Schwinn Fitness 130 Upright Bike: Affordable Workout

Solid stationary bike with bluetooth connectivity
Solid stationary bike. Assembling was fairly simple. The only step I had some issues with was near the end, when putting the plastic sheaths on to cover the flywheel, etc. It didn’t snap in satisfactorily, no matter how many times I tried to re-angle and re-insert. Finally just accepted it wasn’t going to snap-in with any loud clicks and just in a very unconfident whimpery way. Small bit of OCD. Doesn’t seem to affect it any. It’s on. It’s not loose. So…maybe that’s just how it’s supposed to be. Did I mention minor OCD?The ride is smooth and quiet. There’s a slight lag time as you increase/decrease resistance. I’m thinking if that annoys you, you aren’t buying a budget stationary bike.Took about a week to ah…acclimate my nether regions to the seat. That’s true any time I’ve done a stint of biking, so not unusual.While there are the typical built-in workouts, the real reason I purchased this was that it had bluetooth connectivity to the Zwift app. Now, the Schwinn 130 (MY20…not to be confused with the 130 made before 2020) can connect to Zwift as a power source. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of far more expensive bikes, but that’s fine. In Zwift, you can choose training/workouts, or you can just ride. As a connected power source, Zwift is not going to change your resistance for you or anything, but I find that in training/workouts, where Zwift is telling you what power level to try to maintain, it’s fairly intuitive to manually adjust the resistance on the Schwinn to keep your power level around what Zwift is asking you to do. Throw in their routes and all the other thousands of Zwifters cycling around you, and I find this approach to getting my cardio on so, so, so, so much more engaging.Now, there were literally no instructions on how to use it with Zwift, and the Zwift app itself is not helpful at all, and seems to assume you know what you’re doing. Asking online tends to be pointless as the Zwift community (well, the vocal ones at least) seems to be filled with diehards (tryhards?) incredibly dismissive of anyone who would use an app like Zwift without a $3k bike. So, I’ll just point out that when you open Zwift and have logged in, the app will ask you what you want to connect. Choose power source. Make sure the Schwinn 130 is in pairing mode (hold bluetooth button down for 3 seconds). It will show up as “SCH130/230” in the Zwift app. Once you’re connected, and starting a training/workout or just riding, and you’ve loaded into a map/route, you’ll need to press “Start” on the Schwinn 130 once to enter Manual mode, then press “Start” one more time to actually start manual mode. You should start pedaling at this point, and you should also see your power rating in Zwift start to change and your avatar start to cycle. The Schwinn 130 will pause very quickly if it doesn’t detect you moving the pedals, so if you’re too slow to transition between pressing “Start” and actually pedaling, Zwift will view you as being disconnected. Anyway, after a lot of trial and error, I got this process down smooth enough that I just keep my ipad permanently covering the Schwinn’s display and just press “Start” once to turn the bike on, tap through the Zwift app to start a workout, then press “Start” twice in succession and immediately start pedaling.I have tried to use a stationary bike in the past for cardio, but never stuck with it. Like all indoor cardio, just found it too mind numbingly boring. Using this one in conjunction with Zwift has been a game changer. Ultimately still not as nice as actually getting outdoors, but for the first time in my life I’ve kept to a regular indoor cardio routine. Well worth the money (Zwift requires a monthly sub).

Good back to basics bike
We had another bike before this one. The previous was from a reputable fitness company, but it was the type of bike you need to pedal a certain RPM to get the display to turn on and the display had a battery. And if during your workout, you slowed down, the display turns off and you lost the way to monitor your progress. My wife really could not use that of style of bike for that reason, she had a hard time maintaining the magical RPM number.So, we got this bike because it is one that you plug in (no need to maintain a certain RPM to have the display to function) and it is from a reputable company. The bike has a simple, clean, and easy-to-read display. Easy to use. I like you can control the resistance with a push of a button and know what the settings are, instead of a dial. Back to basics, good old basics.The only things I would improve would be stronger crank arms and an adjustable handlebar for height.It rides smoothly and is quiet. My wife likes it better and if she feels better about it, then she will continue to use it. It is a win-win for all.

