Exercise Bike

If you’ve already decided that you want a recumbent bike but couldn’t decide on which brand or manufacturer to choose from then you’re at the right place. The purpose of this article is to show you the best recumbent exercise bike in their price range. As a general rule on buying an exercise bike you get what you paid for. (Really) So the more expensive it is the better the bike would be. Not everyone has a huge budget however thus the best way is to show you our pick for each price range. This will save you a lot of time and grief when buying an exercise bike (especially recumbent ones)

I will also assume you know enough about recumbent bike and some of the jargon, if you have no idea about recumbent bike we have enough articles on that in this site. Take your time to read through them.

First of all I’m going to be introducing you to my selection criteria for a good recumbent bike so that you can better choose a recumbent exercise bike that suits your needs.

Features

Having a huge amount of features is important for some people but normally people just want a working and solid exercise bike that does basic functions that helps their exercise progress. The basic features that must be present in order for a recumbent bike to be decent is a calorie counter, heart rate monitor, miles counter, time counter, and water bottle holder.

The rest of the important but not necessary features are Bio Fit seats, book holder, back lit LCD monitor and etc. Next I’m going to talk about the user friendliness criteria which recumbent bike is famous for.

User Friendliness

When I say user friendliness I mean things like easy to navigate menus, comfort level and how trouble free it is. Most recumbent bikes is already very comfortable, when you’re shopping around for a recumbent bike try sitting down on it and cycle a bit to get a feel on how comfortable it is compared to another ones. Try navigating and setting up the menus to see if you have a frustrating time trying to get it to work and lastly try to pedal hard if its allowed to see if you feet touch the floor, if there’s a clunking sounds and if it shakes.

Ask the salesperson if the recumbent bike has a magnetic resistance (this is the best resistance as it is very quiet)

Exercise Programs

This is actually very important part of a recumbent bike, without an exercise programs inputted into the bike is like having an exercise bike without an exercise coach. It will make a lot of differences to your health and progress on your goal. A good recumbent bike usually have around 10 to 16 exercise/workout programs installed in the bike so ask the salesperson about this. A good recumbent bike will also have a calorie countdown which you set a calorie goal and ride the bike until you reaches the calorie goal (all automated) but that’s not necessary. Ok let’s compare recumbent exercise bikes now.

Under $200

I wouldn’t recommend anyone buying an exercise bike under $200 but if that’s all you got then I would recommend Stamina 15 – 4600A Magnetic Resistance Recumbent Bike which you can get for $179 at Amazon.com. The reason why I recommend this bike is because it has magnetic resistance (which makes it very quiet), a sturdy and strong frame which can withstand heavy weight, and fair number of features.

$301 to $400

If you have a budget of $301 to $400 then the Schwinn 213 is definitely the best recumbent exercise bicycle you can buy because of its huge range of features and cutting edge seat technology. I won’t go into detail on the 213 because I have a full page article on it in this site. Just click the “Schwinn 213 Exercise Bike” link on your right.

$401 to $600

If you can afford to shell $600 then the Ignite 746 Recumbent eexercise bike is detinitely for you! This is the latest bike by Ignite and the previous model 745 has received rave reviews. The 746 has all the features as the Schwinn 213 above but the differences lies in the chest strap heart monitor, this is a feature that you must have if you’re looking for an accurate heart rate count as normal heart rate monitors is inaccurate.

An accurate heart rate monitor in turns will give you an accurate reading on calorie burned. A few other differences is the quality of the material used to build the 746, it has less plastic so it’s more stable and the seating is safer with lumbar support back pad.