THERE'S no need to face the British drizzle or splash out on gym fees — you can pedal your way to peak fitness without stepping outside.
The best exercise bikes are your ticket to a workout that’s as tough as you want it to be, all from the comfort of your living room.
Whether you’re after something straightforward to burn away the calories in front of the TV or you’re a keen cyclist who wants the smart tech to mimic your outdoor rides at home, we've tested an option to help you cruise towards your fitness goals.
Read on for our reviews of the best bikes to use at home in 2025.
How we tested
The indoor bikes were tested over an eight-week period by two testers, either at home or in showrooms and gyms.
Both testers are qualified personal trainers and indoor cycle instructors.
Best indoor bikes at a glance:
Peloton Bike
Peloton Bike, £1,599 or Peloton Bike +, £2,199
Pros: Good fun, varied classes, motivational instructors, good music, gamification option
Cons: Quite expensive, pricey subscription, extra cost for shoes with cleats
Rating: 8/10
If you’re looking for a fun indoor bike for spin-style classes and some gaming-style options too, the very well-marketed Peloton could be what you’re after.
The live and on-demand classes that come as part of the £39 monthly subscription are of a very high standard, and the instructors are polished and have their own celebrity status in the wellness world.
Many are former athletes or dancers, and their motivation game is very good.
Filter down the classes by music taste, genre, length of class, choice of instructor, and type of class (endurance HIIT, ride and arms, etc) to get the workouts best suited to you.
There is a real emphasis on music (unlike many of Peloton’s competitors.
This includes the ‘Artist Series’, which has classes using music solely from one artist, such as Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, and the list is constantly being expanded.
The subscription also offers scenic rides around the world, a ‘Just Ride' option that can be based on time or distance, and a ‘LaneBreak’ gamification option, where you change the incline and cadence (the speed your legs rotate at) to stay in the correct lane in the game.
This was probably our favourite element to use; the games can be as short as five minutes, and you can choose the type of music you like.
There is also the option to stream telly on the screen: Peloton has partnered with Netflix, Disney+ and other channels, so you can catch up on Gilmore Girls while burning calories.
You can now also read your Kindle while on the bike.
The quality of the screen is very good, and on the more expensive Peloton Bike +, you can turn the (bigger) screen away from the body of the bike to do strength, dance and yoga classes.
The Bike + also has slightly better sound, Apple GymKit integration and an auto-resistance option.
This means you don’t need to use the manual knob if you don’t want to, as the resistance will automatically adjust to what the instructor or LaneBreak suggest during your ride — this is a very cool upgrade.
The bike is delivered by Peloton engineers who will set you up and get you started.
However, it does come with pedals that require shoes with cleats that click onto them.
These shoes are an additional cost, as are the weights that fit into the bike's weight holders.
This indoor bike is best suited for people who like motivational classes and want a bike primarily for exercise rather than to improve their bike skills and performance.
Echelon EX-5s Smart Connect Bike
Echelon EX-5s Smart Connect Bike, from £999
Pros: Good price, good classes, don’t need shoes with cleats
Cons: Less polished classes, music and instructors than Peloton
Rating: 8/10
The Echelon has a similar offering to the Peloton bike but at a lower price point — and you can see the difference in the quality of classes.
However, it’s still a very good indoor bike and considering the price difference, it’s a good alternative.
There’s less emphasis on music compared with Peloton, with fewer popular artists included in the classes.
The instructors are a little less polished, too, but they do still offer fun and motivational classes in HIIT, endurance, bootcamp, and bike challenges that help increase your fitness over several weeks.
Many of the instructors do appear to be athletes or keen participants in their particular fields, so they do offer good tips and motivation.
At £29.99 (£24.99 if you pay annually), the subscription service is less pricey than the Peloton, and like its rival, it also includes non-bike workouts.
Like the Peloton Bike +, the EX-5s comes with a rotating screen, which is brilliant considering how much less it costs.
One thing we did find annoying about the classes is that you can’t skip the intro explaining how the output and cadence work on the bike — you can on the Peloton.
The seat and handle bars are totally adjustable, which means it can be used by the whole family.
This is also the case with Peloton, but it would mean buying shoes with cleats for everyone in the household, whereas the Echelon has pedals with tightening straps that can be used with normal trainers.
This helps keep the costs down further.
Echelon also comes with the weights holders, but the weights themselves cost extra.
We used 3kg weights we already had at home, and they fitted perfectly in the holders.
The Echelon is delivered to the house, but you need to set it up yourself. This took about 20 minutes, and it’s very straightforward.
Basically, this is a cheaper version of the Peloton, and a perfectly good alternative if you don’t want to pay the extra.
It has the functionality and screen size of the original Peloton Bike, as well as the rotating screen of the Peloton Bike +, making it a bargain.
Wahoo KICKR Bike Shift
Wahoo KICKR Bike Shift, from £2,199
Pros: Mimics outdoor bikes, good for improving performance
Cons: Very expensive
Rating: 8/10
Unlike the Peloton and Echelon bikes, this piece of equipment is less about taking classes and motivating you to do regular exercise and more about improving performance on a stationary machine that can mimic your outdoor bike.
It's especially useful in winter months when outdoor bike rides are less fun.
You can even customise the saddle, bars, stem and pedals and swap in the ones from your actual bike.
Pedals are not included, in fact, meaning you'll need to fix in your own, and we would advise swapping the saddle, too, because the one that comes with the Wahoo KICKR shift bike is quite hard and uncomfortable (though we got used to it in time).
