subject: What To Look For When Buying An Exercise Bike [print this page] Exercise bikes are a great and safe way to get fit in the comfort of your own home. You can train when ever you want and it does not matter what the weather is doing outside. Nowadays, exercise bikes are very quite, so you can watch TV or listen to music while you train and you wont be distracting others in the house. So there really is no excuse not to workout on an exercise bike.
When buying an exercise bike, you need to look at a number of important things to make sure it is the right exercise bike for you. The first thing you need to consider when buying an exercise bike is what sort you need. You can get an upright exercise bike which is the more traditional variety and is similar to riding a normal bike, or you can get a recumbent exercise bike which is lower to the ground. With a recumbent bike, you get more back support in the seat and your legs are out in front of you. The recumbent exercise bike is great if you have back problems.
The next thing you need to consider is the stability of the bike. The wider the base, the better the stability of the exercise bike. The construction of the frame is also important to provide good stability. If the exercise bike wobbles while you are riding, you will not feel comfortable and it makes it very difficult to do any sprinting with any confidence.
Find out how the resistance is applied to the flywheel. A belt makes more noise than magnetic resistance which makes practically no noise at all. If you are going to be training with other people around this is an important consideration.
Find out if the crank shaft is one piece or 3 pieces. The one piece variety are cheap and not as good a quality as the three piece crank. The 3 piece crank is stronger and will last longer.
A good quality exercise bike has easy to adjust seat stem and handlebars. Check how easy it is to adjust these items. The better exercise bikes have a knob and pin set up, so you can easily adjust the seat and handlebars and lock them in place with the pin.
Test the saddle for comfort is you can. A soft comfortable saddle is critical if you are going to be spending extended periods of time on your exercise bike.
Check out the display console on the exercise bike. What data does it give you. Most exercise bikes give you the time you have been training, distance travelled, speed you are going, calories burned and even your heart rate (through sensors in the handle bars), so you can monitor how hard you are training and adjust your exercise bike workout intensity accordingly.
Finally check the warranty that the exercise bike manufacturer provides. You should be looking at getting at least a 2 year warranty on the frame.
