For your home gym, I would recommend buying a rower before a bike. I explain why in detail here.

But I do love stationary bikes. In fact, last weekend we hosted a bodyweight and cardio-only fitness competition where we utilized two different bikes during the event. I wrote the workouts this way because of the stimulus: it’s very different riding the echo bike versus the bike erg.

But which bike should you buy for my home gym?

It depends.

If your workouts are primarily crossfit metcons, I would recommend the Echo bike. The Echo bike is quieter, smoother and more durable than the Assault Bike. Additionally, the maintenance alone on the Assault bikes caused us to sell every one of them that we owned (we bought more Echo bikes with the money).

But if you’re wanting to do more cardio-based workouts, the Concept 2 bike erg is probably the best option. This is because of the adjustable damper on the flywheel (i.e. you can change the gears on the bike where you can’t on an Echo/Assault bike). You also are just using your legs, as opposed to your arms and legs on the other two.

Mat Fraser, Five-time Fittest Man on Earth and Josh Bridges, former CrossFit Games athlete, talk about what they prefer in this short snippet from their podcast.

Spoiler alert: Mat prefers the Concept 2 Bike Erg while Josh prefers the Echo Bike. They both agreed, however, that the Echo bike is better than the Assault bike.

Tyler

WOD

Tabata: Bike For Calories
Tabata: Double-Unders For Reps
Tabata: Run For Distance

On the bike and running intervals, sprint for 20-seconds and slowly pedal/walk during the 10-second rest.

For the jump rope intervals, double-under during the 20-seconds and single-under during the 10-second rest.