Just spent a redonk amount of money on a Peloton bike

[vi edit]

I'm still waiting for the delivery call. I don't live anywhere close to a major retail area for them, so I'm guessing I'm on the outside edge of of the 7-10 delivery window. I am expecting it sometime next week.

 

[cbrunny]

update? very curious over here.

 

[vi edit]

Still waiting... :/

Next Monday is "officially" the 10 day mark for shipping the bike. If I don't hear anything by EOB on Monday I'll be calling up Tuesday morning and chewing some ear. See if I can get a month or two free. I did chat with a CSR and got no where with that.

 

[preslove]

It's been 10 days and it hasn't shipped? That's pretty terrible. Have they charged your card?

 

[vi edit]

So got more information today. It's like I thought...my location is an issue. I'm in central, KY...no where close to a normal delivery service for these guys. So they went to a "last mile" delivery company. The delivery company has some internal policy that if you are more than 180 miles from the warehouse, then the warehouse has to schedule the delivery instead of some central scheduling office. I live 189 miles from the warehouse. So instead of actually getting a call, the warehouse policy is just to sit and fucking wait for the customer to call after they are frustrated enough on not getting any updates.

So now they at least know I want a delivery and the warehouse is supposed to call me by 12:00PM tomorrow to schedule delivery.

I'll be sure to let Peloton know that this delivery company blows.

 

[x26]

Just to get things out of the way. Yes it's a lot. Yes it has a monthly subscription. Yes I could get some combination of standalone spinning bike, full road bike + trainer cheaper.

For those that don't know...here's the website for them:
https://www.pelotoncycle.com/

That being said....

It's still a crazy amount of money. Why did I buy? Mostly for my wife. We were doing half marathon training and she was getting into very good shape (1:40 half runner, 20 minute 5k distance) but then came down with a raging case plantar facisitis. She's been out of the game for almost 6 months and has been working with sports medicine the whole time and not getting anywhere. She's put on quite a bit of weight and overall mood has been not great since she can't get a good workout in. I needed something high cardio without the impact for her to burn off some calories. Spinning is one of the better ones.

We've got two young kids, tons of activities in the evenings/weekends, and otherwise hectic work schedule. Gym classes are not an option. It's got to be something she can hop on in the evening or right after she gets home. She's ultra competitive so the leaderboard function is good motivation. The ability to network and socialize is also appealing. And the live classes are a twist that's hard to replicate anywhere.

We both can use the bike. I've been wanting a good cross trainer and an alternative to running when it's either pouring rain, a billion muggy degrees, or sheet of ice outside. I love biking but am just too much of a wuss to ride on the narrow, hilly, winding roads we have here in Central, KY.

The Peloton was a very high quality spinning bike, provided a live training class kind of environment you don't get from other home training machines and ultimately if it's not something we end up using long term it's got decent resale options.

I'll provide more information and pics/feedback once it's delivered and we've had a chance to use it.

$2,000.00 isn't that bad for the Bike.

** If/When you stop paying for the Subscription: What happens then?? Locked out? Self Destruct?? un-usable?

 

[cbrunny]

So got more information today. It's like I thought...my location is an issue. I'm in central, KY...no where close to a normal delivery service for these guys. So they went to a "last mile" delivery company. The delivery company has some internal policy that if you are more than 180 miles from the warehouse, then the warehouse has to schedule the delivery instead of some central scheduling office. I live 189 miles from the warehouse. So instead of actually getting a call, the warehouse policy is just to sit and fucking wait for the customer to call after they are frustrated enough on not getting any updates.

So now they at least know I want a delivery and the warehouse is supposed to call me by 12:00PM tomorrow to schedule delivery.

I'll be sure to let Peloton know that this delivery company blows.

that's beyond horrible. Please let us know who the last mile company is.

 

[vi edit]

Finally got a call from shipper after I called in *again* today. Supposed to be delivered on Sunday. So cross fingers that it sticks to that date.

As far as the bike and subscription..this is my understanding....There are 3 or 4 workouts that are available "offline" on tablet. You don't have to sign into your account to use them. You can see your real time output on the display if you use those workouts. If you don't want to use those 3 or 4 workouts you can just use it as a standalone spinning bike and do you own thing. You just won't have any display or analytics tracking.

Of course, it's an android based tablet, so I'm sure somebody out there is creative enough to root and sideload some sort of front end to be used without a subscription.

 

[cbrunny]

Does it track power output?

edit: nm, i see that it does on screen. If there's a way to signal a pc with your instant power, there's lots of other tools you could use for a lesser sub fee per month. I use TrainerRoad. Many use Zwift. There's a few others also. But if the power data doesn't transmit that obviously won't work.

