Spinning / Exercise bikes.. what to look for

Markasaurus

Hi

I want a home exercise bike and need to know what to look for. I've dismissed the idea of a turbo trainer, I want something I can jump on for an hour every day, not hook up/mess around.

I've seen two bikes in particular,

The bodysculpture BC4611 exercise bike from Groupon
http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/national-deal/gg-groupon-goods-global-gmb-h-416-71/53222820

18kg flywheel
Pad braking with punch brake
Adjustable micro-tension
Adjustable saddle and handlebars
Front transportation wheels
Pedals with strap and toe clips

The Nordictrack GX 5.1 from Costco
http://www.costco.co.uk/view/product/uk_catalog/cos_5,cos_5.1,cos_5.1.1/147902
Adjustable resistance
Adjustable handlebar, seat range, and pedal straps
Quick-stop breaking system
Backlit LCD display
Smooth belt drive system
Flywheel: 22kg

I'm keen to take on any advice for what to look for, I want my training to directly be benefiting the correct areas, is there a particular type of bike to get, what does the flywheel weight represent etc?

Appreciate your advice in advance...

Thanks

Mark

imposter2.0

For those prices you will be better off buying a turbo and a cheap (s/h) trainer bike to leave mounted on it. Realistically, it can take 30 seconds to put your bike onto a turbo, so I doubt if you will find many on here agreeing with your hypothesis...

Markasaurus

Hi

Thanks for your help

I appreciate the majority will recommend a turbo trainer. I want a exercise bike as I dont have my bike always with me and I need something I can fold away at times.

Hopefully if anyone does use an exercise bike / spinning bike to train, please let me know if there are specific types I should look at in order to maximise my training

Thanks

mulletmaster

Good luck folding either of those two, those are solid frames.

mercia_man

We've today bought a hardly used Body Sculpture BC4620 Pro exercise bike for £50 from a neighbour who put an ad in the village shop. We've just collected it and installed it in the dining room. My wife broke her pelvis on an audax ride nearly three months ago and is just about ready to start exercising properly again. Rather than risk falling off on hilly icy roads, she fancied trying an exercise bike as the first stage. Cheapest I've seen new for this model is £169.99 on Amazon. Most shops are selling for £200 to £300. So I think it's a good buy.

It seems very similar to the BC4611 but a bit higher spec. I was impressed when I saw it. You can adjust saddle up and down and back and forwards. You can also adjust the saddle angle. The time trial style bars are fixed but you can raise the stem up and down. Construction is basic but very solid and it all appears very sturdy. It's surprisingly compact and only takes up a small corner. The riding resistance is micro adjustable by means of a dial which screws pads in and out on the big heavy flywheel. It measures your heart rate and has a computer readout showing speed, distances, calories etc.

I've just had a quick spin and it's great and would certainly be an excellent way to have a cardiovascular workout. It feels similar to a turbo in which the back wheel is taken out and better than a turbo in which the back wheel runs on a roller.

It looks very similar to what people use in spin classes. There's plenty of spin class videos for various workouts on You Tube so we can watch them on the ipad while spinning away.

poppit

My advice would be to look on eBay for a re-furbished/secondhand commercial gym standard spinning bike, I've just done a search and there are plenty on there. My experience is that the Schwinn or the Startrac ones are the best, particularly the Startrac NXT range.

northpole

I joined GymBox this year and regularly used their spin class at Holborn (until change of office put paid to that!). They had brand new spin bikes at the start of 2014 and I found them quite infuriating. There were regularly bikes with faults and, because they were electronically linked to plasma screens at the front of the class, you could see your power output and speed - the power was both real time and cummulative for the session. The problem was that, because everyone's performance was on screen, it was very obvious that some of the bikes were completely out of kilter - some would make you look like superman; others would make you appear as if you'd never exercised. They were completely inconsistent - and these were meant to have been in a professionally managed gym!

On the basis of my experience, I would not recommend to anyone to buy one of these bikes - I can only imagine that they require regular maintenance - not something I would want to have to arrange/ pay for. Perhaps the Watt Bikes may provide a better solution? I haven't tried them.

Otherwise my advice would be to either get a turbo trainer or, if you are set against that, as one previous poster suggested, perhaps join a local gym and attend their spin classes, leaving the maintenance issues for others to worry about.

Peter

banditvic

I have a Greg Lemond Revmaster Spin bike tried all sorts of Turbos but just couldn't stand the noise or feel. This feels like a road bike and is super quite.

mercia_man

Just tried out the BC4620 for a workout and am seriously impressed.

Adjustability is very good. I am 5ft 10in with 33in inside leg and my wife is just 5ft 2in. We could both replicate our normal bike riding positions.

