It was a rainy day here in the Chicagoland area yesterday and I headed out with a couple of goals in mind. I wanted to get a workout and I also wanted to checkout the commercial exercise bikes at our local park district workout center.

I succeeded at both goals and found that I was able to do a great side by side comparison of 5 different commercial exercise bike brands. I also went to a local Dick’s Sporting Goods store afterwards to check out the latest retail in-home exercise bikes and indoor cycles (while the commercial exercise bike workouts were still fresh in my mind).

Life Fitness 95RI Console

This was an excellent experience for me since I got a good workout (although different than how most people would workout (mostly on one machine)) and since reviewing exercise bikes is a major part of what I do for a living.

The exercise bikes that I tried out at the park district workout center were:

• Star Trac  RBX Recumbent
• Star Trac UBX Upright
• Precor C846 Recumbent
• Life Fitness 95RI Recumbent
• The Classic Schwinn Airdyne Dual Action Fan Bike

All of these exercise bikes are brands that have been reviewed on this site (although we have not reviewed all of these specific models). See our Exercise Bike Pages for detailed reviews of exercise bikes made by each of these manufacturers.

All of the exercise bikes that I used (other than the Airdyne, which I will review later) had a Self Powered Generating System and a Quick Start Button. The basic functions on the consoles were all pretty easy to use  but considering that I was checking out so many different models, I was not able to really get into the advanced functions on each bike.

In my opinion the Life Fitness 95RI Recumbent Bike felt the best overall. For some reason this bike just seemed a little more comfortable and smoother than the others. This is not to say anything bad about the other brands because all of these bikes were high quality and performed very well.

As you might expect, the recumbent bikes were a little more comfortable but the upright bike felt more like riding my outdoor bike. The only upright model here (other than the fan bike) was the Star Trac UBX bike.

With the Star Trac UBX upright, there were basically 2 riding positions. You could sit straight up and use the bottom part of the handlebars (with the heart rate sensors) or you could lean forward and grip the top parts of the handle bars. The upright position was a little more comfortable and was the only way that you could use the heart rate sensors.

I liked the forward leaning position since this is more like my outdoor road bike but it was not a very comfortable position (and you could not use the heart rate monitors in this position).  It would be much better if there were more seat and handlebar adjustments for this but that is not all that common on traditional upright exercise bikes (although the additional adjustments are common on Indoor Cycle/Spin Bikes). Unfortunately, there were no Indoor Cycle, Spin Bikes at this fitness center.

As for the Recumbent Exercise Bikes, the Precor C846 and the Life Fitness 95RI both had upper handlebars (by the console) and lower handlebars, with the heart rate sensors (by the seat),  whereas the Star Trac RBX had upper handlebars only with the heart rate sensors and arm rests by the seat. I preferred the lower handlebars with the heart rate sensors but I must admit that the armrests on the Star Trac were pretty comfortable.

Schwinn Airdyne at Park District Workout Center

Getting back to the Classic Schwinn Airdyne, I didn’t really think that you could get a very serious workout on this kind of bike, but after riding it for a while and really getting the RPMs up, I found that you can actually get a pretty decent workout on this kind of exercise bike. On top of that, you get the upper and lower body workout and also the cooling effect of the fan (which was great since the fitness center was pretty warm for people working out).

One thing that I don’t think is mentioned a lot with the Schwinn Airdyne is that there are footrests at the lower end of the handlebars which you can use in order to power the fan with your arms alone for a good upper body workout.

Well, that’s my take on the commercial exercise bikes that I checked out yesterday, and on the Schwinn Airdyne. My next stop was to do a comparison to the In-Home exercise bike models at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

I was actually hoping that Dick’s would have some of the newer in-home exercise bikes that are coming available, but they still just had the models that have been out for quite some time now. It’s still a little early for peak fitness equipment season.

Anyway, I checked out the following exercise bikes at Dick’s:

• Schwinn 140 Upright
• Schwinn 240 Recumbent
• Schwinn A20 Recumbent
• Livestrong LS9.9IC Indoor Cycle
• Proform ZX2 Upright
• Proform ZR3 Recumbent

I have tested and used all of these exercise bikes in the past, except for these specific Proform models, so there were no real surprises here (except that I was impressed with the Proform models).

As you might expect, none of these in-home exercise bikes had the same feeling as the commercial bikes that I had just ridden. I still liked the Schwinn 240 Recumbent the best out of the Schwinn models.

As I mentioned, the park district workout center did not have any Indoor Cycles but I still also liked the feel and the multiple seat and handlebar adjustments available on the Livestrong LS9.9IC.

I do not believe that I had actually tried the 2 Proform models that they had at Dick’s in the past, but after checking them out yesterday, I thought that these 2 exercise bikes were more comfortable and felt much more  solid than the Schwinns.  Both of the Proform exercise bikes were older models that used the iFit Card technology.

Most traditional Upright Exercise Bike models have seat adjustments but do not have handlebar adjustments. The Proform ZX2 Upright at least had handlebars that move forward and back although they do not lock into any additional positions.

Well, that’s if for the Commercial and In-Home Exercise Bike Comparison experiment from yesterday. I also got some new skins (i.e. tires) for my road bike in preparation for our upcoming trip to Wisconsin, but that is a whole new subject that I will probably write about here soon. So stay tuned!