It doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars to create an excellent home spinning setup, especially if you pick up a bargain like this deal on the Echelon Smart Connect Bike, which has been reduced by more than 50% in the Amazon Big Spring Sale.

That brings the price of the bike down from $500 to just $239.99, and while you do have to factor in the cost of an ongoing subscription to the Echelon app to unlock guided spinning classes ($39.99 a month, or $399.99 a year), it’s still a great value option compared with the likes of Peloton.

The Echelon Smart Connect Bike doesn’t have a built-in screen, but you can use the app to watch classes on your own smartphone or tablet using the mount on the handlebars. It’s a compact bike that runs quietly, so will work for small spaces, and impressively sturdy and stable for a cheaper option.

While it doesn’t match the user experience of the best spin bikes which cost north of $1,000, the Echelon Smart Connect Bike is a great home training option and this is a major saving that’s worth grabbing if you’re keen to get fit at home.

And while we haven’t reviewed this model, we’ve tested two other exercise bikes and three other home cardio machines from Echelon so can vouch for the brand.

If your New Year’s resolution is to improve your fitness, buying a connected indoor cycling bike is a great way to go about it. The combination of bike and an app full of follow-along, high-energy workouts takes the guesswork out of getting fitter and help keep you motivated.

Peloton is the big name in indoor cycling, but you’re looking at at least four figures for the most affordable bike, even if you shop Peloton’s Boxing Day sale.

You don’t need to spend that much, though. I’ve found two serious reductions on bikes from Echelon which Coach has reviewed and recommended in its guide to the best exercise bikes. Neither offer as polished an experience as a Peloton bike and these Echelon bikes don’t have a built-in screen so you have to use a smartphone or tablet, but for $300-$400 they offer excellent value.

Echelon’s app membership is $39.99 a month, although you can pay $399.99 for a one-year membership or $699.99 for two years, which drops the price per month to $33.33 or $29.16.

One advantage of getting an older machine is that there’s a manual resistance dial, so if you decide to stop paying for the app you can easily follow along with any of the free indoor cycling classes found on YouTube.

The Bowflex Velocore is not like other exercise bikes. It has a clever design that allows you to tilt from side to side to make the ride feel more realistic, as well as engaging your core more than other indoor bikes.

It’s one of the best exercise bikes we’ve tested, but expensive, so to see it reduced by a huge $500 in the Black Friday sales is certainly welcome, with both Bowflex and Best Buy selling the Velocore for $1,299.

The Velocore available at this price has a 16in touchscreen mounted on the console, upon which you can see the JRNY app (two-month membership included), which contains guided workouts and scenic rides. You can also watch streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ on the screen, if you have a subscription, and connect the bike to third-party apps like Peloton and Zwift.

We gave the Bowflex Velocore a 4.5-star review, with its ability to lean and the third-party connectivity helping it to stand out from rivals like the Peloton Bike+. And rest assured you can also lock the bike in position and use it like a normal exercise bike, if you tire of leaning to and fro on your indoor rides.

Black Friday itself might not be until November 24th, but the deals are already coming thick and fast. The Peloton Black Friday sale is now live, with savings of up to $700 in the US and £500 in the UK available. The machines themselves are discounted, but the biggest reductions are on packages which include accessories such as floor mats, dumbbells and cycling shoes.

We’ve highlighted the standout deals in the Peloton sale below, and we’ll also be rounding up the biggest and best discounts available elsewhere on Peloton’s cardio equipment, with both the Peloton Bike, Peloton Bike+ and Peloton Tread likely to be substantially reduced during the Black Friday sales.

Quick Links

Here’s where to hunt for the top Peloton deals available today.

🇺🇸 US Links 

Peloton: Up to $700 off Peloton bundles in the Black Friday sale

Amazon: Peloton deals updated daily

🇬🇧 UK Links

Peloton: Save up to £500 on Peloton bundles

Amazon: Deals on Peloton equipment updated daily

John Lewis: Check for deals on Peloton machines and accessories

Peloton Black Friday Deals In The US

UK Deals

FAQs

Peloton’s exercise bikes have become a pleasingly familiar sight in Amazon’s Prime Day sales, and both the Peloton Bike and Peloton Bike+ are available at significant discounts as part of the Prime Big Deal Days event this October.

Whichever Peloton you go for, you’ll be getting one of the best exercise bikes, with both offering the same access to the huge library of live and on-demand spinning classes with a Peloton All-Access membership ($44/£39 a month). 

Having tested the best spinning bikes from a range of brands, I can say from experience Peloton’s classes are the most engaging available, and the bikes are excellent bits of kit too, running smoothly and quietly no matter how hard you’re pushing.

The price difference between the Peloton Bike and Peloton Bike+ is considerable even in the sale, with the Bike costing $1,095/£1,095 (reduced from $1,445/£1,345) and the Bike+ $1,995/£1,645 (down from $2,495/£1,995). With that in mind, I’d say the Bike is the better pick for most people, because the upgrades you get with the Bike+ don’t quite justify the extra outlay.

• UK Deal: was £1,345, now £1,095 on Amazon UK

The key differences between the bikes are that with the Bike+ you get a larger 23.8in screen, compared with the 21.5in screen on the Bike. That screen also rotates 360°, whereas it is fixed on the Bike, which makes it harder to follow non-cycling workouts like yoga or strength sessions on the cheaper bike.

Another big difference is that the Bike+ will automatically change the resistance for you during instructor-led workouts, which means you can focus on the ride rather than having to twist the resistance dial yourself. The Peloton Bike+ also has better speakers and a faster processor, and can link up with Apple products via the Apple GymKit feature. 

All of these upgrades are useful, but for most people none of them are essential. You save $900 by opting for the Bike in the sale, which will pay for your first 20 months of Peloton All-Access membership. So unless you can spot an upgrade above that you think will substantially increase your enjoyment of the bike, I’d get the standard Peloton Bike.

• UK Deal: was £1,995, now £1,645 on Amazon UK

When road cyclists are deciding how to train indoors, it’s worth considering smart exercise bikes alongside turbo trainers (if you have the money). The best indoor bikes match the features of the best turbo trainers and don’t require the use of your bike—a convenience for those who want to ride outdoors and train inside during the colder (or indeed hotter) seasons.

The Wattbike was the only real option if you wanted something that mimicked gear changes, until Wahoo released the Kickr Bike in 2019. As with everything the US manufacturer has released, it disrupted the market, bringing the tilting technology of its turbo training accessory the Kickr Rise to the stationary bike and increasing the realism of the ride. The Kickr Bike V2 (released in 2022) refined some of the first edition’s features but, ultimately, it was an evolution rather than a revolution, and its price of $3,999.99/£3,499 meant it remained out of reach for most. 

The launch of the new, cheaper Kickr Bike Shift should therefore be exciting for those who like the idea of a standalone smart bike for indoor training, but have been put off by the cost. But is this another pioneering release from Wahoo or a flop to file alongside its Kickr Steer?

Wahoo Kickr Bike Shift: Price And Availability

The Wahoo Kickr Bike Shift was released on September 12, 2023 and costs $2,999 in the US and £2,699 in the UK; that’s $1,000/£800 less than the Wahoo Kickr Bike V2. It is the second model in Wahoo’s smart bike line-up, and is a direct competitor to the Wattbike Atom and Tacx Neo Smart Bike.

How I Tested This Bike

I’ve logged 10 hours of indoor training on Wahoo Kickr Bike Shift, including rides on virtual platforms, such as Zwift and Wahoo X, as well as structured workouts on Zwift and TrainerRoad. I have experience with most of the best turbo trainers and smart bikes, including the Wahoo Kickr Bike Shift’s direct rivals.

Wahoo Kickr Bike Shift Vs Wahoo Kickr Bike V2

To the untrained eye, the Kickr Bike Shift looks similar to its more expensive colleague, but there are differences. It has refined its five-point adjustable fit set-up (stack, reach, setback, saddle height and frame height) and five crank length possibilities, enabling you to match the geometry of your bike or professional bike fit to the nearest millimeter. 

Keep looking and you’ll see where Wahoo has made changes to keep its price down. Instead of the 13lb flywheel at the rear, it has an enclosed electromagnetic brake-actioned resistance design—similar to that used by the Tacx Neo Smart bike. The Kickr Bike Shift’s frame material is steel rather than aluminum and it doesn’t have a digital display on its top tube.

Aside from visuals, it shares many of the same features as the Kickr Bike V2: power accuracy (+/- 1%), simulated gradients (between 20% to -15%), ERG easy ramp (where you can gradually build back up to a power output if you have to pause mid-interval) and in-game steering. It can connect to heart rate monitors, computers and phones via Bluetooth and ANT+; there’s also a built-in Wi-Fi receiver and direct connection that enables you to plug straight into a router and end signal drop-outs for good (although it does require the purchase of an additional $99.99/£80 accessory). The Kickr Bike Shift has a slightly lower maximum output (2,200W vs 2,500W) than the Kickr Bike V2, but good luck getting close to those heady heights!

The key difference between them is the lack of tilting on the Kickr Bike Shift. Where I would rise out of the saddle as the bike angled backward to tackle a punchy climb on the Kickr Bike V2, I tended to stay in the saddle on the Kickr Bike Shift, grinding away in a seated position and letting my quads (rather than calves) do the heavy lifting.

The Set-Up

The Kickr Bike Shift arrived in a big box and needed some assembly before it could be put to use. Since it weighs 79lb/35.8kg, it’s best to do this with someone else’s help, although I managed to carry it up one flight of stairs on my own for set-up in my home office.

Before you can get started on your first virtual ride or training session, you need to secure three stabilizing legs with the bolts and tools provided, attach the handlebars to the stem, insert the seatpost and magnetically attach the cable from the handlebar to the underside of the stem for the gear shifting. It’s fairly straightforward if you’ve done your share of flat-pack furniture building, and there are instructions included in the box.

Next, tune the smart bike’s geometry to your ideal fit. If you have a bike fit report from GURU, Retül or Trek, you can enter your numbers into the web-based wizard to get the correct set-up. If your bike fit report doesn’t fall into this category (as mine didn’t), you can insert rough figures before breaking out the tape measure to get things dialed in properly. Alternatively, there is an AI-based system where you take a photo of your bike to get a somewhat accurate fit, or use measurements of your body to get a less accurate fit.

The final step in the set-up process is tailoring the virtual drivetrain to your real-life bike. All the major shifting configurations (Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo) are catered for, while it’s possible to refine your gearing (from the number of chainrings to the individual cassette cogs) to your heart’s content.

The Ride

The Kickr Bike Shift ticks all the boxes you’d want in a stand-alone smart bike to successfully recreate a realistic ride. During testing I found the rise and fall of virtual gradients was simulated seamlessly by the electromagnetic resistance, while it reacted to gear shifts and surges in power instantly. Its fixed base meant it lacked the range of side-to-side movement of the Kickr V6 turbo trainer, but there was a couple of millimeters of give, due to my use of a turbo trainer mat.

During an interval workout the power output remained consistent and it avoided the slips that can plague wheel-on turbo trainers with sudden changes in cadence or effort.

It wasn’t perfect. The finish kit hasn’t been improved from the Kickr Bike and cheapens the experience. The lack of display made it hard to keep track of what gear I was in when whizzing around the virtual worlds, which was particularly noticeable when I’d forgotten what chainring I was in, only to shift and get stuck in a ridiculously high gear. It also can’t simulate the gravel or cobbled roads found on Zwift, like the Tacx Neo smart bike—although I would add that this is more of a gimmick that doesn’t add much to the overall immersive experience.

The main issue with the Kickr Bike Shift is that it doesn’t include the tilt feature I found so innovative on the original Kickr Bike. I found it helped me to change my on-bike position throughout an indoor training session like I would on the road, minimizing sore spots that can occur from riding in a fixed position for hours on end and also engaging different muscle groups. Without it, the Kickr Bike Shift’s ride feel doesn’t stand out when compared with any other high-end turbo trainer or smart bike. 

I appreciate Wahoo had to make cuts to get the price of its second-tier smart bike down, but it seems a shame that it didn’t just scale back the likes of gradient range or maximum power output rather than forgoing one of the Kickr Bike’s best features.

Is the Wahoo Kickr Bike Shift Worth It?

If you’re in the market for a smart bike to use for indoor training while reserving your actual bike for best, there’s a good chance that budget isn’t an issue. So why would you settle for a second-tier alternative when an extra $1,000/£800 could get you the Kickr Bike? When the cheaper Wattbike Atom and Tacx Neo Smart Bike are available too, I’m left scratching my head as to why you would opt for the Kickr Bike Shift.

The category leader, the Wattbike Atom, is at the top of the pile for a reason. It has higher capabilities than the Kickr Bike Shift in terms of maximum output (2,500W vs 2,200W) and gradient simulation (25% vs 20%) without sacrificing power accuracy (also +/- 1%). It also has a smaller footprint (50cm x 100cm) and little wheels to move it around on—ideal if your pain cave has to double up as spare room or garage.

Yes, the Wahoo Kickr Bike Shift is a solid smart bike and does everything it claims, to the incredibly high standards that we’ve come to expect from Wahoo. But it seems an unnecessary addition to the market that doesn’t do enough to make it stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Connected exercise bikes are a great way to get in shape, and more importantly stay in shape, since having fast access to live and on-demand studio classes makes finding the motivation to workout regularly that little bit easier.

They can be very expensive, however, especially bikes from the biggest brand in the area—Peloton. Peloton certainly justifies its price—that’s what our recent review of the Peloton Bike+ found—but there are certainly cheaper options (even with Peloton’s Prime Day discounts), and you can get the excellent Echelon EX-15 bike for just $350 in the Amazon Prime Day sale.

We’ve tested several Echelon bikes on Coach, including the Echelon Sport Smart Connect, which has an almost identical set-up to the EX-15. There’s no built-in screen with the bike, which you do get on pricier options from Echelon and others, but it does have a tablet/smartphone holder on the handlebars to view the Echelon app.

The instructor-led classes from Echelon are every bit as motivational and effective as you’d hope for with a studio bike, and there are more than just cycling sessions in the app, with yoga, Pilates, HIIT and strength training among the other options.

The Spinning-style of studio class is the main reason to get the bike, of course, and it has a 7kg flywheel that allows for 32 levels of resistance, more than enough to whip anyone into shape. The bike itself is small and fairly lightweight, which makes it easier to move around the house, and it runs quietly so you won’t bother the neighbors or even the people you live with.

While the bike itself is very cheap in the Amazon sale, it’s worth noting that you need an Echelon membership to get the most from the bike, which is a significant ongoing cost (though you can bring it down by buying a long-term membership upfront). 

If you decide against an Echelon subscription, you can still use the bike in free-ride mode, manually adjusting the resistance using the dial as you ride. Without a membership you can’t use the classes and your stats won’t save, but it will still get you fit and you can follow guided workouts from other sources.

Launched in 2012, Peloton pushed to the front of the pack for those hunting the best exercise bike, and it has become synonymous with luxury fitness. The bike brought together technology, hardware and enthusiastic instructors to create an immersive at-home fitness experience for its members. Peloton’s core base of fans provides a sense of community and healthy competition on the platform.

A key selling point is the app, which includes an array of exercise and mindfulness classes, from yoga and Pilates to strength training and meditation. With new projects such as an audio collaboration with Ed Sheeran, Peloton continues to push the boundaries of what a fitness platform can do.

Is initiation into the Peloton clan worth the investment? Let’s find out.

Peloton Bike+: Price And Availability

The price tag is hefty. The Bike+ Basics package costs $2,495 in the US and £1,995 in the UK, including the bike, home delivery and assembly. The Bike+ Starter package is $2,695/£2,180 (currently $2,295), including cycling shoes, light weights, a bike mat, home delivery and assembly. View the different package options on the Peloton UK and Peloton US websites.

To get the most out of the bike, you also require a monthly subscription of $44/£39 for Peloton’s All-Access Membership. This provides access to Peloton’s library of live and on-demand classes from your Bike+, phone, smartwatch, tablet or TV, plus individual user profiles for each member of your household.

The Peloton Bike+ comes with a 12-month limited warranty covering parts and labor (including the HD touchscreen) and five years of coverage on the frame in the US and the UK.

If you change your mind after purchase, Peloton offers a 30-day trial period, after which you can arrange free pick-up and a full refund if you’re not satisfied.

Peloton often reduces the price of the Peloton Bike+. Browse our Peloton coverage for the latest deals and check these Peloton Black Friday deals to see how much you could save in the biggest sale of the year.

How I Tested This Bike

I tested the Peloton Bike+ for six weeks, cycling on it several times a week. I used the Bike+ screen to display workouts from the Peloton One app, and also connected Bluetooth headphones for audio. 

The Set-Up

An immediate benefit of picking Peloton over a competitor is the company’s set-up crew. Two employees carried the Bike+ up the stairs to my apartment, making sure it was installed correctly, explaining how to use the bike and cycling cleats, and checking that my Peloton app login was working.

If you’d rather complete the process yourself (or need a refresher on set-up details at a later date), the Bike+ includes video tutorials on the best set-up for saddle height and distance, how to clip your cleats in and out, and instructions for how to use the bike. There’s also a printed user manual included for reference.

The bike is compact, with a 47in x 23in (120cm x 60cm) footprint; that’s smaller than the average yoga mat. The screen is designed to be turned and used for workouts off the bike, so it’s worth setting up in an area with extra space if you’re planning to use the cardio and strength classes.

The Bike+ is designed to accommodate most riders, and is suitable for those up to 6ft 4in (195cm) tall and 297lb (135kg) in weight. The seat position and handlebar height are adjustable, and the Peloton 101 tutorials walk you through how to change these and what will be an optimal position for you.

Wide Perspex bottle holders are beneath the handlebars, so it’s easy to keep hydrated. Weight holders are at the back of the bike, near the saddle, keeping them conveniently off the floor. The resistance knob allows manual control and auto-resistance, which automatically adjusts your resistance according to the instructor’s cues.

