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As the upgraded version of Stamina’s popular CPS 1305 design, the Stamina CPS 9190 Indoor Cycle Trainer includes a number of improvements, including a heavier flywheel, increased weight limit, and a greater range of adjustment options.
Our review takes a look at these new features in more detail, in addition to the assembly options, and a summary of the customer reviews. We’ve also included a comparison with the Sunny B1002 spin bike, to find out which is the best option in terms of features and value for money.
Design features
If you’ve already carried out some basic research into spin bikes, you might notice that are based around a similar design. So what is it that makes the Stamina CPS 9190 different?
The slim frame profile creates a bike that’s lighter to move around, yet stronger than many of the bikes at this price range, with a weight limit of 300 pounds.
The seat and handlebars also offer vertical height adjustment options, with the saddle also featuring fore and aft settings for influencing how far you sit from the pedals.
Unfortunately the handlebars don’t provide this option, but anyone up to 6 ft tall can still use this bike quite comfortably without feeling restricted.
Another area of design to check before buying is the foot pedals, as some upright bikes don’t provide straps to prevent your feet from slipping, which can have a big impact on your workouts.
In this case, straps have been integrated into the pedals to ensure that your toes are always comfortably inside the cages provided, allowing for a more efficient transfer of power from your legs to the chain drive system.
22 lb Flywheel and resistance system
When choosing a new spin bike for your home gym, there are really two main types of drive system, and two main types of resistance system.
The drive system is what transfers the energy from your pedaling motion into movement in the flywheel.
Like a road bike, the CPS 9190 uses a chain driven system, but belt driven systems are also available, usually found on much higher priced bikes.
Although chain drive systems are slightly noisier than the belt drive version, they still carry out the same basic function, and you shouldn’t notice too much of a difference.
The weight of the flywheel plays a much more important role in the quality of your cycling workouts, and is something we look at in much more detail later in our review, when we compare this bike to one of the highest rated designs from Sunny Health and Fitness.
In terms of the resistance system, the CPS 9190 uses a single friction pad and manual adjustment knob to adjust how much pressure this applies to the flywheel.
Although magnetic resistance bikes are also available, these tend to be much more expensive.
Stamina CPS 9190 – Features Summary
- Indoor cycle bike brings cardiovascular rigors of road bike training into the convenience of your home
- Rigid steel construction lets you stand up and pedal
- 22-pound cast flywheel
- Horizontally and vertically adjustable seat
- No-slip, adjustable, black, vinyl-dipped handlebars
- Wide range of tension adjustments
- Smooth, quiet pedal bearings
- Adjustable shoe clips for upward and downward resistance
- Emergency brake tension knob
- Water bottle holder
- Wheeled for easy portability
Fitness monitor upgrade
Depending on your budget, you may have already come across other spin bikes that offer a display console, which acts as a useful way to track important workout information.
Unfortunately the Stamina CPS 9190 doesn’t offer this feature as standard, but does provide a sensor clip, which is attached to one of the frame uprights alongside the flywheel.
This allows you to keep track of measurements such as distance, time, and current / max / average speed. One of the best designs we’ve come across for this is the Velo 7 bike monitor by CatEye.
Designed primarily for outdoor road bikes, this can also be used with the CPS 9190 due to its sensor being a small round bar, compatible with the sensor clip on this bike.
But when you’re paying close to $400 for the bike, do you really need the extra expense of a monitor? Fortunately this particular model is available for less than $20, with a clear LCD screen that makes it excellent value for money.
Ease of assembly
In terms of the quality of assembly instructions, Stamina Products actually do a great job of explaining all the steps that are required to get this bike setup and ready for your first workout.
To make things simpler, the bulk of the assembly has already been done for you at the factory, with everything from the chain drive system to the resistance adjustment knob already attached.
All that’s required when you unpack all the different parts is to attach the base stabilizers, seat, pedals, and handlebars.
It would probably be possible to have the bike arrive with the setup already complete, but it really doesn’t take long to get these parts attached.
Keeping them separate also saves on shipping costs and reduces the possibility of any damage to the bike when it’s in transit.
Despite the user manual having nearly 20 pages, it takes just 2 to explain the required assembly steps. Full parts references, textual instructions, and exploded drawings are also provided for clarity.
