Best exercise bikes and smart indoor bikes for home workouts

Improve your warm-up, get your legs spinning or add cardio to your training with the best exercise bikes, that are always ready to ride.

The ideal exercise bike is one that inspires you to ride indoors consistently. In recent years, the best exercise bikes have evolved significantly, with many now offering motivational features like third-party ride app integration or built-in virtual personal trainers. The top exercise bikes also connect seamlessly to the best smartwatches and heart rate monitors, allowing you to utilize advanced zone training techniques.

Exercise bikes serve as an excellent starting point for individuals aiming to enhance their fitness and training. They provide straightforward, user-friendly interfaces that elevate your heart rate and engage your legs. Depending on your preferences, there are three types of resistance available. Manual resistance bikes allow for easy adjustments with a dial, making them ideal for quick cardio sessions and warm-ups. Wind resistance bikes engage both the legs and arms, making them exceptional for cross-training; the more effort you exert, the greater the resistance. Lastly, electromagnetic bikes operate smoothly and quietly, making them well-suited for integration with third-party training applications.

basic exercise bike from Decathlon in-house brand Domyos. Black with red adjustment dials for a fully adjustable positionBest budget

Best on a budget

Both easy to set up and use, the Domyos exercise bike is ideally suited to those on a budget. It features a 12kg flywheel and plenty of adjustability to help dial in the fit.

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The Echelon Smart Connect indoor exercise bike on a white backgroundBest Peloton alternative

Best Peloton alternative

Keenly priced, the Echelon Connect bike boasts a silent magnetic flywheel and 32 resistance levels. Unlimited personal workouts for all levels are available via the dedicated app.

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Original Peloton bike with its distinctive clear belt cover and red chain ring on a white backgroundBest for motivation and community

Best for motivation and community

Famed for its plethora of live classes, the Peloton bike is best suited to those who need help with structured workouts and training motivation. Requires a monthly subscription.

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horizon fitness 7.0 IC with its blue accent details sat at a three quarter angle. With the back of the bike closest to the viewer allowing a better view of the cockpit and adjustments. set on a white backgroundBest budget option for connectivity

Best budget option for connectivity

A budget-friendly option that could temp dedicated cyclists in with its excellant connectivity to third-party app platforms like Zwift and Strava.

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Wattbike Air sat facing away from the viewer allowing a wide view of the cockpit and details. Sat on a white backgroundBest air resistance bike

Best exercise bike with air resistance

Developed for over a decade with some of the best cyclists and athletes around the world. The Air brings Wattbikes' renowned quality and high-intensity training platform into the home.

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Schwinn 800IC exercise bike with its red detailing with the rear of the bike closest to the viewer. Allowing a good view of the and its cockpit areaBest for big efforts

Best budget exercise bike for big efforts

For riders that are looking to put the power down and have a reasonable level of self-motivation. Excellant levels of resistance adjustability keep it ahead of its competitors.

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You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Domyos Basic Exercise Bike 100 is pictured here with the front pointing to the right

Basic by name but certainly not in performance

best exercise bikes for indoor cycling includes the Echelon Smart Connect EX3 in the image, which is shown with the front of the bike pointing left.

best exercise bikes for indoor cycling includes this Peloton bike in the image with is front pointing to the right

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Horizon Fitness' 7.0 IC Fitness Bike with its blue accent details

Our expert review:

The classic schwinn indoor exercise bike, with red crank arms and the trademark Schwinn quality logo on the flywheel

Our expert review:

Wattbike Air with its black and wheel air restiance cover and trackmark red logo. Sat in a gym location featuring dunbells and weights

Concept 2 BikeErg is pictured here with the front pointing to the left

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Peloton exercise bike

Dependant on the bikes features our team sweat away hours testing the best exercise bikes

The price difference for exercise bikes ranges from $150/£100 for basic models to nearly $3,000/£2,500 for high-end options, often requiring a monthly subscription for full benefits.

Interactive, Wi-Fi-enabled exercise bikes offer a good compromise. They allow users to take online classes for motivational workouts from the comfort of their homes. Although initial costs may be lower than those of smart bikes, monthly subscriptions can increase overall expenses.

An entry-level model is sufficient to get you started; spending more provides features like ANT+ and Bluetooth connectivity for use with apps like Zwift or Rouvy.

Cycling offers many benefits, and indoor riding is no exception. It enhances mental health, boosts immunity, and aids weight loss; why not check out our 15 benefits to cycling guide?

The main advantage of an exercise bike is the control it offers over pace and duration, which allows you to tailor your fitness journey to your needs. For those investing in an exercise bike for weight loss, our quick guide outlines six essential tips for success.

The main difference between the two is the functionality. The systems vary hugely in terms of performance, and the more you spend, the more you’ll get.

Generally speaking, an exercise bike, or spin bike, will provide manually adjustable resistance, have some basic performance data, and a more upright sitting position.

A smart bike is more interactive, and, along with automatically controlling resistance for you, it will also allow you to attend virtual rides, gather significant performance data, and have a riding position that more closely mimics that of a road bike, providing a realistic road-like feel when pedalling.

In the middle is an ever-growing market that combines both smart features and connectivity with the simplicity of basic exercise bikes. We also see a rising trend in air-resistance bikes.

The Peloton indoor exercise bike and app have taken the fitness world by storm, but is it any good for training for proper cyclists?

We've got all the insider detail on the question of is the Peloton indoor exercise bike and app worth it on our dedicated page; but in summary:

You'll need to purchase the bike and then subscribe to a membership monthly fee, a bit like a gym, but it does allow you to include multiple members.

The subscription bit gives you access to instructor-led classes, which resemble 'spin classes' and a motivational virtual community, as well as off bike exercises such as Yoga, stretching and strength workouts. So it's a bit like a mini home gym structured around the bike.

While Peloton might still have the market share, there are a lot more options out there if an interactive smart bike is your thing. We've picked out what we think are the best Peloton alternatives to help you find the right bike to achieve your fitness goals.

When it comes to performance training and riding indoors, turbo trainers have traditionally been the way to go. However, with the advent of smart bikes and more coming on the market constantly, some riders have referred to them as game changers for full-gas efforts and harnessing every inch of power due to their solidity. Then there's the reduction in maintenance and the bike always being ready to ride.

However, on the flip side, the compliance offered by a road bike attached to a turbo trainer does have its benefits on longer rides at home. The ability to stow a turbo neatly away, along with the obvious price differences, will be more of a perk for some riders.

Read more on our Smart bike or top-end turbo: what's the ultimate set-up for Zwift racing feature to see what two distinguished online racers think.

If space is limited at home, you might be tempted to buy an exercise bike that folds up and rolls away. However, this will always mean some big compromises in terms of performance, most notably rider position and limited tension settings.

A typical foldaway exercise bike uses an ‘X’ frame, similar to an ironing board, to keep its overall footprint low. To keep this dual triangle relatively strong, it must be as vertical as possible, meaning that you're likely to be sitting very upright.

The other obvious disadvantage of foldaway exercise bikes is that, to keep the machine as portable as possible, they will naturally have lighter, much smaller flywheels, significantly reducing their ability to apply resistance.

Clearly, they have their place for people with limited space and looking for a low-impact cardio workout at home. For experienced cyclists, it is certainly worth considering some of the best rollers or smart turbo trainers instead.