The feel when riding is definitely superior to a turbo with back wheel on a resistance roller. My turbo experience is limited to a bike fitting session but I found the loud noise and the way the back tyre would occasionally slip on the roller to be annoying. That heavy flywheel gives a real solidity and fluidity to the riding experience and it's easy to increase or reduce the power you are putting out. The Body Sculpture spin bike is pretty quiet and there's obviously no slipping and jerking on any rollers.

The computer readout is interesting but not real world accurate so it's main use is for comparing session with session. For example, my first session, in which I started off steadily before increasing resistance and doing several out of the saddle hard exertions, lasted 17.35 minutes in which it claimed I had done 10.35 miles and was consistently riding at more than 30 mph. There's no way I was going that quickly. But it was a had workout and I was sweating heavily. The pulse monitor seems to be quite accurate. I used to use heart rate monitors and reckon I was riding level two/three with bursts up to four. The figures on readout corresponded to how it felt to me.

I don't reckon there would be any problematic maintenance issues because the spin bike being considered by OP and our similar version are not linked electronically to any screens. There's a replaceable battery for the computer and that's all the electronics there is.

I have virtually no experience of turbos and spin bikes. But I do feel the Body Sculpture bike is a great way to get a good workout. Not sure what the differences are between the BC4611 and BC4620. But at £169.99 from Amazon for the latter (and you might be able to get a cheap used one like us) it seems to me well worth considering. No doubt other makes mentioned above are better but they seem to be much more expensive.

Markasaurus

Thanks for the responses all.

Mercia Man wrote:

Just tried out the BC4620 for a workout and am seriously impressed.

Adjustability is very good. I am 5ft 10in with 33in inside leg and my wife is just 5ft 2in. We could both replicate our normal bike riding positions.

The feel when riding is definitely superior to a turbo with back wheel on a resistance roller. My turbo experience is limited to a bike fitting session but I found the loud noise and the way the back tyre would occasionally slip on the roller to be annoying. That heavy flywheel gives a real solidity and fluidity to the riding experience and it's easy to increase or reduce the power you are putting out. The Body Sculpture spin bike is pretty quiet and there's obviously no slipping and jerking on any rollers.

The computer readout is interesting but not real world accurate so it's main use is for comparing session with session. For example, my first session, in which I started off steadily before increasing resistance and doing several out of the saddle hard exertions, lasted 17.35 minutes in which it claimed I had done 10.35 miles and was consistently riding at more than 30 mph. There's no way I was going that quickly. But it was a had workout and I was sweating heavily. The pulse monitor seems to be quite accurate. I used to use heart rate monitors and reckon I was riding level two/three with bursts up to four. The figures on readout corresponded to how it felt to me.

I don't reckon there would be any problematic maintenance issues because the spin bike being considered by OP and our similar version are not linked electronically to any screens. There's a replaceable battery for the computer and that's all the electronics there is.

I have virtually no experience of turbos and spin bikes. But I do feel the Body Sculpture bike is a great way to get a good workout. Not sure what the differences are between the BC4611 and BC4620. But at £169.99 from Amazon for the latter (and you might be able to get a cheap used one like us) it seems to me well worth considering. No doubt other makes mentioned above are better but they seem to be much more expensive.

I've just seen the BC4620 on Amazon that's a great buy. I've noticed the BC4611 on Groupon has a 18kg flywheel, compared to the BC4620's 13kg. What does this affect?

Markasaurus

banditvic wrote:

I have a Greg Lemond Revmaster Spin bike tried all sorts of Turbos but just couldn't stand the noise or feel. This feels like a road bike and is super quite.

I can't even find a price for these, but they look really expensive!

JayKosta

I use both a 'fat saddle' exercise bike and a LeMond RevMaster spin bike at my local fitness center.

The RevMaster is very adjustable for position and the saddle is a decent 'road bike' shape and size. It also accepts input from a chest heart rate monitor (which don't use). The display w/o heart rate is basically just cadence. Speed doesn't mean much because the resistance is independent.

The exercise bike has a nice display showing cadence, watts, calories, speed, etc.
I use the watt display and make changes to the resistance for various interval and endurance sessions. The saddle is not ideal, but is useable, and the position adjustments are quite limited. Using the watts as a guide seems like a good way to compare sessions, and to judge whether I've recovered from the previous one.

Having a big fan is needed for cooling....

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

mercia_man

Markasaurus wrote:

Thanks for the responses all.

Mercia Man wrote:

Just tried out the BC4620 for a workout and am seriously impressed.

Adjustability is very good. I am 5ft 10in with 33in inside leg and my wife is just 5ft 2in. We could both replicate our normal bike riding positions.

