Exercise Bike recommendation

wonski

Hi All,

Following successful acl reconstruction it has been recommended for me to start cycling to strengthen the knee and cycling on the road where I live doesn't look like a great way to spend time on the road.

Was thinking that buying an exercise bike could be a good option for me.

Unfortunately the budget is fairly limited and I would prefer not to spend more than 200, 250 max if possible.

Is there any particular brand or model that would be worth a shot at that price? Don't want to spend money on some cheap device that is barely fit for purpose.

Many thanks for your help.

I guess signing up to a gym would be another option, but also doesn't come cheap and apart from bike and swimming pool (with some limitations) I would not have much to do in there.

Already have quiet a lot of exercises from physio to complete couple of times a day at home so the bike being here would be the best option at the moment imo.

COH

I would be inclined to opt for the gym membership tbh. Cheap home gym equipment tends to be just that - cheap and usually ends up as an expensive coat hanger. That being saif if you are sure its what you want then I'd have a look at buying something second hand on donedeal/adverts and just look for something that looks robust and fits your budget.

The pros of the gym are that you will likely have access to better quality equipment. When you eventually outgrow/progress from your current rehab programme you will likely have what you need there to keep pushing forwards. For example: you will probably want to start doing some resistance training down the line too when you are a little further removed from the surgery.

Another pro is that a gym membership wont take up space in the sitting room.

wonski

Yeah, I have two gyms only 15 minutes drive from here and the swimming pool would be an added bonus as this would help with rehab too.
Might talk to them and see what deal we can make.

Just feel it is a bit of overkill since I will only use one machine and swimming is restricted for me (no breaststroke and butterfly) so I would be pretty much walking in there

On the other hand I will have to do other stuff later on legs and since I am a newbie when it comes to gym, I will get familiar with it by the time I get more use of it. And will have to pay for membership at some stage anyway, so spending 250 now might be a waste.

I do have a spare room for the bike, but most people I know have mentioned that their equipment does end up as a coat hanger sooner or later, so I think I answered my own question here

Would the gym be generally OK to accept me with recent surgery in mind (might sound like a stupid questions, but all this health and safety stuff is getting silly these days)?

IvoryTower

I got this on Adverts for 95 http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/4048800/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CSports+and+leisure%7C14419152/c_2/3%7C15701400%7CHome+gym+equipment%7C14419293/c_3/4%7Ccat_14419293%7CExercise+bikes%7C14419316.htm

It does the job perfectly for what i needed.

I put these sessions on the laptop in front of me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSFYRiqodvU (could use a phone/tablet etc) . There are sessions for whatever time you have available or whatever you feel up to from something like 15min to 90min.

brick tamland

If you already have a bike you could just get one of the stands (not sure what they're called) and turn it into a stationary bike. Seen them in Aldi recently for 50 quid

Failing that, sometimes there are 2nd hand spinning bikes on adverts. Set up in front of TV and pick a spinning class on YouTube and off you go.