Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike review

The Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike has more than 5,000 reviews on Amazon, with an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars, so I was interested to see if the hype lived up to the reality.

I’ve been taking group indoor cycling classes at my gym for nearly 15 years and I was missing that group cycling experience and those harder workouts during the pandemic. But as I was pregnant, going back to in-person classes wasn't really an option. 

Many people rate the Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike as one of the best exercise bikes. Plus, it didn’t take up much space in my home office, was quiet and seemed like it could be a great way to squeeze in workouts while my toddler napped and I wasn’t able to leave home during the day.

In the end, this indoor cycling bike didn’t quite hit that mark for me but could be a good, entry-level indoor cycling bike for the right fitness enthusiast — particularly if they’re on a budget and still want to pack in an effective home workout. 

Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike review: Price

Some of the main reasons you might want to consider purchasing this Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike would be that it’s good bike for under $400, has free shipping (when you order on Amazon) and it arrives quickly — within two days in my case.

This is much faster — and much cheaper — than the Peloton Bike, which generally takes around a week for delivery. You may want to purchase a mat to place under the bike but I wasn’t worried about my floors and honestly, it was so quiet that I don’t think the bike needed it if that’s your reason for using a mat.

Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike review: Delivery

The delivery team stored the large box in my garage, so I had to rope in someone else to help me get the 113 lbs bike into my second-floor office. There's no white glove delivery, like you'd get with Peloton, so if you live in an apartment building, this is going to be quite tricky to get up several floors. 

My husband took the 49 lbs flywheel, and I carried the remaining parts. From there, it was easy to follow the instructions to assemble the bike, which took around 45 minutes. I also watched a YouTube tutorial to make things easier, and it was a bit like assembling IKEA furniture. 

If you order from Sunny Health & Fitness’ website, it offers free shipping on orders over $99, a 30-day money back guarantee, and the manufacturer warranty. Sunny will pay for return shipping if the reason for return was their error

But if you’re returning the bike within 30 days because you’re not satisfied with it, you’ll have to pay for the shipping and won’t receive a refund for that portion. Sunny will refund your money if you bought it from their site but if you bought it from a third-party, like Amazon, you need to refer to their store refund policy.

Taking the bike apart to return it won’t be that easy since it seemed the knobs were tough to adjust after I set them up. Also, getting a large, heavy bike back in the box for UPS or another service to pick it up is going to be a cumbersome process so do your research before you make a purchase.

Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike review: Design

The bike has a high weight capacity, up to 275 pounds so that’s a good feature for heavier riders. The bike is sturdy, once you get it adjusted properly so it doesn’t wobble when you’re out of the saddle.

I set the bike up in front of a window in my office and only needed 4 x 3 feet of space. I liked that the bike has transportation wheels on the front so I could easily hoist it up and roll it somewhere else in the room. It doesn’t need to be plugged in so you don’t need to factor that into the bike’s location.

It took a few adjustments to get the balance correct — if I’m honest, a few rides. I played around with the adjustable pads a bit a few different times before I finally seemed to get it right and the bike no longer wobbled when I stood up in it.

The handlebars felt comfortable enough but even when I put the seat on the adjustment so it would be closest to the handlebars, I was still stretching my arms to reach them more than I would have liked — and I’m 5’6”!

The site says the seat to handlebar distance is 18 inches to 23 inches but from where my hands would be placed on the handlebars to the seat tip at the closest setting, I measured 23 inches. I know from my indoor cycling gym class days and instructor setups what it should feel like to be in the most comfortable position on the ride for me and that little bit of extra stretch to the front wasn’t ideal.

Sunny has a guide on its site and their app on how to set up the bike and make adjustments to the seat, handlebars, and pedals. My 6’3” husband tried to adjust the bike seat distance to accommodate his long legs but we couldn’t get the knob to budge after I had it set at the closest setting.

I liked that the bike provided a smooth, quiet ride. That’s the secret behind a 49-pound flywheel—the heavier the flywheel, the quieter and smoother the ride should be. That being said, a heavy wheel doesn’t supply more momentum, so you’re still the one doing the work.

When I increased the resistance on the tension knob, the wheel did get a bit louder, emitting more of a whooshing sound but it was never so loud that it was annoying or hard to hear my iPad cycling workout music or instructor.

In comparison, Peloton uses a magnetic wheel and MYX has a 41-pound flywheel with friction resistance. The belt-drive system on this bike helps make for a quiet, solid ride and is supposed to make it “virtually maintenance free” according to the site.

Caged foot petals were comfortable and easy to adjust—and I wear wide shoes! You don’t need cycling shoes in order to ride the bike so that makes it a more affordable option and it’s easier for other family members to try out the bike.

The pedals kept my feet in tight while in the standing (second position) and out of the saddle reaching for the front handlebars in a crouching position (third position). The water bottle holder was the only accessory on this bike and it was in a good position to the right side of the wheel.

Apart from the handlebars, the Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike seat was not comfortable for me, and to put it bluntly, I don’t have a bony backside.  Even after a month and a half of riding a few days a week, I still don’t like the feel of the seat.

I understand that these “performance seats” tend to be narrow and rigid so you can get out of the seat faster but when I was doing a lot of workouts that were mostly seated, this cushioning never became much more comfortable.

For comparison, I was also riding my new Trek bike outside during the week and sitting on that seat felt like a pillow over one. Some Amazon reviewers purchased a third-party cushion seat cover and they said that helped a lot.

Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike review: Performance

I turned on three Sunny Health & Fitness videos I found on YouTube to guide me through a workout, but overall, I found them pretty boring. The brand has a lot of routines you can follow on it's site, but they tell you to aim for specific cadences (like 80 or 100 revolutions per minute (RPM). 

If you don't own one of its bikes with those features, including this model, then you're just guessing. There's also a Sunny Health & Fitness app, but it's got a one-star rating and doesn't sync with this bike as there's no Bluetooth support. 

Ultimately, I settled on paying for a Peloton App monthly subscription because I didn’t find another service that provided that high-energy instructor feel with a variety of workout programs to choose from and great music.

What was truly missing from this indoor cycling bike for me was a cadence monitor of some sort or RPM or resistance indicator. Meanwhile, the Sunny Evolution Pro II Magnetic Indoor Bike has a performance monitor that tracks speed, cadence, distance, calories and pulse to name a few.

I relied on my internal effort indicator which I’ve learned through cycling instructors in the past. I also looked at my heart rate monitor to gauge my efforts, particularly because I’m pregnant and didn’t want to overexert myself.

If you are completely new to indoor cycling, it might take some time to gauge your resistance levels and speed on this bike that doesn’t have a monitor to show you how you’re doing.

Should you buy the Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike?

The Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike is a no-frills bike that does the job and provides a good workout for the motivated indoor cyclist or a beginner who wants to see if they like having an indoor cycling bike without spending a ton of money.

The biggest positives for me are that the ride is smooth and quiet and the heavy flywheel mimics that studio bike experience. It’s also nice that it doesn’t require electricity, Wi-Fi, a subscription or special shoes in order to ride it.

That said, if you’re used to a cycling studio experience or need more guidance when it comes to creating your own workouts that differ in intensity, you will find this model from Sunny Health & Fitness lacking.

If you want to step up to the next model, the Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycling Exercise Bike Pro II version has a MSRP of $325, has a 40-pound flywheel as well as a performance monitor, pulse sensors, and a device holder so you can place your phone or device on the handlebar area.

If you’re looking for a Sunny Bike with more bells and whistles, this could be a great option. But if all you want is a basic exercise bike to work up a sweat, the Sunny Health & Fitness Indoor Cycle Bike should fit your needs.