Cycling is one of the best cardiovascular exercises you can do, but sometimes you cannot ride safely due to the weather. This, and many other reasons, is why Americans need stationary bikes, be they upright, recumbent, or both, in their homes. The Schwinn exercise bike is the best on the market, with more features, a sleeker look, and a much better quality design than upright stationary bikes at twice the price. Here are our detailed reviews of the Schwinn exercise bike reviews in 2022. Let’s check it out!
What is the Schwinn Exercise Bike?
Schwinn is an American bicycle company founded in 1895, and they have been producing the highest quality bicycles ever since. The Schwinn exercise bike is a stationary bike that is better than you could find commercially in the top gyms in the country at an affordable price. Schwinn exercise bikes are improved every couple of years based on customer feedback. For example, the Schwinn 130 upright bike has multi-tasking monitors allowing you to view your media while tracking your progress as you exercise.
Product Specs
The Schwinn 170 upright exercise bike features 25 levels of resistance, a high speed, high inertia perimeter weighted flywheel, and 29 total workout programs, including 12 profiles, 9 heart rates, 1 quick start, 2 fitness tests, 1 recovery test, and 4 custom. The grip and telemetry-enabled console both allow for pulse monitoring. It comes with the DualTrack 2 blue backlit LCD window system and shows time, revolutions per minute, distance, pulse, speed, calories, resistance level, course profile, heart rate zone indicator, percent complete indicator, intensity meter, user indicator, and goal achievement.
There are 10 quick keys for resistance. It stores lifetime statistics on up to four users and comes with the Schwinn Trainer 2 app and RideSocial app for performance tracking. This Schwinn exercise bike weighs 62.8 pounds and is ideal for users up to 300 pounds. It plugs into any standard electrical wall outlet on a 110 to a 120-volt circuit. It includes a 50 to 60 Hertz AC power adapter with two integrated levers to keep the back of the bike stabilized.
It comes with a built-in USB charging port, has transport wheels and you can easily switch the distance from miles to kilometers and includes a three-speed fan to keep you cool while you exercise and a media shelf to hold your tablet. There is a forearm rest, and the angle of the handlebars is adjustable. It comes with a large contoured seat with fore and aft adjustments and a posts attachment system, as well as three-piece pedal cranks and oversized pedals with toe straps.
Pricing
Prices are always fluctuating, but the best stationary exercise bikes can be purchased on Amazon for between $300 and $1,200. They can be delivered straight to your door, and for a nominal fee, they can be assembled expertly in your home. Schwinn exercise bikes are worth well over $1,000, but you can find even the newest models for under $500.
How It Compares
We picked a few similar products available on the market to see how they compare.
Schwinn 170 Upright Bike
Price: $$
You can purchase this Schwinn exercise bike on Amazon for around $449.
Weight Capacity
This Schwinn exercise bike is rated for users up to 300 pounds.
Workout Programs
This Schwinn exercise bike comes with 29 workout programs which are unseen in-home use and rarely seen even in commercial stationary bikes.
Design Quality
The design quality of this bike rivals that of both health clubs and thousand-dollar home exercise bikes. The frame is built to last, even with four users, and from the seat to the handlebars and pedals, the bike offers unrivaled support.
Warranty
This Schwinn exercise bike comes with a 10-year frame warranty, a two-year mechanical warranty, a one-year electrical warranty, and a 90-day labor warranty.
PROS
- Smooth workouts
- Durable, robust frame
- Fully adjustable seat
- The highly intuitive computer module
- Three-piece cranks system
- Superior technology integration
- Sleek and stylish frame
- Quality speakers
- Integrated heart rate sensors via hands or chest
- Robust flywheel for quiet, smooth pedaling
- High-quality materials and durable frame
- Very comfortably placed foot pedals
- Ergonomic saddle
- Three-speed fan
- 29 workout programs
- Multi-task display
- 25 levels of resistance
CONS
- The display unit is a little small.
- Difficult to assemble
- The user manual has no text.
Schwinn 130 Upright Bike
This Schwinn exercise bike features a grip contact heart rate monitor, 20 levels of magnetic resistance, and the same high speed; high inertia perimeter weighted flywheel as the Schwinn 170 upright bike. It comes with the same display readouts and quick keys for resistance but only has performance tracking by Goal Tracker and remembers statistics for only two user profiles.
Price: $$
You can purchase this Schwinn exercise bike on Amazon for around $329.
Weight Capacity
This Schwinn exercise bike is rated for users up to 300 pounds.
Workout Programs
This Schwinn exercise bike comes with 22 workout programs, which is a nearly unheard-of selection. It includes 9 profiles, 8 heart rates, 1 quick start, 2 fitness tests, and 2 custom programs.
Design Quality
This Schwinn exercise back comes with fewer features than the Schwinn 170 upright bike, but it is by far the best
Warranty
This Schwinn exercise bike comes with a 10-year frame warranty, a two-year mechanical warranty, a one-year electrical warranty, and a 90-day labor warranty.
PROS
- Warranty
- Strong and sturdy
- 22 training programs
- Effortlessly syncs training diagnostics
- 20 magnetic resistance levels
- Integrated heart rate monitors
- Comfortable seat
- Constant performance monitoring of 13 key workout parameters
- Dual track monitoring system
CONS
- One-piece crank system
- Regular sized pedals
- Only vertical seat adjustment
Sole Fitness LCB
Unlike the Schwinn exercise bike, the Sole Fitness LCB comes with 10 exercise programs. While they are excellent quality, specifically targeting key points, the lack of options is disappointing for the price. The wireless chest strap gives you a more accurate pulse reading than hand sensors, and it has the most comfortable seat, handlebars, and pedals in its class. Integrated technology makes it easy to track your progress, and everything from the handlebars to the seat is adjustable.
