Exercise bike accessories: what you actually need
Most people need one or two exercise bike accessories, not a shopping list: something that makes the seat bearable, something under the bike if the floor demands it, and something to watch. This page is honest about which is which, tells you when you do not need a mat at all, and explains the one thing every spare-parts page on the internet skips: how to check what actually fits your bike before you order. Our first two accessories, a gel seat cover at £12.99 and a floor mat at £24.99, are coming soon, with free UK delivery doing the arithmetic no one else's delivery charge can.
- Free UK delivery
- Interest-free instalments
- 2 year warranty
- 14 day returns
- Ships part-assembled, tools included
What accessories do you actually need for an exercise bike?
One or two, honestly. Three things genuinely change the experience of riding at home: comfort where you sit, protection and quiet where the bike stands, and something in front of your eyes so the minutes pass. Everything else on an accessories page is optional at best. We would rather tell you that and sell you the right two things than list twenty.
Worth saying before any of it: an accessory cannot do the exercising. Losing weight is a calorie deficit kept up over weeks, which our guide to exercise bikes and weight loss covers honestly, and even 15 minutes a day genuinely counts, which is the whole point of our guide to how long to spend on an exercise bike. The kit below just makes those minutes more comfortable.
The seat is the first thing people fix
This is first-hand rather than a study: our owner rode every bike we sell, and on several of them the seat, not his legs, set the limit at around 15 minutes in one sitting. Saddle comfort is the most common complaint on any exercise bike, whatever the brand, and it is why a padded cover is the most-bought accessory in the category.
The honest first step is free, though: a saddle at the wrong height puts your weight in the wrong place, and fixing the height fixes some discomfort before you spend a penny. Our guide to setting your bike up properly shows the thirty-second method. If the seat still fights you after that, a gel cover is the answer: ours pairs gel with memory foam over a non-slip underside, fits standard exercise bike saddles, and will be £12.99 including VAT when it lands.
The underside does the quiet work: an anti-slip surface and a drawstring that stops the cover wandering mid-ride.
Do you need a mat under an exercise bike?
Not always, and we will happily talk you out of one. On carpet, with a lighter bike, on the ground floor, you can usually skip the mat entirely: the carpet already protects the floor and takes the edge off the noise. That covers a lot of the folding and upright bikes people actually buy, including our fold-away bikes for small rooms.
A mat earns its place in three situations: hard floors, where it stops scratches and creeping; upstairs rooms and flats, where it damps the drum of a session travelling through the floor; and heavier or harder-ridden bikes, where it steadies the machine and catches the sweat. Ours is high-density PVC, non-slip, and will be £24.99 including VAT when it lands.
On carpet a mat is often optional. On hard or upstairs floors it earns its keep.
Spare parts: what wears out, and how to check what fits
Pedals and their straps wear first on most exercise bikes, then the seat. If something on your bike has worn or snapped, the entire question is fitment, and it is the question every spare-parts page on this subject skips. So here is the honest version.
Exercise bike pedals are not all the same thread. They come in 9/16 inch, 1/2 inch and M14, which is exactly why suppliers sell pedals with two sizes in one listing title. Before ordering any pedal, check your bike's manual for the thread size, or the markings on the old pedal itself. If neither tells you, ask us with your bike's model name and we will help you work it out.
The left pedal is reverse-threaded. Pedals are handed, marked L and R, and the left one tightens anticlockwise. Forcing the left pedal the wrong way is how threads get stripped, and a stripped crank thread is a far more expensive repair than a pedal. Turn the left pedal clockwise to loosen it, anticlockwise to tighten.
The replacement pedal fitted to a crank. Check the thread before ordering, not after.
The spindle is the part that decides fitment: its thread must match your crank.
We will stock replacement pedals with an adjustable PVC strap, a PP body, a ball-bearing spindle, at 14 x 13 x 6 cm, marked L and R. The price is being confirmed and we will publish it when it is set, rather than print a number now and change it later. If you need pedals before then, send us your bike's model and we will point you at the right thread.
How do you stop getting bored on an exercise bike?
Give your eyes something to do and your legs a pattern to follow: that is the whole trick, and it is an accessories question more than a willpower one. Put a phone or tablet where you can watch it comfortably, or position the bike facing the television. It is a genuine reason to pick a bike with a holder built in: our FoldFit X1 carries your phone or tablet at eye level, and its quiet magnetic resistance means you can actually hear the programme, which is where a mat's noise-damping helps the people downstairs too.
The other half is structure. A twenty-minute ride with intervals in it, short harder efforts with easy spinning between, passes far faster than the same twenty minutes at one pace. Our indoor bike workout ideas give you sessions to follow on any bike, no subscription required.
The first two accessories
Coming soonGel exercise bike seat cover
Gel and memory foam over a non-slip underside, sized for standard exercise bike saddles.
Coming soonExercise bike floor mat
High-density PVC that grips the floor, protects it, and damps the noise of a session.
Neither is in stock today, and we would rather say so than show a buy button we cannot honour. No arrival date yet either: we will publish one when the shipment is real, not before. Prices include VAT and delivery is free across the UK, which on small items is most of the argument, as the table below shows.
The real price is the price plus delivery
On a cheap accessory, the delivery charge is the decision. A £4.95 delivery fee on a £10 seat cover is a 50% surcharge, and it is the part of the price that only appears at checkout. We checked the totals at Argos on 19 July 2026; ours include delivery because UK delivery is free on everything we sell.
| Item | Price | Delivery | Real total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our gel seat cover | £12.99 | Free | £12.99 |
| Argos, Rolson gel seat cover | £10.00 | £4.95 | £14.95 |
| Argos, Challenge memory foam cover | £12.00 | £4.95 | £16.95 |
| Our exercise bike floor mat | £24.99 | Free | £24.99 |
| Argos, Adidas 5mm bike and cross trainer mat | £30.00 | Charged | £30.00 plus delivery |
| Argos, Reebok 6mm bike and cross trainer mat | £35.00 | Charged | £35.00 plus delivery |
Competitor prices checked at argos.co.uk on 19 July 2026 and may have changed since. Our prices include VAT and free UK delivery. Browse every exercise bike we sell for the machines these fit.