My partner and I are doing the ubiquitous "It's coming up to New Year's, we're in terrible shape, and with COVID, we don't want to/can't hit the gym". We've narrowed it down to a stationary bike because as we hope we can stick with it enough that when spring time rolls around, we can pick up some used road bikes and hit the Twin Cities trails.

She's become fixated on the NordicTrack s22i. She loves that it:

• Supports her ~300lb weight
• Likes the iFit classes that automatically adjust simulated incline and resistance based on the ride

I don't love that:

• You're stuck with NordicTrack's service to use the display at all; no way to pipe in an external video feed, or even use hulu, netflix, youtube, etc.
• If I'm going to spend $2k on a bike, I'd rather be spending $2k on the BIKE, not a fenced-in infrastructure on a machine that I only like so-so.

My googling hasn't really turned up any alternatives, but thought I would turn to the enthusiasts to see if anyone's heard of anything potentially in near-term development that would give us the best of both worlds.

I really like the idea of Apple's more open Fitness Plus ecosystem, but they currently don't have any true integration with any equipment that could achieve what NordicTrack (and probably Peloton) have with real-time synchronization of a ride simulation with the bike's resistance (and simulated incline).

Any word of something like that in the works, or should I just give in to the lady and bite the bullet on the NordicTrack? Other suggestions or alternatives?