A stationary bike is a piece of home fitness equipment which offers convenience and accessibility. There are a number of options that you can take when looking for an exercise bike for sale, and it is wise to consider them all before making a decision.
The first thing to consider before buying an exercise bike is, of course, your budget. The options available to you can vary considerably in price, from the most basic models up to the kind of hi-tech stationary bikes, complete with computer screens and performance indicators that are used in training by professional cyclists and other athletes. Establish what your budget is before you go out and look at anything, as this will help to make it easier to resist any underhand sales techniques.
You also need to consider how much space that you have available in your home. Part of this assessment is making sure that you have both a space in which to use the bike to train, and somewhere to store it. Of course, you may leave the bike standing in the same place all the time, but many people simply do not have the room at home. Think about where the bike will have to go when not in use.
There are also different types of stationary bike to consider. Some are upright, while others are reclining. The type that you choose in this sense may well depend on whether you have back or other injuries which affect how you sit.
Establish your parameters for this before you go out looking for a good deal. Reclining bikes can be more suitable for some people with injuries, but riding them can sometimes be more challenging from a fitness point of view too.
This is because there is less gravity to help you pump the pedals.
Another option for installing a stationary bike in your home is to use a bicycle trainer. Often referred to as 'turbo trainers', these easy to assemble structures allow your own road, leisure or mountain bike to be connected to a dynamo and frame, and used indoors. Some variants use magnetic to create the necessary resistance for effective training, while others use hydraulics, though these tend to be simpler examples.
These are popular with professional and competitive cyclists, a trainer really offers the best way of replicating road cycling. The fact that you are using your own bike also helps to make the experience more comfortable, and allows you to use the gears of your bike in tandem with the trainer's resistance to create a varied series of truly testing work-outs.
Whatever option you choose, an indoor bike is a really convenient way of training. You can watch television or listen to music while you train, while it also means avoiding the worst that the weather can throw at you.
Useful as a training device in its own right, or simply as a back-up to your gym or other training sessions, it is always useful to have some kind of stationary bike available to use.