The feel when riding is definitely superior to a turbo with back wheel on a resistance roller. My turbo experience is limited to a bike fitting session but I found the loud noise and the way the back tyre would occasionally slip on the roller to be annoying. That heavy flywheel gives a real solidity and fluidity to the riding experience and it's easy to increase or reduce the power you are putting out. The Body Sculpture spin bike is pretty quiet and there's obviously no slipping and jerking on any rollers.

The computer readout is interesting but not real world accurate so it's main use is for comparing session with session. For example, my first session, in which I started off steadily before increasing resistance and doing several out of the saddle hard exertions, lasted 17.35 minutes in which it claimed I had done 10.35 miles and was consistently riding at more than 30 mph. There's no way I was going that quickly. But it was a had workout and I was sweating heavily. The pulse monitor seems to be quite accurate. I used to use heart rate monitors and reckon I was riding level two/three with bursts up to four. The figures on readout corresponded to how it felt to me.

I don't reckon there would be any problematic maintenance issues because the spin bike being considered by OP and our similar version are not linked electronically to any screens. There's a replaceable battery for the computer and that's all the electronics there is.

I have virtually no experience of turbos and spin bikes. But I do feel the Body Sculpture bike is a great way to get a good workout. Not sure what the differences are between the BC4611 and BC4620. But at £169.99 from Amazon for the latter (and you might be able to get a cheap used one like us) it seems to me well worth considering. No doubt other makes mentioned above are better but they seem to be much more expensive.

I've just seen the BC4620 on Amazon that's a great buy. I've noticed the BC4611 on Groupon has a 18kg flywheel, compared to the BC4620's 13kg. What does this affect?

I've just looked them up on other sites and it would appear they both have a 13kg flywheel. The 4620 has a heart rate readout through sensors to take your pulse on the bars. The 4611 doesn't. The 4611 has a more basic appearance with square section tubing. The 4620 is a bit more stylish with round section tubing. I think it's simply a budget version of the 4620 and slightly less well finished. They look virtually identical in construction.

As I said, I'm certainly no expert on spin bikes, but I am delighted with our £50 bargain from a village shop window advert. It's very solid on the floor when you ride it hard. I found riding my bike on a turbo felt rather flexy in comparison.

Philby

I regularly do spin classes at my local gym. Based on this experience I have found that the Q factor (distance between pedals) is greater on a spin bike and as a result I find it hard to train the muscles in the way I would like to - for example I can't get seem to get the same impact in my quads as I can on a road bike. Our gym changed its spin bikes recently and the bars on the new bike have less hand positions and are more uncomfortable than on the bikes they replaced - bars are generally quite wide. The saddles can also be uncomfortable and seem designed more for the female derriere - not sure how practical it would be to put your own saddle on. I've also found it difficult to replicate the position I have on my road bike.

I enjoy spin classes but see them more as a very good cardio vascular workout than developing specific bike fitness.

DeVlaeminck

If you want a spin bike then I wouldn't try and convince you otherwise - I can see in some circumstances it may be more convenient- but I disagree that the feel of a spinbike is generally superior to a turbo using a roller.

Obviously I haven't used all spin bikes or all turbos but I have always found a turbo feels as good as the best spin bikes with the advantage the position is the one I ride on the road not the best approximation of it the machine will allow.

mercia_man

If OP is worried about bars, saddle etc on the Body Sculpture BC4620, here are the figures. The bars are 46cm wide at the flat section at the stem, tapering to 42cm wide c-c at the mid point where it takes your pulse, then narrowing to 32mm at the end of the time trial style extensions. The saddle is 135mm at its widest point and lightly padded. So it's all pretty similar to a road bike. There are lots of positions on the bars and it's a standard cheapo seatpin clamped at each side so you could always change the saddle if you wanted. The no-name saddle is like you would get as standard on many lower end road bikes.

The Q factor is wider than a road bike, more like a mountain bike. As the saddle has a huge amount of fore and aft and up and down movement, it's easy to adjust reach to replicate your own bike in conjunction with plenty of up and down movement of the stem. I can get knee over pedal spindle fine and so can my wife. Obviously, the bottom bracket is fixed, so very tall or short riders may have to compromise to obtain the desired reach.

Markasaurus

thanks again, appreciate the advice.

Brian B

I use a spinning bike for winter/bad weather training and have done for close to 10 years now and cant believe I did not so it beforehand and used to go out in all weathers and used to spend almost as much time cleaning bikes in winter as riding them.

I have fitted shimano clip in pedals and a proper road saddle to make it as close to my bike set as possible. Its great to jump on without the hassle of setting anything up. I can vouch that it helps with fitness and they are reliable.

Here is my bike :-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/V-Fit-SC1-P-Aer ... =spin+bike

Here is the BC4620 cheap from Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Body-Sculpture- ... =spin+bike