Overall, with the simplicity of the remaining steps, quality of instructions, and feedback from other reviewers, this shouldn’t take any longer than 20 to 30 minutes to complete.
Stamina CPS 9190 vs. Sunny SF-B1002
Usually available for just under $400, this places the Stamina CPS 9190 in a very competitive price range, which also contains designs from leading budget spin bike developer Sunny Health and Fitness.
Because Sunny have such a wide range of highly successful exercise bikes available for under the $400 mark, we wanted to find a design that closely matched the CPS 9190 in terms of price.
The vast majority of Sunny’s bikes actually fall into this price range, but the one that we’ve chosen to use as a comparison is the Sunny SF-B1002.
At the time of this review both bikes are available for close to $380, offering similar features in terms of the style of bike and range of adjustment options.
Neither bike offers a display console, although this is to be expected from most spin bikes at this price range, and doesn’t impact on your ability to get an effective cardio workout.
One of the main differences we noticed was in the size of the flywheel. While the Stamina bike flywheel weighs in at 22 lbs, the SF-B1002 weighs in at more than double this, with a weight of 49 lbs.
Although this added weight will make the bike heavier to move around and only add a small amount of additional resistance, it does allow you to build up greater momentum, leading to a smoother cycling motion that closely emulates an outdoor road bike.
This feeling of a smooth cycle is further enhanced by the SF-B1002 using a belt-driven system, rather than chain-driven.
The fact that the CPS 9190 uses a chain drive system didn’t particularly surprise us, as it’s the system of choice for all of the earlier Sunny spin bikes, but it does emphasize how much the Sunny bike represents excellent value for money.
Both bikes also provide transport wheels and a similar style of ergonomic handlebars, together with a single friction pad resistance system.
The only other area where these bikes really vary is in the weight capacity. The CPS 9190 has a limit of 300 lbs, which is 25 lbs heavier than the Sunny model.
Customer reviews
It’s fair to say that the Stamina CPS 9190 has a bit more of a mixed history in terms of its customer review ratings.
Unfortunately it doesn’t carry the same level of popularity as the spin bikes from Sunny Health and Fitness, so it was difficult for us to build up too much of a picture on what other people like and disliked.
That being said, we did still manage to find a few useful reviews on Amazon, which are well written and long enough to gain some important insights.
After reading through each of these reviews ourselves, we’ve put together the following summary of pros and cons:
Pros:
- Assembly is quick and easy – the bike arrives with 90% of the parts already pre-assembled
- Bike frame is heavy enough to prevent any unwanted movement while you cycle
- Wide range of seat and handlebar adjustment options lock securely in place to create a comfortable cycling position
- Resistance is easily adjustable using the resistance knob and friction pad
- Transport wheels make the bike more portable, which is useful if you need to move it between rooms
Cons:
- Handlebar and seat adjustments are ideal for user heights to just over 6ft. Any taller and you probably won’t find a suitable cycling position
- Handlebars have no horizontal adjustment, only vertical
- No display console for monitoring basic workout information
- Seat can feel quite hard over the course of longer workouts
- Chain driven instead of belt driven. This isn’t necessarily an issue, but worth knowing that belt driven spin bikes are available in this price range
What’s covered by the warranty?
- Frame: 3 years
- Parts: 90 days
Review Overview
Overall Review Rating
3.5 / 5
Compared with their earlier CPS 1305 bike, the Stamina CPS 9190 does show a number of important improvements.
That being said, the use of a chain drive system and 22 lb flywheel makes it feel like this bike would be more competitive if it was priced closer to the $300 level, rather than $400.
This became clearer once we started our comparison with bikes in the range from Sunny Health and Fitness, which tend to offer a much greater range of features for the price.
That being said, the warranty is a lot more impressive, with 3 years coverage on the frame compared to the 1 year offered on the Sunny SF-B1002.
Overall, the overall build quality, warranty, adjustment options, high weight limit, and compatibility with fitness monitors are certainly attractive features to have. But we still feel this isn't quite enough to match up to bikes of an equivalent price in the Sunny range.
Product dimensions: 49" (L) x 19" (W) x 36.75" (H) Product weight: 80 lbs Weight limit: 300 lbs
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