chaadster

To be clear on terms, spinning bikes are fixed gear bikes with quite heavy flywheels which carry a lot of inertia to keep the pedals moving, and usually ridden in class-type settings. Is that what we’re talking about here? I don’t follow the market— I’ve heard of Peloton, of course— but know there are lots of variants on stationary bikes generally, and they can be hard to categorize.

That said, there are no no-no’s which will mess up cycling, but I do think that there are real differences between working-out and training, and some stationaries cannot supply the feedback loop with data to make cycling training possible. Entry-level spinning bikes, I imagine, probably don’t offer any ride data analysis, so while one could get a good workout, and over time build certain strengths and fitness, they only go so far as they go for cycling because the data iisn’t there to train specificity. Once you start adding in data from heart rate, cadence, and power, the situation changes dramatically.

But no, when it comes to improving general fitness on a stationary, there are no no-no’s, particularly for untrained cyclists.