Sunny Health & Fitness has a ton of affordable exercise bikes to choose from, but few have become as popular as their aptly named Magnetic Indoor Cycling Bike (model number SF-B1805).
And when you stop and look at what this bike has to offer, it isn’t hard to see why so many folks are falling in love with it.
Highlights of the SF-B1805 include a 44 lb flywheel, infinite levels of magnetic resistance, a belt drive, and fully adjustable handlebars and seat.
This budget-friendly cycle is also surprisingly heavy-duty, something that’s kinda rare in this price range.
Even though the Magnetic Indoor Cycling Bike scores highly when it comes to performance, it’s a bit lacking in the tech department.
And I mean that literally – this cycle doesn’t come with a console.
All things considered, if you’re on the hunt for a solid budget cycle, I think the SF-B1805 is a pretty good choice, but it’s certainly not gonna be for everyone.
But you’ve come to the right place.
In this review, I’ll cover everything this bike does and doesn’t have going for it. I’ll also discuss who I think this cycle would be best for.
After reading, you’ll know whether or not Sunny’s SF-B1805 is worth investing in.
The Sunny Health & Fitness Magnetic Indoor Cycling Bike (SF-B1805)
Sunny Health & Fitness (SHF) is one of the most popular budget brands around and they’ve got a boatload of products to choose from.
They offer a little bit of everything fitness related, but they specialize mainly in cardio equipment.
And they’ve seriously got hundreds of bikes to choose from, it’s crazy.
Without exaggeration, I’ve never come across another brand with more bikes to choose from.
It’s great I guess, but a lot of them look very similar to each other and a lot of ’em also have very generic names, which makes it difficult to tell them apart from each other.
Speaking of names, the bike we’re here to discuss now doesn’t exactly come with a catchy title either.
The only real way to discern a lot of these Sunny bikes apart from each other is to go by their model numbers.
All name shaming aside, I think SHF is a pretty good brand, especially when it comes to really affordable cycles.
Anyway, let’s get to the SF-B1805 already.
Pros
- 44 lb flywheel
- Magnetic resistance system
- Belt drive
- Heavy-duty frame
- 300 lb weight limit
- Fully adjustable seat
- Fully adjustable handlebars
- Device holder
- Water bottle holder
Cons
- No set resistance levels
- No console
- Warranty could be better
Resistance
The SF-B1805 is a magnetic bike, meaning it uses a series of small magnets to create the resistance.
As you turn the resistance dial, these magnets are either moved closer to the spinning flywheel (increasing resistance), or farther away (which decreases resistance).
This works because the flywheel spinning near these magnets happens to be metal.
Magnetic resistance systems are great because they provide smooth, quiet workouts because there’s no contact between the flywheel and the magnets.
This is opposed to friction brake systems, where the resistance is created by the flywheel making physical contact with a felt pad.
Friction brakes can provide great workouts too, but I prefer magnetic systems.
The SF-B1805 pairs this magnetic system with a 44 lb flywheel, which is quite heavy even for spin bike standards.
SHF is known for throwing massive flywheels on their bikes, so if you’re into this, Sunny is certainly a brand you should consider.
And having a really heavy flywheel is especially beneficial on a cheaper bike like this because the extra weight helps create a smoother pedaling motion (more weight means more momentum, which reduces lag between pedal strokes).
And at 44 lb, this bike’s flywheel is easily heavy enough to do just that.
Heavy flywheel, magnetic resistance system, this is all sounding pretty good… but there is something worth considering here – this bike doesn’t have any set resistance levels.
Just like a friction brake system, the SF-B1805 comes with a micro adjusting resistance knob, meaning the magnets simply move based on how much you turn the dial.
This is awesome in the fact that it means you can make really small adjustments to the resistance, but it also means there isn’t anyway to see which “level” you’re on.
Which can make it difficult to reproduce workout settings or follow along with fitness apps that use resistance levels to guide your workout intensity.
Instead of simply setting it to resistance level “8”, you have to go based on how the resistance feels.
This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, it’s more a matter of preference.
This cycle also uses a belt drive (as opposed to a chain drive), which also helps keep the noise level to a minimum during rides.
Overall, the SF-B1805 scores highly with its heavy flywheel and magnetic resistance system, I just want to make sure everyone realizes there aren’t any set resistance levels here.
Frame
One of the biggest disappointments with a lot of affordable cycles is how lightweight they are.
And I get it – I know there are legit reasons why affordable bikes are affordable to begin with, and less material in the frame is a great way to save on production.
But lightweight, wobbly bikes are no fun.
Luckily, checking out a bike’s assembled weight can help separate the lightweight from the heavier weight bikes.