Accessories in the Starter package include indoor cycling shoes with cleats, dumbbells and a double-sided exercise mat. The shoes are comfortable and adjustable, with a quick ratchet clip and hook and loop straps so you can tighten or loosen as required. I found the shoes comfortable, though on the smaller side—it would be worth sizing up if you tend to fit a wider shoe. The dumbbells are cast-iron weights with a sweat and slip-proof rubberized coating.

The Experience

It’s hard to fault the experience of using the Bike+. It’s smooth, almost silent, and stable, even during intense cycling sprints standing out of the seat. The handlebars are wide and maintain a good amount of grip even when sweaty. The pedal clips feel secure, which makes clipping out challenging, but are reassuringly solid during fast sprints. The resistance knob is sensitive and responsive, allowing for quick manual increases or decreases with just a twist.

One of the best features of the bike is the 360° HD rotating screen. It’s large (23.8in) and has an anti-reflective display to reduce glare, which was helpful for me because I tested it with the screen facing a window. The screen has full rotation, so you can swivel it and set up your yoga mat or weights area nearby. The touchscreen is responsive and the screen quality is crisp.

The sound is an immersive experience, with front-facing speakers and rear-facing woofers. If you prefer, you can connect Bluetooth headphones or plug in wired headphones.

During rides, the screen displays all the stats you would expect, from cadence range (RPM) and resistance to total power output score. A feature I particularly liked is the leaderboard, allowing you to compete in real time against other participants. If you’re not keen on checking your metrics during the ride, you can hide them and focus on the instructor instead.

The Home screen shows a selection of recommended classes based on your previous picks, along with a collection of workouts and upcoming live sessions. You can filter on-demand classes by instructor, so it’s easy to find your favorites. The Programs tab includes sets of workouts planned between one and eight weeks long, such as Peak Your Power Zones, which is designed to improve your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) in eight weeks.

You can browse the available sessions under the Classes tab, with filtering options including length, instructor, class type, music, subtitles, and class language. Peloton has a large following in Germany, and classes that are in German are labeled. Unlabelled classes are in English. The Schedule tab shows upcoming live sessions, which you can opt into and add to your personal schedule.

Peloton members are often motivated by challenges and competition, and this shows in the Challenges tab. You can view the current and upcoming challenges to join, as well as see how many people are participating. In the popular Annual, each minute you spend taking a class on the Bike, Tread or Peloton App counts towards a yearly total.

You can opt for non-workout rides under More Rides. The Just Ride mode means pedaling at your own pace while recording your metrics, while the Scenic Ride mode displays locations from around the world. Peloton Lanebreak is a gamified ride, where you have to match your metrics to the cues on the screen. While this was fun to play for half an hour, and reminded me nostalgically of Guitar Hero, I would stick to instructor-led workouts going forward. 

The slick production of the Peloton app and the sheer energy of the instructors make the content on it enjoyable and motivating. The non-cycling options are extensive, too, covering strength, yoga, cardio and more. See our review of the Peloton App.

Peloton Bike Vs Bike+: What’s The Difference?

The Bike+ is Peloton’s top-of-the-range product, and so there are differences between the two bikes. The screen on the Bike tilts but it doesn’t rotate, so you can’t use it for workouts off the bike. It’s also smaller (21.5in) and doesn’t have an anti-reflective finish. Peloton says the audio quality is better on the Bike+. While both have the resistance knob for manual control, the auto-resistance feature is exclusive to the Bike+. Both models take up the same amount of floor space.

The biggest difference is the initial price. The Peloton Bike is $1,445/£1,345 without any extras, compared with the Bike+ at $2,495/£1,995. The membership fees are the same, regardless of the model you choose.

Is The Peloton Bike+ Worth It?

The Peloton Bike+ is a joy to use. It’s exceptionally well designed and almost silent, and it takes up minimal space when compared with other indoor exercise bikes. The set-up process is effortless. The app has a wealth of workout classes, all with engaging instructors who are easy to follow, and who lead well-planned classes to suit a variety of music tastes. 

However, you pay a premium for the experience. Becoming part of the Peloton pack requires around $2,500/£2,000 as an initial outlay, and around $530/£470 a year in membership fees. For the most committed indoor cycling devotees looking to recreate a spin studio class at home, the experience may be well worth the price.

The key selling point of the Bowflex VeloCore is the ability to swap between Stationary mode and Lean mode, which mimics the natural sway of a road bike and provides a more comprehensive workout by engaging your core for balance. It’s no gimmick feature, trust me – after that first workout in Lean mode you’ll definitely feel the burn in your abs.

When locked, the VeloCore functions like any other upright indoor exercise bike but when unlocked, the bike frame tilts from side to side, allowing the same range of movement that you’d have on an outdoor bike as you pedal.

This bike is expensive – its price rivals the likes of Peloton. So is it worth it? And how does it compare to the best exercise bikes around? 

Bowflex Velocore: Price And Availability

I tested the smaller, 16in (41cm) screen version, which is available from $1,799 in the US and £1,999 in the UK. 

It is available from Bowflex and a range of retailers in the US, but only available from Fitness Superstore and Powerhouse Fitness in the UK. 

The 22in (56cm) screen version is available exclusively at Fitness Superstore for $2,199/£2,399. The bike is designed to be used with a JRNY membership, which costs $19.99/£17.49 a month or $149/£139.99 a year. You get a one-year free trial with the bike.

The bike is also compatible with the Peloton app ($12.99/£12.99 a month) and Zwift ($14.99/£12.99 a month).

How I Tested This Bike

I tested the Bowflex VeloCore for just over a month, cycling on it several times a week and using a variety of workouts from the companion JRNY app. I also connected it to Peloton and Zwift to test how it worked in conjunction with third-party apps.

The Set-Up

The bike is more challenging to put together than, say, the Renpho AI Smart Bike, as it has multiple parts that need to be attached. It took me an hour to assemble with the help of my partner and a lot of squinting at the instruction manual. The box is large and heavy so definitely enlist another person to help if you need to move it from room to room.

The bike has an external beam that doesn’t move and an internal frame that unlocks to release the middle section and allow movement from side to side. The screen remains stationary while you use the bike in Lean mode.

Choose your spot wisely when setting up, as you’ll need space for the bike’s range of motion when you lean. The user manual recommends a minimum workout area of 6.8ft x 4.9ft (2.1m x 1.5m).

The VeloCore includes two 3lb (1.5kg) dumbbells that sit in cages below the screen, and which remain stationary during Lean mode. The seat and handlebars are adjustable and the bike has a maximum user weight of 325lb/147kg.

The bike features a touchscreen console that’s clear and bright. I tested the 16in screen and it was large enough for me, but a 22in screen is also available. The screen can be angled up or down. There’s no headphone jack, though you can connect wireless headphones via Bluetooth or listen on built-in speakers.

There’s a ledge just below the screen that you can rest a phone or tablet on, as well as a small pocket between the handlebars that can hold a small device. The resistance is easily adjusted using a knob that you can turn to shift through 100 levels and the bike has dual-sided pedals to accommodate clip-in cycling shoes or trainers.

Once the set-up was completed and the bike was switched on, it was easy to use. A video demonstration automatically plays when you first turn on the bike. Once you’ve created a new account, you’ll be put through a short fitness assessment to benchmark your current fitness level and this enables the workouts to be tailored to you.

The Experience

The Bowflex VeloCore is a lovely bike to ride: smooth, quiet and responsive, with a comfortable seat.

I was initially nervous that the Lean mode would seem unstable or disorienting, but it feels safe and secure. To unclip the inner bike frame, you push down on a red button that clicks loudly and releases it. You need to ensure the frame is locked in place when getting on and off the bike, or when choosing to ride upright, but once it’s clicked into place it feels sturdy.

I felt the difference in my core, back and upper body when riding in Lean mode compared with riding upright. The JRNY app shows the percentage of left and right core engagement as you ride. I wasn’t sure what to do with that information, other than making sure you’re not leaning too far to one side and not the other.

The console displays a number of tabs for easy navigation. Along the top bar you can choose from Just For You, Programs, Explore The World, Videos, Favourites and Learn, while the bottom bar includes Workouts, Journal and Profile.

Just For You is the home screen and features guided adaptive workouts and educational videos. The recommended workouts are selected based on your fitness level and the past workouts you’ve completed.

I enjoyed the Explore The World tab, which includes scenic videos from beautiful locations around the globe. A nice touch on these is that the movement of the video speeds up, slows down or stops depending on how fast you’re cycling.

The instructor-led workouts are filmed in a studio, with a variety of trainers giving clear instructions. I found the energy and engagement of the instructors slightly lacking in comparison with Peloton, and also felt the app’s design was dated. These were minor drawbacks and didn’t interfere with the functionality of the app.

There is a range of music to accompany workouts, and you can manually change the audio levels for the instructor and the music – a level of control that is unusual but welcome. Within your selected genre of music (pop, rock/alternative, hip-hop/rap, EDM/dance) you can skip, like or dislike particular songs.

You can connect to Netflix and Disney+ to stream entertainment when in manual mode or using a preformatted workout, although you’ll need to log in to your existing content provider subscription because access isn’t included in the price of the app. The screen is impressive when streaming TV shows – at no point did I feel I was compromising on image quality.

If the JRNY app doesn’t float your boat, you can connect the VeloCore to third-party apps. I tested Zwift and Peloton using my iPhone and was easily able to connect to the bike. One drawback is that neither app is integrated into the bike’s interface: you’ll need to provide your own screen, resting it on the ledge underneath the main monitor. Peloton displays your cadence in the app, while the rest of the metrics are displayed on the VeloCore screen. Zwift displays cadence and power within the app, again with the metrics still displayed on the VeloCore screen.

Is The Bowflex Velocore Worth It?

The Bowflex VeloCore offers a fantastic indoor cycling experience with a premium feel. The Lean mode design offers a more challenging workout than competitors, making it a great option if you’re looking to engage your core and back while you ride.

The high price point is reflected in the quality of the bike, the innovative features and the ease of use. The Bowflex VeloCore’s flexibility is another great selling point, allowing you to dip in and out of the companion app, JRNY, as well as other third-party apps including Peloton and Zwift.

You will need to allow more room for it than a standard exercise bike, to account for the side-to-side movement, and I would recommend that someone help you assemble it. Once it’s up and running, it’s a joy to use.

While it’s possible to spend four figures on a top-of-the-range smart indoor exercise bike, at the other end of the scale are simpler machines that don’t cost a fortune. You won’t get pre-set workout programmes or connected apps with these, and the flywheels tend to be much lighter, with less resistance available – but that doesn’t mean such bikes are any less deserving of a place on Coach’s best exercise bike list, as long as they’re reliable and deliver on what they promise.

I usually run and cycle outdoors, but after undergoing surgery on my ankle, my exercise options were limited and I didn’t have time to fit in regular visits to a gym. I decided to buy a cheap folding exercise bike so I could get a low-impact workout at home as part of my post-op rehab.

Before my operation I enjoyed a spinning class, but my physiotherapist warned me not to get a spinning bike because the more aggressive riding position means it is not low enough impact for rehab. I began to look at basic upright cycles and chose the Marcy Foldable Bike NS-652. It looked sturdy enough for my needs and compact enough not to get in the way.

Marcy Foldable Exercise Bike: Price And Availability

The Marcy Foldable Exercise Bike NS-652 costs $169.99 in the US and £169 in the UK, and it’s available from Amazon and other retailers. In the US you can buy it direct from Marcy, which is based in California. In the UK it’s distributed by Pure Tec. 

The Set Up

The bike came in a compact rectangular box and required assembly, which took me around 20 minutes. It came with all the necessary tools, and included two AAA batteries required for the computer monitor. The frame is made of steel, and it feels solid and heavy-duty. It’s easy to remove the pin in the frame and fold the bike, securing it once again with the pin in the folded position. The bike weighs 39.5lb (18kg) so it’s not too heavy to move, although it wasn’t the easiest to manoeuvre and  small wheels on one end would have been a welcome addition.

How I Tested The Bike

I used the Marcy Foldable Bike for 30-minute workouts several times a week over a three-week period. I used a variety of resistance settings and rode at different intensities.

The Ride

The bike looks extremely compact when in use as well as when folded, and yet is surprisingly comfortable to ride. Having read some user reviews I was worried that at 5ft 3in (160cm) I might be too short to climb on the bike comfortably, but this was not the case: I could get on easily and with the seat on the lowest setting the proportions felt just right. The manufacturer has defined the minimum height requirement as 5ft 1in (155cm) and the maximum as 6ft 3in (190cm), but it will depend on your inseam measurement – the seat to pedal distance varies from 28in to 33in (71-84cm).

There’s a large knob below the handlebars that allows you to change the resistance, with settings ranging from one to eight. Loud clicks can be heard as you crank up the resistance, although be aware that the top level is not all that hard. It’s certainly tough enough for me in my rehab, though, giving a pleasing amount of variety to a workout.

The computer has a small screen which by default cycles through various stats, giving you time, speed, calories, distance, odometer (total distance) and pulse, which is measured through sensors on the handlebars. The pulse measurement was not very accurate, but enough to give you an idea of whether you’re working hard or not.

The seat is wide and padded, and was more comfortable than I had expected. The pedals are quite small, with a rubber strap to secure your feet, but even so my size UK 5 running trainers only just fit in with the strap on the longest setting. So unless you’re using slim cycling shoes, larger feet might not fit in the pedals very easily.

The bike was easy to use, and extremely quiet. It’s not designed for riding standing up, but the shape of the handles accommodates a variety of riding positions. It felt solid and stable and I found it comfortable to ride, although when I really went for it, hitting higher RPMs, it made the floor shake, which would not have happened on a machine with a heavier flywheel.

I did wish there was somewhere to rest a phone or tablet on the bike, but you could always set up a screen nearby to follow a guided exercise bike workout.

Is The Marcy Foldable Exercise Bike Worth It?

Robust, compact and quiet, the Marcy Foldable Exercise Bike is a convenient way to get a workout at home and at this price it’s excellent value. While I wouldn’t recommend it for those looking to push themselves hard with high-intensity workouts, or anyone who wants to follow live or pre-recorded spinning classes, this bike would suit anyone returning from an injury, starting a beginner level fitness programme or looking to keep their fitness ticking over with a light- to medium-intensity workout.

If you’re in the market for a connected indoor bike, you’ll no doubt have discovered that many of the best exercise bikes from the likes of Peloton and Echelon require a costly monthly membership to make the most of your purchase. If you’re on a budget, significant ongoing costs of up to $35/£30 every month are very offputting.

Enter the Renpho AI Smart Exercise Bike. This sub-$600/£600 piece of kit comes with a free companion app which calibrates your workouts to your fitness level, but can also be used as a standalone exercise bike for self-directed workouts. It’s Bluetooth-enabled and compatible with other popular cycling apps, including Zwift which, while also a paid-for app, is much more affordable than smartbike-brand subscriptions. It can even connect to the iOS Peloton app, although the connectivity is more limited. 

Renpho AI Smart Exercise Bike: Price And Availability

The Renpho AI Smart Bike costs $599.99 in the US and £599 in the UK, with free shipping and a one-year warranty. It’s available to buy online from Renpho and Amazon. 

The bike is regularly discounted so if you’re not in a rush it’s worth biding your time and tracking the price. It’s gone as low as $425 on Amazon US and in the UK it was reduced to £449.99 during Black Friday 2021.

The AI Gym companion app is free, and the bike can also be paired with other third-party training apps. I tested it with Zwift, which costs $14.99/£12.99 a month, and Peloton’s app-only membership which is $12.99/£12.99.

How I Tested This Bike

I tested the Renpho AI Smart Exercise Bike for a little more than a month, connecting it both with the AI Gym app and Zwift, as well as using it for free cycle training sessions. I also connected it to the Peloton app to confirm that it worked as advertised.

The Set-Up

The Renpho AI Smart Bike has a fairly traditional design – it’s a solidly built, upright-style exercise bike with enclosed wheels. It may not be the most stylish set-up you’ve ever seen, but the black and grey frame is fairly compact and won’t take up too much floor space.

The box is heavy, but the bike was easy to put together, taking me only 30 minutes from opening the box to hopping on for my first ride. The bike does have wheels on the frame so it can manoeuvred in and out of a corner, but the power cable isn’t the longest, so it’s best to set the bike up next to a socket or somewhere that you can tuck an extension lead away. 

There’s no built-in display on the bike, which is to be expected at this price. There’s a shelf that you can slot your phone or tablet into, and a USB port on the back which you can use to charge your device while you exercise. There’s also a water bottle holder within easy reach.

The handlebar, seat height and seat distance are adjustable, and likely to accommodate most riders (the maximum user weight is 265lb/120kg). The saddle is soft, squishy and designed more for comfort than performance, which will suit beginners and casual riders but may frustrate those who favour a harder seat. The pedals are flat with adjustable straps.

In the middle of the handlebars is a round LCD touchscreen for scrolling through various metrics (RPM, power, cadence, calories). There’s also a physical dial which adjusts the resistance during free rides (this is automatically adjusted for you when paired with some third-party apps such as Zwift, but not Peloton).

The bike uses Bluetooth to connect to devices, and it paired quickly and reliably with the companion AI Gym app on my iPhone, and Zwift on my phone and laptop.

The Experience

The quality of the bike was impressive, and it was sturdy and stable to ride. The freewheel is set to mimic coasting along on an outdoor bicycle and as a result feels very smooth. It’s also quiet enough that you could work out late at night and won’t wake the rest of the household.

I slotted my phone into the holder on the bike when I was using the AI Gym app and it stayed in place throughout my workout. For Zwift, I put my laptop on a table in front of the bike, which worked well even though the size of the screen inhibited the immersive effect. I imagine you’d upgrade the experience significantly by using a larger tablet or casting to a TV.

AI Gym Companion App

The free AI Gym app is pretty simple compared with the competition, but it does offer more than 70 workout options at no extra cost. There are scenic rides and pre-set workouts targeting goals such as burning fat, or building endurance or strength. There are also on-demand classes where an instructor puts you through your paces, as well as challenges where you’re paired with users of a similar capability to ride with.

