Recommend me an exercise bike

[Tomero]

I'm looking to get an exercise bike for my dad, to help improve his cardiac fitness (he has angina and needs a stent). Looking to spend about £200; something with a heart monitor (!) would be good and also a space to put his iPad so he can watch tv while exercising.

Can anyone recommend something suitable? There seem to be lots on amazon but it's difficult to find any independent reviews. All the review sites seem to be just funnels for affiliate links.

[bigdom]

Does he have a bicycle, or do you have one he can use?

If so..

https://tinyurl.com/ya56wodd

plus

https://tinyurl.com/yc5gxvbs

plus

https://tinyurl.com/yayabadg

[smn159]

Tomero said:

I'm looking to get an exercise bike for my dad, to help improve his cardiac fitness (he has angina and needs a stent). Looking to spend about £200; something with a heart monitor (!) would be good and also a space to put his iPad so he can watch tv while exercising.

Can anyone recommend something suitable? There seem to be lots on amazon but it's difficult to find any independent reviews. All the review sites seem to be just funnels for affiliate links.

I'd be inclined to get him a cheap smart trainer, an entry level / second hand road bike and a subscription to Zwift. Problem with exercise bikes is that they're hardly the most engaging form of exercise and he will quickly get bored and stop using it. A turbo set up where he can monitor his fitness levels, ride 'virtually' with others and get onto fitness / FTP building plans will be much more likely to keep him engaged and may even lead to him wanting to get out on the road and build up his fitness that way.

Every single home use exercise bike / cross trainer and the like that I've ever had has ended up with clothes drying on it within a month.

[lufbramatt]

bigdom said:

Does he have a bicycle, or do you have one he can use?

If so..

https://tinyurl.com/ya56wodd

plus

https://tinyurl.com/yc5gxvbs

plus

https://tinyurl.com/yayabadg

This all day over an exercise bike.

Zwift is good but you need a modernish Ipad (no good on an ipad 4 or earlier, has to be 64 bit) and an internet connection. There are free apps that can record basic sessions, or Trainerroad which is good but quite "dry" - think staring at a screen of numbers for an hour- and you have to be quite motivated to stick with it.

Edited by lufbramatt on Wednesday 15th November 10:02

[anonymous-user]

I'd be inclined to load some podcasts on his phone, get him some decent earphones and tell him to go for a brisk walk or two every day

Maybe find a dog he can take with him

I'd say the chance of him using a £200 exercise bike frequently and regularly are very close to zero