Best air bike 2024 for HIIT training and calorie-burning workouts

The best air bikes have the ability to topple even the most seasoned athlete, thanks to the punishing workouts they are capable of delivering. Air bikes look tough and will make you tough if you use them often enough. Just look at all the ultra-muscular CrossFit athletes. They sure love their air bike workouts and are muscular as hell. Coincidence? We think not.

Like a strange amalgamation of the best ellipticals, best exercise bikes and a giant desk fan, the best air bikes uniquely work the upper and lower body in unison with the crank and pedal set-up that is mated to a slightly less recognisable set of stalks or handles. Drive some torque through the cranks, and those handles move, meaning users can supplement power from the legs with the mighty back and shoulder muscles – creating a sweaty workout without the punishment on joints. 

Although they take up a similar footprint to, say, a static bike or bicycle mounted to a turbo trainer, they offer so much more, delivering a pounding workout that perfectly compliments High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) sessions.  See, the large fan at the front means users are treated to almost infinite amounts of resistance. There are no dials or fancy electronic settings here because an Air Bike simply gives back as much as you put in.

Best air bikes to buy right now

With excellent build quality and a superbly robust drivetrain, the AssaultBike Elite oozes commercial gym qualities, but it is wrapped in a package that wouldn't look out of place tucked inside the home or in a dedicated workout area outside. It is fairly large, although so is most fitness equipment, and the weight of the unit makes wheeling it around a bit of a pain, but it is no worse than an exercise bike and arguably easier than a chunky elliptical machine. 

Perhaps one of the biggest letdowns is the provided seat, which is a tad uncomfortable and gets a bit slippery as the workout progresses. But it’s not a major issue because it uses a common rail system, meaning you can essentially opt for any saddle you like.

The onboard computer is fairly basic but gives readouts on the most important statistics. It's a shame there isn't a phone holder, as it would make using third-party fitness apps, such as MyZone, a lot easier. The same goes for the bottle holder - not having one is just annoying. Above all else, it delivers the best air bike experiences around, proving it can handle masses of torque and deliver a buttery smooth ride in return. It sits at the top of the budget scale for a reason.

Read our full AssaultBike Elite review

The JTX Mission Air Bike is a robust home exercise bike that can provide a full-body workout in itself. It is small enough to be transported around the house if needed but stable enough to stay still when it’s time to work out on it. The fact that it doesn’t require an external power source makes it ideal for non-communal spaces such as garage gyms or home gyms in spare rooms.

And it is probably best to keep the JTX Mission Air Bike away from communal areas at home as it can generate quite a lot of noise when the fans are going full speed. If you don’t mind the noise – or have a decent pair of noise-cancelling headphones at hand – we would recommend getting the JTX Mission Air Bike, especially if you are after a cardio machine that can work your whole body hard.

Read our full JTX Mission Air Bike review

Despite its hefty components, the Schwinn Airdyne AD8 feels surprisingly compact for such an aesthetically intimidating piece of fitness equipment and its smooth pedalling experience and cleverly perimeter-weighed performance fan ensure that resistance is delivered predictably.

The multiple grab handle positions are excellent, allowing the user to rest weary shoulders during a punishing workout or at least divert some of that lactic acid to other areas. An onboard computer works best with the provided AC adaptor, but there is an option to install two D batteries if that’s not possible.

The seat is a little awkward to get used to, and the display is sometimes difficult to read. Annoyingly, the provided bottle holder isn’t deep enough for proper bicycle bottles, and there’s nowhere to place a smartphone during a workout. But it’s difficult to fault the overall build quality and rider experience, which is definitely up there with the best of them.

Read our full Schwinn Airdyne AD8 Dual Action Air Cycle review

The Taurus Ergo-X Classic Air Bike uses largely the same resistance technology as the more expensive options in this guide, although slightly less attention has been paid to the quiet operation and wind deflection that you get with the more expensive options here. On top of this, the onboard computer is a more pared-back affair, tracking speed, distance, time, and calorie burn, with the ability to create custom interval training sessions. 

Still, this top-spec Taurus has been reinforced in all of the important places, ensuring it delivers a smooth but extremely robust ride, no matter the strength or experience level of the user. This is most apparent in the arm joints, which have been reinforced to ensure there is no lateral play or risk of them prematurely breaking.

Sitting at the opposite end of the price spectrum to the AssaultBike Elite, the Fitfiu BELI-150 really is for those who are keen to merely dip a toe in the Air Bike waters. The build quality is reflected in the price, so go hard on those handles, and they are likely to work free after a while.

Although the fan offers increasing levels of resistance as the user pushes harder, it is also possible to adjust manually via a twist grip mounted to the crossbar. It means the riding experience isn’t as natural as rivals listed here, and it can’t offer the sort of punishing resistance levels that hardcore HIIT fans demand. That said, it is neat, small and light, making it perfect for those with cramped spaces at home.

Think of this as the Schwinn Airdyne AD8’s little brother, packing much of the same fan technology into a much smaller and lighter package. The upside is a similar focus on solid build quality, while the fan technology is extremely smooth and reliable (if a bit loud). The downside is the relative lack of resistance compared to its larger sibling and the fact the arms and cranks aren’t quite as resilient to those users who can push serious power through the pedals.

An onboard computer tracks all of the important metrics and even saves data on previous workouts to ensure users progress over time. Although it does have an annoying habit of cycling through metrics rather than resting one.

How to buy the best air bike for you

Unlike the running machine, cross trainer and exercise bike market, there isn’t a huge array of choices when it comes to picking an air bike. This is good news, in so much as you don’t need to trawl through pages and pages of options, but not so good when it comes to choice and a variety of price points.

Cheaper bikes can be found, and we’ve included some of these in this very list, but the fan at the front tends to be smaller, meaning the amount of resistance the bike produces tends to be measly. Above all else, the general build usually involves lots of plastic and soft metals, meaning they can’t withstand the daily torture of a hardcore HIIT session.

Of course, you can get a relatively gentle workout from these machines but it sort of defies the point. They deliver the best results when properly pushing the body through heavy sprint intervals, followed by periods of rest. More basic models don’t really allow users to hit this maximum effort.

The sweet spot is around £500, where manufacturers like Schwinn offer a pared-down version of its halo models that are built to last and offer the resistance users demand. So when buying, look out for those models that boast single stage-belt drives, which essentially create resistance through the use of a large fan, rather than messing about with flimsy chains and manual brakes. 

On top of this, the further you move up the price range, the more features you generally get. More comfortable saddles, better adjustability, an on-board performance-tracking computer, wind deflectors to reduce the fan breeze and footpads for isolating the upper body are just a few good examples.