When you first log in to the AI Gym app, you’ll be invited to complete a Cycling Power Test. This is used to determine your functional threshold power (FTP), which dictates the difficulty level of pre-installed workouts.

Zwift

If the AI Gym app doesn’t float your boat, there are more options. The Renpho AI Smart Exercise Bike can be used with a number of third-party training platforms, the most attractive of which is Zwift. Any cyclist worth their salt knows about Zwift, but if you're not that experienced Coach’s Zwift review explains why it's a great way for anyone to get fit.

I tested the bike in late autumn, and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Zwift landscapes without having to venture out when it was wet, cold and dark. The bike automatically cranks up the resistance when you’re on an incline, as well as letting you freewheel down hills, making the experience immersive and satisfying.

I hit a few snags when first trying to connect the bike with Zwift. Although it paired immediately, the resistance wouldn’t change during my first ride and my avatar moved at a glacial pace despite my efforts. After searching on various forums, I resolved the issue by reloading the AI Gym app and enabling a wireless firmware update. Once that was done, it worked without issue.

Peloton

The iOS Peloton app is listed as compatible and bargain hunters may eye the Renpho bike with a view to getting the Peloton experience on a budget. The app does connect to the bike, but it treats it as a cadence sensor. Your cadence stats will be displayed on screen and saved to your profile, but it won’t display or control the resistance on your bike as it will on Zwift.

Is The Renpho Smart Bike Worth It?

The Renpho AI Smart Exercise Bike is a great, entry-level option that’s well suited to casual riders or those just starting out. The free companion app does the job, the set-up is relatively straightforward, and the bike itself offers a smooth and sturdy experience.

Renpho’s ability to connect with a range of third-party training apps, chiefly Zwift and to a lesser extent Peloton, earns it a big thumbs-up, particularly at this price. Dedicated cyclists with more cash to splash will be better served by expensive smart exercise bikes from the likes of Wahoo or Wattbike, or the best turbo trainers, which provide a more sophisticated set-up.

For most people who just want to exercise at home, the bike offers great value, particularly to those who don’t want to be locked into monthly membership fees.

The concept of a smart bike is fairly simple. Rather than requiring an actual bike as traditional turbo trainers do, it’s an all-in-one exercise bike designed for dedicated cyclists rather than general gym-goers who may prefer connected exercise bikes like Peloton which connect to trainer-led workouts.

The geometry on smart exercise bikes can be tweaked to mimic your actual bike’s set-up; you can increase or decrease resistance using handlebar-mounted levers rather than a dial on the crossbar like connected spin bikes; and they are made to be used with a variety of training apps such as Zwift, Wahoo X and TrainerRoad. Once your bike is synced, it’s possible to have the resistance automatically altered depending on a pre-set workout or to simulate the virtual world you’re riding around – hence the “smart” aspect.

Wahoo released its debut smart bike, the Kickr Bike, in the summer of 2020. At the time, indoor cycling was going through a purple patch as worldwide lockdown restrictions and unknowns about the evolving pandemic caused turbo trainer sales to explode. The Kickr Bike was the American company’s challenge to the Tacx Neo Smart Bike and Wattbike Atom, and promised a hyper-realistic riding experience courtesy of its gradient- and resistance-simulating capabilities. We rated it highly in our Wahoo Kickr Bike review, giving it 4½ stars and a place on Coach’s best exercise bike round-up.

Two years on, Wahoo has released its second generation, the Kickr Bike V2. It doesn’t look an awful lot different from the version it’s replacing and promises the same pioneering tilt technologies. At £3,499.99, it’s even more expensive. But is it worth it?

Wahoo Kickr Bike V2: Price And Availability

The Wahoo Kickr Bike V2 was released in September 2022 and costs $3,999.99 in the US and £3,499.99 in the UK. The only smart bike in Wahoo’s range, it essentially combines the features of the Wahoo Kickr V6 ($1,299.99/£1,099.99) and the Wahoo Kickr Climb indoor grade simulator ($699.99/£529.99). The cost is £500 more than the release price of the original Wahoo Kickr (reflecting the narrowing of the exchange rate between sterling and the US dollar). The Wahoo Kickr V1 is also currently significantly discounted ($2999.99/£2,199.99), although you won’t be able to upgrade its connectivity to include WiFi.

Wahoo Kickr Bike V1 Versus V2

The Kickr Bike V2 looks nearly identical to the V1 it replaces. It has the same 13lb flywheel, a five-point adjustable fit (stack, reach, setback, saddle height and frame height) and four different crank length possibilities that allow you to match the geometry of your own bike to the nearest millimetre. It is still as accurate (+/- 1%) and is able to simulate ascents of 20% and descents of 15%. The subtle differences (and improvements) are internal.

The headline changes are built-in WiFi, an increase in its maximum output from 2,200W to 2,500W, and the addition of an odometer. The first of these is welcome – the signal didn’t drop out once during testing, whereas turbo trainers can sometimes randomly drop out when relying on a Bluetooth or ANT+ connection, disrupting a workout or spelling the end of a virtual race. The extra 300W seems slightly pointless – even Chris Hoy in his Olympic medal-winning prime would struggle to hit 2,200W – while the odometer (which tracks the trainer’s use in a similar way to one in a car) is only useful when you come to sell it.

The only other tweak is the incorporation of an ERG easy ramp feature. In essence, if you need to resume an interval when using the smart bike in ERG mode – where the resistance is held at a specific power output – the intensity will be gradually built up over 10 seconds rather than immediately returning to the target power. Although a “nice to have” rather than a necessity, it provided a better experience than having to grind away in a low cadence before getting back up to speed.

The Set Up

The Kickr Bike V2 is a durable, solid piece of kit that is made from aluminium and steel, which Wahoo claims will help it survive years of hard training. At 42kg, it isn’t the easiest to manoeuvre – although I did manage to carry it up a flight of stairs so it could be positioned in a first-floor home office. 

Setting it up for the first time requires you to secure two stabilising legs, attach the handlebars to the stem and insert the seatpost into the corresponding hole. Easy-to-follow instructions come in the box, and allen keys are included. From here, you can tune the Kickr Bike’s geometry to your requirements. There are three ways of doing it, but each requires you to use the Wahoo Fitness smartphone app. 

The first and most accurate is by using a bike fit report – something you’d have to hand if you’ve paid for one in the past. The second and somewhat accurate set-up requires you to take a photo of your bike in the app and use AI to do the rest. The final option uses measurements of your body, although Wahoo warns this is the least accurate. I used the second method and found it matched my road bike fairly accurately – the only additional adjustment required was tweaking the angle of the saddle.

After this, you can create a profile that increases the realism even more by mimicking your real-life bike’s drivetrain – from choosing between Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo shifting to matching the range and number of cogs on your cassette.

The Ride

For the amount it costs, you’d expect the Kickr Bike V2 to achieve an extremely realistic simulation of outdoor riding. After a couple of weeks of testing, it was certainly the closest I’ve felt to slogging up a real-life climb or flying down a descent when hitting the hills on a virtual training platform. The immersive experience still had shortcomings, but it had nothing to do with the hardware – the likes of Zwift are good, but it’s still hard to trick your mind that you’re riding outside when you’re set up next to your desk and using a 13in laptop screen.

The trainer didn’t skip a beat when it came to simulating the changes in resistance that occur on virtual undulating terrain, and working my way up and down the “gears” on my drivetrain certainly felt like the real thing (minus the clunks of mechanical derailleurs). In ERG mode, the changes in resistance felt more accurate than turbo trainers I’ve tested in the past.

The biggest sell, though, is the gradient simulation. Although it might seem like a gimmick (particularly for downhill sections), it has a noticeable impact on your positioning. Rather than sitting fairly static throughout a session, I found myself moving around on the bike a lot more – like I would on the road. When tackling virtual climbs, I was able to get out of the saddle, engaging muscles in my calves rather than relying on my quads to power my way to the top using brute force.

It’s during these all-out moments that you realise the Kickr Bike V2 isn’t perfect. The handlebars and bottom bracket both creaked slightly when laying down the power, and it would wobble slightly when out of the saddle. While it’s sturdy enough that I didn’t worry about it toppling over, the limited degree of side-to-side movement means it loses some of that realism.

The finishing kit also left a lot to be desired. While it’s possible to change the handlebars, handlebar tape, stem and saddle, all these components felt quite cheap on a product that prides itself on being premium.

Is The Wahoo Kickr Bike V2 Worth It?

If you were starting from scratch, rather than plumping for the £3,499.99 Kickr Bike V2, you could theoretically buy Wahoo’s top-tier turbo trainer and tilting accessory, and still have £1,870.01 left to spend on a road bike that you could use for both indoor and outdoor training. But the Kickr Bike V2 isn’t aimed at those looking to create the most cost-effective indoor training set-up. Instead, it’s targeting those who are happy to splash the cash for the convenience of not having to install and uninstall a bike when switching between indoor and outdoor training.

When compared with its direct rivals, it’s significantly more expensive than the Tacx Neo Smart Bike ($3,199.99/£2,299) and Wattbike Atom ($3,399/£2,399).

If you want the best indoor training experience currently available on the market, then the Kickr Bike V2 is tough to beat. Its simulating features (from gearing to gradients) ensure it continues to stand out from its rivals, while the addition of WiFi prevents the drop-outs that can plague a workout or race. The only downside is some of its finishing, but if money’s truly no object, this could be easily sorted for an additional £100-200.

There are few better times to buy an exercise bike than during the Amazon Prime Day sale. There may not be quite as many bargains available from as many retailers as on Black Friday, but Amazon always includes some big discounts on bikes in its exclusive sale for Prime subscribers, and in 2023 there are big savings on the best exercise bikes from the likes of Peloton and Echelon.

Prime Day 2023 falls on Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th July—the sale lasts a full 48 hours but some of the best deals may sell out early on. We'll be scouting out all the best deals on exercise bikes and listing them below.

The deals are available only to Prime subscribers, but if you’re not already signed up you can take advantage of a 30-day free trial of the service to make sure you don’t miss out.

Amazon Prime Day Exercise Bike Deals

Quick Links

• Amazon: Today’s exercise bike deals
• Amazon: Browse all exercise bikes
• Best Buy: Save $300 on a highly-rated Bowflex bike
• Dick’s Sporting Goods: Exercise bikes from as little as $99.98
• Target: Exercise bikes on sale
• Walmart: Deals on XTERRA and Sunny exercise bikes

Amazon Prime Day FAQs

London’s multitude of parks, canal towpaths and other green spaces makes the capital great for cycling, running and walking. Peloton has clearly cottoned on to that fact, because it has just released a series of guided activities set in London, so people can cycle, run and walk in the city on their Peloton Bike or Peloton Tread. 

The variety of scenic content in the app is one reason we rate the Peloton machines as among the best exercise bikes and best treadmills, because sometimes you need a break from the sweaty confines of the Peloton studio sessions.

Four guided on-demand sessions in London have been added. There is a 30-minute run along Regents Canal and through Victoria Park, and two 30-minute rides – one set in East London and finishes in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and the other in Battersea Park. The last guided session is a 20-minute walk from Hyde Park to Notting Hill.

Along with the guided sessions there are time- and distance-based videos set in London that you can do when you want to work at your own pace, rather than with an instructor. 

We’ve cycled and run in all the locations that have been added to the Peloton app and can confirm they’re all enjoyable spots to exercise. While exercising outdoors brings with it some unique benefits, we would certainly say hitting virtual London on a Peloton and so not having to avoid loads of other people on your runs and rides is an attractive prospect, especially since you’ll also be able to avoid any inclement weather. That said, for an authentic London experience we’d recommend setting up a sprinkler by your bike or treadmill.

All the Peloton London guided sessions are available on demand in the Peloton app, along with the time- and distance-based videos. You’ll need an All-Access Membership ($44/£39 a month) to use the sessions on a Peloton Tread or Peloton Bike.

The Peloton Bike is one of the best exercise bikes you can get, especially if you want a home spinning bike, and it’s been reduced by $220 in the US in Amazon’s Prime Early Access sale. This new event gives early access on deals to Amazon Prime members ahead of the Black Friday sales period, and while we’d usually suggest waiting for Black Friday to get the best deals, it’s hard to see this one being topped.

Discounts are rare on Peloton’s products, certainly discounts of this magnitude. The 15% off brings the price of the Peloton Bike down to $1,225. The price also includes delivery and installation, which is always welcome when buying heavy cardio equipment.

The Peloton Bike is the cheaper bike within Peloton’s range, but it’s still one of the best spinning bikes you can get and we rate it as the better value option from Peloton. The Bike+ has some upgrades like a larger screen and resistance that automatically changes in line with the instructor’s directions, but they’re not essential features, and the standard Peloton Bike’s 22in HD screen was more than large enough for us when we put it to the test in our Peloton Bike review.

Central to the appeal of the Peloton Bike is access to the classes in the partner app, which costs another $44 a month. We’ve tested most of the best home spinning setups on the market and Peloton’s still stands out for the quality and range of classes in the app, and these extend beyond spinning, with yoga, strength and a variety of other sessions available.

If you’re looking to get fully kitted out, the Prime Early Access Sale also includes a variety of other Peloton products, including a bike mat and light dumbbells to use during your spinning sessions.

Wahoo is releasing the latest generation of its KICKR Bike and KICKR Smart Trainer, and aims to improve how well they work with connected training apps.

Both the indoor bike and the turbo trainer lines are among the top options for cyclists looking for a realistic ride experience. We gave both the KICKR Bike and the KICKR V5 4.5-star reviews and places in our round-ups of the best exercise bikes and best turbo trainers.

The headline development is the addition of Wi-Fi connectivity to both, which makes for a faster, more stable connection than when using Bluetooth/ANT+ to connect to apps and other devices.

Both the bike and turbo also integrate seamlessly with the Wahoo X training platform, which  contains the Wahoo SYSTM And Wahoo RGT apps, where you can immerse yourself in virtual worlds, and tackle training programmes and workouts to improve your cycling. The trainers also connect to third-party apps like Zwift and TrainerRoad, and having Wi-Fi should ensure that connection is better than ever. Wahoo even says on-screen metrics will update 65% faster over Wi-Fi than Bluetooth or ANT+.

“We are excited that Wahoo continues to lead innovation in the category by being the first major brand to introduce Wi-Fi on its smart trainers and bikes,” says Wahoo CEO Mike Saturnia. “We are creating the most innovative connected fitness ecosystem on the market, and these new Wi-Fi-enabled products play a key role.”

The addition of Wi-Fi also means that firmware will be updated automatically between uses, so you don’t have to sit waiting for a software update to finish when you want to start cycling.

Other updates include ERG Easy Ramp, which helps you to resume an ERG workout during an interrupted interval by easing you back up to your desired wattage. This means you don’t have to struggle to hit a high wattage target from stationary after a break.

The new machines also come with an odometer to track the total distance covered using them, which can help you keep on top of maintaining them. 

The KICKR Bike offers 2,500W of resistance and has Wahoo’s KICKR Climb technology built in, and so can tilt forwards and backwards to create inclines of up to 20% for climbs and 15% for descents. We will be testing it as soon as possible to see how the upgrades affect the experience of using it.

The new KICKR Bike V2 costs $3,999.99 in the US and £3,499.99 in the UK and is available to pre-order before the shipping date of 5th October. The new KICKR Smart Trainer V6 is $1,299.99/£1,099.99 and is available to buy now. 

Pre-order KICKR Bike V2 from Wahoo US or Wahoo UK

Buy KICKR Smart Trainer V6 from Wahoo US or Wahoo UK

• Wahoo Buys Virtual Cycling App RGT Cycling And Creates New Wahoo X Subscription
• The Beginner’s Guide To Turbo Training
• How To Get Started With Zwift Cycling

Fiit is a connected fitness company on a mission to make exercise a habit for everybody. Based in east London, the company was founded in 2017 by three friends, two of them former Google employees, who recognised the potential of uniting smart fitness tech with in-demand fitness influencers. By 2020 the start-up had become established as one of the UK’s highest-rated fitness apps and one of our best workout apps – then the pandemic supercharged its growth. 

Now the company is aiming to conquer the connected fitness category and has established a transatlantic partnership with equipment specialist Assault Fitness, renowned for building some of the most respected cardio kit in the business. This has allowed Fiit to offer its community a connected workout experience on the American brand’s sector-leading air bike, which is affectionately known in the trade as “the devil’s tricycle”. Here, we put Fiit and Assault Fitness’s debut air bike partnership to a two-month test to see if it can be classed among the best air bikes for your home gym.

The Set-Up

First, a confession. Long before I heard Fiit was rolling out air bike workouts, I was already a convert, having relied on its library of strength, cardio and rebalance classes (which include yoga, Pilates and breathwork) to get me through winter lockdowns.

I was intrigued to see how the home workout model could be adapted for cardio kit, yet sceptical that an air bike could be seamlessly integrated into the typical home set-up. Once the bike had arrived at my door, and I’d managed to manoeuvre it into position in my sitting room and hopped on for a test spin, those doubts were somewhat confirmed.

For starters, it's noisy. Like a helicopter-taking-off-in-my-living-room noisy. The harder you pedal, push and pull, the more noise its large fan generates. Of course, that’s the idea, to make you work harder with each revolution, and why the apparatus has earned cult status among the functional fitness scene. But designed for optimal feng shui it is not. Rather, the device was built for the gym floor. 

The AssaultBike Pro, which is the company’s mid-range model, is a rock-solid machine with a 54kg frame, a silky-smooth drive train, an LCD screen and Bluetooth compatibility. It retails at $899 in the US; in the UK it costs £949.99, but via Fiit you can get hold of the bike with free delivery to mainland Great Britain, a 30-day free membership to the app and Fiit heart rate tracker for £1,099. 