The bike is also adjustable at five different points, meaning you can create the perfect fit, and it can be tweaked to be used by everyone in the family.
One of the things we liked most about this bike is that it does feel like a real bike as you speed through the miles getting a ride done.
In contrast, the Echelon and Peloton bikes feel more like spin-type bikes, as they don’t offer the same emphasis on recreating a real outdoor bike shape.
The Wahoo KICKR shift bike also has some subtle movement from side to side and up and down when you’re riding, although less so than the ‘tilt’ offered by the more expensive Wahoo KICKR Bike (V2).
You can have plenty of fun on this bike, adjusting gears and training on ERG mode, which works to make sure the power you train at stays consistent no matter your speed or the incline you're tackling. This teaches the body and heart to work consistently.
The bike is also fairly quiet compared to some of the others.
The downsides are that there’s no screen and also nowhere for your iPad or phone, so you'll need a nearby surface or mounted screen for entertainment.
The KICKR Bike Shift is best paired with an app like Zwift, which you may well already use for outdoor bike rides.
This makes it easy to draw comparisons between your indoor and outdoor ride data.
It also offers on-demand and live rides you can join in with; we enjoyed taking part in a lunchtime ride with various riders across Europe who were also on their on lunch breaks.
There is also a Wahoo X app subscription, which offers rides and classes.
This indoor bike is a good choice for people who are serious about outdoor biking and want to be able to improve their performance while indoors.
Wattbike Proton
Wattbike Proton smart bike, £1,795, subscription is free
Pros: Good for all the family, good for runners and other sports enthusiasts, free subscription
Cons: Expensive, no classes
Rating: 8/10
This indoor bike is a really good hybrid.
It's definitely designed for keen cyclists and athletes looking to improve performance, but thanks to its adjustability, it's also a good family bike.
This allows everyone to find their perfect fit, whether they're nine years old or six foot six.
The bike doesn’t come with a screen, but it does come with a stand on the handlebars to hold your tablet or phone.
You can also join the WattBike app to store all of your ongoing data and choose your ride or workout for the day.
As mentioned, the bike is very much geared towards cyclists who want an indoor bike that can mimic their outdoor equivalent.
However, the brand also has an affinity with athletes across the spectrum who use Wattbikes to improve performance in other sports such as swimming, athletics and rugby.
We loved the ‘run to ride’ aspect of the bike, which mirrors a running style (by adjusting the bike seat and bars) and is a great swap in for recovery, sprint and hill run.
There’s also HIIT, endurance, speed, test and rehab sessions for those recovering from illness and injury, as well as a quick ride option to just go ahead and ride as you please.
You can also use the app to tap into challenges and training plans for real-life races and events and use an auto-adjust function, which allows the bike to alter speed and resistance automatically during your chosen workout.
The real-time data offered on screen is some of the best we encountered during the trials, even showing how each leg is performing and which one might be working harder than it should be.
The Wattbike Proton can also be linked to Zwift, which is great if you are using the app for your outdoor rides already and want to mirror that indoors.
It means you can take part in all of those virtual rides, too.
The design is super slick, with bottle holders under the handlebars and small wheels on the front to move the bike around as needed.
Pretty much all controls can be operated from the handlebars, including gear changes and even swiping an iPad page across (which stops you from getting sweaty fingerprints on the screen).
The Wattbike Proton is definitely more of a rival to the Wahoo bike rather than the Peloton or Echelon, as it doesn’t offer instructor-based classes as such.
It is more about performance than motivation, although the gadgets and gaming-style look of the screen do make it quite fun for kids.
Domyos Essential Exercise Bike
DOMYOS Essential Exercise Bike, £139.99
Pros: Very cheap
Cons: No smart tech
Rating: 7/10
If you’re looking for something that’s much kinder on the wallet and gets the job done without any bells and whistles, then this indoor bike is a great option.
It takes about 30 minutes to assemble with a tiny bit of wiring for the small monitor screen, for which you will also need two AAA batteries.
The Domyos has a much smaller footprint than the other bikes I tested and is very lightweight, so it can be easily carried from one spot to another — ideal if you plan to keep it stored.
It has more of an upright position than the others, too, which are closer to outdoor bikes in shape.
The seat is also slightly bigger, and it's actually very comfortable.
The bike doesn’t come with any smart tech, just a small battery-powered monitor that displays distance, time and calories.
There are no bottle holders and nowhere to put a tablet or phone for entertainment, so during testing, we placed the bike near a table and kept water on that.
The seat height is adjustable, but the handlebars are fixed.
However, there is the option of using the top or lower bars, depending on your height, which means the bike can be used by different members of the household.
The pedals are a little small and don’t have any straps to keep your feet in place. They take a little getting used to, but after a little while, they were fine for both seated riding and standing.
A dial on the front bar of the bike controls the resistance while you pedal; simply turn it to make the ride easier or more difficult.
One of the plus points is how quiet this bike is, which makes it easy to watch TV while you’re using it.
The beauty of the Domyos is the price, simplicity and lightness — it's easily popped in front of the TV or away in a storage space.
It’s not a smart bike, but if you just want to exercise without breaking the bank, then we recommend it.
Where to buy indoor bikes in the UK
Indoor bikes can be purchased directly from brands or from a number of sports and general department stores and retailers.
If you’re keen to buy now, I would recommend the following places:
