Yosuda Indoor Cycling Bike Review

The Yosuda Indoor Cycling Bike is among the most popular and highest rated affordable stationary bikes on the market. This bike stands out from the other models we tested with a large, 35 lb weighted flywheel with an adjustable resistance pad that offers an enormous resistance range. This bike looks and feels a lot like a gym-quality spin bike in a simple, no-frills, durable package for use in the home. Whether for casual spinning or intense training, the Yosuda is a quality option at a reasonable price.

Performance Comparison

This exercise bike is sturdy and stable with a resistance range to suit any fitness level or exercise intensity.

Photo: Heather Benson

Exercise Quality

The Yosuda has an excellent exercise quality that closely resembles that of a spin bike that you might find at the gym. It has an upright style that demands an athletic and serious approach with a belt-driven 35 lb flywheel and an adjustable pad to control the level of resistance. Due to the manually adjusted resistance, this bike does not have fancy features like programmed workouts. Still, it does offer an infinite range of resistance to cater to all fitness levels and workout intensities.

The upright style of the Yosuda puts the rider in an athletic body position similar to a regular road bike. This body position is more demanding than that of a recumbent model, for example, and it requires the rider to stay engaged through their core and with their attention. Once it is spinning, the 35 lb flywheel is impressively smooth and quiet, and the resistance is controlled by turning a small red knob on the main frame of the bike. This control knob moves a felt pad up and down to increase or decrease the resistance on the flywheel. Unlike models with magnetic resistance, the Yosuda doesn't have preset levels. Instead, it can be adjusted infinitely from absolutely none to so much you can't even turn the pedals. This allows for a huge range of workout intensity from an easy spin to hardcore interval training. Intense workouts and out of the saddle efforts were no problem considering this bike's excellent stability and sturdy steel frame. The cage pedals are also a nice feature that helps to keep your feet on the pedals when you're cranking away the miles. It is worth mentioning that the belt-driven flywheel keeps the pedals turning even when you stop pedaling. The resistance adjustment knob is also a brake that the rider can push to stop the flywheel.

The resistance is changed by turning this knob which presses a pad onto the flywheel. Pushing down on the knob also works as a brake to stop the flywheel and pedals from spinning.

Photo: Heather Benson

The console of the Yosuda is relatively simple, and it displays only basic workout information on its small LCD screen. It shows elapsed time, distance, current speed, calories burned, and odometer, but that is it. It does not feature any programmed workouts, courses, or other workout features to speak of. Controlling the resistance level and workout is entirely up to the user and is done by turning the resistance control knob. That said, it is easy enough to pull up a spin or cycling workout video online and follow along for a more structured workout, and the phone/tablet shelf makes it easy to position your device for viewing while you ride.

The seat has plenty of cushioning, a pressure relief channel/cutout, and a performance-oriented shape.

Comfort

The Yosuda is a comfortable exercise bike. It can't quite match the comfort of the relaxed recumbent and semi-recumbent competition, but we feel it is quite agreeable for an upright style model. It has a comfortable seat as well as a large range of adjustment in both the seatpost and handlebars. On test rides up to 1.5 hours, we remained comfortable while exercising on this bike.

The upright style of the Yosuda demands a more athletic and aggressive body position than the seated, laid back recumbent models. It feels similar to a spin bike you might ride at the gym, or a standard road bike. You can ride it with no hands, but most of the time, the seated pedaling position has the rider breaking at the waist with some bodyweight resting on the handlebars. We found the seat to be quite comfortable with ample cushioning and a pressure relief cutout. It isn't a massive seat by any means; it has a somewhat more performance-oriented and streamlined shape that doesn't conflict with the hip joints or the pedal stroke in any way. Likewise, the large padded handlebar allows for a huge range of hand positions.

The seat is adjustable up and down and fore and aft, and the handlebar can also be raised or lower to suit your preferences.

Photo: Heather Benson

Both the seatpost and the handlebars offer a broad range of height adjustment. Yosuda claims and an inseam height range 25 to 35 inches, and there are eight indexed seatpost positions. Our primary tester is 6-feet tall with a 32-inch inseam, and he had the seatpost height maxed out and had perfect leg extension. It seems that there is enough adjustment range for this bike to work for riders between 5 and 6 or so feet tall, depending on inseam length. There is also about two inches of fore and aft adjustment for the seat where it attaches at the top of the seatpost. The handlebars can also be raised or lowered to suit your preferences with five indexed positions and 6.5 inches of vertical height adjustment.

The display and controls are incredibly basic but functional. The tablet shelf is a nice feature that holds a phone or iPad so you can listen to music or watch videos.

Photo: Heather Benson

User Interface

Yosuda didn't go out of their way to impress anyone with the display and controls on this exercise bike. The battery-powered console is attached to a bracket in the center of the handlebars with a single button to scroll through data fields and a small LCD screen. The resistance is adjusted by turning a little red knob on the main frame of the bike.

The interface of the Yosuda is quite basic when compared to the more advanced displays and features found on some of the competition. That said, it is simple, intuitive, and effective. The console powers up as soon as the pedals start turning, and it powers itself off after the bike has been idle for a few minutes. The single button scrolls through the data fields and can display your elapsed time, current speed, distance, calories burned, odometer, or scan(which scrolls through all of the other options). The LCD screen is 1" tall by 2" wide and is easy enough to read while you are riding. The red knob on the main frame of the bike is used to manually control the resistance and also serves as a brake for the flywheel.

It doesn't have a lot of features, but the ones it has are useful like the cage pedals and the water bottle cage.

Photo: Heather Benson

Features

The Yosuda is a relatively simple and no-frills exercise bike. It doesn't have many fancy bells and whistles, but it does have a few features that enhance its user-friendliness.

While exercising, the feature we liked the most was the bottle cage. Attached to the main frame just below the resistance adjustment knob, the bottle cage ensured we always had water within arm's reach. There is also a small device shelf attached to the handlebar that is big enough to hold your phone or a tablet while riding. This shelf makes it easier to listen to music or watch a video during your workout. We also enjoyed the cage style pedals, which helped to keep our feet secure, and they can be tightened around the foot to maximize the pedal stroke. At the front of the bike are two transport wheels that make it easy to roll this heavyweight bike across most surfaces. The feet of the bike also have integrated levelers to improve stability on uneven surfaces. The Yosuda also comes with an extra console mounting bracket and resistance pad should you ever need to replace either.

It wasn't particularly difficult, but it still took about 40 minutes to assemble this bike.

Photo: Heather Benson

Ease of Setup/Portability

The Yosuda exercise bike was about average in for its ease of assembly and portability. The assembly process was straightforward, and it came with detailed instructions and all of the hardware and tools required to complete the task. It is certainly a bit heavy, so moving it around can be a bit of a chore, but it has a reasonably small footprint that isn't too obtrusive in your home workout space.

Our Yosuda arrived in a large box that weighed approximately 70 lbs. Moving the box around is a task best suited for two people, as is removing the bike from the box. Due to the weight and shape of the bike, pulling it out of the box is undoubtedly a bit awkward. Once out of the box, the assembly was relatively straightforward and took about 40 minutes to complete. Standard steps like attaching the front and rear stabilizers, pedals, seatpost, handlebar, and console were easy to do following the included instructions and using the included tools. Yosuda even included extra bolts and washers in the off chance that you lose one.

Once assembled, the Yosuda weighs 68.8 lbs. Moving it around is relatively easy using the integrated transport wheels that roll well, even on carpet. Getting it up or down a flight of stairs, however, is a task for two people due to its shape and weight. With a footprint of 40.5" long x 21.5" wide, it doesn't take up a ton of room in your home exercise space. It's certainly not ideal for stuffing into a closet, but it doesn't dominate the room the way a recumbent bike can.

Despite its heavy weight, it is easy to move thanks to the transport wheels.

Value

The Yosuda exercise bike is reasonably priced, and we feel it is a great value. It offers a near gym-quality workout with a massive bandwidth that should be suitable for riders of all fitness levels. This bike is also built to last with a durable steel frame and construction that we feel will stand the test of time.

The Yosuda is a quality spin-style exercise bike at a reasonable price.

Photo: Heather Benson

Conclusion