When you are looking to buy any fitness equipment for the home one of the considerations is do you have enough room for it when it is use and when it isn’t. Fortunately the answer to this is not too much for a spin bike which is good news if you are tight on space, or want to store it out of the way when it is not being used. Which is probably the case for those of us who are not lucky enough to have an area to dedicate to a home gym.
Bike Itself
The spin bikes themselves are not that big. There is a range of different footprints (see comparisons of bikes here). The smallest one has a footprint of 22 inches (Width) by 32 inches (Length) and the largest is 25.5 inches (W) by 48.25 (L) inches. So they can be stored out of the way when not in use and some of you might be able to squeeze one into a large cupboard. In addition the handlebars stick out a couple of inches so need to be taken into account when storing it away.
The bikes are heavy which could make them difficult to move around. The range of weights for the bikes I’ve reviewed starts at 61 lbs and go on up to 160 lbs.
Moving The Bike Around
To help with handling the weight the bikes normally have 2 transport wheels on the front stabilizer bar that you tip the bike on to. This is done by using the handlebars to tip the bike slowly on to the transport wheels. The design of the bikes with the flywheel at the front means this where the weight is concentrated makes the tipping up easier as the weight is central point of the movement. They do take most of the weight so you can roll and manoeuvre the bike to where you want to use or store it and gently lower it back down.
Some of the heavier bikes might require two people to steady the bike as one person may overbalance while moving it even though most of the weight is being carried on the wheels.
Space is usually one of the considerations when you live in an apartment and I’ve written a post on the best pin bikes for apartments that can help in choosing one to fit in small spaces.
Space Needed To Use Safely
When using the bike you do need some more room than just what the bike needs for safety reasons – you don’t want to be banging your arms and knees or not having enough room to move in out of the saddle or to be able to get on and off safely.
There is a range of different distances that is recommended for the safe use by the person training and others in the home depending on the manufacturer. The Sole SB700 manual recommends 1 ft either side of the bike and 2 ft behind it. Whereas the Diamondback Fitness 510Ic manual has a recommendation of 1 ft in front, 3 ft either side and 6 ft behind it and the Exerpeutic LX7 says it needs 6 ft of space for safe operation. The Schwinn IC2 manual recommends 19.7 inches on each side and the Keiser M3 Plus recommends 18 – 24 inches on all sides.
Commonsense is the order of the day with this and you need to leave enough space to be able to use it without causing you any issues and for dismounting quickly.
There also needs to be room for people to be able to move round you safely while it is in use so they don’t get banged by the pedals or touch the flywheel while it is in use.
Summary
A spin bike is a compact piece of cardio equipment. This makes it ideal for people who don’t have too much room to dedicate to working out or storing the equipment when it isn’t in use. The bikes are approx 2ft wide and 4 ft long but as you’d expect the exact size of the bike is determined by the model.
Some more room is needed when it is in use to be able to exercise safely, to get on and off the bike and also to ensure other people can move around the bike safely. There are a mixture of recommendations, so some of it is down to your own determination but it needs to be at least 1 – 2 ft on all sides of the bike for everyone’s safety as well as the rider especially when you are spinning or training at high speed or you need to get off quickly you are going to need more room to dismount safely.
So not only is a spin bike a great way to get into shape and train you can also do it at home without it taking over your house or apartment.