It’s customary to compare such bikes with the market leader Peloton, from which a bike and one-month membership package starts at £1,345 plus a £30 monthly subscription. Fiit’s basic package doesn’t cover home installation – that’ll cost another £300 – but includes a pair of hex dumbbells and a Fiit workout mat.

The air bike typically arrives packaged up with assembly instructions but my bike came pre-assembled, so all I needed to do was adjust the seat height using the app’s handy explainers, then get cracking. 

The Experience

To put Fiit’s air bike classes to the test I tackled a month-long programme dubbed Airbike Academy. Described as “an education on athleticism”, the plan combines sprint training with metabolic and aerobic conditioning, split between five classes per week for four weeks.

Week one begins with a 10-minute “compete” class combining all-out sprints on the bike with combinations of half and full burpees. Syncing the app to my heart rate monitor and the bike’s internal computer, I’m able to track my calories burned and reps earned for an overall score. This will establish a benchmark of my general fitness.  

After a warm-up and pep talk from Gede Foster, Fiit’s head of fitness, we dive into the workout, and it’s an impressively slick production. High-tempo house music ebbs and flows with each interval, while a vibrant light show unfolding in the background helps distract from the lactic acid flooding my quads with every revolution.

Cranking up for the final push, Gede bellows “30 seconds of pain, a lifetime of fame” as she accelerates to the finish line, urging me to keep pace. Lungs searing, chest pounding, I survive the final onslaught and earn a final score of 66 points. A brief warm-down concludes the class, and I’m then shown my workout metrics, including average RPM, average BPM, and my lowly position on the overall leaderboard. 

The rest of week one comprises a 25-minute “sprint” class with Sean, an ominous-sounding 40-minute “endure” workout with Gus, an equally concerning 40-minute “metcon” blast with Luke and a rather more inviting 25-minute yin yoga recovery session with Lina. 

While 40 minutes sounds about par for an in-person workout class, it feels like a lifetime when exercising at home. I’m used to grabbing 25 minutes before breakfast or during my lunch break, so that perhaps explains why I skip the 40-minute sessions altogether and have to play catch up in week two. 

When I eventually tackle said classes, I notice a discernible ratcheting up of intensity in the air bike studio compared with the workouts I’d done previously. Sean Kazab, usually the charming boy-next-door type, adopts a gritted-teeth, jaw-clenched, take-no-prisoners persona when the air bike is involved. 

Luke Baden, another of Fiit’s trainers, manages to have me in stitches while inflicting me with a side stitch in one breathless 40-minute class, dropping entertaining soundbites throughout like “mobilise then terrorise”, “welcome to the pain cave” and – my personal favourite – “time to ride it like you stole it”. 

At the end of one punishing metcon class, Brazilian trainer Gus Vaz Tostes declares: “Heart pounding, legs burning, there’s no better feeling.” While our world view might differ slightly, his enthusiasm, as with all of Fiit’s coaches, is infectious. 

That class, alternating 90-second bouts on the bike with a gruelling full-body dumbbell complex, epitomises how Fiit is throwing down the gauntlet to the rest of the connected fitness competition. 

“The human body creates energy in one of three ways,” Luke tells me later, explaining the theory behind Fiit’s air bike workouts. “Most fitness content only targets the anaerobic energy system associated with HIIT training and/or the aerobic energy system. If you only work one, no matter how much you improve you’ll only be tapping into a third of the benefits.”

Fiit’s air bike workouts, by contrast, tick all the boxes, he says. “Endure classes will help you become more aerobically fit. Sprint classes will lead to increased strength and power. Metcon classes will deliver a sky-high calorie burn and, if done properly, increase your metabolism after class.” 

The Verdict

Luke’s theory stacks up on paper, but will it in reality? The final class to end my air bike schooling is a repeat of the original 10-minute compete class with Gede. This time I score 73 points, an improvement of seven, placing me 18th on the overall leaderboard (“Ryan R” holds pole position with 127).

After four weeks my aptitude on the bike has improved, and having a tangible target to beat no doubt helped me dig a little deeper. But, in truth, I only managed to complete half of the plan’s 20 classes, typically shying away from the 40-minute workouts for fear of disturbing my wife (or neighbours) with the Air Bike’s deafening din. 

To rectify that issue, I tracked down an Assault Fitness Air Bike at my local Fitness First for what Luke would describe as an “anaerobic threshold monster” of a metcon class. Initially, the transition from home to gym was seamless, but then the studio’s Wi-Fi kept dropping out mid-class, freezing me deep inside the hurt locker until Luke came back to life.

Teething problems aside, using Fiit on the gym floor gave my session far more purpose and direction, armed with all the weights, space and options you’d be hard pressed to find at home.

Crucially, it also demonstrated why the UK’s number one fitness app is so well equipped for the predicted hybrid future of fitness, capable of blending traditional in-gym workouts with effective, engaging and entertaining classes at home.  

Since I started reviewing the air bike classes, Fiit has added treadmill workouts to the app, again in conjunction with Assault Fitness, and rowing workouts are expected to be available soon. 

The company hopes this ecosystem of connected cardio devices will set it apart as the functional fitness brand of choice, and help carve out a niche apart from the Pelotons, Mirrors and Tonals of the home workout category. 

Personally, however, I’d rather stick with Fiit’s excellent on-demand strength, cardio and rebalance classes at home, save the air bike workouts for the gym where the kit really belongs and truly comes into its own, and reclaim the serenity of my living room. I imagine my wife (and the family next door) would agree. 

Buy from Fiit | From £1,099 + £7.99/month membership (first 30 days are free)

With a dizzying array of home spin bikes now available, it can be difficult to determine what’s good value for money. If you’re after a bike-and-subscription package to stream live classes but you’re not ready to make the hefty investment that Peloton demands, Echelon offers a more affordable option in the form of its entry-level Sport Smart Connect Bike. So can it match the best spin bikes?

Echelon Sport Smart Connect Bike: Price & Availability

For what you’re getting, the initial outlay is very reasonable. The bike costs £799 (excluding delivery) in the UK and comes with a one-year warranty. It’s also available from a range of third-party retailers such as Wiggle, Argos, Currys and Amazon so it’s worth shopping around to see if any retailers are offering a discount.  

The Sport Smart Connect is no longer available from Echelon in the US, but is available from third-party retailers like Walmart for less than $500.

The Unlimited Fit App costs $34.99/£29.99 per month for a rolling membership (with the first 30 days free). If you’re able to pay a lump sum up front, you can lock in a rate of $33.33/£24.99 or $29.16/£19.99 a month (plus free delivery) by paying for one ($399.99/£299.90) or two years ($699/£479.76), respectively. You can add up to four family members on one membership, each with their own profile.

You can use the Freestyle area of the app without paying for a subscription, so if you choose to cancel the monthly payments after a time, you can still use the bike. You’ll be able to see your stats during and after your ride, but they won’t be saved in the Progress area – and you won’t have access to the live or on-demand content.

The Set-up

The box is heavy and while the delivery team did kindly carry it up my stairs and into my living room, you have to assemble it yourself. It was a little tricky to put together, but I was up and running in about 40 minutes (admittedly with the help of my partner who was as keen to try the bike as I was).

The bike is black, with a minimalist look, and doesn’t take up too much space. It is, however, very heavy and needs to be plugged in to use, so it’s worth assembling it where you want the bike to be stationed.

Once switched on, the bike connected with the app without issue, and I never struggled to get them to pair. There’s no built-in screen (one reason it’s much cheaper than a Peloton), but there is space to slot in your phone or tablet, connected via Bluetooth to the bike.

The bike is impressively quiet to use, and feels sturdy and stable. The magnetic flywheel is on the lighter side at 7kg but still produces a smooth ride.

There are 32 resistance levels, controlled by a dial below the handlebars. Your resistance and cadence are displayed during classes, and the instructor uses these to advise you how hard to work and when. There’s also an emergency stop button.

As with all spin bikes the saddle is hard, although Echelon does offer a comfort seat ($29.99/£34.99) or a gel seat cover ($19.99/£19.99) if you prefer. 

The handles are non-slip and offer a range of grip positions, making it easy to transition from seated to standing or to shift mid-ride. The seat and handlebars are adjustable, so you should have no difficulties finding a comfortable position regardless of height or build.

I tested it wearing trainers, but you can use cycling cleats if you’d rather clip in.

The water bottle holder is in the middle of the bike, rather than by the handles. It’s somewhat flimsy and on the slim side – not a major issue by any means, but it's worth using a smaller bottle that’s easy to get in and out.

The Experience

While you ride you can see all the stats you’d expect from a spinning bike, such as resistance, cadence, output, distance, speed and calories burned.

There’s a good variety of instructors and workouts to choose from and the app is easy to navigate, with upcoming live classes highlighted on the homepage. You can filter the on-demand options by type, length, genre or instructor, making it easy to tailor to your preferences, and add scheduled live classes to your calendar.

The app also offers “scenic” tours set to music, in locations from Cleveland to Bali, which offers a change from instructor-led classes. I didn’t try many of these because I was viewing them on my small phone screen, but I imagine they’re more appealing on a tablet.

There’s nothing to secure your device to the bike – just a ledge for it to rest on – although I didn’t have any issues with my mobile phone moving during use. Since you’re looking down rather than forwards, the viewing angle isn’t quite as comfortable or immersive as a built-in screen would be.

There’s a lot of motivational patter to keep you engaged and I got a call out in my very first live class. There are clearly a lot of really, really fit people using Echelon as evidenced by the on-screen leaderboard. You may find this offers inspiration (along with a degree of awe), but if you’d rather not know how you score against others, you can easily hide it.

The on-demand classes are taped versions of live ones, rather than classes specifically created for on-demand use, so they don’t have the same slick feel that some competitors offer – and they include all the chat from the original live class. That said, there is a lot of variety in the classes so you wouldn’t have to repeat the same one again and again.

Naturally, spin classes are Echelon’s forte, but in the Fitpass section you can also access a wide variety of other workouts, including yoga, Pilates, stretch, HIIT, strength training, barre, boxing and more.

There’s also a very active UK Facebook group, featuring a lot of sweaty, smiling selfies and personal progress updates, so if you’re looking for a fun and engaged spin community, you’ll find it here.

Is The Echelon Sport Smart Connect Bike Worth It?

I really enjoyed using the Echelon bike. It’s a quiet, sturdy bike that rides well, and connects easily with the variety of live and on-demand classes on the app. The community is active and engaged, the instructors are upbeat and motivational, and the extra workouts and scenic routes included in the app are a welcome addition.

Echelon may not have the cult following or polished feel of Peloton, but it doesn’t have the hefty cost, either. Committed spinners looking for convenience on a budget will find a lot to like here.

We always keep a sharp eye out for deals on our top-rated exercise bikes and discounts on Wattbike’s range are very rare indeed, so to see the excellent Wattbike Atom reduced by £250 to £1,749 (UK only) got us very excited.

The Wattbike Atom is a smart bike, seamlessly connecting to a range of virtual training apps like Zwift and Rouvy, which you can display on a tablet mounted on the handlebars. The Atom will then adjust the resistance you pedal against in line with the incline changes on the virtual routes you ride.

Within the Wattbike Hub app there’s also a range of workouts and training plans to tackle, along with virtual recreations of famous real-world climbs that you can attempt to conquer in your own home, like Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux, both of which feature in the Tour de France.

However, the Atom’s smarts go well beyond connectivity, since the live cycling technique analysis offered via the Wattbike Hub app can help you to improve your form and become a more efficient rider.

The Atom is an excellent exercise bike for serious cyclists looking to train for outdoor events and work on their technique, but it’s also just a brilliant option for anyone trying to get fitter. It’s a great piece of kit and the connection with apps like Zwift helps the time and miles fly by when you’re pedalling away. It’s also easy to adjust the saddle and handlebars of the bike to suit different people, so it’s a machine the whole family can jump on for a workout.

Even after the discount the Atom is still an investment at £1,749, which is a fair bit more expensive even than the basic Peloton Bike (but not the Peloton Bike+). However, there’s no required ongoing cost with the Wattbike, and even if you decide to subscribe to an app like Zwift, it is much cheaper than the £30-£40 it costs for most spinning app subscriptions. Because smart exercise bikes in general are expensive, the Atom is actually one of the best-value options in that category. 

If you like the idea of a bike but still find the Wattbike Atom too expensive, then check out our round-ups of the best exercise bikes and best spin bikes for alternative options. Or read our glowing review of the Wattbike Atom if you’re on the fence.

• How To Get Started With Zwift Cycling

Air bikes – also known as fanbikes and assault bikes – are a best-of-both-worlds type of cardio machine. Compact, versatile and simple to use, they combine the pedals of an exercise bike with the hand levers of an arm bike or elliptical machine. They have been a mainstay of CrossFit boxes for the past decade, are starting to become more commonplace in commercial gyms and even pop up in the odd home gym.

Air bikes are relatively simple, forgoing most of the superfluous features you might find with some gym gadgets, yet they can be ruthlessly effective at providing a full-body workout that will build strength, stamina and power and torch calories by the truckload.

How To Train Using An Air Bike

Whereas you would usually use distance or speed to track a stint on an exercise bike or treadmill, with air bikes the key metric is typically calories burned. The harder you push, the more calories you will burn, but also the quicker you will run out of puff. For that reason, they work well when used as part of an interval workout or for a tough finisher at the end of a session.

An effective air bike finisher would be to perform four minutes of Tabata intervals. Sprint all out for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, then repeat that sequence eight times, aiming to burn the same number of calories in every 20-second burst.

Of course, air bikes can also be used as a short full-body warm-up, for a more leisurely full-body warm-down, or a longer steady-state cardio session.

Fitness app Fiit has recently launched a section of air bike sessions, and shared three exclusive air bike workouts with Coach.

Air Bike Buying Guide

The ominously dubbed “devil’s tricycle” – as it is affectionately known in CrossFit boxes around the world – is a simple contraption. 

Generally, the bigger the fan, the more resistance it can deliver. Check if the model you’re considering requires power from the mains or batteries, and if it’s the former that you have an outlet near where you’re planning to keep it. The other points of difference will be in build quality, load bearing, extra handle positions to target different upper-body muscle groups, and the performance metrics the display tracks.

Newer models should also have Bluetooth so they can display the information from a heart rate monitor, as well as working with fitness apps such as Apple Health and Fiit. Here we have picked our favourite air bikes depending on your goal, budget and inclination to emulate the CrossFit greats.

The Best Air Bikes For Your Home Gym

The AssaultBike has serious pedigree, having featured in the CrossFit Games from 2015-2020. The Elite is its top-end model, a beefed-up version of the original Classic. Along with a removable windshield, bulkier 63kg frame and solid steel cranks, the Elite has a more comfortable seat and a revamped, easier-to-read LCD screen.  

It can connect via Bluetooth and ANT to heart rate chest straps, while syncing with Assault Fitness’s workout app for custom programming, as well as with fitness app Fiit for guided on-demand workouts. Above all, it’s a rock-solid machine that will stand up to a daily hammering while delivering a consistent resistance with every revolution.

Buy from Wolverson Fitness | £1,499.99

If Batman was into cardio, the Echo Bike would be his weapon of choice. Its reinforced steel frame with a textured black powder coat finish doesn’t just look Dark Knight-worthy, it performs superbly too. Rubber levelling feet provide added grip on any surface, while its robust 58kg construction and belt-driven steel fan will eliminate any sways, bumps or snags during even max output sprints.

However, the single handle position is slightly limiting and while its LCD console can display your heart rate, the Echo is compatible only with Polar heart rate monitors. That being said, in 2021 the Rogue Echo Bike took Assault Fitness’s mantle as the official air bike of CrossFit, so if you want to test yourself against the world’s fittest, this is the bike for you.

Buy from Rogue Europe | €961.95 (around £810)

The Pro is Assault Fitness’s latest iteration of the “bike you love to hate” and we’d wager it provides the brand’s smoothest ride too. It combines the original design of the Classic with the best features of the top-of-the-range Elite – namely a silky-smooth drive train – while weighing in almost 10kg lighter at 54kg. 

The Pro is durable, low-maintenance and built for use day in, day out. Like the Elite, it can be connected to a heart rate monitor via Bluetooth and ANT+ and can be paired with workout apps. Fiit, the UK’s leading on-demand fitness app, was so impressed with the Pro that it buddied up with Assault Fitness to launch three new air bike exercise classes. You can follow the guided workouts and the app tracks calories burned on the bike in real time. Fiit is also compatible with the Elite model.

Buy from Fiit | £899, including heart rate monitor

The Mission Air Bike comes from good stock. We’ve previously scored JTX’s treadmill and rowing machine highly so we’re confident this heavy-duty 64kg Air Bike will stand up under scrutiny too, but what sets this model apart from the competition are its pedals and handlebar. The pedal’s adjustable straps will secure your foot in place so you can strengthen your hamstrings with every upstroke as you can on a specialist studio bike. The handles provide four different grip options – overhand, underhand, narrow hammer grip and wide – to target different muscle groups across your upper body. Combined, these features make the bike well suited to longer cardio sessions.

Buy from JTX Fitness | £799 (currently reduced to £729)

See related 

• The Best Exercise Bikes Of 2022
• CrossFit Workouts To Try In Your Next Gym Session
• The Best Home Gym Equipment

It’s worth noting that while we’ve highlighted the AD2, Schwinn also makes a mid-range AD6 as well as the top-end AD8, which would give the AssaultBike a run for its money. However, we’re focusing on the entry-level machine as the best-value air bike on the market. Despite its modest price, the AD2 weighs a sturdy 44kg and features a single-stage belt drive for smooth resistance, foot rests to ensure you’re isolating the upper body and a high-resolution LCD screen that displays the key metrics of speed, RPM, distance, time and calories. The AD2 will deliver the full air bike experience – it might just need a little more TLC than the more expensive alternatives.

Buy from Fitness Superstore | £559

In many ways an exercise bike is the best piece of home cardio fitness equipment you can buy. They’re more compact than a treadmill, rowing machine or elliptical, and you don’t have to spend quite as much to get a sturdy, high-quality machine. 

