Is her reluctance to get a real bike to use on your kickr, due to cost?
Tell her (I mean..........suggest to her.... :) ) to get a $200 bike from Walmart to use on it. Even that is going to work way better and smoother than the cheap piece of crap typical indoor exercise bike.

.02

I think it’s less about cost as much as familiarity with a spin bike to what she rides at Soul Cycle and being able to replicated those workouts. Not sure if you’re familiar with Soul Cycle, but it’s really not like Trainer Road, Zwift, etc. it’s like a group aerobics class on a spin bike.

Sure, sounds like peloton. But a low cost exercise bike off amazon is still going to be a complete piece of junk compared to a real bicycle.
Good luck! :)

 

Lots of good comparisons of Peloton, Nordic Trac, Costco, Amazon, Svhwinn bikes on YouTube. I've watched a ton. Check it out.

So we’ve been using a Sunny fitness bike off amazon for the last 2 years in conjunction with the peloton app. Swapped out the pedals, and have done nothing else to it. It’s been ridden 4-6 times per week since then and has held up fine. Our thinking was that we would get it, and see if spinning stuck. We always planned on upgrading when it wore out. We’ve got a peloton bike on the way now, but honestly, the Sunny bike off amazon is still perfectly fine. Spin bikes are pretty simple. There is not a lot that can really go wrong.

You get what you pay for.

I broke 2 fairly "good" - obviously not - spin bikes before I just bought a CT years ago.

One of my favorite subjects. Several years ago, I got rollers, and I bought a cheapo Nordic Track spin bike (totally dumb, not even a speedometer) for my wife and I to use. I like the rollers, but quickly fell out of love with them, as it took too much concentration to get good long workouts in (not to mention crashing when trying to watch TV). And it didn't take long before my wife lost interest in the spin bike. The Spin bike was a $200 sell-out model from when our Sears store closed. I tried it, and was shocked at how good it rides. It actually has a better road feel, than my bike on rollers, or any of the turbo trainers I tried at the bike store. The next step was adjusting it to my fit coordinates... no problem. So I put an old Adamo split saddle on it, and some scrounge aero bars on it. Then I glued an old reflector "L" bracket to the wheel, and strap a speed sensor to it, as well as use a cadence sensor. I was pretty happy to measure the cranks at 172.5.

I love the damn thing. Infinite resistance for OOS workouts. It's a bullet proof tank. Perfectly quiet. Doesn't rock at all, even OOS. As of this morning, I've put 33,774.1 miles on it, and have never even taken the chain guard off, or serviced or adjusted anything. I train by feel, so I'm not interested in a bunch of electronic gadgets, but I'm sure you could add whatever you wanted. It's got basic square taper cranks, so crank swaps would be no problem. It's hassle free, and I ride in old running shoes, so I jump on it all the time, and I would say it accounts for 80% of my mileage. As an age grouper, I haven't been beat in a local tri yet, I'm usually in the top 5 overall, and so far, never out of the top 10, and have won 3 local sprints... so no one can tell me that training on a girlyman spin class bike doesn't work. And, I don't have to put any wear on my road or tri bike.

---

Athlinks / Strava

My brother bought a spin bike from Costco a few years ago. It still is kicking and he uses in the winter or when he can't get a dirt ride in due ot weather closing the trails. Has a display that even reports power I think. It works and their return policy means you don't have to worry if you don't like it. Think it was around $400 or less. Pretty solid looking/feeling unit.

Don't know if they have them currently but I did see an elliptical and an indoor rower at my local Costco last week. Maybe check their website?

To add to this a little bit, I've looked at one as it would be shared with my kids (13 and 15). They're adjustable so it's one size fits all vs. having to monkey around with bikes. Not the ideal solution, but the simplest one which makes it the best one for us.

We purchased a Jonny G spin bike 20+ years ago off the floor from a fitness expo. Absolutely zero electronics. It has survived 2 moves and has thousands of miles on it. My wife uses it with the peloton app streaming to a tv and it works pretty well. We keep thinking GX about the full peloton experience, but for ~$500, this bike has been great.

drn92

+1

I also have the Sunny spin bike. Swapped out the saddle for one from one of my older race bikes and that was about it (just rode it in trainers with clips&straps). Now that I have a Zwift setup, my wife uses the Sunny (with a different saddle) for spin workouts on Youtube.

The bike is well made and holds up. Very similar to the Schwinn bikes you see in spin studios.

---

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I think costco had some recently. You a member?

Back in about 2004, when I was still running my DOS version of Computrainer, my wife wanted a spin bike that was easy to adjust and ride. We bought a 400 dollar Schwin (model is like a current 170).

It has HR, cadence, watts (not real watts but for us/... close enough), speed.

It is comfortable and bulletproof and super easy to adjust. Mind you, the longest I have been on it is 90 minutes.

Hope this helps.

---

http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

I lived in an apartment in a city in Italy for a couple of years - to keep the noise down, I bought a cheap spin bike (second hand for 100€) and put my power meter pedals on it.

I loved it, the only thing it lacked was erg mode.

In all other aspects it beat the Neo I use now - better riding feel, no noise at all, no wrecking your real bike, less space. No maintainance at all.

I've often thought about going back to a spin bike.

I used it with Trainerroad.