 

[vi edit]

Well it was delivered yesterday and my wife and I both have got some saddle time. We both did on demand classes. This is my first spinning session in a couple years and I did 30 minute ride that was at 100+RPM and between 35-40% resistance for most of the workout with 3 x 1 minute climbs that crank resistance up to 65+ and you get out of the saddle for the 1 minute climb. I was gassed. There was a pool of sweat below me and I'm sore today. The session was an "Enter Sandman" with Steve Little that was all Metallica music. It was awesome. I'd do that weekly just for the soundtrack.

My wife did a 20 minute beginner class. She's way out of shape and was happy to report no foot pain. Running would have left her hobbling. So far so good!

The bike itself is a sexy piece of equipment. All black with a giant 20" tablet stuck to it. Speakers on the tablet are pretty wimpy, but bluetooth earbuds fix that. It turns on instantly and you can be doing an on demand class in 15 seconds. It takes me longer to clip in. Which is still awkward AF. Seat adjustments are easy peasy. All positions are clearly marked and my wife and I just set our positions and then wrote our numbers on a piece of paper next to the bike. Will take 10 seconds to adjust between riders. It's smooth, it's quiet, it's a hell of a workout. Will go for a 45 minute ride today.

 

[cbrunny]

NIce. Looks solid. One thing - make sure your cleats are on your shoes properly. If you just strapped them on without much thought, I strongly suggest taking a google around on how to place cleats properly. It's surprisingly difficult, and extremely critical to staying injury free. I'm convinced that my current injury is the result of absolutely atrocious cleat placement (done by me) and poor seat positions. It is absolutely possible to get severely injured on a poorly fit stationary bike. I'm the prime example.

Actually, as I said before, strongly recommend proper fitting. Even if you just do each other (you can't do it yourself) that would be better than just winging it. Seat fore-aft and height in particular, in this case. Again, lots of good stuff online and on youtube about it.

Also, what kind of wattage were you putting out?

Also, fizik shoes... nice! I passed on a decent pair of fizik tri shoes in favour of a nice pair of Garneau. Do not regret that decision for an instant but fizik makes great stuff from what I hear.

 

[vi edit]

There's a 10 minute bike setup video for each account you setup on the bike that helps you get seat and handles placements setup. Will check on the cleat things. No clue on what is "ideal" there.

I didn't want to buy Fizik...$185 ouch. But I've got a size 47 foot and "B" width. There were very few shoes that were long enough, but not too wide. These things were like slippers. My ride yesterday I averaged 170 watts with 307kj total output over 30 minutes.

 

[Wreckem]

How are you liking it so far?
My wife and I are looking to cut expenses. Right now we pay $400 a month($200 each) for unlimited spin classes at a boutique spin studio in Dallas. We started with class pass when it was $99 a month. Then they jacked up the prices so we moved to StudioHop. They raised prices then and then some of spin studios started charging classpass/studiohop members for shoe rentals/towels/facilities usage. At that point we moved to the studio we liked the best.

6 months of unlimited spin for us is the same cost of the bike. We have narrowed it down to the Peloton or the bikes we currently ride at the spin studio, which is the Schwinn Perfomance Carbon Blue. The bikes cos the same, but the Schwin doesn't come with any performance monitor let a lot a screen. The performance monitor for the Schwin is $350 extra. Reading reviews the peloton holds its own vs the Schwin.

How good is the monitor and tracking. How good are the live classes vs the on demand classes? Overall how do you feel about the build quality? Would you purchase it again?

 

[SlitheryDee]

I didn't spend much less than that for my treadmill. It was money well spend ultimately though, so if the equipment itself is quality I'd have no problem with the price. My worry would be that the price would be as high as it is merely for the "gimmick" factor of being an online-enabled piece of fitness equipment rather than indicating that it is of quality construction. Certainly sounds intriguing though if you're into cycling.

 

[vi edit]

How are you liking it so far?
My wife and I are looking to cut expenses. Right now we pay $400 a month($200 each) for unlimited spin classes at a boutique spin studio in Dallas. We started with class pass when it was $99 a month. Then they jacked up the prices so we moved to StudioHop. They raised prices then and then some of spin studios started charging classpass/studiohop members for shoe rentals/towels/facilities usage. At that point we moved to the studio we liked the best.