We’ve picked the best exercise bikes to suit a range of budgets below, from cheap and cheerful to money-no-object splurges. The bikes are in price order so you can zero in on the ones that suit your budget quickly, and you’ll also find a buyer’s guide to help you pick the right bike for you.

How We Test Exercise Bikes

We test exercise bikes the only way we know how: by riding them a lot. Generally we get a bike on loan for several weeks and we use it for a variety of workouts, from easy rides to heart-pumping HIIT sessions. If the bike has a partner app or Bluetooth connectivity to third-party apps we also test those out, to get the full experience.

The Best Exercise Bikes

Smart exercise bikes like the Atom can link up to training apps like Zwift and The Sufferfest, which make your experience far more immersive and entertaining. You pay a premium for the connectivity, but I’ve found the Atom is one of the better-value options. It connects seamlessly with Zwift and mirrors gradient changes in the app quickly. The Atom is also quiet as a mouse, is highly stable even when you’re riding out of the saddle, offers a realistic cycling feel and displays a wealth of stats on your session if you have a tablet to rest on the handlebar stand.

The Wattbike app also contains training plans and workouts you can use to prepare for a sportive, or to focus on one aspect of your cycling, such as power, speed or endurance. The app can also analyze your pedaling technique live to help you become more efficient, and I found trying to improve on this front surprisingly engaging despite having no real aspirations of becoming an excellent outdoor cyclist.—Nick Harris-Fry

Read our Wattbike Atom review

I used this compact folding exercise bike during rehab after a foot operation and found it a convenient way to get a low-impact workout at home. The bike feels sturdy and comfortable to ride, and the well-padded seat can be adjusted to suit a range of rider heights—roughly from 5ft 1in to 6ft 3in (155cm-190cm). It runs quietly and I wasn’t worried about annoying the neighbors unless I really upped the pace, when the floor began to vibrate—something that wouldn’t be an issue with a heavier machine. There are no programmes to follow here and this simple budget bike doesn’t offer any connected features. The eight levels of resistance should be challenging enough for a beginner, but those looking for higher-intensity workouts would be better off spending a bit more on a more heavy-duty upright or Spinning-style bike.—Camilla Artault

If you’ve ever taken a Spinning class in a gym or specialist studio and thought you’d love to have that experience at home, the Peloton bike is your best bet. Though imitators are springing up everywhere, I’d still say the quality of Peloton’s set-up is unrivaled, with a quiet, smooth-riding bike that boasts a large HD screen on its handlebars showing live classes as well as thousands of on-demand video classes.

The experience is impressively immersive, especially during live classes, and there are workouts to suit all abilities and goals. Motivation is never in short supply—the onscreen instructors beseech you to keep on pushing through every interval and to the end of every class, while the onscreen leaderboard shows where you rank for that class overall and against people of the same sex and age. As a highly competitive person, I found the leaderboard definitely kept me engaged through classes.

And a Peloton subscription gets you more than just indoor cycling videos: there are classes for all kinds of things, including strength, cardio, yoga and outdoor runs.

The only reason to hesitate is the price of the bike and monthly subscription, although it’s comparable to a gym membership. If you’re all about the supreme home indoor cycling experience, however, Peloton can’t be bettered.—NHF

Read our Peloton Bike review

The Technogym Bike is the most convincing alternative to Peloton I’ve come across, and actually improves upon the Peloton experience in several ways. The bike itself is an impressive bit of kit, with a 17.4kg flywheel that provides a smooth and stable ride even as you crank up the resistance and get out of the saddle, and it has a 22in (56cm) HD touchscreen on the handlebars that opens up a world of in-ride entertainment.

If you opt for the £29 monthly membership you can access live classes from London studio 1Rebel and Milan studio Revolution. However, unlike on other smart bikes, there are more sessions available to follow for free. This includes Technogym’s on-demand classes, which are engaging and almost as good as a live studio session in my experience, plus scenic rides set all over the world and total-body workouts for when you’re done with cycling.

One welcome difference from Peloton that has nothing to do with fitness is that you can access streaming apps like Netflix through the screen. When I wasn’t in the mood for a peppy PT’s HIIT session or scenic tour, I could instead stick on a favorite TV show and enjoy it on the massive HD screen. The bike can also connect to devices like Google’s Chromecast to stream from your devices, unlocking even more entertainment options.—NHF

Read more in our Technogym Bike review

The simplest way to explain this bike is that it’s a bit like Peloton – the archetypal indoor cycling bike and app service (see below) – but without the built-in monitor, although you need a device to follow the companion app. That might sound like a bad thing, but the Echelon bike is considerably cheaper than the Peloton, so you can use the saving to buy yourself a very nice tablet to slip into its holder to follow the live and on-demand classes in the app. And then you have a very nice tablet as well as an exercise bike.

You will need a subscription for the app though, and like Peloton’s it costs £39.99 a month. It also includes other classes like strength and yoga sessions, and videos of scenic routes you can watch while cycling, which I found invaluable when I needed a break from the motivational spiel of the instructors.

If you enjoy the Echelon experience and do want a bike with a built-in screen, you could consider the EX-5S ($1,500/£1,349) and EX-7S (£1,999, UK only), both of which have screens.—NHF

Read more in our Echelon EX-3 review 

A terrific bit of kit, the Keiser m3i Lite is a studio-quality bike with a heavy flywheel that provides a smooth and near-silent ride, and the resistance can be jacked up easily with the lever on the handlebars that allows you to select a “gear”. It’s a simple system that allows for more precision than twiddling a knob.

The pedals have both toe-cages and clips, so you can use normal shoes or cycling cleats if you have them, and there’s a tablet holder on the handlebars. The console is a little basic but the bike will link up to any indoor-cycling app. There’s no built-in screen to follow workouts on so you’ll need to provide your own device. I found the bike itself excellent, but the lack of a built-in screen is disappointing given the price.

I tested the bike as part of London studio Digme’s At Home service, which offered an option to buy or rent the bike and subscribe to the studio’s service offering live and on-demand classes. Digme doesn’t offer a way to acquire the bike any more but it’s readily available from other retailers and is compatible with a variety of workout apps.—NHF

With this Peloton alternative you save not only on the cost of the bike but on the subscription to the app too, which is £30 a month rather than the more typical £40 it costs to subscribe to Peloton or Echelon. There’s no built-in screen with the Apex bike, just a tablet holder on the handlebars you can use with a device to show the Apex app.

The app contains both live and on-demand workouts with a range of instructors. I found a few of them annoying, but there is enough range that you can find some to suit your style. The flywheel is light at just 4kg but I found that the bike still provides a fairly smooth ride at high speeds, and there are 30 levels of magnetic resistance so even fitter riders will be challenged.—NHF

Read more in our Apex Bike review

Exercise Bikes Buyer’s Guide

Spinning is an efficient and pretty enjoyable way to get fit, and while using a home spin bike can’t completely recreate the atmosphere of a studio class full of fellow riders, it’s still a great way to exercise at home – and over time it can save you money if it means you avoid shelling out for expensive classes in boutique gyms.

If you look at our round-up of the best exercise bikes you’ll see that spinning at home requires a certain kind of bike, which is called an indoor cycle. These provide a different riding position from upright exercise bikes – you’ll be leaning forwards as you would on a racing bike – and they are better at mimicking the feel of outdoor cycling. Some have clip-in pedals, some have trainer-friendly toe cages, and many are hybrid, with both options on the pedal. The resistance can be adjusted quickly by turning an easily accessible knob.

We’ve picked the best home spinning bikes to suit a range of budgets below, and you’ll also find a buyer’s guide to help you narrow down your choice.

How We Test Home Spin Bikes

When Coach tests spin bikes, a member of the team usually has the equipment on loan for several weeks to get a proper feel for living with the bike and to allow time for a variety of workouts. We use the bike as part of our general training routine, doing some easy rides on it as well as tackling intense spinning sessions, and testing anything else offered by any partner app alongside live and on-demand classes.

The Best Spin Bikes

With this British rival to Peloton you save on both the cost of the bike and the subscription to the app, which is £30 a month rather than the £40 you pay for Peloton or Echelon’s services (it is iOS only, though). The bike has a tablet holder and a handy phone holder – which also wirelessly charges your phone – to follow the classes on. The flywheel may be light at just 4kg, but I found the bike still offers a fairly smooth ride at high speeds, and there are 30 levels of magnetic resistance controlled by a dial on the frame. The RRP of the bike was slashed in 2022 from £1,200 to £599.

Read more in our Apex Bike review

The bike that has become synonymous with home spinning, Peloton offers a truly excellent all-round experience. The bike itself is an impressive bit of kit, with a solid build, a quiet ride and more resistance that I could ever need. You need the app to make it worthwhile, which means a monthly subscription, but the live and on-demand classes really do deliver the feel of a studio session and I’ve not yet tested another bike that matches the standard of Peloton’s classes.

If you want to bring the spinning experience to your home there is no better option, but it comes at a hefty cost: the bike will set you back well over a grand and there’s a hefty monthly subscription fee on top of that. If your budget will stretch beyond that, Peloton also offers the Bike+, which costs from $2,495/£1,995 and has a few upgrades on the original Bike like a bigger screen and auto flow resistance, which means it will rise and fall in line with the instructions in the classes.

Read more in our Peloton review

As one of the biggest names in cardio machines Technogym will no doubt have viewed the popularity of relative upstarts like Peloton with interest, and it has now responded with a spinning bike that offers the most impressive alternative to Peloton I’ve come across.

The Technogym Bike has a 22in (56cm) HD touchscreen on the handlebars, allowing you to take part in live spinning classes streamed from London studio 1Rebel or Milan studio Revolution as long as you pay the £29 monthly subscription. If you don’t, you still get access to Technogym’s library of on-demand spinning workouts, which I found pretty much as good as live studio sessions for getting you fit, even if they lack the atmosphere of live classes.

Technogym has also made access to the bike’s screen impressively open: not only can you use popular apps like Netflix on it, but you can even plug in a Chromecast and stream content from other devices. In short, you’ll never have to cycle without some form of guided class or entertainment being broadcast on the large, immersive screen, and you get that for £10 less than the monthly Peloton subscription.

Read more in our Technogym Bike review

London boutique gym Digme launched its At Home service during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and it proved popular enough to be kept on even after the chain’s eight studios reopened. The service involves a monthly fee to hire a bike and access the Digme At Home app, which contains a library of on-demand workouts plus a daily schedule of live classes to join.

The bike is the excellent Keiser m3i Lite, a studio-quality bit of kit with a hefty flywheel that ran smoothly and quietly no matter how hard I was pushing. The classes are typical spinning fare, but the live sessions are Zoom calls with just a handful of other people and I found this made them feel more engaging and personal than, say, Peloton’s live classes, which draw huge audiences. A little too personal at times, if you’re the shy type or don’t wish to show off the dismal state of your garage on a Zoom call.

As with other spinning services, Digme At Home does not come cheap, and the process of signing up is complicated by the excessive number of options. You pay a monthly fee (from £39 with a 36-month contract) to rent the bike, plus £30 a month for the app subscription, and then there are other fees like delivery and collection charges that come and go depending on the length of the contract. The simplest option is to buy a refurbished bike from £649, and in doing so you’ll get a three-month subscription to the app thrown in.

Read more in our Digme At Home review

Spin Bikes Buyer’s Guide

What are the key features of home spin bikes?

Indoor cycles are generally used for HIIT sessions so you have to be sure they are sturdy enough for you to go all-out on them, with a high max user weight and stable design. You also need enough resistance to challenge yourself during short sprints. The weight of the flywheel is important for all this, and in general a heavier flywheel creates a smoother ride when working at high speeds.

If you want some guidance for your home spinning then look for smart bikes that can link up with partner apps with guided classes. Several companies like Peloton and Echelon have their own apps, but others will use third-party apps like iFit and Kinomap for classes and other in-ride entertainment. Some bikes have built-in screens to display the workouts, while others will have a tablet holder.

How much do home spin bikes cost?

You can find study indoor cycles that work for spinning for around £250-£300. These will be no-frills affairs with fairly light flywheels and limited resistance options. If you can stretch to the £500-£1,000 range your options become more impressive and varied, with heavier flywheels, more resistance and smart bikes that can connect to partner apps for guided workouts.

From there the price of an indoor cycle can rise to dizzying heights. The best connected spinning bikes with built-in screens cost anywhere from £1,000 to £2,000, and if you’re looking for an especially realistic ride experience to help you train for outdoor cycling then the bikes that do that cost £3,000.

Peloton, the company that popularised connected exercise bikes, has joined the Boxing Day sales with discounts on its top-of-the-range bike and treadmill.

The Peloton Bike+ is reduced by £270, bringing the cost of the machine down to £2,025. That’s not quite as low as the Black Friday/Cyber Monday reduction of £300, but it’s close enough for us. If you’re considering buying a Peloton, we’re assuming £30 isn’t going to cause any sleepless nights, since you’ll have to pay a £39 monthly app subscription to get the most from the bike.

While £2,025 is still a lot of money, Peloton does deliver an exceptionally slick and engaging experience which has kept it ahead of the competition. The Bike+ has several improvements over the original Peloton Bike, including a bigger HD screen which rotates so it’s easier to follow the strength and yoga sessions in the app. There’s also an automatic resistance feature so the difficulty changes in line with the demands of the class.

• Peloton news flash: Peloton Row first glimpse

The £270 reduction is available on the bike itself and all three Bike+ packages, which include various accessories, such as dumbbells, a workout mat, cycling shoes, and a bike mat to protect hard flooring.

See related

• The Best Exercise Bike Deals Including New Year’s Day Sales
• The Best Exercise Bikes Of 2022
• The Best Treadmill Deals In The New Year’s Day Sales
• The Best Treadmills For Home

Peloton is also offering a £150 discount on Peloton Tread packages, but not on just the treadmill itself. So while the entry-level £2,295 price for just the treadmill remains the same, the Tread Essentials package, which adds resistance bands, weights, a workout mat and heart rate monitor, is reduced from £2,570 to £2,420. An extra £125 for that kit isn’t bad, although committed bargain hunters could probably shop around to get similar equipment for a little less.

Specs-wise you can get the same top speed and incline range on cheaper treadmills, but it’s the live and on-demand classes that set the Peloton Tread apart.

If you’re on the hunt for a bargain, we’ll be collating exercise bike deals and treadmill discounts through to January. Happy hunting.

Buy the Peloton Bike+ | Buy the Peloton Tread

Many gyms and studios developed virtual services, like live classes over Zoom or on-demand video workouts, to survive during COVID-19 lockdowns.

In the case of London studio chain Digme, this proved so popular that the Digme At Home service continues to run alongside its real-world classes. Digme At Home features spinning, yoga, HIIT and strength sessions, with a live schedule of classes you can book in to join via Zoom, along with a library of on-demand workouts.

To provide a complete service, Digme allows you to rent or buy a Keiser m3i Lite spin bike to use for the classes, with a range of monthly payment options available. The overall package is certainly geared to spinning devotees and takes aim at the likes of Peloton and Echelon, so how does Digme’s service stack up against those big hitters?

The Set-up

The Keiser m3i Lite is a studio-quality bike, as you would expect for the £1,999 it costs to buy outright from Digme. It has a basic console showing key stats like cadence and power, and it can communicate with the Digme app to display your stats on screen during live classes.

The resistance is changed by lifting a handle that allows you to select a “gear”. This system allows for more precision than twiddling a knob and also means the instructors can tell you which gear to be in. It’s a simple system that really comes into its own when trying to follow instructions during an intense HIIT cycle.

The pedals have both toe-cages and clips, so you can use normal shoes or cycling cleats if you have them, and there’s a tablet holder on the handlebars. There’s no built-in screen so you need to provide your own device.

The Cost

Signing up to Digme At Home is an unnecessarily confusing experience, with a dizzying array of payment options available. Essentially you pay a certain amount each month to rent the bike (unless you buy it outright), plus £30 a month for the Digme At Home service. Other key numbers to look at are the length of contract (some can be as long as 36 months), whether you have to pay a deposit for the bike, and how much it costs to buy the bike at the end of your rental period.

The simplest option is to pay £1,999 to buy the bike and get a year’s subscription to Digme At Home, plus some goodies like headphones, a towel and a water bottle. From there it gets much more complicated, with fees rising and falling, and appearing and disappearing, in line with how long a contract you want.

The longer the contract, the less you’ll pay every month but the more you’ll pay overall. If you opt for the longest 36-month contract, bike rental and a subscription is £69 a month, and it will cost £399 for the bike at the end of the rental period. That adds up to £2,883 (£80 a month overall).

The 12-month plan is listed as “popular” and costs £99 a month plus £949 if you want the bike at the end – £2,137 or £178 a month overall. Those are by no means your only options: there are a wide variety of contract lengths; the shorter ones add higher delivery and collection fees, and require a deposit. There’s also a subscription that includes in-person classes to complicate things further.

A lot of options then, and none of them cheap, though broadly in line with home spinning set-ups like this. The Peloton Bike costs from £1,350 with £39 a month for the app membership, while the cheapest Echelon bike is £799 and the app is £39.99 if you pay monthly on a rolling contract. Another option is the Technogym Bike, which is £1,990 and then £29 a month for a subscription to access all its features. The Peloton and Technogym Bikes both have built-in screens, and very nice screens at that, while Echelon’s bike just has a tablet mount on the handlebars.

The Experience

The Keiser m3i Lite is a lovely bike to ride on. It runs very smoothly and quietly no matter how hard you’re working, and the resistance is simple to change quickly using the handle.

The console is a little basic, but it links to the Digme At Home app during live classes so you get your stats on screen. Even that, though, falls short of the experience on other home spinning services, which will display your stats in more detail, as well as illustrating the outputs the instructor is asking for and generating extra features like live leaderboards.

When you enter a live Zoom session with the other attendees and the instructor, you can pop your camera on and look at the other people in the class for a more communal vibe, or have just the instructor on screen.

