Cubii JR1 vs Stamina InMotion E1000
The two under-desk ellipticals everyone shortlists. They are an inch and a bit apart in height and a hundred pounds apart in what they will carry.
By Stephen V. · Last updated
Check the Cubii JR1’s published 150 lb user limit first — it is the lowest on this site and it settles this for a lot of people. Past that: the Cubii is 1.38 in shorter and publishes a resistance count; the Stamina carries 250 lb and is the only one whose maker publishes its own specifications.
How this page is funded: the buy links here are Amazon affiliate links, and we earn a commission if you buy through one — at no extra cost to you. It does not change what we rank first, because the commission rate is the same across every machine on this page. Full disclosure.
The table first
| Model | In use (L x W x H) | Unit weight | Max user | Resistance levels | Published noise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cubii JR1 | 23.2" L x 17.56" W x 10" Hretail listing | Not publishednot published | 150 lbretail listing | 8retail listing | Not publishednot published |
| Stamina InMotion E1000 | 24.5" L x 17" W x 11.38" Hmanufacturer spec | 24 lbmanufacturer spec | 250 lbmanufacturer spec | Not publishednot published | Not publishednot published |
Cubii JR1
Low-impact seated motion
An elliptical stroke instead of a circular one, which keeps the knee lower — and it is the only seated machine here that publishes a user weight limit.
Stamina InMotion E1000
The most complete published spec
The only seated machine here whose maker publishes dimensions, unit weight and a user weight limit together — and the tallest of the three, at 11.38 inches.
Price as of August 18, 2026. #ad How we’re funded
Start with 150 lb, because it may end this
The Cubii JR1 publishes a 150 lb maximum user weight. That is the lowest published limit of anything on this site by 70 lb. It is stated on the listing rather than hidden, and it is not something the marketing draws attention to.
A capacity figure on a machine you load through two pedals is not a guideline. If you are over it, the comparison is over — and the Stamina publishes 250 lb, which covers a far larger share of buyers, and adds that the frame is rated for standing use as well as seated. Every published capacity on this site, in one table.
Worth naming the third option while we are here: the Cubii Move, the lowest machine of the three at 9.5 inches, publishes no user weight limit at all— not from Cubii and not from the retailer. A low stated number can be checked and rejected. An absent one cannot.
1.38 inches, and why it is the whole fit question
10 inches against 11.38. On any other kind of machine that would be trivia. Under a desk it is the entire product, because the space you are fitting into is fixed and small: floor to the underside of the apron, minus the machine, minus the vertical distance your knee travels through the stroke.
A standard desk sits around 29 to 30 inches to the top, and the apron or frame rail underneath can take three or four inches off that before you start. Once you subtract an 11.38 inch machine, what is left has to accommodate a thigh in motion. This is why returns in this category are overwhelmingly fit failures rather than quality complaints.
Neither maker publishes a stride length, so neither lets you compute the knee travel you would need to check properly. What we can say is that the elliptical path in both machines flattens the pedal motion into an oval, which raises the knee less than a full pedal circle does on an under-desk bike. The four measurements to take before you order either one.
Where the numbers come from matters as much as what they say
This is the difference that decided our own ranking of the two, and it is invisible in a feature list.
Stamina publishes its own specifications. Dimensions, product weight and user capacity all appear on staminaproducts.com. It is the only seated machine on this site where all three come from the manufacturer.
Cubii does not.The JR1’s dimensions, capacity and resistance-level count on our table all carry the provenance label “retail listing”, because Cubii’s own product page publishes no dimensions. For the brand that effectively defined this category, that is an odd gap, and it is the same gap we found on the Cubii Move.
A retailer’s spec table is better than nothing and worse than the maker’s. The retailer did not build the machine, cannot be held to the figure, and changes it without telling anyone. What each brand in this category will and will not publish.
What neither of them will tell you
Three things are missing from both spec sheets, and no page that compares these machines can honestly supply them:
- Stride length. The number that would let you calculate knee travel. Absent from both.
- Resistance range. Cubii gives eight levels without saying how hard level eight is; Stamina gives no count at all.
- Any noise figure. Both listings use quiet as an adjective. Neither attaches a decibel number to it, so a comparison on noise is not available at any price.
What is structurally true of both: there is no footfall. Nothing lands, so nothing transmits impact into the floor structure — which is why a seated machine is the honest answer for a shared room or an upstairs apartment, whichever of these two you take. Why that matters more than any decibel claim.
So which one
Buy the Stamina InMotion E1000 unless your desk clearance is genuinely marginal. It publishes more, carries 100 lb more, weighs a documented 24 lb, and its pedals reverse. It is our pick among under-desk ellipticals for exactly those reasons.
Buy the Cubii JR1if you have measured your knee well and 11.38 inches will not go, or if you want the narrower machine — 17.56 inches against 17, which is close, though the Cubii is also 23.2 inches deep against 24.5, so it sits slightly less far back. Only buy it if you are comfortably under 150 lb.
We have used neither machine. Every figure here is published, and the source and read date for each one is listed below. How we rank without testing.
Questions people actually ask
Cubii JR1 or Stamina InMotion E1000 — which should I buy?
Check the Cubii JR1's published 150 lb user weight limit against yourself first. It is the lowest published limit of any machine on this site, and if you are over it the comparison is finished — take the Stamina, which publishes 250 lb. If you are comfortably under it, the question becomes your desk: the Cubii is 10 inches tall against the Stamina's 11.38, and that 1.38 inches is exactly the margin that decides a low knee well.
How tall is each machine?
The Cubii JR1 publishes 10 inches, the Stamina InMotion E1000 publishes 11.38 inches. Neither figure includes knee travel, which is the part that actually collides with your desk — you need the machine height plus the vertical distance your knee rises through the stroke, and no maker in this category publishes a stride length you could compute that from.
Which has the higher weight capacity?
The Stamina, at 250 lb against the Cubii JR1's 150 lb — a 100 lb gap, and the single largest practical difference between the two. Stamina also states the frame is rated for standing use as well as seated, which no other seated machine on this site claims.
Does the Cubii JR1 have more resistance settings?
It publishes eight magnetic levels; Stamina publishes no level count at all, only 'adjustable tension'. So the Cubii is the only one of the two you can describe quantitatively — though a level count without a stated resistance range does not tell you how hard either machine actually gets, and neither maker publishes that range.
Which is better documented?
The Stamina, clearly. Its dimensions, product weight and user capacity all come from staminaproducts.com — the maker's own page — while the Cubii JR1's figures come from a retail listing, because Cubii publishes no dimensions itself. On a site that ranks on what makers will put in writing, that difference is not a footnote: it is the reason the Stamina is our pick among under-desk ellipticals.
Read next
- Best under-desk ellipticals — all three machines ranked on what their makers actually publish.
- Stamina InMotion E1000 review — the only seated machine here with a complete manufacturer spec.
- Cubii JR1 review — the elliptical stroke, and the 150 lb limit that rules it out for many.
- DeskCycle vs Cubii JR1 — the same height class, pedal circle against elliptical stroke.
- Do under-desk bikes actually do anything? — what a seated machine can and cannot deliver, honestly.