2-in-1 cross trainer and exercise bikes: should you buy one?

What is a 2-in-1 cross trainer and exercise bike?

A 2-in-1 is a single compact machine with elliptical-style foot plates, moving arm handles and a saddle. Sit on the saddle and pedal, and it works like an exercise bike. Stand up and stride, and it works like a small cross trainer. The Argos Opti style of machine is the best-known shape of the idea.

The appeal is honest and obvious: two movement patterns, one footprint, one price. The catch is just as honest, and it is mechanical rather than a matter of opinion: both movements have to share one frame, one stride path and one budget, and each gives something up to make room for the other. The rest of this page is about exactly what gets given up, and whether that trade is right for you.

Should you buy a 2-in-1, or two separate machines?

For most people: buy one machine that does its job properly, not one that does two jobs halfway. That is the plain answer, and it is the one a well-watched page-one video reaches about the best-known combo on the UK market. A machine designed around a single movement spends its whole frame, its whole stride path and its whole budget on that movement. A combo splits all three.

If the movement you want is riding, a dedicated bike costs less than you might think: our value exercise bikes start at £59.99 including VAT, and every bike in our full exercise bike range was built to do one job well. If the movement you want is striding, buy a dedicated cross trainer, and we will be straight with you: we do not sell one. That is the honest version of this page, both halves of it.

The 2-in-1 earns its place for one reader in particular, and we describe that reader properly further down, without pretending it is everyone.

What do you give up with a combo machine?

Four things, and none of them is a matter of taste. They follow from the design, which is why no brand escapes them:

• Stride length. A real cross trainer gives its pedals a long, flat, gliding path. On a combo, the saddle sits where that path would swing, so the stride stays short and the standing motion feels closer to stepping on the spot than to the glide of a gym elliptical. The stride length is in every published specification: compare it to a dedicated machine's and the compromise is visible before you buy.
• Riding position. A real bike puts a saddle over ordinary pedals at the right height and reach. A combo perches the saddle behind and above an elliptical mechanism, so the seated geometry is a compromise too: most riders find it less comfortable over half an hour than a machine that was only ever a bike.
• Moving parts. Two movement patterns need more joints, more linkages and more pivots, all doing double duty. More moving parts means more to wear, more to work loose and more to squeak, which is why the warranty section below matters more here than on a one-job machine.
• Build quality at the price. This is arithmetic, not cynicism: at any given price, a combo splits the budget across two mechanisms, so each one gets roughly half of what a dedicated machine spends on doing its single job properly.

None of that makes a 2-in-1 a bad product. It makes it a compromise, and a compromise is exactly the right buy for the person whose constraints match it.

Who does a 2-in-1 genuinely suit?

You, honestly, if all three of these are true: you want both movement patterns, seated riding and standing striding; you have room for one machine only; and the budget will not stretch to two machines. For that reader, half of each job in one footprint beats all of one job and none of the other, and no dedicated machine solves your problem. Buy the 2-in-1, use the checklist below to pick a decent one, and enjoy it without a flicker of guilt.

If only the space constraint is real, though, there is a better answer than a combo: a folding bike does its one job properly and then gets out of the room. Our compact folding bikes stand behind a door between rides, and the FoldFit X1 at £179.99 folds flat with 16 levels of quiet magnetic resistance. Space solved, nothing compromised.

What is better, a cross trainer or an exercise bike?

As two separate machines: a cross trainer works more of the body and loads the bones because you stand on it, while a bike is seated, lower impact and kinder to sore knees. That question deserves its own page rather than a paragraph here, and it has one: our guide to the exercise bike against the cross trainer compares them properly, with the honest cases for each. This page stays on the combo question.

Will 20 minutes a day help me lose weight?

It can, on any of these machines, as part of a calorie deficit kept up over weeks: the machine burns the calories, the deficit does the losing, and twenty daily minutes is a genuinely useful habit. Our guide answers can a bike help you lose weight properly, including the pace to expect.

If you decide you want one, what should you look for?

Genuinely useful, then: if the 2-in-1 is the right call for your constraints, here is how to pick a decent one, all from the published specification sheet:

• Stride length, first and always. It is the number that decides whether the standing motion glides or steps. Longer is better; compare it against a dedicated cross trainer's published stride so you know the size of the compromise you are accepting.
• Maximum user weight. A combo's frame carries you standing and moving, not just seated, so treat the published limit with respect and leave a margin.
• Resistance type and range. Magnetic resistance runs quiet with nothing rubbing; check how many levels, and remember one maker's level 8 is not another's.
• Footprint and weight. Measure your actual floor space, and the route into the room. One footprint is the whole point of the machine, so make sure it genuinely fits.
• Warranty, and read it properly. More moving parts means more that can wear, so a combo needs a better warranty than a one-job machine, not a worse one.

And if working through that list has quietly talked you into a machine that does one job properly instead, our upright exercise bikes are where the straightforward, sit-on-and-pedal answer lives.

The 2-in-1 against dedicated machines, from published specifications

Compare the whole range

Every bike we stock, side by side. All prices include VAT.

2-in-1 machine questions, answered

Keep reading

• Bike or cross trainer, compared properly
• Fold-away bikes when space is the problem
• Bikes from £59.99 when budget is the problem
• Browse every bike we sell
• How free UK delivery works