Peloton Bike at Home

Grab a Craigslist bike for $300, and some trainer thing for $100-$200. No idea what the Peloton costs, but you could then ride the bike outside once or twice. Not sure you can ride a Peloton for real, outside.

If you want to get a new something, just ask. I'll point you at some cheaper bikes that will work great.

My fiancee and I bought one last year when I was injured. We both used it pretty much everyday. The bike and software platform are incredibly well designed. The trainers/classes have a variety of difficulties as well and they will kick your butt. If you want a solid, motivating workout and you have the spare cash, then Peleton is a great purchase. It doesn't hurt that the instructors are also very fit and generally good looking.

Maybe if you get really good at it you could go on black mirror.

+1 on a real bike + trainer. If you need more motivation/realism get a fancy trainer and use zwift

Thank you for the response. You make 100% sense, but let me tell you why the Peloton is preferable.

I have a good bike - KONA mountain bike. It is great, but I do not have the time to actually ride it for fitness. There is no way my wife would let me set that up on a trainer in the house and keep it there. I have a Cyclops and she made me take it down all the time. Plus, it took up too much space and honestly looked terrible.

If I get a Peloton, I can get the real estate and she'll use it, too.

Without sounding like a jerk, the money is not the issue. I want to get something I can use, happy to pay for it. Peloton is like just under $2k.

Things that are more boring than a treadmill wrote:

Maybe if you get really good at it you could go on black mirror.

Thanks for all of the replies. Good info.

Please explain the above comment.

HTRunner wrote:

My fiancee and I bought one last year when I was injured. We both used it pretty much everyday. The bike and software platform are incredibly well designed. The trainers/classes have a variety of difficulties as well and they will kick your butt. If you want a solid, motivating workout and you have the spare cash, then Peleton is a great purchase. It doesn't hurt that the instructors are also very fit and generally good looking.

+1 on the Peloton. You can take power test classes and work in your designated ranges. While you can do the same thing with zwift, having the classes and music makes it easier to try and move up the ladder.

but it is also easy to fall into the trap of making every single ride hard.

Understood, wife buy-in.

I'd only worry about if this is the right thing, then. Peloton has had a new, most-fantastic of all-time indoor bike thing every few years for the past ten or so, so I'd only worry that you're about to buy an iPhone 6 when the iPhone X comes out next week, that sort of thing.

Then there's the Nordictrack Syndrome of course, expensive clothes racks. Sounds like you're good there, though.

Froome shouldnt be allowed to start the tdf wrote:

+1 on a real bike + trainer. If you need more motivation/realism get a fancy trainer and use zwift

+2 Zwift over peloton. Large competitive user base, and they are even doing zwift for running

To me, the biggest drawback of any stationary trainer located in the house is that it is too bloody hot indoors to be able to tolerate riding hard for very long. Go ahead and call me a snowflake, but 75 degrees in dead air turns me into a puddle of sweat within 20 minutes or so. A fan is helpful but doesn't really solve the problem.

I solved the problem by putting my trainer out in the garage and riding it first thing in the morning. In my location, the outdoor temperature is below 70 degrees at 6 am about 330 days per year. Add a fan (and it can be a really big fan because my spouse doesn't care if my trainer makes a lot of noise in the garage) and I'm good most of the year.

FFF wrote:

Understood, wife buy-in.

I'd only worry about if this is the right thing, then. Peloton has had a new, most-fantastic of all-time indoor bike thing every few years for the past ten or so, so I'd only worry that you're about to buy an iPhone 6 when the iPhone X comes out next week, that sort of thing.

Then there's the Nordictrack Syndrome of course, expensive clothes racks. Sounds like you're good there, though.

Exactly. I don’t want to buy a POS. I want a quality piece of cardio equipment. I’m wondering if I might be better off getting a nice spinning bike. Like one they use at SoulCycle or something.

