ProForm Carbon Pro10 Exercise Bike Review | Pros and Cons
Reviewed by TreadmillReviews.com
Let iFIT take the guesswork out of your workouts: Train smarter with the ProForm Carbon Pro10.
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Let iFIT take the guesswork out of your workouts: Train smarter with the ProForm Carbon Pro10.
Updated: May 16, 2025
I remember the rise of virtual fitness classes and boutique fitness. Both felt exclusive because of their prohibitive cost, at least for me, a young athlete and aspiring coach. While the ProForm Carbon Pro10 is by no means a budget-friendly exercise bike, it’s about half the cost of the top smart exercise bikes.
The ProForm Carbon Pro10 is an iFIT bike, meaning that iFIT provides all of the training content when you subscribe monthly. It’s a great value for someone who wants high-end trainer-led classes. It’s almost as good as having a coach, and it’s a pretty good alternative to a traditional gym membership.
Discover why you should (or should not) consider the ProForm Carbon Pro10 as an addition to your home fitness program below.
ProForm often takes a backseat to its sister brand, NordicTrack. But ProForm has some real gems that make them even better for their lower price. The ProForm Carbon Pro10 is a great first step into iFIT’s high-tech fitness platform. It has everything you need to get started.
The ProForm Carbon Pro10 isn’t as bulky as some of the other exercise bikes out there, which makes it easier to move around. It has two stabilizers. The front stabilizer has transport wheels, and the rear stabilizer has adjustable leveling feet to help you get it secure even if your space has uneven floors.
I was a little disappointed with the 250-lb weight capacity. I think that number is realistic for this construction, but it is under the industry standard of 300 lbs. However, many will view it as a fair tradeoff for the tech features the Carbon Pro10 offers.
New cyclists may need to swap out the saddle on this bike. It is a little narrow and firm for my liking. Fortunately, replacing it with your favorite road bike saddle is totally doable, and I recommend it.
The saddle adjusts horizontally and vertically. I wish it adjusted forward a little more to help me get a better alignment with my ankles and knees, but I think a different saddle might help with this issue, too. The current saddle being narrow forced me to sit back even further on the saddle than I normally like to.
This exercise bike should suit most statures. By my measurements, it should fit those around 5’ tall to a little over 6’ tall. However, shorter users may feel like the pedals are a little far forward, as I did at 5’4”.
I like the handlebars. They feel nice and sturdy. They adjust up and down as well as forward and backward. The texture kept my hands from sliding around while I was training. I felt comfortable holding the handlebars.
The pedals are hybrid, meaning they have flat pedals with toe cages on one side and SPD clips on the other. The flat pedals work great for just about any athletic shoe, while the other side will need SPD-compatible cycling shoes, of course. You can also upgrade them in the future if you decide which type of pedal you want to stick with.
When choosing a studio cycle or exercise bike, you generally have two resistance options: friction or magnetic. Friction has the benefit of having unlimited levels and difficulty, but it does not usually support automatic resistance changes and requires more maintenance. The Carbon Pro10 has 22 magnetic resistance levels that are quiet and powerful.
Many exercise bike competitors have up to 100 resistance levels. I am a little disappointed with the Pro10 having only 22 levels, but the easiest and hardest levels are different enough to offer a good range. You just have fewer levels in between these two extremes.
Magnetic resistance works by changing the distance between the flywheel and a set of magnets. The closer the magnets are, the more challenging the resistance becomes.
The flywheel on the Carbon Pro10 weighs 24 lbs. This weight is decent and creates a smooth pedaling experience. Since this bike uses a heavy flywheel and does not allow freewheeling (the flywheel spinning without the pedals moving), it has a manual friction brake to stop the flywheel.
Use the brake to stop or slow the heavy flywheel when making large speed changes to prevent your legs from being dragged around and around.
ProForm pared down the offscreen features on the Carbon Pro10 compared to other iFIT bikes to keep the cost low. Everything essential is still there, and the balance they have reached makes sense for this price range.
Buttons? What are those? The ProForm Carbon Pro10 has no offscreen buttons, keeping you engaged with the touchscreen every pedal stroke of the way. It doesn’t even have a resistance knob or any other offscreen resistance control. It’s all accessible on the screen or with the many auto features that make it easy to train hands-free on the Carbon Pro10.
The screen is 10”, which is the minimum size I like for a bike like this. Any smaller and it gets difficult to interact with, and you end up hitting buttons you don’t mean to. This screen is nice, and it rotates and tilts so you can view it more easily. You can even rotate the screen for off-bike viewing when you take iFIT strength or yoga classes.
There are too many buttons on the ProForm Carbon Pro10’s screen to talk about them all. However, I can assure you that the navigation system is rather good. While there is a lot to take in initially, iFIT provides everything you need for a successful workout.
You can’t have onscreen classes without audio. The ProForm Carbon Pro10 has a set of front-facing speakers. I had no trouble hearing the iFIT class audio or any of the entertainment options. In fact, you can control the two audio options separately, so you get the right mix of them based on your desired experience.
If you are worried about disturbing others around you, you can pair Bluetooth headphones to the bike. Most devices should pair easily.
