Best exercise bikes and smart bikes 2026 — feature-packed, adjustable trainers for serious indoor workouts

The Next Generation Wattbike Atom is a much better indoor trainer than the first incarnation, making it a contender for your hard-earned cash. The biggest change is swapping out the previous slightly clunky mechanical resistance unit for an electromagnetic  one. Yes, that means you’ll need a power source nearby but it makes the resistance changes so much quicker and more authoritative.

The Atom’s accurate when it comes to measuring power and claims a maximum resistance of 2,500 watts and a 25% incline. It’s impressive. There’s no screen, which is a shame at the price, but there is a mount built in for your smartphone or tablet. Here, you can sync to one of the best indoor cycling apps, like Zwift, or use Wattbike’s own app, which is pretty good. It includes Wattbike’s familiar stroke-analysis metric where you can aim to stay in the green for proficient souplesse. 

Road feel’s also excellent, making this a real contender for your indoor training this off-season.

Okay, Renpho’s AI’s not the panacea when it comes to smart bikes, but at a third of the price of many of its more illustrious contemporaries, that’s hardly surprising. There’s good and bad, like life itself.

Arguably the most important feature of a smart bike is the power meter. Here, Renpho was around 10% out, which wasn’t great for Zwift rides – when under-reporting, of course; when over-reporting, we were delighted! – albeit Renpho does stress it’s 90% accurate. The pedal action doesn’t match the smoothness of more expensive models and feels a little clunky. Then again, the ERG mode works well.

It comes with its own indoor training app, which is decent, especially given it’s free. There are structured workouts, video spin classes and even a few real-life video routes baked into the app. Overall, it’s decent. The question will be whether you should go for this or a better-quality smart trainer. Ultimately, that might come down to whether you’re a fitness goer looking to train indoors or a more committed cyclist. Over to you…

Stages rose to prominence thanks to Team Sky using its crank-based power meter for numerous seasons in the Chris Froome era. It gave Stages a foothold. Now, its range stretches to commercial indoor bikes for gym goers, bike computers and, as per the SB20, indoor smart trainers.

This is a well-built, quality smart bike that offers up to 2,000 watts of electromagnetic resistance from a huge 23kg flywheel, driven by a quiet and reliable Gates carbon belt. This is sufficient for the most powerful of cyclists. Not surprisingly, the SB20 uses Stages’ crank-based technology, which is accurate enough, although is powered by coin-cell batteries that need replacing after 100 hours. Just remember that or your Zwift ride will be curtailed prematurely.

It syncs effortlessly to your laptop, smart phone and tablet, and is ANT+ and Bluetooth friendly. The real-world experience is mightily impressive, albeit the ERG mode is a mild disappointment. Gear changes are good, though. Sweet touches like a phone tray and two water bottle holders either side of the bike are appreciated.

This is one special bit of kit that’s highly reflective of your real bike. You can swap out the 42cm handlebars if you see fit, while the cranks have replaceable inserts for 170mm, 172.5mm or 175mm options. The pedals also have a Q factor of 147mm, which is similar to many road cranks.

The first thing you notice is how incredibly quiet it is. It features an enclosed single-speed transmission that’s basically silent apart from a rather cool whooshing sound! At the front of the bike is a dedicated screen, two fans, an iPad mount, a mobile phone tray and two USB ports so you can charge your devices while you train.

Gear changes are swift, authoritative and appreciated, while power-output feedback is accurate and reliable. It can resist sprints up to 2,200 watts, which should cope with efforts from the most powerful of track sprinters, and can effortlessly simulate climbs of up to 25%.

We reviewed the Wahoo Kickr Bike V1 and found that it delivered one of the nicest rides of any indoor trainer we’d ever ridden. This version is no longer available to buy but all the features that we saw on the first generation are still present on the tweaked version of the Wahoo Kickr Bike, with added built-in WiFi and a slightly higher max wattage. 

The adjustability is very impressive, as you’re able to raise or lower the entire bike and tweak the reach at both the handlebar and saddle. Wahoo cranks this up to next level by inputting the numbers from a pro bike bit into the app that then tells you exactly where the adjustable sliders should go. That feel’s also down to the resistance unit, which is a combination of flywheel and motor that offers up to 2,500 watts of resistance, compared with 2,200 watts on the first generation.

Virtual gearing’s effective and real-time gradient changes peak at 20% with descents of 15% with power accuracy around 1%. As you’d expect from the US manufacturer, the  Kickr Bike seamlessly integrates with other Wahoo products, plus it’s compatible with the major training apps. Yes, it’s not cheap but it is impressive.

Wahoo has just launched the Kickr Bike Shift that’s a lot cheaper than the brand’s existing smart bike – check back to see how we found it. 

Since Zycle took over Bkool’s range of indoor training hardware, they’ve not only kept on producing them but also updated the platforms, meaning that the rebranded and updated Zycle exercise/smart bike makes the grade for our guide. 

In our review of the original Bkool model we weren’t too impressed with the wide Q-factor (the distance between the pedals) so you’ll be glad to know that’s been narrowed on the Zycle Z. There are two built-in buttons to allow you to easily switch gears, and the handlebar offers plenty of hand positions. Anyone between 160cm-195cm can easily fit it by making simple adjustments, the power accuracy is claimed to be +/-2% and there’s even a USB socket for charging your smartphone or tablet.