I’d like the software angle of controlling pace, hills, etc. but I’m not interested in the competitive side of it. I couldn’t care less about racing people. I am self motivated and plan to ride in the evenings while listening to metal or watching TV. No interest in Zwift or Strava. Just want to crush workouts.

You might look at what Lemond has.

And the "hill" thing was done by Peloton with their TDF trainer a few years ago. It was sort of like what they're selling now, with a Zwift-type automatic thing.

http://www.lemondfitness.com/

That's what Zwift does....

Those two statements are at odds with yourself. Looks like a peleton costs 2k if you buy it outright. I don't know why anyone would do this when you have the option of:

Entry level road bike for $1000, or a "race worthy" entry level road bike for $1,500. Kickr Snap for $600. Zwift for $15/mo. Just like Peleton, Zwift has all kinds of workouts you can pick from, and you have the ability to design any and all workouts you need. Moreover, having a Kickr gives you excellent features. The first is the simulated hills, pace, etc. if desired + the realism that comes with riding around on zwift. More importantly, and unlike the Peleton, the Kickr comes with ERG mode, which is basically treadmill for bikes. If your workout calls for 5' at 380w, the Kickr just dials you at 380w and that's all you can do. If you try to pedal "slower" to make it easier it will up the torque so you're still going at the same power. Opposite if you try to pedal faster to make it harder. If you're serious about crushing workouts, that's as good as it gets.

Oh, and as a bonus you now have a decent road bike you can take for rides outside if you ever fancy. All for the price of the peleton or less depending on just what kind of bike you decide to buy.

Moral of the story: Investing in any sort of peleton or other device that isn't a smart trainer + bike is stupid.

skip the Peloton- Overpriced POS and requires (more or less) a monthly subscription. Don't believe me?

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/peloton-review-what-to-know-before-you-buy/

Get a Cycleops instead- they are built like a tank and last forever with little to no maintenance. I have the older version (Pro 400, bought in late 2010) that I use as a winter trainer- before "smart" trainers were around/popular- with about 12,000 miles on it and is still running like a champ.

As for workouts- go on youtube and you can find 1,000's of videos to follow along to....for free. Or you could buy the Sufferfest video series, too.

You could also, with a bit of research, make your own workouts- a lot of running workouts can be applied to cycling once you know your FTP.

Peloton is not for someone who wants an exercise bike. It's for someone who wants to group spinning classes without having to go to a spinning class.

Peloton users (like flywheel or soul cycle enthusiasts) are cultish about it. But everyone I know who has one loves it. People who are using peloton bikes are (like most people in the exercise and even running world) trying to look good, they are not going for a training effect.

guy who knows what he is talking about wrote:

Peloton is not for someone who wants an exercise bike. It's for someone who wants to group spinning classes without having to go to a spinning class.

Peloton users (like flywheel or soul cycle enthusiasts) are cultish about it. But everyone I know who has one loves it. People who are using peloton bikes are (like most people in the exercise and even running world) trying to look good, they are not going for a training effect.

I like to mix in flywheel classes every now and then and it's a hard workout if you go hard. Definitely a decent training effect for zero impact and a change of pace from running.

Not a Cyclist wrote:

Things that are more boring than a treadmill wrote:

Maybe if you get really good at it you could go on black mirror.

Thanks for all of the replies. Good info.

Please explain the above comment.

au contraire.. wrote:

guy who knows what he is talking about wrote:

Peloton is not for someone who wants an exercise bike. It's for someone who wants to group spinning classes without having to go to a spinning class.

Peloton users (like flywheel or soul cycle enthusiasts) are cultish about it. But everyone I know who has one loves it. People who are using peloton bikes are (like most people in the exercise and even running world) trying to look good, they are not going for a training effect.

I like to mix in flywheel classes every now and then and it's a hard workout if you go hard. Definitely a decent training effect for zero impact and a change of pace from running.

Didn't mean that you couldn't use it for a training effect. But that's not the goal for most people doing it. The goal being looking good in jeans.

or alternatively, the goal being looking good at your spin class.