Bluetooth also allows you to connect a compatible Bluetooth heart rate monitor.
Note: Apple watches are not compatible with the ProForm Carbon Pro10, as the bike does not have Apple GymKit.
The bike comes with two 3-lb dumbbells at no extra cost. These can be stored in the dumbbell rack behind the saddle. The dumbbell rack isn’t as secure as I would like. The dumbbells fall out too easily when you move the bike or adjust the saddle, so you should remove the dumbbells before doing either.
I wish the dumbbell rack had a bottom support to keep the dumbbells from slipping through so easily.
The water bottle holder is wire, so it will hold a cycling bottle but not your phone. There is no other storage on the Carbon Pro10, making it hard to keep your phone nearby, though there happens to be a USB-C charging port on the side of the console.
Price right with the top tech features, this bike is a great pick for a beginner to intermediate cyclist.
The ProForm Carbon Pro10 isn’t as flashy as some of the other iFIT bikes. It has a smaller screen, and it doesn’t incline/decline. Yet, I think that’s part of the appeal. This bike is perfect for anyone who wants the bare minimum for accessing iFIT to obtain the best value. As a result, it’s a great pick for beginner to intermediate cyclists.
Cycling on the ProForm Carbon Pro10 isn’t much different from using bikes that cost two or three times more. The only downside for me was the firm seat, which I would replace if this were my personal bike. But overall, it’s an enjoyable ride that just makes sense if you want premium content at a more reasonable price.
Sometimes, I catch some flak for harping on iFIT when I talk about iFIT-compatible equipment. But my reason for doing so is that I think you need to love iFIT to buy an iFIT bike (or other cardio machine). Your training options are really limited on the Carbon Pro10 if you choose not to subscribe, so I want to give you the best picture of what iFIT is before you buy.
iFIT is a subscription-based fitness platform or app that has thousands of classes led by expert trainers. If you subscribe for $39/month, you get access to iFIT’s entire library of cycling classes, as well as those for the treadmill, elliptical, strength training, yoga, and more.
Your typical iFIT cycling class follows one coach as they ride on a beautiful trail or road route. iFIT has filmed in so many different countries that you can explore virtually anywhere (pun intended). There are also studio classes, but they aren’t iFIT’s primary focus.
iFIT differentiates itself from competitors by focusing on scenic outdoor classes.
The resistance automatically adjusts in these classes to follow the presets, or if you have SmartAdjust enabled, the class will become more tailored to your fitness level. Any time you override the presets, iFIT will remember and adjust the class and future classes accordingly.
I like that iFIT adjusts the resistance for you so you can focus on your ride rather than hitting buttons or twisting a resistance knob.
There are so many classes on iFIT that it can be easy to get overwhelmed. Fortunately, iFIT has a great search feature with filters to help you find an environment or coach that you like. You can even set the difficulty level you are looking for or the duration. If you are still having trouble, you can try the AI coach feature which will recommend and schedule classes for you.
AI Coach Tailor communicates with you via text message to learn your goals and give you fitness advice. Tailor can easily schedule workouts for you, saving you time.
If you need a break from iFIT classes at any point, there are a few other types of workouts you can do with an iFIT membership. Of course, you can just train in manual mode/quick start mode, where you see a track and your metrics, too.
You can create a custom interval or target workout.
The Google Maps feature allows you to draw a route anywhere in the world that Google has data. Then, the bike resistance will adjust to replicate the terrain of riding along that route. For instance, if the route has a steep hill, the bike resistance will become challenging.
A little indicator progresses along the route, synced to our speed, to track your progress.
My favorite alternative to iFIT classes is the entertainment. The Carbon Pro10 has Netflix, Prime Video, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, Pluto TV, and iHeartRadio apps. These can be watched alongside any of the other content options, so you can actually have an iFIT class running with automatic resistance while streaming Netflix or one of the other apps.
Without an iFIT membership, the bike is still usable but has limited features. You lose access to all of the apps if you unsubscribe, and the only workout options are a few featured iFIT classes, a few preset workouts, and manual mode (11 total workouts, last time I checked).
If you don’t create an iFIT account at all, I recommend not connecting the bike to Wi-Fi so that getting into a workout is easier. Then, you can only train in manual mode.
Overall, iFIT is a great value for the indoor cyclist who wants a guided training experience and fun entertainment options. If you prefer something more simplistic, the Carbon Pro10 may not be the right bike for you.
The ProForm Carbo Pro10 is a solid entry into the iFIT-compatible bike lineup for beginner to intermediate cyclists. It’s a better value bike with a lower price than many others but most of the same tech features. It has quiet magnetic resistance and a responsive touchscreen.
If I were to change one thing about the ProForm Carbon Pro10, I would update the seat to be more comfortable. Fortunately, you can swap the saddle it comes with for just about any other road bike saddle you prefer.
iFIT adds to the experience on the Carbon Pro 10, giving you thousands of trainer-led classes for the bike and several entertainment apps. iFIT also has Google Maps routes and a workout builder, which should keep you entertained for miles and miles of cycling. It is a subscription-based service, but it makes a great addition to this bike.
