The Very Best Exercise Bikes

The Peloton changed the modern-day exercise bike as we know it. But since it launched in 2012, a whole slew of Wi-Fi-connected SoulCycle-esque bikes have flooded the market. Some will let you join live classes or work out with a virtual personal trainer right from the comfort of your own living room, while others are meant to simply emulate a long bike ride. To help you find the best one for you and your preferred workout intensity, we dug through our archives and pulled out our favorites exercise bikes, as recommended by professional trainers and our own on-staff cycling enthusiasts.

What we’re looking for

Resistance: Resistance is what makes your indoor-cycling session a challenge, and the resistance mechanism that a bike features will have an impact on its noise level and ease of repair. Magnetic resistance has become more and more popular (and most of the bikes on this list use magnetic resistance); they’re quiet but also generally more expensive than the more mechanical flywheel with friction or air resistance.

Bluetooth or Wi-Fi capability: The main advancement in exercise-bike technology over the last decade or so has been the introduction of the internet and connected devices. Indoor bikes like Peloton are Wi-Fi-enabled, so you can stream programs straight to your bike. Others are enabled with Bluetooth, so you can connect a heart monitor or another device. Some have none of the electronic connectivity, which also makes them much cheaper.

Best overall exercise bike


Magnetic Resistance | Bluetooth

The Schwinn IC4 was recommended to us by Cheryl Wischhover, who has been going to indoor-cycling classes since the mid-’90s and missed going to in-person cycling classes during the pandemic. This bike uses magnetic resistance, “which results in an incredibly smooth and quiet ride,” she says. The bike itself is also easy to adjust in all directions, so any family member can use it: “I’m five-foot-five, and my teen son is five-11, and we both feel comfortable on it.”

If you’re interested in the group-workout experience, you can adapt this bike to make it work: There’s a built-in holder for your iPad or phone on the handlebars, a USB outlet for charging, and an arm-strap heart-rate monitor to track your performance. According to Wischhover, “You can connect the app to the bike via Bluetooth to get a cadence display, and for riders who really want hard-core data and power output, there are countless threads in the Facebook group about how to Frankenstein a setup using apps like Kinetic and Wahoo.” If that sounds like too much work, check out our review of the Peloton below — but if you’re looking for maximum flexibility for all levels of rider, you can’t do much better than the Schwinn IC4 (especially at this price point).

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Magnetic Resistance | Bluetooth

We learned about this compact indoor bike from Keiser while reporting on the best big-ticket home-gym items. This bike’s compact design puts the magnetic resistance wheel in the back, rather than the front, and takes up less space than a treadmill or elliptical. The unique V shape also means that it can accommodate riders as short as four-foot-ten and as tall as seven feet, without making them clamber over a bar.

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Old-school, wind-powered air bikes with handles, which were originally popular in the 1970s and ’80s, are having a comeback, according to Nick Clayton, personal training program manager at the National Strength and Conditioning Association. “You’re biking and pushing and pulling at the same time, so it’s low-impact, but as far as working muscles and getting the most out of any kind of interval session, [it’s] probably the best bang for your buck,” he says. Simple to use, easy to set up, and with no motor to potentially break down, it’s a valuable addition to any home gym.

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