So, the air bike and the indoor cycling bike have two forms of resistance.
Both work incredibly well at really getting your muscles activated and your blood pumping.
Air Bike
Just as the name suggests here…air!
Air is going to be your resistance, well for most part of it anyway!
What happens is that when your pushing on the pedals and at the same time pushing and pulling on the handlebars – this helps to create a rotation effect.
This rotation then powers the air wheel in front.
As I said, the air wheel has a number of fans that are angled at the exact direction to create drag against them.
The faster or harder you go – it’s this drag effect that makes it harder for the wheel to turn helping to create resistance!
Indoor Cycling Bike
The indoor cycling bike actually has 2 forms of resistance.
Friction resistance & Magnetic resistance
Or in some better indoor cycling bikes, it can have a hybrid of both!
So on an indoor cycling bike, the resistance comes from inertia.
When your pedalling, you’ll be moving and rotating the flywheel in front.
However, by the simple turn of the knob the felt pads (on a friction based indoor cycling bike) or magnets (on a magnetic based indoor cycling bike) come closer together against the flywheel and try to counteract the speed of the wheel.
With this level of resistance against the flywheel it makes you have to push harder on the flywheel in order to keep the same level of RPM (Repetitions Per Minute).
Please answer my question
I want to make my knees stronger for trekking. Which bike should I choose for good knees workout i.e air bike or spin bike ?
From what I understand spin bikes are able to provide higher resistance than air bike. Is that true ?
Hi Vijay,
If you’re aim is to improve muscle tone and strength both the spin and air bike will help you achieve this easily!
A standard spin bike will allow you to crank up the resistance to as high as you can whilst still being able to keep up a good level of RPM.
The air bike basically uses your own resistance against you – the harder you pedal, the greater the resistance – the more difficult the workout becomes.
Both these types of bikes are going to have your legs burning – no matter what!
It just comes down to your endurance and current level of strength.
To get an all body workout, I would recommend the air bike but if solely wish to focus on your legs then the spin bike may be better for you.
Hope this helps!
Very helpful. Thank you for the information.
Quite helpful. thanks for that.
I have a bad back. Ellipticals are not said to be good for such people due to the twisting movement on spine.
You wrote air bike is also not good for persons with bad back. How is it affecting the spine?
As the air bike makes you use your back muscles more actively compared to that with a spin bike, it could cause further injury or discomfort when cycling as your arms are moving along with your pedalling.
If you feel you have a sore back already, the spin bike may be the safer choice.