Price: $$
You can purchase this bike on Amazon for around $1,204 with $120 in shipping.
Weight Capacity
This bike is rated for users weighing up to 300 pounds. While commercial stationary bikes may be rated for users up to 400 pounds or more, this is an outstanding quality for home use.
Workout Programs
This exercise bike offers only 10 exercise programs. The hill program provides resistance similar to biking up and down hills, while the fat burn program ensures you maintain a steady exertion throughout your workout so you get the most efficient fat burn.
Design Quality
This heavy-duty steel frame bike with an aluminum finish is one of the highest-quality bikes on the market and definitely the best in its class. The flywheel works flawlessly with the magnetic resistance to make transitioning between resistances smooth and easy. Bluetooth technology makes syncing fitness apps with the bike seamless, and the 10.1″ LCD screen provides real-time progress monitoring of every important fitness statistic. This truly is a quality bike.
Warranty
The frame of this stationary bike is backed by a lifetime frame warranty, a five-year parts and electronics warranty, and a two-year in-home labor warranty.
PROS
- 40 levels of resistance
- Heavy-duty 30 lb. flywheel for smooth performance
- Two warranty packages are offered with the purchase
- Cooling fan
- Oversized 2-degree inversion pedals
- The seat adjusts vertically and horizontally.
- Comfortable seat
CONS
- No iPod dock or built-in speakers
- Self-generating bikes are not for everyone.
- 10 workout programs
3G Cardio Elite UB
This upright exercise bike features a very comfortable, oversized adjustable seat. The heavy-duty frame is built with commercial-grade components, and it is very compact enough to fit into any room. Users of up to 350 pounds can safely use this bike, and the parts are guaranteed to work for seven years. It comes with pulse sensors for your hands and a wireless heart rate chest strap. It tracks and remembers the diagnostics of up to four user profiles and offers 16 levels of magnetic resistance. The console displays time, revolutions per minute, wattage, distance, calories, and pulse.
Price: $$
You can purchase this exercise bike on Amazon for around $1,100.
Weight Capacity
This bike is rated for the safe use of individuals weighing up to 350 pounds.
Workout Programs
This exercise bike offers 12 pre-set programs along with manual programs.
Design Quality
This bike’s frame is built to last as long as you own the bike. The parts are guaranteed to last seven years, and the seat position is customizable both vertically by 10 positions and horizontally.
Warranty
This stationary bike is backed by a seven-year parts warranty, a one-year in-home labor warranty, and a lifetime frame warranty.
PROS
- Easy-to-use display
- Smooth and quiet pedaling
- Sturdy, robust, and fairly compact frame
- Fully adjustable wide seat
- Challenging resistance
CONS
- Some users may wish to change the seat
- The bike is heavy
Conclusion
Stationary bikes, such as the Schwinn exercise bike, are great additions to home gyms around the country. Cycling improves your lung capacity, endurance, and cardiovascular fitness by providing low-impact exercise, which is easy on the joints. Take the quality of health club equipment home with you without the expensive membership fees with an exercise bike that offers adequate resistance levels, customized workout routines, easy-to-read, intuitive monitors, and heart rate monitors.
Schwinn has been producing quality bikes since 1985. They have since broken into the stationary bike market where they produce the same top-quality models at affordable prices for home use. Every so often, Schwinn exercise bikes are rebuilt according to feedback from buyers. The Schwinn 130 upright bike is an example of this with its dual monitoring. Once again, the company listened when the Schwinn 170 upright was designed. The pedals are larger, more secure, and more durable than the 130s.
Further proof of Schwinn’s dedication to continuous improvement is the number of workout programs (29 compared to 22) and magnetic resistance levels (25 compared to 20). It even features a more accurate wireless chest heart rate monitor as opposed to only palm sensors. If you weigh at most 300 pounds, this is the exercise bike for you. Overall, we have to give the Schwinn 170 upright bike 5 out of 5 stars. The user manual comes with only pictures and no words.
If you are not handy, it may take you a while to decipher how to assemble the bike. However, it is inexpensive enough it may be worth your time to pay for professional assembly. Whether you want to listen to music or watch Netflix on this Schwinn exercise bike, do so with crystal clear built-in speakers and the ability to view media while simultaneously tracking your workout statistics. Besides the difficult assembly, the only major issue with the Schwinn 170 upright bike is the display unit is a little small. However, it is more than adequate to view 16 different workout statistics, and the software is intuitive to use with 10 quick keys for resistance levels and 29 pre-set workouts.
If you weigh more than 300 pounds, we have to recommend the 3G Cardio Elite UB. It is the only stationary bike on this list rated for users up to 350 pounds. Like the Schwinn 170 upright bike, it remembers the workout statistics for up to four users and a seven-year frame warranty backs it. It is less expensive than the Sole Fitness LCB and comes with two additional pre-set workouts. It tracks all the statistics you need to measure your performance accurately and has 16 levels of magnetic resistance so as your fitness improves, and you can increase the intensity of your workouts.
It is one of the most compact upright bikes on the market and comes with both hand sensors and a wireless chest strap to measure your pulse. It is an excellent choice for larger individuals who want a reliable bike with a smooth, quiet ride that will last them for years and challenge them for a very long time.