Mainly because there are fewer people in the Digme classes, the sessions do take on a more intimate feel than those I’ve tried with the likes of Peloton, where thousands of people can be tuning in at once. However, I found that the sessions with Peloton or Technogym felt slicker and somehow more in line with the motivational experience you get at real spinning studios.

The on-demand classes are just as good as the ones I’ve tested from other brands. The Digme instructors are reliably motivational and the sessions varied enough to keep you coming back for a regular dose of spinning. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but having the bike close to hand with the sessions available at all times might just help you jump on more frequently.

There are also live and on-demand sessions for other types of workouts. It’s nice to be able to access live strength and yoga classes in particular, and the on-demand library is well stocked with options across the board.

Almost all the classes on the live schedule take place in the morning, at lunchtime or in the evening. While it makes sense to work to the traditional rhythm of the working day, including a couple more options would have been handy.

I found the app was prone to the odd technical difficulty. At one point it kept crashing and I had to uninstall and reinstall it. When joining live classes I generally had to reset the app to get it to work, and in several classes my bike stats didn’t show up on screen. There was nothing especially disastrous about all of this, but it did take away from using Digme At Home compared with the ultra-slick experience from Peloton and others.

See related 

• The Best Spin Bikes Of 2021 For Home Training
• The Best Exercise Bikes Of 2021
• The Best Exercise Bike Deals Including Boxing Day Sales

Verdict

There’s nothing terribly wrong with the Digme At Home experience, but I found it less engaging across the board than other services I’ve used, whether it’s Peloton, Echelon or Technogym for spinning, or apps like Fiit and Apple Fitness+ for general home workouts.

The bike itself is solid, but the lack of a built-in screen is a shame given the price, and other services integrate your stats into the on-screen experience in much slicker and more useful ways. A lot of the time I felt like I could just get a cheap spinning bike and find some spinning classes on YouTube, or through a cheaper app, and it would be just as good as Digme and far less expensive.

In the live sessions there is a communal feel enhanced by the relatively small number of people and the fact you’re all on a Zoom call together, and if you’re already a Digme studio member this could be a great extension of the in-person experience to your house. For those not already in the Digme family, though, this wouldn’t be top of my list for a home spinning service.

Sign up at Digme Fitness

The success of the Peloton Bike sparked a rush of home exercise bikes and spin bikes that link up with apps for guided training, and I’ve reviewed models from the likes of Echelon and Apex that do a great job of offering a similar experience to Peloton for less money.

However, the Technogym Bike is the first I’ve tested that can claim to offer a better experience than Peloton, while still coming in a little cheaper once the monthly costs are taken into account. Notably the Technogym Bike’s screen can be used for more than watching guided classes or scenic landscapes, with apps like Netflix available to stream on it; combining this open access with the quality of the bike makes it the best home cycling experience I’ve yet seen.

The Set Up

The Technogym Bike costs £2,990, and as you’d expect at that price delivery and installation are included, so it’s very easy to get going with the bike. You also get a 30-day trial of the app’s subscriber features with your purchase, so you can make an informed decision about spending £29 a month to maintain that membership level.

It’s actually a viable option to skip the extra outlay, unlike with Peloton or Echelon where you get very little from the bike without the paid-for app. Without a subscription, the Technogym Bike still lets you access a selection of on-demand classes from the partner studios (1Rebel in London and Revolution in Milan) and some of Technogym’s own cycling and strength sessions, as well as access to apps like Netflix and YouTube on the screen. The full membership opens up live classes from the studios, but you can get by pretty happily when riding without a subscription on the Technogym Bike.

The bike has a 17.4kg flywheel with a dial to control the level of magnetic resistance. On the handlebars is a 22in (56cm) HD touchscreen. As well as the bundled workouts and apps, you can also plug in an HDMI cable or use Google’s Chromecast or the Amazon Fire TV Stick to mirror the screen on other devices, opening up even more entertainment options.

This extra degree of control was something I found wanting on the Peloton Bike, because sometimes you don’t want to do a spinning class. Sometimes you want to pedal away while watching Parks And Recreation on a massive HD screen perfectly positioned right in front of your face.

The pedals on the bike are dual-sided, with clips for SPD cleats and a toe-cage for normal trainers on either side. The bike is easily adjusted to achieve the right fit – you can raise or lower the handlebars and saddle, and move the saddle forwards or back.

There are a variety of grips on the handlebars to suit the varied demands of spinning instructors, as well as space for two water bottles. Two 1.5kg dumbbells are included with the bike and can be stored underneath the saddle.

The Experience

Whether you’re looking to challenge yourself with an all-out HIIT session, take a gentle pedal through a scenic landscape or sit back and watch some TV while clocking up your 30 minutes of daily activity, the Technogym Bike delivers a top-notch experience.

The classes from 1Rebel and Revolution are in keeping with the spinning sessions you find on the Peloton or in real-world studios, with instructors delivering motivational patter and a leaderboard on screen to push the more competitive participants to work that little bit harder.

As someone who rarely has the foresight to plan a ride to fit with a studio’s schedule, I mostly used the on-demand classes on the bike, including several of Technogym’s own ones, which I found to be equally enjoyable to the 1Rebel ones.

All the stats you’d expect are shown on screen, including your power and cadence (RPM). An engaging colour-coded system helps to display your effort level and the difficulty of the next part of the class. However, to take advantage of this you will need to enter a functional threshold power (FTP) measurement, since the colour-coded zones show a percentage of this, though the bike will estimate it for you if you don’t know your FTP.

The bike is very quiet and runs smoothly even as you ramp up the resistance and rise out of the saddle, and the instructions from the trainers in the classes I tried were clear across the board. I’m not a spinning devotee or someone who is motivated by being shouted at by an earnest trainer, but I didn’t find the instructors at all annoying. The HIIT sessions I tried were well designed, with a good balance between the work and rest periods.

On all of the above, the Technogym scores well, offering a similar experience to rivals like Peloton. However, what sets it apart is the entertainment options, especially the integrated access to video and streaming apps, and screen mirroring via Chromecast. You can of course just use your own tablet propped up close by, but having TV shows and movies displayed on an excellent-quality and sizable HD screen built into the handlebars of your bike makes for a far more immersive experience.

It will also hopefully keep you motivated to keep using the bike if the appeal of spinning classes starts to wane. One tactic I’ve tried in the past with another bike is to watch one particular show only when cycling, a rule that worked surprisingly well for me with The Last Dance, especially as new episodes only came out weekly.

My only minor complaint is that the Technogym Bike doesn’t link directly to apps like Zwift, where you control an avatar cycling in a virtual world. This is probably not a feature that will appeal greatly to the core audience the bike is aimed at, but it would have extended the entertainment options even further to include keen riders who do use Zwift and might have family members who also want spinning classes.

Verdict

The Technogym Bike matches any other exercise bike and it does so with a monthly cost that is less than the £40 a month you have to pay for rivals Peloton and Echelon. You also get plenty of free workouts on the Technogym Bike, certainly enough that you could take a month or two off the subscription and still enjoy using it regularly.

Of course, the upfront cost is still substantial (although it can be paid off in monthly installments of £74.75 over three years) and there are significantly cheaper options with Echelon’s entry-level Connect Sport bike at just £799, while the Apex Bike is now £699. The Technogym Bike is a superior bit of kit with a weightier flywheel and smoother ride plus the built-in screen, but you can get a great HIIT session done on those other bikes using a tablet.

However, the Technogym Bike is built to compete at the top end of the market, and if you have the cash to splash, it’s the best all-round option for cycling at home available.

Buy from Technogym | £2,990

There’s a good case for saying that an exercise bike is the best piece of home gym equipment you can pick up. Cycling is a low impact sport that most people can do regularly to increase their fitness, and an exercise bike is a relatively compact bit of kit that won’t dominate your room.

The right exercise bike can even become a feature in its own right, like the affordable Domyos Woodbike. The only bike on the market with an entirely wooden frame, this stylish bike is made from French beech wood, making it durable, stable and particularly easy on the eye. The natural look of the bike helps it stand out as a piece of home gym equipment that actually enhances a room – whether you plan to put it in your lounge, bedroom or home office – rather than having to be hidden away in a corner.

Sustainability was also at the forefront of Domyos’s thinking when it came to the manufacture of the Woodbike. The wooden frame (which makes up 47% of the bike) is made from natural beech wood, and the bike is handcrafted, which reduces carbon emissions in production. For every tree used to manufacture the bike, 10 trees will be planted through the brand’s partnership with Reforest Action.

Along with style, you get substance, because the Woodbike offers all the key features you need to enjoy regular rides at home. The 6kg flywheel runs smoothly and silently, so it’s easier to follow a training app or box set on your tablet, which you can conveniently rest on the holder integrated into the centre of the handlebars. Riders of different fitness levels can get the workout they need from this flywheel, which is also not so heavy that the bike becomes unwieldy to move. The Woodbike offers a range of resistance from 30 watts to 300 watts, and there are no presets, making it totally flexible.

Every effort has been made to make your rides as comfortable as possible too. There’s a bottle holder on the frame so you can keep hydrated, and the gel saddle designed by bike specialists Btwin provides a high level of comfort and adapts to any body shape.

When you do want to move the Woodbike around, the travel wheels on the bottom of the frame make it easy, so your workout is never put on hold because the room your bike is in is unavailable.

The Woodbike is also simple to put together, coming in two boxes – one for the frame and one for the flywheel and accessories. If you’re fearing a complicated construction process involving a lengthy, incomprehensible instruction manual, you can lay those fears to rest.

Once your Woodbike is up and running, it’s ideal to use for low-intensity steady state (LISS) cardio exercise. While HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, tends to draw more headlines, LISS is a more approachable method of exercising that can help the majority of people stay in shape for the long term.

LISS involves raising your heart rate to a comfortable level for long spells of exercise – so over 20 minutes at a time. This improves your base fitness and cardiovascular health, and also brings with it mental health benefits in helping you to de-stress – something that’s not always the case with a high octane HIIT session.

LISS also puts your body under less strain, which means you reduce the risk of muscle soreness the following day, and you recover faster from your exercise in general so you can do it more regularly.

If you’re looking for a way to get fit at home, the Woodbike ticks all the boxes. At £349.98 (£149.99 for the frame and £199.99 for the mechanical parts), it’s priced so a well-made exercise bike is accessible to everyone, and its sustainability credentials and stylish and innovatively designed wooden frame set it apart. It also offers a high level of performance to help you get fitter, while also making your training sessions more comfortable and enjoyable so you keep on coming back for more.

Find out more about the Domyos Woodbike

Given that the Peloton Bike system is both very successful and very expensive, it’s no surprise rivals have emerged with similar offerings at a more affordable price.

British brand Apex is the latest challenger hoping to claim the title of best home spin bike, and not only is the bike itself cheaper than the Peloton (£1,200 compared with £1,750 for the cheaper of the two Peloton bikes) but so is the app subscription, which is £30 rather than £40.

Of course Apex isn’t only going up against Peloton: other brands like Echelon offer connected spinning bikes, and there are also class-only services like Apple’s Fitness+, which can work with any bike. You’ll also find connected options in our best exercise bikes round-up which try to recreate the experience of road cycling.

The Set-Up

Installation and assembly is included in the cost of the Apex, so that’s no trouble at all (although this might result in delays if home assembly isn’t allowed under current COVID-19 restrictions). The bike is fairly attractive and doesn’t hog too much space, with a footprint of around 120cm by 60cm.

The flywheel is notably lighter than that on the competition at 4kg, which Apex says makes it easier to move the bike around and provides a smoother ride. While I’m not sure the ride is smoother than on the bikes with heavier wheels I’ve tried, I found that the resistance range on the Apex was more than enough to challenge me, and the bike didn’t get too jumpy even on high-intensity intervals when I was out of the saddle.

There is no built-in screen on the bike as on Peloton: classes are viewed on your own tablet or phone in the handlebar-mounted holder. There’s a USB socket on the handlebars for charging your device, and a second phone holder, below the main one and opposite the water bottle holder, that even offers wireless charging. It’s worth nothing that only iOS devices are supported at the moment, though Apex intends to launch the app on Android in 2021.

The magnetic resistance is controlled by a dial, which allows you to scroll through the 30 levels available. This dial is not very good, to be blunt. It clicks as you turn it but those clicks don’t match the levels available. I often turned it without the resistance changing, then turned another click only for the resistance to jump two levels. It’s fiddly and annoying to use during HIIT workouts where you’re trying to change the resistance quickly to match the instructions given.

The Experience

As with Peloton and Echelon, the real appeal of the Apex bike is found in the partner app, where there are over 150 on-demand classes to try. These are all spinning – rival apps offer various other types of workout off the bike too – and there are no live classes as yet, though these are due to arrive in February.

You can filter the classes by length – they range from 15 minutes to an hour – instructor, music genre, whether the workouts include sections with free weights (which are not included; Apex sells a pair of 2kg dumbbells for £25), and difficulty, with four levels available. The classes are also divided into two overall categories: metric is dictated by stats, while move is just about working up a sweat to music.

Once you start a class you can see the stats from your connected bike on screen. Power, cadence and resistance are displayed along with the current suggested cadence and resistance level ranges from the instructor. I found these mostly mirrored the instruction given, but in most classes I tried there were a couple of small errors in the on-screen instructions, so you do need to pay attention to what the instructor is saying.

As with all of these spinning apps, I found some instructors and their motivational techniques pretty unbearable, but I was able to find a couple on Apex that did suit me. I will say that I am not a spinning class devotee and think singing along to the music while staring down the camera should be illegal. But overall the instructors, who hail from London spinning studio Boom Cycle, do a good job of explaining what you need to do during the classes and providing the motivation to ensure you do so.

During the class, a leaderboard on the side of the screen (which you can hide should you so wish) shows how you rank compared with other people who have taken the class. This is based on Apex points, earned throughout the class depending on your effort. It’s another way to motivate yourself if you happen to be competitive, like me.

There is no free ride option on the bike at the moment, but it is something Apex is planning to add. That means the connected experience is restricted to the spinning classes for the time being, but since that’s the main reason to buy the bike, it’s not a huge problem.

After a class you get a breakdown of your stats, which can be shared to activity tracking app Strava or other social media platforms.

Verdict

The Apex Bike does a good job of offering a Peloton-lite service and I’ve few complaints about the bike itself aside from the unco-operative resistance dial. The app is a little light on classes and ride options compared with Peloton and Echelon, but that should improve in time and the £30 monthly subscription is significantly cheaper than the Peloton and Echelon apps.

The Peloton experience is undoubtedly better. That’s down to the quality and range of the classes, and having these displayed on the huge built-in screen makes them more immersive. However, the saving you make by opting for the Apex is substantial, and I’d rather have the money in my pocket and use (or even buy) a tablet.

However, there are cheaper options still. The cheapest approach is to buy a basic spinning bike – you can get very good ones without connectivity for £500-£600 – and then find classes to follow elsewhere, whether that’s free sessions on YouTube or through a service like Apple’s Fitness+, which costs £10 a month (Apple Watch owners only). I tried an Apple Fitness+ spinning session on the Apex bike and although you don’t see your stats on screen during it since the bike isn’t linked, the experience was still pretty similar to what you get from the connected app because spinning mostly just involves turning a resistance dial and adjusting your effort in line with instructions.

Even if you’re all about connected services, Echelon now has the Connect Sport bike which costs £799.99. The Echelon app costs more than Apex’s but there’s no doubt it’s superior, with more classes and ride options.

The Apex Bike is undoubtedly a good alternative to Peloton, and the lower monthly subscription cost in particular is welcome, but the Peloton experience still reigns supreme. And if you’re looking for a bargain option for home spinning there are cheaper ways to go than the Apex.

Buy from Apex | £1,200 (bike), £30 monthly unlimited classes

We did not think there would be a discount on an exercise bike, or any home cardio machine, this Black Friday (one deal trailed to us has been pulled for “technical issues”), let alone a good one. That’s because huge demand for home fitness equipment has meant it’s not easy to find an exercise bike which isn’t on pre-order, with many not due for delivery until 2021.

Well here’s a great Black Friday deal on what was already a good-value option – £100 off the Echelon Connect Sport Bike, dropping the price to £700. The bike will also be delivered within five days so you can get in the saddle in next to no time. 

The Connect Sport is the second bike from Echelon – the first, the EX3, was pitched as a more affordable alternative to connected home spin bike phenomenon, Peloton. Having reviewed the first Echelon, we found it was successful in that regard. It asked users to provide their own screen in the form of a tablet or smartphone, allowing the company to undercut Peloton to the tune of £800. It also provided a satisfying experience with lots of live classes to stream and an impressive library of on-demand workouts to take.  

The Connect Sport undercuts the original Echelon bike, priced at £799.99 compared with £1,199. The Connect Sport has a lighter flywheel and doesn’t include clip-in pedals, but in our opinion that makes it a better choice for people who would like to try spinning classes in the comfort of their own home, rather than studio devotees. The extra £100 off makes it an even more attractive option. 

There are two things to be aware of, however. The first is the ongoing cost of £40 a month to subscribe to the app. Without the app the bike is pretty useless, but you can drop the cost of the app to the equivalent of £25 a month if you pay for two years up front (£599.85). 

The final thing to consider is that the offer is available “while stocks last.” If this sounds up your street, it’s worth committing. Klarna and Splitit plans are available. 

Buy from Echelon | £699.99 (RRP £799.99)

Some cyclists brave the elements and ride outdoors all year round, but many prefer to spend the colder months training indoors, emerging in the spring stronger than ever and ready to smash it on the open road.

There’s a range of brilliant indoor training software that caters to these cyclists, like Zwift, The Sufferfest and TrainerRoad, but to take advantage of them you need a smart trainer.

This can be either a turbo you mount your own bike on or a full exercise bike. In the case of the latter you have to pay a premium to get a top-quality machine, with prices north of £2,000 as standard. Sometimes a long way north of that price, as in the case of the excellent Wahoo KICKR Bike.

