Getting the best exercise bike under £300 will help you achieve your dream weight, sculpt your entire body, and help you feel happier. Of course, you’ll be healthier too because you’ll be training your heart and lungs so that your cardiovascular endurance increases.
Or maybe all that will never happen.
Thousands of Brits choose the wrong exercise equipment every year. So every year, our country faces the same epidemic of under-trained over-weight people.
So maybe getting the best exercise bike shouldn’t be your goal.
All these “best” bikes sport high-tech features dressed in marketing buzz that will get your money out of your pocket in two seconds.
Instead, you should purchase a sturdy bike that you’re going to use. That’s the secret to becoming fitter, healthier and happier:
Working out.
So, we’re going to help you choose an affordable and yet quality indoor bike that you’ll use. Find out how below:
Table of Contents
Things To Consider Before Buying
The biggest problem for people who purchase fitness equipment for home use is that they don’t know how to judge products comparatively depending on their needs.
Here’s a hint:
Your needs pinpoint the advantages that a particular stationary bike offers you specifically.
Comparing bikes in terms of their features doesn’t tell you anything specific for your actual needs/ personality. And that’s how you end up with expensive or feature-packed products you’re not using.
That leads to self-blame and ultimately sabotages your entire fitness journey.
So, we’re going to teach you how to judge stationary bikes in terms of your needs.
Firstly, if you’re here looking for an affordable indoor bike, you need to:
- Get a high-quality cycle
- Prepare to sacrifice extras like Bluetooth or speakers
Now, let’s see your user profile:
- Fitness addict looking to improve strength: focus on high resistance and heavy flywheel. As such, you want a stationary bike with a heavy flywheel that allows you to increase resistance to challenging levels.
- An average person looking to keep active: focus on user-friendliness. Look for features that help keep your motivation up, such as tablet holders, apps, or music. If you don’t want to invest in other fitness equipment, a bike with upper-body resistance bands will help you get comprehensive training.
- Family exercising together: focus on adjustability. You want a customisable bike from head to toe, which means plenty of seat, pedal, handlebar adjustments, + multiple programs and memory slots.
- Someone who wants to lose weight fast: focus on specific fat-burning programs and total-body training. If you have included resistance bands for the upper body, you can burn more calories. At the same time, you need watt and hear-rate-controlled programs that would help you reach that fat-burning zone faster.
- Someone with chronic pain: focus on adjustments and comfort. Make sure you can adjust the seat and handlebars well to maintain the correct posture throughout your workout. This posture will reduce pressure points and alleviate pain. Besides, make sure the seat is ergonomically padded. If you have chronic back pain, you may want lumbar support, but ensure that the seat and backrest contour your body.
Of course, you should also consider your weight and size before purchasing any fitness equipment.
Best exercise bikes under £300 for home use
Now that you know how to judge a stationary bike’s features in terms of your needs, let’s move on to the best indoor cycles for home use:
Reebok Exercise Bike: best for the whole family
- For more advanced fitness enthusiasts, the GB50’s solid 9...
- You can tailor the intensity of your workout, while you...
- To help keep you motivated, there are 20 fitness programs...
The Reebok Exercise bike is the best for the whole family because it’s highly versatile equipment. As a result, it can suit different people’s needs.
Take the 9 kg flywheel, for instance. This flywheel can trigger enough resistance for a challenging workout, but it’s not the heaviest on the market. Therefore, even people with lower fitness levels can use the Reebok bike instead of giving up.
The padded comfort saddle is easily adjustable both vertically and horizontally. The bonus is that you can also adjust the handlebars.
Therefore, this bike fits different body sizes; all family members can have a comfortable cycling experience on this bike.
Plus, ergonomic bikes are essential in preventing – or even alleviating – chronic back pain. Sitting in an anatomically correct position eliminates pressure points, and that’s what decreases your discomfort.
That said, Reebok has another advantage for the whole family: it can support heavier individuals up to 18 stone (120 kg).
Then there are the 32 levels of electronic resistance. That means everyone in your family can find suitable resistance for their needs, from your 94yo grandpa to your 17yo athlete-team son.