6 months of unlimited spin for us is the same cost of the bike. We have narrowed it down to the Peloton or the bikes we currently ride at the spin studio, which is the Schwinn Perfomance Carbon Blue. The bikes cos the same, but the Schwin doesn't come with any performance monitor let a lot a screen. The performance monitor for the Schwin is $350 extra. Reading reviews the peloton holds its own vs the Schwin.

How good is the monitor and tracking. How good are the live classes vs the on demand classes? Overall how do you feel about the build quality? Would you purchase it again?

Holy crap. $400 a month for classes? Yeah. BUY THE BIKE! I don't have a comparison of the schwinn so I don't really know how they are built. But I did look at some other bikes in the $800-$1200 range the Peloton is definitely a much higher end piece of kit. The adjustment ability, sturdiness, attention to details and the big ass tablet are well done. Metrics wise you get a detailed break down of each class on your account. You can track it on IOS or on the web. No Android yet, sadly. Which is weird because the tablet is android based. By default it tracks watts over the duration of the class, total output, miles, and calories burned. If you have an ANT+ or some of the specialized HR trackers it will also track HR over the workout for you. It then tracks your total workouts and aggregates. You can also export the data from the website.

For me it wasn't just the bike. It was also the classes. They are what makes the bike. I've only had it a few days and my schedule hasn't really jived with live stuff through the week. I'm easter time and the earliest they start is 6:00AM. I need a 4 or 5:00AM class to be really effective. Plus I'm remodeling a basement at night so night classes are not on the table for me right now. But on the weekends I look forward to the live options available.

That being said, I've been very happy with the on demand stuff. You can break it down by time, type, trainer, and difficulty. Even if it's pre-recorded you can dial in your bike to keep up with the instructor. That was one thing that I really liked with Peloton. In previous classes I just had a dial to crank with no real gauge on accurate resistance. The Peloton dial is soooo stinking smooth to turn and you can dial it into the specific % you want. 38, 39, 42, 47, ect. Just bump it and it displays on the screen where you are. The instructor is calling out RPM's to be at and your resistance setting they want. It's just very easy to dial in and hit the goals. Plus you have very consistent metrics from class to class to see improvement or fatigue.

The class varieties are great and the instructors all have their unique style and flair. I'm a fan of Steve Little who is a metal head. The instructors are real people there is no language filter. F'bomb's a plenty throughout the workouts. It's just not like any other "home exercise" experience I've done.

The online community is incredibly active and I find myself cruising their facebook group over lunch breaks just to get some laughs. It's heavily female based but it's an incredibly positive and fun group.

The bike was almost $2300 delivered to my house and it's $40 a month for access to the classes. But it's a workout that I find myself *wanting* to get home and do and not dread. That has to be saying something. I get up and run at 4:30 in the morning because it's the only time I can do it. But the bike is always there and I can toss TV on for my kids and get a good 30-45 minute burn in with the bike.

I am a *fairly* competitive runner...I placed in my age group in my last half marathon and placed in my last couple 5k's I've run. So I'm in decent shape. But this thing gets me a burn and sweat going like I'm not able to do running a lot of days. It's an awesome cross training for me.

 

[vi edit]

Today I got my first real test of the "leaderboard". Even on-demand has a leaderboard mechanic to it. It takes data from every person that has taken the class and compares your output to their historical data. For example, today I did a class that had 894 previous riders. Throughout the class I could see myself climbing the board as I got more aggressive. For about 20 minutes there was person with a "UKWildcat" name that was hovering right where I was. It's funny because I live in Lexington, KY where UK is located. So I found a riding buddy on the board and was hanging with them. He'd hop ahead, then I would, then I finally said fuck it and dropped the hammer. Never looked back. In the last 2 minutes I climbed about 25 places on the board.

I think I can go back and try and set a new "High score" on the same workout if I wanted.

Here's an example of an end of workout review:

Red is watts, blue is RPM, brown is resistance, and orange is speed.

http://imgur.com/tKOXiyc

 

[cbrunny]

Leaderboard by Kj? that seems a bit suspect. KJ/KG would be better to account for different body sizes. In road cycling, W/KG is way more important than W alone.

Still, cool. I'm still really impressed.

 

[vi edit]

I don't know what all they factor into that metric. As part of the setup per user you enter height and weight and gender. No clue if that plays into any of the analytics.

 

[Wreckem]

Yeah $200 a person is expensive. For me it breaks down to $5 a class. My wife it breaks down to $10 per class.

It's cheaper than soul cycle for sure but still a luxury and not a necessity.

The Schwinn is what most spin studios use. It's a commercial grade tank but doesn't come with much in the way of features.

The Schwinn doesn't come with classes. I don't necessarily need them(I'm that dude in the spin class that does his own thing). The studio I go to does track class and overall monthly leaderboards though. my wife likely needs classes to stick with it.