Of this type of smart exercise bike the Wattbike Atom is the value pick, despite its not inconsiderable price of £1,899. It offers brilliant connectivity, linking to apps like Zwift in seconds and, in my experience, providing a solid connection throughout your rides. Plus, Wattbike’s clever pedalling analysis helps you to refine your technique.

The Wattbike Atom was recently updated, with the latest version getting a new electromagnetic resistance system that reacts faster to gear changes, as well as gradient changes in apps like Zwift – the latter a crucial function that smart bikes need to get right.

I tested the bike using Zwift and Wattbike’s own app. The Wattbike app has a range of workouts in it and virtual recreations of famous climbs like Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux to test yourself on. There are also full training plans in the app, plus functional threshold power (FTP) tests.

The bike I tested came assembled so I can’t comment on how easy the set-up is, but I can say it’s fairly heavy at 44kg and takes up quite a lot of room owing to the frame that surrounds it on each side (the footprint is 100cm x 50cm). Naturally you benefit from that frame when it comes to stability, and even on my slightly uneven garage floor the bike barely moved around at all when I was out of the saddle and pushing hard on a climb or interval.

As well as linking up to Zwift quickly, the Wattbike Atom found my Garmin watches (I tested it with both the Fenix 6 Pro and Forerunner 745) automatically as well and beamed over plenty of useful data during each session. In fact, the only thing the bike didn’t connect with that well was the gear shifter on the right of the handlebars – this dropped out a couple of times and I had to unplug the bike to reset the connection or use the Wattbike app to change gear.

Since the improvements to the resistance centre on how well the Atom reacts to things like gradient changes in Zwift, that was the first thing I tested. I used Zwift’s Sand and Sequoias route for this, since the second half of it contains frequent changes between up and downhill riding.

While the Atom was pretty fast in responding to these changes, it’s not quite as good as my normal set-up – an Elite Direto turbo – or the Wahoo KICKR Bike I tested previously. You do notice the small amount of time it takes for the bike to clock the change in gradient and change the resistance accordingly when on undulating ground.

However, it is a very small period of time, and on rides without constant ups and downs I didn’t notice the slight lag. It doesn’t quite match up to a bike that’s £1,100 more, but there’s no doubt the Atom is a brilliant exercise bike for linking up with Zwift.

Along with Zwift I kept the Wattbike app open on my rides, using the built-in tablet holder on the Atom. The app shows the info you’d expect, like the gear you’re in and the power you’re putting out (the maximum for this is a vast 2,500W; needless to say I didn’t get close to that number), as well as Wattbike’s Polar View graph, which analyses your pedalling.

This shows the force you’re putting through the pedals, where you might be losing momentum and the balance between your right and left leg. All that data is distilled into a continually-updating graph where you’re aiming for a sausage- or at least peanut-shaped readout, rather than the figure of eight I achieved. You’re also given a Pedalling Effectiveness Score (PES), with a colour-coded target to aim for while riding, which again made for a disheartening experience in my case.

The Wattbike app does an excellent job of making complex insights into your pedalling easy to understand, and if you want to improve your technique the data is there to help you do that. I found I could improve the shape on my Polar View and my PES by focusing more on the pull-up in my pedal action, for example, and if I was a more committed cyclist I could have continued to develop and improve.

When it comes to improving your cycling performance overall, however, you need more than well refined technique. You need to sweat, and the Wattbike app is full of workouts and training plans to help you do just that. These workouts are divided into sections like endurance, HIIT and speed, with personalised targets based on your FTP, so you need to make sure the app has accurate information on that front.

The workouts use the ergo mode on the Wattbike to set the resistance so you’re hitting your target wattage during the sessions, and you can adjust your target during each interval using the gear shifter buttons. There’s also a cadence target for each section.

I tried out an endurance and a HIIT workout from the app, and they are easy to follow and seemed well designed for improving the target area of your fitness. The screen isn’t the most engaging during a workout compared with the trainer-led video workouts on home spinning bikes like Peloton and Echelon, but I tended to follow the Wattbike workout with Zwift on a separate monitor to provide a little more entertainment as I cranked through the intervals.

The training plans available are long and can help you prepare for sportives, or even multi-day rides like the Haute Route events for amateur riders. Because the workouts are based on FTP, they will suit riders of all levels, and you can check in with further FTP tests along the way to see how you’re improving.

While the Wattbike Atom doesn’t match the realistic ride feel of the Wahoo KICKR Bike, it offers a brilliant smart exercise bike experience and an impressive app at a more realistic price for most home users. You can get an excellent smart set-up using a turbo like the Elite Direto for less than a smart exercise bike, and many cyclists will prefer that because they’re riding their own bike rather than a machine, while the link-up to the Wattbike app can definitely help you improve your technique, fitness and overall performance.

Buy from Wattbike | £1,899

Editor’s note: The Wattbike Atom was reviewed in 2020, then retrospectively awarded an Editor’s Choice badge in 2021 once we had ridden the majority of the competition

See related

• It's a big hit with cyclists but is Zwift a good way to get fit? 
• Zap fat, generate epic leg strength and power up your fitness with Wattbike Workouts 
• Take your bike indoors for a revolution in winter riding: which are the turbo trainers worth buying?
• Bring the spinning experience home with the best spin bikes to suit every budget 

If you’re a serious cyclist then the time you spend training indoors will be geared towards helping you achieve more impressive results on the road. So it makes sense that you’d want your indoor set-up to replicate riding outdoors as close as possible, and on this front the Wahoo KICKR Bike offers an unparalleled experience.

Everything about the bike can be adjusted to replicate your road bike, and I do mean everything. There are levers all over the KICKR Bike which you can loosen to adjust the handlebars, the stem length, the crank length and much more. You can also select the gearset you have on your road ride so you have the exact same gearing on the KICKR Bike, and there’s even a smooth and satisfying clunk when you change gears on the bike.

Naturally this involves quite a bit of setting up, which the partner Wahoo app guides you through. My test sample of the KICKR Bike came fully assembled so I can’t speak to how hard it is to put together, but setting it up to your specifications is made very easy by the fit wizard.

There are three options in the set-up. You can enter your measurements from a bike fitting if you have done one, or you can take a photo of your road bike and mark where certain parts are, or you can enter your body measurements. I chose the third option, which Wahoo warns is the least accurate, but it was quick and fitted me well.

The bike can be set up to fit riders from 5ft (1.52m) to 6ft 4in (1.92m), and has a range of five crank lengths available from 165mm to 175mm.

There are a few other features which add to the realism once you actually start pedalling, the chief one being that the bike can tilt forwards and backwards (from -15% up to 20%) to replicate hills. A button on the handlebars controls this lean (which can make for a shocking experience if you, like me, accidentally hit the button and throw the whole bike forwards like you’re flying down a mountain), but it comes into its own if you’ve linked the KICKR Bike up to an app like Zwift that will automatically control the resistance and gradient. Even on a rolling Zwift course with frequent ups and downs the KICKR Bike was able to keep up with the changes in gradient smoothly.

A small display on the right side of the top tube shows the gear you’re in and also the gradient at which the bike is set. There’s also a button on this display that means you can lock the gradient so only you can adjust it, whereas if you hold the button to unlock it apps like Zwift can tilt the bike forwards and back automatically.

The bike uses an electromagnetic flywheel that allows for a maximum power output of 2,200 watts, which is plenty even if you’re an aspiring Tour rider. The power is calibrated automatically by the bike, so there’s no need to spin it down and it’s advertised as accurate to within 1% either way. This was bad news for me, because it showed readings a fair bit lower than my turbo trainer, which, it turns out, was in need of a spin-down – a 15-minute task I’ve been putting off.

What the KICKR Bike lacks is a mount for your phone or tablet. A huge shame, especially because it’s a bike that’s at its best when linked up to apps like Zwift. Not to mention the fact it costs £3,000 – I’d expect a tablet mount on the handlebars for that money.

Aside from that minor complaint, however, there’s really no other reason to fault the KICKR Bike, which offers as realistic a ride feel as I’ve come across on indoor exercise bikes. That ride comes at a premium, especially when there are exceptional turbo trainers available for £1,000 or less, including Wahoo’s own KICKR V5 Smart trainer. The appeal of the KICKR Bike is clear, although for all but a small minority of cyclists it’s probably overkill. Still, you won’t be disappointed if you do stump up the cash.

Editor’s note: The Wahoo KICKR was reviewed in 2020, then retrospectively awarded an Editor’s Choice badge in 2021 once we had ridden the majority of the competition 

You can’t talk about Echelon without talking about Peloton. Peloton is a spinning bike with a built-in monitor to show you live and on-demand classes that replicate the atmosphere of studio sessions. It’s very expensive and even more successful –so expensive and successful that it’s no surprise that a raft of cheaper alternatives have appeared.

One of these alternatives is the Echelon EX-3 Smart Connect Bike, which is a home exercise bike that links up to an app full of live and on-demand spinning classes you can follow on a tablet or phone. That’s the key difference – there’s no built-in monitor on the EX-3, but it is a lot cheaper than the Peloton at £1,199 compared to £1,990, so you can buy yourself a very nice tablet with the difference and then you own a tablet as well as a bike!

On top of that, there is a £39.99 a month subscription to the Echelon app – the same price as Peloton’s app, which you need to use the bike. It’s a closed system, then, plus you’re on the hook for a fair chunk of change every month, so is Echelon worth that kind of money? As with Peloton there is a certain audience who will get a lot from the bike, but there are definitely cheaper alternatives to consider, including a membership to a gym that offers spinning classes.

The Set-Up

The EX-3 arrives in an impressively small box, which means there’s a fair bit of construction to do once you take all the components out of their slots in the polystyrene within. The set-up is not complicated, though, with clear instructions and no real heavy lifting involved. All the same, it took me around an hour to get everything in place.

On the handlebars of the bike is a tablet holder that is easily adjusted to hold your device securely. Once you open up the Echelon app it takes seconds to link the bike to it.

The pedals have cages on one side to accommodate normal shoes and SPD clips on the other so you can clip in if you have the appropriate shoes.

From there you can pick from the wide range of on-demand classes available, or check the live class schedule and book one for a more immersive experience – there’s a leaderboard and the instructor might even say your name. The classes can be filtered by distance covered, difficulty level and type, the primary ones being speed, strength, power and fusion, with the last being a mix of the first three. There are also non-spinning classes to be done off the bike, like HIIT, yoga and meditation sessions.

The app includes some scenic rides if you don’t fancy entering a virtual spinning studio. These allow you to cycle through Sydney Harbour, or along a beach, or up a mountain in Corsica. They’re nice enough, but not all that diverting. This bike is for spinning classes, after all.

Resistance is controlled via the knob on the frame, and there are 32 levels to scroll between. It takes a few turns to raise the level by a couple of points, and once I hit level 30 it felt like I was pushing through treacle to turn the pedals. Note that you need to be connected to the Echelon app for the resistance to work.

Once you start a class you see a range of stats on screen, including your resistance level, calories burned, power output and cadence. The instructor will explain what you should be aiming for throughout the classes, though unlike on Peloton these targets aren’t displayed as numbers on screen. You have to listen carefully to know how hard you should be pushing.

The Experience

From the off, the experience with Echelon's EX-3 is a little less impressive than on Peloton because even a large tablet isn’t quite as immersive as the huge screen on the Peloton, and the bike itself feels slightly less solid and stable, especially when you’re pushing hard at a high resistance. Also the empty studio where the classes are filmed gets slightly echoey between songs, which does take you out of the experience.

The classes do the job though, with a variety of incredibly upbeat instructors ready to push you to your limit using uptempo music and an endless supply of motivational maxims. I was told “every pedal is an opportunity” in my very first class on Echelon and that has stuck with me. Mostly because of how silly it is that every spinning class is granted such enormous levels of importance, but still, you will not be short of motivation, even if it does grate at times.

Sometimes the instructors could be clearer with their instructions, especially as the targets are not given on screen. There were also some terms thrown about that are clearly well known to spinning regulars but a little baffling for beginners, such as “isolate” (hover just above the saddle) and using numbers to describe where you should put your hands on the handlebars.

The leaderboard on the side of the screen shows your position against everyone who has ever taken the class, which is another source of motivation, though you can hide it if you don’t enjoy that type of competition. You can also see your heart rate on screen if you’re wearing a sensor – the Echelon picked up my Polar H9 chest strap as soon as I tapped the heart icon.

I tried a few classes, testing out the speed and fusion sessions as well as with one labelled one-hit wonders (sometimes the class names really don’t give much away as to what you’ll be doing in them). Speed classes involve more intervals at high cadences, while power and strength ones focus on higher resistance, while fusion combines all these.

Whatever you pick, all the classes do the job of burning calories and increasing your fitness, and there’s little doubt that if you used the Echelon bike a few times a week you’d be doing your fitness a world of good.

Verdict

The Echelon EX-3 experience is not as good as you get with Peloton, but it’s not far off and the money you’re saving is substantial. Many people will already have a tablet they can use with it (iOS and Android apps are available), and if you don’t you can buy yourself one and still have money left over by not paying for Peloton.

However, the bike is only cheap compared with Peloton. It’s still comfortably over a grand for hardware that’s only useful if you then spend another £40 every month. You can get excellent spinning bikes for £500 to £700 and follow classes on YouTube, though you’ll have to live without the bike connecting to the screen and showing your stats.

As with Peloton, the closed Echelon system is also off-putting – it would be a huge bonus if you could link the Echelon bike to an app like Zwift, rather than restricting you to what’s available in the app.

But committed spinners will find a lot to like about the EX-3, not just the relative value compared with Peloton. It’s easy to use the bike once it’s set up, and you have a vast array of classes to tackle, plus an inexhaustible amount of motivational patter to keep you going.

CAR.O.L is the AI-powered exercise bike that claims to give you the cardiovascular benefits of a 45-minute jog in under nine minutes – with only 40 seconds of hard work – and all without even breaking a sweat.

It sounds too good to be true, but it is supported by peer-reviewed studies. CAR.O.L works on the “minimum effective dose” principle of exercise, which the researchers who developed the protocol believe to be two 20-second sprints at a high intensity. This quickly depletes your muscles of glycogen and, in theory, helps your body to become more sensitive to insulin and better at burning fat for energy over time.

The idea is that the exercise bike guides you through a short workout, tailored to each rider. CAR.O.L stands for Cardiovascular Optimisation Logic, which is the software that the bike uses to calibrate the resistance each time you ride. As you get fitter, the bike ramps up the resistance – acting like a sort of automated personal trainer.

As a freelance writer who spends a lot of time sitting down, I was excited to have a cardio machine in my living room. I generally attend yoga or do weight training in the gym, but have never set foot in a spin class. Would CAR.O.L convert me to the joys of cycling?

Getting Started

I tested CAR.O.L for eight weeks and completed 32 rides during that time, averaging four a week – slightly more than the recommended three a week.

The bike is simple and straightforward to use. During the first six rides, CAR.O.L calculates your baseline fitness and a suitable level of resistance, after which you can start to track your results in the app.

There are four pre-set workouts to choose from, as well as a free ride mode, allowing you to set the duration and difficulty manually as you would on a standard exercise bike.

The intense workout setting totals eight minutes and 40 seconds, consisting of two 20-second sprints punctuated by two-to-three minutes of warm-up, recovery and warm-down. It’s a slick experience – you never have to change the resistance, because the programme does this for you.

As you approach the sprints, the screen turns red for three seconds – your signal to start pedalling as hard as you can – before the resistance kicks in and slows you right down. The goal is to push through and maintain your speed as much as possible during the sprints, resulting in muscle fatigue. Twenty seconds may sound short, but believe me, it definitely feels longer when your muscles are working at AI-determined maximum intensity.

The bike has a few built-in music options and a visualisation track that has you sprinting away from a sabre-tooth tiger. Initial scepticism aside, it did help me to get my sprint speed up, although I imagine I’d tire of listening to the same music every day.

Adjusting the height of the seat and handlebars was easy, and using the bike was generally a comfortable experience. The mid-ride mindful breathing exercises were a challenge immediately after sprints, though perhaps I would have improved with further practice.

The bike promises not to make you sweat – much of the marketing material features people in smart office attire, presumably on their lunch breaks – and I did find this to be the case, although my face was flushed after a session.

The CAR.O.L app tracks your progress using various measures, including your Octane Score (how many heartbeats are required to generate the total power you produce during a ride) and your Peak Power (the power you generate for the resistance level set for you).

After eight weeks, my Octane Score had improved by 9% and my Peak Power by 25%. The app doesn’t track your heart rate or calories burned, but my Fitbit showed that my resting heart rate had gone down on average from 63 to 60 and my sleep score improved slightly. My weight remained the same throughout.

I wouldn’t say I felt drastically different as a result of using the bike, but it was an energising and enjoyable way to start my morning. On really busy days, it was great to know I was at least fitting in some exercise – and with fewer than nine minutes required, there was no reason not to.

See related

• The Best Exercise Bikes Of 2021
• Peloton Review: The Best Exercise Bike For Spinning At Home

The Verdict

CAR.O.L manages to turn exercise into something like taking a pill – quick, easy and relatively painless – while still delivering the minimum effective dose that some studies show is required for cardiovascular health. In a way, it’s the workout equivalent of drinking Huel: an option for those who lack the time or inclination to exercise, but unlikely to add much extra value for people who like to exercise and already fit in several workouts each week.

The main downside to the bike is the price. At £2,995 a pop, it’s more expensive even than a Peloton. For that sort of money, it would be wise to try before you buy – if you’re near London, you can arrange a test ride at Harvey Nichols.

I enjoyed using CAR.O.L and was pleased with the improvements in my statistics – especially considering they resulted from around half an hour’s exercise a week that didn’t even make me break a sweat. However, purchasing one would unfortunately require me to forgo my gym membership for about three years, and I don’t think that value is tempting enough to make me invest in one.

