If you follow a lot of sporting stars on your Insta feed, it’s likely you’ll have already seen the Wattbike atom with one of them perched in the saddle.

Stocking Premier League gyms, Anthony Joshua’s training room and England football’s training base at St George’s, to name just a few, the atom seems to be the bike of choice for elite athletes. That’s perhaps unsurprising when you learn it offers itself up as a training tool, as well as a way to metric current fitness levels via a huge amount of feedback data after every saddle session.

We first saw the atom in 2017, then the next generation of the bike was launched in 2020, where it cemented its reputation as a performance-focussed machine, which seemed less geared to beginners and more to two-wheeled enthusiasts and triathletes who spend most of their summer racing around the roads.

However, the Nottingham-based company has introduced updates to the home screen for the free-of-charge Wattbike app and the bike’s steering. It’s also provided new gearing customisation to deliver a more authentic and immersive indoor cycling experience for all levels, including users who simply want to improve their overall fitness.

We included the bike in this year’s round up of the best exercise bikes for smashing your fitness goals at home and gave it an overall rating of seven, but has the next gen atom now broadened its appeal further with these updates?

How we tested

In order to find out how user-friendly the bike is for all levels we trained on it every day using the Wattbike Hub, as well as third party apps like Zwift and The Sufferfest to really get to grips with what the bike can offer users with different fitness outcomes in mind.

Wattbike atom

Best: For road racers

Footprint: 124cm x 50cm

Weight: 40kg

Power supply: Mains

Digital monitor: No

Connectivity: Bluetooth, ANT+, FTMS

Warranty: 2 years

Buy now £1,999, Wattbike.com

The footprint

Smart exercise bikes are known for being unwieldy space sappers, but Wattbike have tried to make the bike as sleek as possible. However, the necessary inclusions of drop handlebars, aerobars (which double as the tablet/smartphone holder) all underpinned with a big, heavy electromagnetic flywheel means that the atom is not going to go unnoticed. The black and red paint job doesn’t exactly add to the fact that this piece of kit is no shrinking violet.

Thankfully, you don’t have to worry about assembly as the bike is delivered almost ready to ride, all you have to do is lever and Allen key the handlebars, saddle and pedals into position and spend ten minutes customising the bike to an optimum riding position.

The bike

The atom is a solid piece of kit and no matter how hard you’re pushing you’ll never be in danger of toppling over, which will give less experienced riders one less thing to worry about so that they can just concentrate on riding performance.

Seasoned bikers might be less enamoured with this characteristic, and wish that the bike could replicate a road bike a little more realistically with some lateral movement to help connect the rider more with the workout and the bike itself.

The software

There are a number of options, including the brand’s own Hub app, which has just been updated by the Wattbike team to include features like workout challenges and recommended workouts devised by leading cycling coaches. For the less experienced this is a great way to utilise what the bike has to offer with over 100 workouts, plans, tests and challenges to choose from.

However, there’s no in-built screen so you have to bring your own tablet or smartphone to make the most of the huge amount of data that the atom makes available to riders.

In a landscape where connected fitness machines are all about delivering the most immersive experience possible, the atom has stayed true to its original concept and has eschewed motivational coaches and live ride along classes to focus on training data. And you’re presented with a bewildering amount of it.

As well as all the usual stats like time elapsed, distance covered, RPM and such, it will also tell you about your pedalling dynamics (how efficient and effective it is), power per kilo and a graphic showing the balance between your right and left legs.

In fact, if you’re new to connected workouts and smart biking, it may be a little overwhelming at first. You must persevere, though, because the atom really gives you the opportunity to make the most of your efforts and hack into your fitness levels and cycling technique.

We really liked the training plans that work towards a particular goal over a number of weeks and to supplement this there are warm-ups, cool-downs, HIIT sessions, interval workouts and simulations of climbs made famous by races like the Tour de France.

If you are looking for a more immersive experience the atom also offers hook ups with third-party apps like Zwift and The Sufferfest. Both of which also offer virtual riding experiences with the bike automatically changing the 22 gears inline with the on-screen incline changes. These changes were slick and smooth, which added a real sense of reality to the simulation, whether we were climbing or descending.

The verdict: Wattbike atom

If you’re after an indoor bike to warm you up and cool you down before and after a workout, the atom is definitely not for you. If you’re after an indoor bike that is your workout, then it definitely is. Fitness feedback is unparalleled and it’s this data driven focus that makes the atom stand out from many other connected indoor machines.

If you like your sessions to be accompanied by music and online trainers then you’re going to be disappointed because the Wattbike is more about making you a better rider, as well as improving your overall fitness.

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For miles outdoors, read our review of the best GPS cycling computers that will take your training up a gear

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The Wattbike atom is favoured by pro athletes, but is it geared towards beginners too?

The performance-focussed machine has had an upgrade, so we took it for a spin