And, of course, everyone can find their fitness program. Try one of the 20 built-in workouts that were put together by Reebok’s trainers. You can challenge yourself with a strenuous mountain climb one day and then try a slow-paced cycle the next.
This immense variation of resistances and programs doesn’t just benefit a large family.
It can benefit single people too, especially if:
- You want to scale up your fitness level.
- You want to use your stationary bike daily, so you need gentle workouts during upper-body days.
- You may need this stationary bike to warm up before strength training routines.
To end up, Reebok accurately measures all of your stats, such as:
- Calories
- Distance
- Pulse
- Rotations per minute
- Speed
- Time
- Watts
That means everyone in your family can work out according to their needs. For example, you can follow “time” if you want to be active for a specific time each day. Alternatively, follow Watts and your pulse to make sure you reach that fat-burning zone.
Check price and reviews on Amazon UK
Magic Life Folding Exercise Bike: cheapest stationary bike
- Reliable Exercise Bike: This stationary exercise bike can be...
- LCD Monitor and Ipad Mount: The LCD monitor on exercise bike...
- Foldable 80% Space Saving: The exercise bike adopts a...
Hunting for bargains doesn’t always end with the best results. Most times, cheap products are also of inferior quality.
But not this Magic Life Folding Exercise Bike.
If you need a low-cost stationary bike, this can be it.
Firstly you notice the 1-year warranty. So although this bike will last just a year, it will still be a good investment. But it will probably last much longer than that anyway because that steel frame looks rugged enough to withstand an apocalypse.
That’s also why the bike’s maximum user weight is 264 pounds (120 kg).
Secondly, the Magic Life Exercise Bike has bells and whistles you wouldn’t expect for this price range. It’s silent; it has heart rate measurements and ten resistance levels.
Besides, the bike is highly comfortable for long sessions. The seat has high-density sponge padding and a contoured backrest to take the pressure off of your tailbone. As such, you can pedal for hours without any lumbar pain.
And to top it all off, Magic Life Bike includes armbands to work out your upper body as well as your lower body. That means you benefit from a comprehensive total body workout with just one fitness machine.
On the downside, the Magic Life Exercise Bike isn’t best for experts. Even the tenth highest resistance level is almost half as powerful as what you get with a gym-quality bike. Besides, that sponge seat is likely to last less than a foam-padded chair.
So, we recommend Magic Life Exercise Bike for people with low fitness levels who don’t want a stationary bike for intense training sessions.
Check price and reviews on Amazon UK
UK Fitness Indoor Exercise Bike: best for lower body strength
- UK FITNESS SPIN EXERCISE BIKES offer everything you need for...
- QUICK AND SIMPLE BLUETOOTH connection to the KINOMAP fitness...
- FREE 90 DAYS MEMBERSHIP to Studio Sweat onDemand We are...
This UK Fitness Stationary Bike is best for building lower body strength because it boasts a challenging 13-kg flywheel. As such, you’ll have to push against a heavier flywheel than most other affordable indoor bikes offer.
Besides, purchasing this bike gives you access to three months unlimited membership to Studio SWEAT. This membership will allow you to choose the proper body sculpting workout for your needs. So, you can target your muscles from all possible angles and with different routines.
This comprehensive training style includes HIIT, boot camps, cardio, and Yoga, which guarantees faster results than simple steady-state cardio.
That said, UK Fitness stationary bike also boasts a fully adjustable padded chair. This ergonomic seat design ensures you’re keeping the correct posture during exercise. Apart from avoiding back pain, one result of this proper posture is targeting your muscles correctly.
Correct posture, therefore, prevents injury, enhances your progress, and helps your muscles recover faster.
You can also notice other advantages, such as the safety pedals, the steel frame, plus a water bottle and tablet holder. Basically, the UK Fitness Indoor Bike is a strong, user-friendly stationary bike for home use.
But here are the negative points:
Firstly, this bike doesn’t fit heavyset, tall people; its dimensions make it better suited for people up to 100 kg and 6 feet tall.