I'm leaning toward the peloton. She's hung up on the $40.

 

[vi edit]

Yeah my wife was opposed to the fee as well. But this is the same women who has no problem dropping $4 a day in starbucks. So meh. That being said, think about gas, time, and convenience savings of having the bike in your house. I don't know how far away your classes are from home/work but think of the time savings of just being able to get up and knock out a workout vs having to go to the studio to do it. That's worth the $40 for me, especially with having a busy work schedule and two young kids.

Two updates from this weekend - my wife was doing an on demand video and the tablet froze up. Had to pull the power cord from the wall to reset it. Upshot is that there's a resume function on the class so she didn't lose everything. But still...it did freeze after 5 workouts on it.

I did my first live class on Saturday. It was a 45 minute "classic rock" ride. It was different than others I had taken. Steve Little tends to do high RPM stuff...100+ RPM's for good chunks of the class with some lower 70's climbs out of the saddle. This instructor kept it at 80 or less but a shitload of resistance. My knees weren't super happy with that. I don't like slow slogs.

There were just shy of 400 people in the class. I finished 79th at the end of the regular class. The last minute is a cool down. Some people keep their resistance up to cheat some spots on the leader board. I lost 4 spaces because of that. Jerks.

 

[RichUK]

How much did it cost?

I spent £200 on a Reebok exercise bike - works just fine, my legs go round and round with resistance.

 

[Ns1]

OP, year update? I just learned about this bike yesterday.

 

[cbrunny]

I don't have one of these but I do have a Tacx Neo. ZOMG that thing is like riding a space ship. It's freaking amazing.

 

[vi edit]

Ok, so a year update. In a year I've done 67 workouts, my wife has done 45. We've also done a half marathon (actually something more grueling than a half but the training was similar) so for about 4+ months I was running 4-5 days a week. For me that works out to about 1 ride every 5 days. In reality it's more like 3 rides a week some weeks and none on others. I've used it A LOT the last 6 weeks. It's just been brutally cold outside (we were under 15 freedom degrees for close to 2 weeks straight) and a lot more days that it was sub 20 or snow covered roads, so no running.

Overall it's been the most used and best indoor exercise equipment I've owned. I've been happy with the platform but was very disappointed last June. It's amazing how you get used to certain personalities. Both my wife and I loved Steve Little for a coach. He liked rock music, was funny, had great class plans and just overall a personality that jived with us. He left Peloton about 6 months after we started riding. They haven't replaced him with a coach that we've liked nearly as much.

I've really started getting hooked on the 30 minute HIIT classes. In 30 minutes I'm burning close to 450 calories and it's very low impact on my body. When it's 15 degrees outside, or pouring down rain that bike is much more inviting than the outdoors. I grab my headphones, scroll through the on-demand classes and grab something that looks good.

They've continued to tweak the interface a bit. Now you can filter by music genre which is cool. In addition to losing a personality we liked, we also lost the primary hard rock classes. Now it's far too much R&B, hip hop and pop music. There's not enough rock/metal stuff. So you can filter classes by rock and get some listings. They also added a music preview function so you can check some of the playlists prior to joining. But that's for on-demand (already performed classes, not live). You don't know what you are getting into for live stuff.

Which on that topic, I've rarely done live classes. My schedule just doesn't fit with it. I've done a handful on weekends but none through the week. So that hasn't been a big incentive to me. But the ondemand stuff is great. You can bookmark classes you like and pull them back up easily. I've got a 30 minute one from Steve Little that's nothing but Metallica that is one of my favorite and guaranteed to have some high output during it. That's a go to when you want to blast yourself for 30 minutes.

The bike looks and works good as new. Screen is responsive, it's still whisper silent and I've only had one or two lockups while using it. My wife has had a few more than me, but she changed her username halfway through the year and it started after that. I think her account has some sort of corruption and she needs to can it and start over.

Overall it has been a very good purchase and I haven't really regretted it. We don't use it as much as we could, but that's mostly due to other exercise replacing it. If you aren't a runner and just want a good, fun and sustainable way of doing cardio workouts it's a great device. Once you pay it off the $40 a month is cheaper than a gym membership and you can have multiple people using it at not additional cost.

 

[Ns1]

Now you can filter by music genre which is cool. In addition to losing a personality we liked, we also lost the primary hard rock classes.

this is actually a significant problem for me and quite a downer. thanks for the review though, gotta think about this some more.

Tacx Neo

oh, you need a bike to go along with your $1600 trainer.