I purchased the Schwinn Signature exercise bike in 1991 and was always satisfied with Schwinn products. When my programmable Proforma exercise broke down, I needed a new one. I found those types of exercise bikes difficult to find since manufacturers these days produces mainly spin bike types of exercise bikes. This is why I was quite thrilled to see that Schwinn was still making exercise bikes with set exercise programs. I was quite reluctant to buy it at first because I found many bad reviews related to the challenges of putting this bike together. Let me tell you that you need to set asides those worries. I suspect that those individuals making bad reviews probably skipped steps or were not meticulous to follow the assembly instructions. If you follow the prescribed steps carefully, it should take about 45min to an 1 hour to assemble. So, I never had any complications to assemble the bike and the bike worked very well from the get go. This is the most quiet exercise bike I ever had and the programs built-in provides plenty of challenges and will make you sweat plenty. Highly recommended. Although there are other Schwinn models with more programs that are more expensive, I found the entry level Schwinn 130 upright bike to be just fine, even for a tall man (6ft3) and relatively cheap for anyone to afford one. The only thing that I wish I could adjust is the height of the programming screen and handle bars. Enjoy!

This Schwinn 130 exercise bike is great value. Sturdy, good features, great for the average fitness rider who isn’t into competitive cycling. Unboxing and assembly took an hour by myself. Easy to follow instructions. My review focuses on info that was missing for me when I was doing my research….Size: I am 6’3” and I am on the last drilled hole on the seat post. The seat to pedal distance (at bottom of travel) is about 39 inches. Taller riders could drill another hole and extend the post further without structural risk. After all this bike is not actually moving anywhere and the stability is good.Connectivity Inbound: For heart rate I ordered the dash chest strap and it paired to the bike easily. Just remember to actually put the strap on your chest first or no signal is sent. The contact heart rate sensors on the bike’s handlebars are not accurate so don’t bother with those. This is not unique to Schwinn, it’s a method that is not optimal for accuracy.Connectivity Outbound: Schwinn advertises connections to the Explore the World and Zwift apps. Explore the world is buggy and has poor reviews so good luck with that one. It crashed my older tablet so you would probably need fairly new hardware. The bike pairs to Zwift on an iPhone great and works well. Use the “power source” button in Zwift to sync to the machine. This will add cadence, heart rate, power(watts), and speed to the Zwift App. If you have problems with Bluetooth remember that you need to first download and run the Schwinn Toolbox App which also updates the firmware of the display on the 130 bike. I had no luck getting cadence from the bike into my Garmin Vivoactive 4 watch. It does not recognize the bike as a cadence sensor, probably because the bluetooth connection contains a package of different data that the watch doesn’t understand. The Garmin candence sensor 2 can be attached to the pedal arm of the bike if you want your stationary bike rides logged in Garmin Connect (with cadence data) and then synced to Strava.Peloton: The elephant in the room is Peloton and the manual leads you to app partners which makes you think you can sync with the Peloton App. I had no luck with this, but did with the Garmin 2 Cadence sensor. If you want to get serious into Peloton you need a proper spin bike like the Schwinn IC4 so this isn’t a major negative. You can still do a Peloton class and just watch your cadence on the bikes display.Manual: The box only included the quick setup guide and not the full manual. I’d recommend reading the full manual to learn how to operate the display, switch from miles to km, etc. You can find the manual on Schwinn’s website.Heart Rate Control: I also discovered the Heart Rate Control program lets you select a base heart rate for your workout. The Console monitors your heart rate in beats per minute (BPM) from the Contact Heart Rate (CHR) Sensors on the machine or from your Bluetooth® Heart Rate Chest Strap, and adjusts the resistance during a workout to keep your heart rate near the base heart rate value. That’s good for targeting a range for a specific purpose.All in all a great little bike that delivers value and features of far more expensive bikes.

I wasn’t looking for a peloton-styled bike because I’d rather watch netflix and simply spin rather than doing some exaggerated spinning excercise that makes ppl look like doing zumba while spinning. I pike the option of beong able to access these apps but my husband and I just like how easily it assembled and what little noise it makes, making perfect for a fam with little toddler that wakes up from little noises.I took a star off b/c the seat was designed weird that it did not fix to post properly.