Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike review

The Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike is an excellent option if you're looking for an exercise bike you can take for intense sessions and casual rides without breaking the bank. 

It doesn't have all of the premium features you'd find on some of the best exercise bikes, but what it lacks in cutting-edge features, it makes up for in solid construction and design. And, with a bit of ingenuity, it can give you a similar experience to one of these elite brands.

Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike review: Price and Availability

The cost of the Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike is one of its biggest selling points. At just over $300, it's even cheaper than the budget-friendly Sunny Health & Fitness Bike. 

You can buy through Amazon or Yosuda, but neither offer the white-glove delivery experience you get with the Peloton Bike. The delivery time is generally a few days, so you can be up and riding within a week in most cases. 

Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike review: Assembly

As is to be expected with a bike at this low of a price point, the Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike comes with a lot of assembly required. It arrives in pieces — 13 to be exact — so you’ll need some physical (and mental) energy to put everything together. 

Despite taking the better part of an hour, and some difficulty screwing on the pedals, I found assembly to be relatively painless. Yosuda includes all the hardware and wrenches you’ll need, so you won’t have to go rustling through an oft-forgotten tool box to finish the job.

The instructions were easy to follow, and there's a QR code that links to a step-by-step video. It covers several Yosuda models, so the video does reference some extra tools not in the kit, like a wrench and tool bag, but you don't need them for this bike. 

There were a few moments when my strength was tested, but overall I was able to get the bike together without any help. If you’ve been neglecting those heavy dumbbells in the corner, you may want some assistance from a strong friend (this is something that the Sunny Health & Fitness Bike recommends from the get-go). 

Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike review: Design

At 73 pounds, the Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike is significantly lighter than many of its competitors, including the Wattbike Atom (97 pounds), the Sunny Health and Fitness Bike (110 pounds), and the MYX Fitness Bike (143 pounds).

But just because the Yosuda weighs less doesn’t mean it’s flimsy: its solid steel frame can support riders up to 270 pounds. This comparatively low overall weight, combined with two transport wheels affixed to the front stabilizer, make it easy to move around from room to room.

Since there’s no power cord to worry about, you won’t have to carve out space around an outlet. Handlebar and seat height can be easily adjusted, with an inseam ranging from 25 to 35 inches. Seat distance from the handlebars is easy to adjust as well, but the range is considerably less (23 to 24 inches).

While I was able to find the correct height setting for my 5’4” frame, finding a comfortable distance was another story. Even at the shortest setting, I still felt as if I was forced to lean forward excessively to reach the handlebars. To be completely honest though, this is an issue I have on most spin bikes. 

In general, a heavier flywheel requires more power to start moving, while a lighter flywheel can stop and start quicker. You get the best of both worlds with the Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike’s flywheel — at 35 pounds, it weighs just slightly lighter than average. 

The Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike uses friction resistance, which is achieved when a wool felt brake pad is pressed against the revolving flywheel through the turning of a brake knob. I’m not the biggest fan of felt brake pads — it’s harder to acutely adjust resistance levels, and the felt deteriorates over time.

Yosuda does manufacture a bike that uses a higher-tech magnetic resistance system, but it’s understandably more expensive. If you’re on a strict budget, there’s good news: a replacement wool felt brake pad is included with this model for when the original wears out.

Like the handlebar and seat, the Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bikes toe cage pedals can be adjusted to fit the width of your feet. Once I found the right strap position for my shoes, I felt firmly attached to the bike and was able to pedal with decent efficiency.

There's no companion app or touchscreen display, but there is a phone and tablet holder, but it’s constructed from a thin plastic and feels a little insubstantial when compared to the rest of the bike. Regardless, once the holder was attached and in place, it held my iPhone without issue.

Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike review: Performance

Given its low price, I didn't expect much from the bike, especially since I own a different similarly-priced bike that constantly lets me down, creates a lot of noise, and just isn't that fun to ride. But I was pleasantly surprised here. 

Within the first few revolutions of the bikes’s pedals, I could tell that my initial assumptions would be completely off-base. Whether I was going for speed while seated, or facing a heavy climb while standing, I never questioned the bike’s structural integrity.

The front and rear stabilizers stayed completely grounded, the handlebars remained locked, the seat never rotated an inch out of place, and the 35-pound flywheel provided ample resistance during all of my cycling sessions. This stability allowed me to get a far more efficient workout than any other spin bike I’ve been on recently.

In addition to being able to significantly increase my cadence out of the saddle, a 30-minute ride on the Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike burned about 50-75 calories more, and raised my average heart rate around 10-20 beats per minute higher, than any of my previous indoor cycling efforts.

As I mentioned, I don’t love friction resistance, but I didn’t really mind it on this bike. With even the slightest turn of the resistance knob, I could fine-tune the road based on what I needed. Even better, the belt-driven resistance stayed whisper-quiet, so there was no risk of facing a grumpy husband after a killer ride.

It remains to be seen whether or not I’d continue to feel this way after time and usage have worn down the felt. But again, Yosuda includes a spare brake pad for when you start to notice degradation. 

Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike review: Metrics

The Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike comes with a battery-powered LCD monitor that reports the basics: your time, speed, calories, ride distance, and overall distance.

Pressing the sole button on the monitor will highlight each individual metric, or you can set it to scan through all five repetitively. Holding down the button for a few seconds will reset all of your metrics (with the exception of your overall distance). 

Indoor cycling aficionados may miss a key metric that Yosuda has excluded from its LCD monitor — cadence. This number, which is a measurement of your pedals’ revolutions per minute, is frequently used in many popular cycling classes (like the offerings from Peloton and Apple Fitness Plus).

While it is possible to just match an instructor’s leg speed to the best of your ability, having an exact cadence displayed helps to keep you honest with your perceived effort. But you can work around this with a Bluetooth cadence sensor attached to the bike's crank and syncing the data to your chosen cycling app. 

Should you buy the Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike?

For only a few hundred bucks, the Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike gets the same job done as any of the more expensive bikes on the market. With a solid steel frame and quiet belt drive, you could easily close your eyes and pretend you were on a higher-end model.

Opening them up again would snap you back to reality, though. Without motivating leaderboards and HD screens displaying all the metrics you could possibly think of, hopping on the bike has the potential to get a little boring.

In that case, you might prefer the Echelon Ex-3 Smart Connect Bike, although it costs a lot more. However, if you're happy to do your own thing while in the saddle, the Yosuda Indoor Cycling Stationary Bike makes a fantastic, cost-effective addition to any home gym.