Is my current and planned exercise bike too small for me?

^^^^ agreed

Have a look here for what a proper fit looks like http://bikedynamics.co.uk/guidelines.htm

I'll also second the LeMonds....they're a bit pricy but a Revmaster will be the last exercise bike you will ever buy (you might be able to find one used), that's what we use at my tri club and they they get the crap beat out of them day in and day out and come back for more.

An alternative you could consider would be an indoor trainer (if you already own a road bike that fits you properly) that you could mount your bike on during the winter to ride indoors (it may also make sense financially to buy a used bike and trainer rather than an exercise bike, that way if you decide to ride outside in the summer you have a bike you can use)

Thanks guys - looks like you've confirmed what I suspected. I'm surprised in a way as I don't consider my height to be that tall and would expect "off the shelf" exercise bikes to be fine.

The LeMond is way out of my price bracket - I'll reconsider my options.....

Without knowing where you live, this could be a long shot but.....if you're patient you can probably find a great deal on an older steel framed road bike (I've seen some really good older bikes selling for $50 to $100) and a used indoor trainer and it will probably be less than an exercise bike and give you a far more realistic riding experience.

Thanks guys - looks like you've confirmed what I suspected. I'm surprised in a way as I don't consider my height to be that tall and would expect "off the shelf" exercise bikes to be fine.

The LeMond is way out of my price bracket - I'll reconsider my options.....

In the picture you linked, your toe is barely in the strap on the pedal and the your heel is quite high in what we would call a pretty severe "toe up" position at the bottom of the pedal stroke. It's not that "toe up" is not a position favored by some, but if you could get your foot into the strap so the ball of the foot is over the center of the pedal axle - and search for a more "flat foot" position at the bottom of the pedal stroke - it would "lengthen" your leg and lessen the angle of the knee bend to what might be an acceptable position.



Could you try that and take another picture to link for us? If you could loosen those stirrup straps enough to work your shoe in so that your foot is more over the pedal, I think it would help the toe up position shown in the picture above and "lengthen your leg" a bit so that the knee is not so severely bent.

Take a look at this foot at the bottom of the stroke where the heel is not so high as yours. See if you can mimic that.



Another option is to monkey with a DIY solution to get the saddle just a bit higher and back to help with that knee angle. The particular exercise bike that is shown in the picture does not have a very stable base being so short in length, so going really hard, or standing and doing out of saddle efforts may be a bit risky. With the suggestions above, there may be a way to make it work a bit better if you can get the feet more into the stirrups, a flatter foot position at the bottom - and perhaps a bit more saddle height.

You are just enough taller than the "average" height that the exercise industry targets for their equipment. So it is no surprise that at 6'2" you are having fit issues. Looks like you carry a lot of your height in your legs as well which may put you even more out of the "average" range that most of the lower end, entry level exercise bikes produced by companies are designed to fit.

US Male Population Height Chart shows that the demographics - or target audience in terms of sales for companies - favor those who are less than 6'1". This problem exists not only in exercise equipment, but also for actual bikes as well. Even though the chart is US Male specific, it's not much different on your side of the pond.