for the beginner. There’s also a heart rate monitor in the handlebars, and you can partner up with the E-Connected app to set time, distance and calorie goals for your ride as well as tracking your workouts.
£279.99, decathlon.co.uk
Best For Studio Classes: Peloton
The Peloton bike is the Ferrari of the spin bike world, with a price tag to match. Made of carbon steel, it’s a near silent machine and endlessly customisable to help you get the most comfortable ride possible. Where it really excels, though, is the ability to link up with studio classes 24 hours a day. In other words, you’ll get all the benefits/sweat/tears of a brutal spin class but from the comfort of your own front room. Handy if you’re afraid your competitive edge is getting rusty during lockdown.
£1990+ £39 a month subscription, onepeloton.co.uk
Best For Recovery: Nero Sports Upright Exercise Bike
The Nero Sports Upright Exercise Bike Indoor Studio Cycles Aerobic Training Fitness Cardio Bike may have an unnecessarily lengthy moniker, but it is a solid piece of kit nonetheless. With an adjustable seat and handlebars as well as a three-piece crank and 12kg flywheel, it has everything you need to push yourself at a decent, mid-range price. Like other bikes you can adjust the resistance manually but what really stands out is the in-build Pulse Sensors and heart rate monitor which allow you to keep track of your vital signs. If one too many home HIIT sessions have taken their toll, spending an hour getting to grips with this bike would be a dependable, low-impact way to aid recovery.
£449.99 amazon.co.uk
Best For Gym Standard Fitness: TechnoGym Bike Personal
You’ll know the brand TechnoGym from the equipment in your local pain cave. From Smith machines to cross trainers, the Italian company excels in high end fitness apparatus. Designed by acclaimed Italian architect Antonio Citterio, this is one of the best looking bikes around (and at just over 1m in length one of the most compact, too). It’s also one of the most ergonomically designed with advanced biomechanics and reduced distance between the pedals more accurately mimicking the experience of getting out on a road bike. A standout feature is the CPR training mode which automatically adjusts the intensity of your ride based on your pulse. Meanwhile, the built-in Unity software system allows internet, social media, TV and Netflix access without the need for any external screens.
£8250, technogym.com
Best For Full-Body Punishment: Schwinn Airdyne AD8 Dual Action Air Cycle
Contrary to the name, the Schwinn Airdyne AD8 isn’t a vacuum cleaner, but a dual action exercise bike sent from the future to demolish your body, resolve and willpower. Unlike the other bikes on this list, the Schwinn uses belt drive fan resistance which essentially means the resistance gets harder the harder you work. It’s LCD console will lure you in with all the usual calorie, watts, time and distance information before hitting you with a whole range of lung-bursting training programmes including interval training and aerobic and anaerobic programmes. With cross-trainer like handles, you’ll be required to bring your arms into the equation too, stimulating a full-body workout hitting legs, core, chest, back, biceps, and your mental resolve.
£999, fitness-superstore.co.uk
Best For A Silent Revolution: Saris H3 Silent Smart Trainer
With your partner and the kids/ your dog all stuck at home for the foreseeable, owning your own exercise bike can provide a degree of escapism from the daily grind. That said, having to listen to the bike clunking along like a bag of broken spanners for 45 minutes each time you use it isn’t what it’s about. Thankfully, with the H3 the Saris team set out to build the quietest option around, resulting in a turbo trainer with a maximum output of just 59 decibels at 20mph (your doorbell, for context, is around 70 decibels). Not only is the H3 five times quieter than previous generations, it’s as reliable and durable as some of the best upright and indoor cycles on the market. In other words, a trainer well worth shouting about.
£849, evanscycles.com
Watch Next
Sebastian Stan's Winter Soldier Workout
The 23 Best Dumbbells For Your Home Gym
The Resistance Band Exercises that Build Muscle
How to (Actually) Get a Six-Pack
