In addition to writing for Live Science, Ravi has written for Health, Verywell Fit, Garage Gym Reviews, and other health publications. The bike went together ok, the manual was lacks many steps. Received the battery a week after ordering a back up battery for my ebike. It fits perfectly on my bike and is exactly as described. Love to walk around with it and pedestrians turn when we pass by. It’s not came through in time and I’m very disappointed.
This bike was part of Schwinn’s attempt to resurrect the days of old. Loosely based on bikes they offered in the 50’s, it has retro written all over it. Although the pandemic launched home workouts schwinn mountain bike (and indoor-cycling classes in particular) to stratospheric popularity, these days exercise behavior is changing once again. The unprecedented demand for at-home bikes has dwindled.
Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time). Ingrid Skjong is a supervising editor on the appliance team, focusing on the likes of ranges, refrigerators, dryers, and dishwashers. She previously covered fitness for Wirecutter and has been an editor and writer at various lifestyle magazines. This no-frills bike is surprisingly sturdy for the price. If you don’t care about onboard metrics or lots of extras, it may appeal to you.
The pedals have toe cages only—if you want to use cycling shoes, you need to swap out the pedals for a set of your choosing. A big draw with these bikes is the ability to ride along with an app, to approximate an in-person indoor-cycling class. But four of our five picks also allow you to ride unconnected, for basic cardio.
I am looking for a nice comfortable steel bike with no suspensions to ride around the city, rough cobblestone, and trails if necessary. This bike is suited to shorter people than the Traxion, so Schwinn has given it smaller wheels at the size of 26″. This makes it much better for the user and does add a lot of control to the rider but takes away some top speed. Like all the Schwinn bikes, it’s made on aluminum and is going to be relatively lightweight and super strong. This is a bike that is going to be at home more in the mud than on the road but will be able to go anywhere. It also has trigger shifters instead of twist shifters which are a lovely touch and much better for off-road riding.
Then we come to wheels, and unlike the Mesa, the High Timber has various sizes. You have wheels as small as 24″ for juniors, and then it goes to 26″, 27.5″, and 29″ for tall adults. This is excellent from Schwinn, and it makes the bike much more suited to your height and size. On the standard models, you have rim brakes which are going to give you ok stopping power, and on the ALX, you get disc brakes which are much better at stopping and in all conditions. The brakes are rim brakes on the Mesa 3, but on the Mesa 2, you get mechanical disc brakes which give good stopping power.
Like the other bikes, the Traxion has a Shimano triple front crank, but it is equipped with an 8-speed cassette on the rear. It’s going to give you a few more gears for those demanding climbs. The lower the number, the better schwinn bicycles components that the bike has. They come with front suspension, typically a Zoom fork with 60mm of travel. It is going to dampen light bumps but not something you’re going to want to take to a downhill mountain bike course.