Stationary bike- what to look for?

[nellgirl]

Seeing as gyms are likely to be closed for the foreseeable future in my area, my husband and I are looking to get a stationary bike.
I have 3 (healing) herniated discs and cycling is one of the few activities that I can comfortably do. Recumbent bikes are a hard no as they increase pain for me. We are both working full time at home while juggling our preschooler, so something we can jump on for 30-40 mins in the evening is ideal.
We are looking for something sturdy and durable. The gym near us has Life Fitness bikes, but I’m not too familiar with much beyond them. We’re not looking for something that necessarily has a ton of ‘programs’.
We’re feeling a bit stuck since we can’t go out and try things now.
Any thoughts or recommendations about what to look for would be greatly appreciated.

[sadlebred]

Married Life has had a couple of discussions about this recently in relation to buying a bike to use with Peleton. This may help. You can use any of these bikes with an app or without.

pandce.proboards.com/thread/618856/best-beginner-peleton-rides
pandce.proboards.com/thread/618060/cheap-peleton-dupes
pandce.proboards.com/thread/617750/alternate-peleton-bike-happy

I have a road bike mounted to a Wahoo SNAP smart trainer.

[Wines Not Whines]

I recently went down a rabbit hole of research on spin bikes. The main thing I decided is I wanted a bike that uses magnetics for resistance, because the ride is much smoother. The bikes at my gym are magnetic, and it’s what I was used to riding. I ended up buying a Peloton, because I wanted to be able to use their classes, and I figured why not go all in. My runner up was a Schwinn IC4, which is a quality bike that you can use with your own tablet if you want to stream a spin class. The Schwinn is around $1000, and you can pay $129 extra for professional assembly. There are many cheaper bikes out there, but I don’t think they use magnetic resistance. Sunny bikes seem to be popular, and I think some models are around $500. I was worried about assembling a bike myself. I’m not very handy.