Buy from CAR.O.L. | £2,995 plus £210 delivery

Risible adverts aside, 2019 seemed like a pretty good year for Peloton. It established the idea that you could take spin classes at home with a stationary bike, a screen and a monthly subscription, and did so successfully enough that a raft of copycat bike-plus-app home spin bike options sprang up in response to its popularity.

After spending a couple of months using Peloton, I can see why it’s taken off. The set-up is phenomenally swish, with an impressive bike and a vast range of excellent classes from popular instructors. There are even non-spin classes in the app too, which you can follow on your phone or cast to a TV.

It comes at a price, however. The bike itself costs a minimum of £1,345, and you’ll probably want to spend more like £2,129 to get a package that includes shoes to clip in to the Peloton pedals plus a set of hand weights. On top of that, a monthly class subscription is £39.

Can such a pricy bike offer good value? I’d say there is an ideal audience for whom it’s perfect, but just as with a gym membership, you’ll definitely have to think long and hard about whether you’re going to use it long term, and what alternatives there are – like a gym membership, for one.

The Set-Up

The bike and system is very easy to set up, because installation is included in the price, and you’ll also get a quick run-through of the software once it’s up and running. Jump on the bike, turn on the large HD screen and browse the classes available, a task made easier by being able to filter by length, difficulty, type, instructor and more.

Resistance is controlled by a dial that allows you to ramp it up or reduce it very quickly, and during classes there are three primary stats on display: your cadence, the resistance and an estimate of your power output. All of these are used by the instructors in classes to explain how intense your effort level should be.

There are thousands of classes to try on demand, and there’s also a schedule of at least 14 live classes a day to join. During all classes a leaderboard pops up on the side of the screen so you can see how you compare with others who have taken the class in the past, and you can filter this by age range and sex to see how you compare with others in your demographic.

It’s easy to adjust the handlebar and seat height to fit you too, and you can use the pedals without special clip-in shoes, though the experience is definitely improved by having cleats.

The Experience

Peloton is brilliant to use. The screen is huge and makes for an immersive experience, and I rarely experienced drop-outs during live classes even though the bike was in my garage and not all that close to my internet router.

The classes themselves are exactly what you’d expect if you’ve ever tried a live spin class. The music is loud, and the instructors are even louder and unfailingly upbeat. Every spinning session is built up to incredible levels of importance, with all manner of motivational clichés thrown at you every time you’re asked to increase your effort.

It’s not quite as motivational as being in a studio with others tackling a class, but it’s really not far off, especially if you take a live Peloton class and join in a couple of minutes beforehand to see the instructor chatting to those in the studio where it’s being filmed.

You can also find a class to suit pretty much every aim, whether it’s a 90-minute sweatfest to boost your endurance or a 20-minute blast to get the heart pumping. There are classes aimed at keen cyclists that get more jargony, and there are classes aimed at complete beginners just designed to make you feel good about getting moving. You can also select based on your music taste and see the playlist in advance.

Peloton aims to bring the spin studio experience home and it does that superbly. On top of that there are plenty of other classes you can do too, including guided yoga, Pilates and strength sessions, and even outdoor runs and walks. I tried a strength session in the Peloton app and while it didn’t offer quite the same premium experience as spinning, it was solid enough. I couldn’t get the app or bike to cast to my Chromecast, but following the workout on my phone was easy.

If you’re a fan of spinning and the OTT motivational ethos of it, then Peloton delivers. I think I would start to tire of the incredibly earnest behests to increase my effort level, but then I’m a grouch and an obsessive runner who generally prefers the great outdoors to spinning inside, no matter how amazing the experience is. There are instructors who tone it down a bit, however, and once you find them it’s easy to search for their other classes.

Verdict

Peloton delivers on everything it promises, but there is still a question hanging over the sizeable outlay. If you get it to share with others in your home, and avoid paying for multiple gym memberships or regular spin classes as a result, the cost becomes far more reasonable. Extra user accounts are free, though you may need a separate set of cycling shoes to use with the bike.

Even for one very keen user the Peloton bike could be worth its price. It’s so easy to jump on and do a quick class, and it will help you get fitter quicker and burn a lot of calories in an enjoyable manner. It’s a convenient and premium experience, and the motivational boost of having the live classes definitely helps.

There are other ways to get classes at home, and you can link up far cheaper bikes to TVs, tablets and phones to get an ersatz Peloton experience. However, the Peloton screen and set-up are hard to rival, and those that do make a proper attempt at it like Echelon and Technogym Live end up costing similar amounts.

One alternative worth considering, if you want to get fit cycling at home but aren’t so sure about spin classes, is Zwift. You can get a good-quality set-up for comfortably under £1,000 assuming you already have a bike to put in a turbo trainer, and then the Zwift subscription is just £12.99 a month. A subscription allows you to cycle in virtual worlds, rather than the closed shop of a spinning studio, and take on classes and training plans where you ride in those virtual worlds. Zwift is much more focused on road cycling enthusiasts, however, and allows you to ignore all the jargon and just ride up a virtual volcano or through underwater tunnels.

Peloton often reduces the price of the Peloton Bike. Follow our coverage of Peloton Black Friday deals to see how much you could save.

As a runner I’ve always envied the wealth of indoor training options that cyclists have. For one thing a good-quality exercise bike (or turbo trainer you can ride your bike on) is cheaper and smaller than a treadmill, making it a more accessible domestic cardio option. For another, there are a lot more entertainment options for indoor cyclists, if only because it’s easier to watch TV when sitting on a bike than using a treadmill.

Virtual training app Zwift is one of the best options cyclists have for making indoor training more exciting – and although Zwift caters to runners as well, the point about affording a treadmill fitting in your house still stands.

To use Zwift you connect a smart turbo trainer or exercise bike to the app, and it’s this that controls your avatar, which rides in a virtual world. The main Zwift world is called Watopia, an island with underwater tunnels, snow-capped mountains, a desert and a volcano, among other environments. Alongside Watopia you have access to cycle routes in London, New York and select World Championships courses in Yorkshire, Innsbruck and Virginia, with one of these guest worlds available each day.

Zwift will automatically control a smart trainer to simulate the hills your avatar is riding on, creating a very realistic and immersive experience that’s absolutely if you want to keep riding for cyclists looking to train through the winter to prepare for their outdoor rides when the weather gets warmer.

Zwift’s appeal to cyclists is obvious, but what about the average person who’s just looking to get fit? Since Zwift is relatively cheap to set up (costs are detailed below) and allows you to train at home in a convenient way that’s also more exciting than simply sitting on an exercise bike or rower, I thought it could be a great option.

After a few months of riding on the platform, I think Zwift would suit some people perfectly as a get-fit-at-home option – but the heavy, and understandable, skew towards keen cyclists can be a little off-putting for others. If you don’t get sucked into the world of cycling, indoors and out, you may struggle to find the motivation to keep at it.

The Set Up

I’m going to go ahead and assume you already have a bike (ideally a road bike, although a hybrid will probably suffice – check before investing). If you don’t, factor that price into your initial budget. If you do, you can choose between a cheaper wheel-on turbo trainer and a pricier direct drive trainer, where you remove your back wheel and attach your bike directly to the trainer. This creates a more realistic feel to your ride and stops you wearing out your back tyre cycling indoors.

A smart trainer will automatically communicate with Zwift to add resistance when you’re climbing hills in Watopia, and let you freewheel down hills, which really enriches the experience. You can opt for a cheap turbo and then buy sensors that will provide Zwift with your power and speed/cadence in the app, but it’s far more enjoyable with a smart trainer and I’d say it’s worth the extra outlay if your budget can stretch that far.

For the purpose of this review Zwift provided me with an Elite Direto smart direct drive trainer, which is usually available for around £500 to £650 online. That took care of all the required cycling sensors, and I already had a chest strap heart rate monitor I could link to the app once I bought a cheap ANT+ dongle for my laptop.

The trainer and bike are the key bits of kit, but I also put an old TV in my garage to link to my laptop, because the bigger the screen you play Zwift on, the more immersive it is. It’s also worth having a mat under the trainer and a fan, because indoor riding is about as sweaty an activity as there is.

The Zwift subscription itself costs £12.99 a month. You can set everything up for less with a standard smart turbo, which will set you back something in the region of £200 to £300.

If you don’t have a bike, or don’t want to attach your bike to a trainer, you can opt for a smart exercise bike like the Wattbike Atom for Zwift. This will set you back a lot of money, however, at £1,599.

Once I had all the gear, it took about 30 to 40 minutes to get my bike rigged up. I’d not used a direct drive turbo before and am not what you’d call handy, so most people would probably get this done more quickly. Most people probably wouldn’t have drawn blood from their hand in two places during the process either… Anyway, after that mild palaver, it was time to ride.

See related 

• How To Get Fit At Home
• How To Get Started With Zwift Running
• The Beginner’s Guide To Turbo Training
• The Best Turbo Trainers 2021: Which Direct Drive, Magnetic And Smart Indoor Trainers Are Worth Buying
• Savage Turbo Trainer Workouts From Pro Cyclists

The Experience

I was not expecting Zwift to be as fun as it is. I like being outdoors, but cycling outdoors in London isn’t always that enjoyable for the obvious reasons. The best part of riding in Watopia is that you can cycle at whatever speed you like safely.

Easy rides on Zwift are a joy, pootling along admiring the virtual landscape. That’s especially the case early on when you’re exploring the different areas of Watopia and the other worlds. I was using Zwift for one to three 30-minute sessions a week, and at that slow pace it takes a while to explore all the routes, though you could see everything a lot quicker if you knocked out two or three 50km rides.

Throughout the Zwift worlds there are little mini challenges, like a King of the Mountains segment up a climb or a sprint on a flat section. These add a little spice to rides, because even if I was on an easy cycle I’d feel compelled to put in some effort for those short sections.

If you choose a particular route on the start screen you don’t have to do anything to navigate around while riding, but if you want to explore the map on your own terms the best way to do so is with the Zwift companion app. This allows you to make turns when you come across them and shows where you are on the map.

One feature I didn’t expect was that you have to level up on Zwift to be able to visit every area of Watopia whenever you want to. Certain routes, including the daunting but exciting Alpe Du Zwift, a 1,036m climb that recreates the famous Alpe d’Huez, remains locked to me until I have hit level 12 yet. It takes a while to progress through the levels when only using Zwift for short rides a couple of times a week, because you earn points through distance covered. You can, however, reach the locked areas of the map if you enter group rides, workouts and races, or if you ride with a more experienced Zwift user who has hit the required level.

Group events are a key part of Zwift and there are a lot to join every day at times to suit every rider. There is also a range of rides to suit all abilities, with each having an advertised category from A to E. The letters correspond to your functional threshold power in watts per kilo, which is complicated, but basically E is the easiest and once you’re in a group pride you’ll be expected to stay in a certain power range so you stick with the group. You can see your watts per kilo rating onscreen at all times, so there’s no excuse for not staying in the right zone, and if you fail to do so repeatedly you’ll be kicked out of the group ride (after many warnings).

There are also lots of workouts and training plans that you can follow on-demand on Zwift. There are long and short workouts, and plans designed to help you work towards cycling events, or improve a particular aspect of your cycling. All of the workouts are designed around your functional threshold power (FTP), which Zwift will detect automatically while you pedal, but it’s best to do a proper FTP test on the app before you start on the workouts to make sure they’re tailored correctly to your ability. The FTP test is fairly brutal, be warned.

If any or all of the above sounds quite jargon-heavy, it did to me too. This is one downside of using Zwift just to get fit: it’s all aimed at cyclists so things like FTP are central to everything, and all the workouts and plans are built to help you nail cycling events rather than just, say, burn a load of calories. The interval workouts will have the same effect as doing a HIIT class with a peppy, charismatic instructor on a luxury Peloton spinning bike, but on Zwift it’s all couched in cycling terms that take a little while to get used to. Over time you might well get dragged into the world of cycling and start considering entering outdoor events, but if you’re purely using Zwift as a way to log your 150 minutes of cardio activity a week, the jargon might be a bit off-putting.

However, Zwift is still a brilliant option for people trying to get fit at home, and it will probably appeal to a different kind of person than something like Peloton. If you love being out in the open air when possible, actually cycling in a virtual world will appeal more than indoor spinning sessions, as odd as that might sound since you are still indoors. Simply riding around Watopia is tremendously enjoyable, moving from the desert to the forest and then up a mountain in the space of one ride, and if you can get a TV rigged up to play it on, it’s highly immersive.

A large upfront investment is required, but it’s a lot cheaper than Peloton (bike £1,990, monthly unlimited classes £39) and will even out with a gym membership after a few months (or years if you use a budget gym). The ongoing cost of Zwift is also low, and with an indoor trainer you’re not tied just to the Zwift platform – there are others like TrainerRoad to explore, and you can try spinning classes from other apps too.

There is one other question that you might well ask – why not just ride a bike outdoors? And of course you can, but when the weather is bad, or you want to do a hard workout in a short space of time, or you’re housebound for whatever reason, or when you just fancy riding without having to worry about other road users at all times, there’s Zwift, and it’s excellent.

Join Zwift | £12.99 a month

When setting up an indoor cycling session it’s absolute vital to have some kind of entertainment available, because nothing saps motivation quicker than the uninspiring, unchanging sight of a wall. With the Bkool Smart Bike, boredom need never be a concern again because of how fluidly it links with the Bkool simulator.

The simulator is an online platform chock full of different ways to entertain yourself while cycling on a linked Bkool bike. There are workout classes, videos and 3D renderings of routes from all over the world, and even velodrome sessions. It’s an incredibly varied offering and the Bkool Smart Bike’s ability to link seamlessly with the simulator is its star feature, although the reliance on the simulator is also, in some senses, a limitation.

Once the bike is set up you pair it with your laptop (or any internet-connected screen) via an ANT dongle and to your phone via the partner Bkool Remote app. The bike has a phone mount on the handlebars, which expands to handle phablets easily. Controlling the resistance on the bike can only be done through the simulator or the phone app, so you will need to connect something, but fortunately this is easily done and I didn’t have any dropouts when using the bike.

You get three free months of premium access the Bkool simulator when you buy the Smart Bike, which is a bit of a swizz in my opinion, especially considering how reliant the bike is on the simulator. You can’t currently link the Bkool Smart Bike to rival simulator Zwift, for example, even though all the tech seems to be in place for the bike to work with the rival platform. There is a free version of the Bkool simulator, but it is very basic compared to the premium offering. Effectively, if you have the bike, you are pretty much forced to pay the £7.99 per month (£78 per year) for premium access, which seems a little galling on top of the £1,199 the bike itself costs.

Once the simulator is set up with the bike, the first thing to do is a functional threshold power test (FTP). There are five- and 20-minute tests, neither of which are any fun at all, of course, but you need to get through them to get the most from the trainer. Once you log your FTP score with Bkool, it will use this to automatically adjust the resistance on the bike in classes and workouts so you are working at exactly the right level for you. It’s brilliantly implemented and means all you have to do in classes is ride, without worrying about fiddling with the resistance.

This smart integration makes the simulator spinning classes comfortably the best part of riding the Bkool Smart Bike. It’s a very smooth and engaging experience that is automatically tailored to your level, and there are a massive range of classes to pick from. An on-screen trainer talks you through each class, with a graph overlay giving you a visual representation of what’s to come. Transitions between each section of the workout are fairly smooth, even when jumping from easy riding to your FTP or above.

See related

• The Best Exercise Bikes Of 2021
• The Best Turbo Trainers 2021: Which Direct Drive, Magnetic And Smart Indoor Trainers Are Worth Buying
• The 23 Best Cycling Apps

Unfortunately, the same is not quite true of the virtual rides, which are perhaps the more exciting feature on paper. The simulator includes video or 3D routes from all over the world. From classic Alpine climbs to easy loops of Central Park, you can ride anywhere, and even upload your own rides to replicate through the simulator. As an example of the range available, I am currently training for the Coast to Coast adventure race in Scotland and I was able to find 3D routes for the cycling sections in the event on the Bkool simulator.

However, when you actually ride the routes it’s nowhere near as smooth an experience as the classes. Rides are broken down into short sections and if the gradient changes by more than a couple of percentage points the Smart Bike becomes unnaturally jerky to ride. After flying down a climb you’ll hit an uphill section and immediately lose all momentum as the bike automatically cranks up the resistance. It’s just not a realistic representation of what riding a bike outside feels like. Turbo trainers, including Bkool’s own Smart Pro 2, are invariably better at nailing this simulation of reality, but even with that in mind I was still disappointed by how jerky the ride felt on the Smart Bike.

It’s also astonishingly hard to ride uphill in these simulators. I’m not an expert cyclist by any means, but I know what a 10% gradient feels like on a bike, and it shouldn’t require an immediate shift to the lowest gear and standing on the pedals just to move forwards, as it did with the Smart Bike. For this reason, using the simulator to tackle famous climbs like Alpe d’Huez, which have sustained sections at a 10% gradient or above, is not so much an enjoyable challenge as an interminable nightmare.

It doesn’t help that changing gear in these virtual routes is done through the partner phone app, especially when you have to shift down quickly when you suddenly hit an uphill. Given its position on the bike’s handlebars, my phone was inevitably in the firing line of drops of sweat, which made the touchscreen tricky to use. I also wasn’t that delighted at the idea of sweating on my phone each time I rode in the first place. I get that it’s a smart bike, but a dumb old dial as an alternative option for changing resistance would have been welcome at least as an option.

Smart exercise bikes and turbos linked to simulators are a great way to make indoor training more enjoyable, and Bkool have more or less nailed the software side of this. However, unless you are a spinning obsessive the Smart Bike is not the best option for tapping into the world of virtual riding with Bkool. The classes function with the bike is incredibly good, and if you’re spending £20 every few days on spin classes in boutique gyms then buying the Smart Bike might even make financial sense. But if you’re hoping to enjoy riding the virtual routes with the bike or use other software like Zwift, then a smart turbo trainer is going to suit you better.

£1,199, buy on bkool.com, check price on amazon.co.uk