Secondly, the UK Fitness Bike uses friction resistance. Friction resistance is much cheaper than magnetic resistance and also adds more fluidity to your movements. However, friction-resistance bikes need more maintenance in the long term, such as replacing the friction pads.
Check price and reviews on Amazon UK
High Street TV Slim Cycle 2-in-1: best lightweight indoor bike for fat loss
- Build your best-ever body: Sculpt, tone and strengthen your...
- Adjustable magnetic resistance: Eight levels of magnetic...
- Digital progress tracker: Records and displays calories...
High Street TV Slim Cycle is the best lightweight bike for fat loss because, firstly, it weighs just 18 kg – so it’s almost half the weight of other bikes in this review. So, if you’re looking for an indoor bike that’s easy to move around, this is it.
Secondly, let’s analyse the fat loss part.
The first argument is that the Slim Cycle allows you to exercise your entire body. Those upper body resistance bands imply more effort on your heart, lungs, and muscles. Therefore, you can reach that fat burning zone faster.
Besides, you benefit from 8 levels of magnetic resistance. The highest level is challenging enough even for fit people, which means you have plenty of room to scale up your fitness level.
Of course, more and higher resistance levels would have only sweetened this deal.
You can also count on the digital progress tracker that shows the calories you’ve burnt, distance, speed, and pulse. The only thing missing from this slew of stats is the watts measurement that tells you more precisely how much energy you’re using for your workout.
If you want to accelerate your fat loss, try the 14-day free Echelon Fit app. This app gives you access to numerous Slim Cycle routines created by expert trainers around the world. If you give up on this subscription, you still get access to ten workout programs.
As a bonus, you get a super-sized display, a tablet holder, and a very silent bike riding experience. Besides, the well-padded seat is easily adjustable, the display controls are easy to use, and the bike boasts a maximum user weight of 136 kg.
Check price and reviews on Amazon UK
VIAVITO Satori Exercise Bike: best for efficient progress (and control freaks)
- Flywheel: 9kg (19.8lbs); 32 Levels Of Electronic Magnetic...
- Scalable Programmes: 12 Pre-Set, 1 Manual, 4 HRC, 1...
- Dual Colour Backlit 5.4” LCD Display; 4 User Profiles For...
The Viavito Satori Exercise Bike is a sort of mix between the Slim Cycle and Reebok. So, you can notice the same upper body resistance bands that Slim Cycle has, along with similar adjustability options to those Reebok boasts. As such, you can adjust the seat, handlebars, and pedals to ensure a comfortable riding experience.
Apart from that, you get 32 levels of magnetic resistance, just like what Reebok has to offer. That means you can finely tune the magnetic tension to your specific fitness level.
The advantage of these minute adjustments – apart from being immensely satisfying for control freaks – is that you can progress faster. If you exercise precisely according to your current strength level, you will find that perfect balance between challenging and not overexerting your muscles.
And that’s how you sculpt your body efficiently.
That said, the scalable programs will help you find the best routine for your needs too. You can pick one of the 12preset programs, plus four hear-rate-controlled and one Watt program. Of course, you can also select the manual program, the body-fat routine, or the recovery modes.
Once you’re done fiddling with these options, you can build one program yourself that the bike remembers.
Bonus: you can use this bike with the whole family because VIAVITO Satori boasts four user profiles. Defining your profile is essential if you want to see more progress faster. That’s because even the tiniest adjustments according to your current shape and fitness level allow you to work out smarter and not harder.
Check price and reviews on Amazon UK
In Conclusion
Now that you’re here, you know how to choose an exercise bike for indoor use according to your needs. You’ve also seen how we judge stationary bikes starting from specific user-profiles and the specific advantages they can bring.
So, now’s the time to make your choice:
- Reebok Exercise Bike: Best for the whole family
- Magic Life Folding Exercise Bike: Cheapest stationary bike
- UK Fitness Indoor Exercise Bike: Best for lower body strength
- High Street TV Slim Cycle 2-in-1: Best lightweight indoor bike for fat loss
- VIAVITO Satori Exercise Bike: Best for efficient progress (and control freaks)
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