Cyber Monday Deal: 'Get a Peloton,' They Said. My Spin Bike Is Half the Price, and I Love It

Like others when the COVID pandemic hit, I stopped going to my local gym and instead searched for a workout I could do at home. "Get a Peloton!," my friends and colleagues advised. While I knew I wanted a spin bike, I also knew I didn't want to pay the premium price Peloton was charging at the time for its bikes and classes. I was sure that, with a bit of research, I could find a well-built and functional exercise bike for much less.

After watching countless YouTube videos and reading Reddit posts on spin bikes, I settled on the Schwinn Fitness IC4 Indoor Cycling Bike, which was about half the price of the original Peloton and a third of the Peloton Plus (right now, Amazon has the Schwinn for 33% off its list price for Cyber Monday). In the nearly two years I've been riding the IC4, I've not regretted my purchase once.

I'm on the bike five or six days a week, 40 minutes at a time, and except for periodically retightening some nuts and bolts and swapping out the dual-side clip/toe cage pedals for what I think are more practical mountain-bike platform pedals, I've not done a thing to the bike except ride it. 

The bike is exactly what I wanted -- it was easy to set up and adjust to get the fit I wanted, a quick twist adjusts the electromagnetic resistance, and when I've called Schwinn support with maintenance questions, I was surprised at how helpful the support staff were.

The bike does lack the big display of Peloton bikes, but that's fine by me; I use my own phone to watch movies and listen to podcasts while I pedal. The Schwinn IC4 does come with a smaller digital display that shows my pedal cadence and exercise time, along with estimates of speed, distance and calories burned. It can also display my heart rate. 

Nearly two years later and 15 pounds lighter, I'm totally happy with my spin bike.