Heavier bikes will be less likely to wiggle or shake during workouts, especially when standing up and pedaling against harder resistances.
Weights on these cycles can vary greatly, but anything weighing over 100 lb is pretty good, especially in this price range.
With that in mind, the SF-B1805 comes in with an assembled weight of roughly 126 lb.
For the sake of comparison, the significantly more expensive Peloton weighs in at around 135 lb (and feels rock solid when riding it).
And Schwinn’s IC4, which costs about 2x as much, only weighs in at 106 lb
That heavy flywheel we mentioned above does add to the total bike weight here, but also keep in mind there’s no huge console contributing to that weight either.
Seeing an assembled weight this high is a good sign, indicating that this cycle is durable and should feel stable during use.
And most users agree this is the case.
The SF-B1805 also comes with a max weight limit of 300 lb, which is actually very average for an indoor cycle, regardless of price range.
And according to Sunny, this bike can accommodate folks with an inseam anywhere between 28″ – 38″.
Otherwise, this cycle is pretty standard in terms of assembled dimensions, requiring a footprint of roughly 4′ x 2′.
Overall, I like how heavy-duty the SF-B1805 – especially considering so many bikes in this price range aren’t.
Warranty
SHF backs their Magnetic Indoor Cycling Bike with the following residential warranty:
- 3 year frame
- 180 day parts
Ok, so in the grand scheme of bikes, this is a really short warranty, but when compared to other bikes in this price range, it isn’t so bad.
Three years on the frame is actually quite a bit longer than the 1 year most comps are offering.
But only 6 months on parts is kinda disappointing, since most brands do offer a year.
But again, cheaper bikes tend to come with shorter warranties.
Overall, Sunny’s warranty here isn’t awful for the price range, but it could certainly be better.
Features
The SF-B1805 comes with the following features:
Fully adjustable seat- you can adjust both the height and horizontal (fore/aft) position of the seat, making it easier to find your optimal riding position.
Fully adjustable handlebars- you can also adjust the height and fore/aft position of the handlebars for even more customization.
Toe-cage pedals- the pedals on the SF-B1805 are designed to be used with sneakers, so you don’t have to worry about wearing cleats to ride or anything like that. Although if you want to wear riding cleats, you could always swap these pedals out pretty easily.
Device holder- there’s a place to put your phone or tablet for easy viewing during workouts.
Water bottle holder- yup, there’s even a place to put your water bottle.
So yeah, it didn’t take too long to list out all the features on this bike because there’s just not much going on here – this is a very simple, low-tech bike.
The most obvious thing missing here is a console, which means you can’t track any metrics like time, distance, or cadence on this cycle.
You could always purchase a cadence sensor separately if you wanted to follow along with Peloton Digital or any other fitness app though.
Price
At the time of writing this, the SF-B1805 is going for $599.98 through SHF directly and for $507 through Amazon.
Personally, I like this bike at $500 more than I do at $600 (duh), but either way, I think it’s fair to say this is a very budget-friendly bike compared to the elite cycles that cost $2k and higher these days.
In this price range, Echelon’s EX-15 is one of its biggest competitors, costing right around $500 itself.
The EX-15 comes with 32 magnetic resistance levels, a lighter flywheel, and a 12 month warranty.
There’s also the JOROTO X2, which costs about $400, and also comes with a micro-adjustable magnetic resistance system, but the flywheel is a little lighter and the bike itself isn’t quite as heavy-duty.
Finally, there’s Schwinn’s IC3, which costs a bit more at around $600 – it comes with a slightly lighter flywheel (40 lb), a small console, and uses a friction brake resistance system, but its warranty is much better.
Overall, I think the SF-B1805 holds its own quite well when compared to some of the other top cycles in this price range.
Final Thoughts
Ok, that’s about all I got.
All things considered, I think the SF-B1805 has a lot going for it for such an affordable cycle.
In terms of performance, I like the heavy flywheel, the belt drive, and the really heavy-duty frame.
I also like the idea of having a magnetic resistance system, although I do prefer having set resistance levels – what can I say, I’ve been spoiled by my Peloton.
This bike obviously doesn’t have much going on in the tech department, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if you’re just looking for a no-BS cycle that’s easy to use.
That said, it would still be nice to see a small LCD console on this bike, you know, just to track time and cadence.
The warranty could also use some work, but again, for this price range, it’s not that bad.
Overall, I think the SF-B1807 is a pretty good buy for this price range.
I think it would work well for folks who are looking for an affordable way to get their cycle on.
You could easily get yourself a cadence sensor and follow along with Peloton Digital on your tablet – talk about an affordable Peloton hack.
