Peloton addresses two real needs in the exercise marketplace: home-based classes, and high-quality exercise machines. It simply combined both into one product.
There is huge demand for the former, especially from white-collar workers with high demands on their free time, and a a fair amount of demand for the latter.
At $2000, a Peloton bike is $1000 to $2000 cheaper than the cheapest carbon-frame bike I could find on Google, and more than $3000 cheaper than a racing or tri-bike. For indoor use, you'd also need a trainer, adding another $600-$2000 to the cost (depending on the trainer you get).
Generally, the people I know that have carbon fiber frames also have several other bikes, each for a different niche, and the Peloton would slot right into the indoor spin use case.
At $2000, a Peloton bike is $1000 to $2000
cheaper than the cheapest carbon-frame
bike I could find on Google
Unless of course you're ignoring every sub-$4000 bike as "bad cheap carbon" but that's not what your post says :)
Of course, if you're buying a bike exclusively to use on an turbo trainer, I'm not sure I see the logic to getting a carbon frame anyway - it's not like the weight or bump handling makes any difference.
[1] https://road.cc/content/buyers-guide/254002-13-best-carbon-f...
True, REI has the Synapse on sale for $1700 right now not including delivery. Once you add a trainer of the equivalent functionality as the Peloton trainer, you're looking at $2500 spent. Add in a screen, and you're looking at $2700 for a small screen or $3500 for a similar-size screen as on the Peloton.
I suspect people are overestimating this part of Peloton's market. All the people I know who spin value being a part of the community: the camaraderie of working out with other people, chatting after the class, etc etc. It's more like going to church than going to the cinema.
I think exercise bikes and treadmills are dreadfully boring, but what Peloton offers is exactly targeted at that problem. Adding an array of things to do and a social aspect has to be a big deal, and if that's all packaged together in a high end package that "just works", and works really well - that seems like a winning formula.
There's a lot of fitness subscription services out there, but there's more money to be made on hardware in general. So as long as there's a market for people to pay two grand for a stationary bike and whatever dollars a month for a subscription, it's a winning business model. I'm guessing it stacks up against the SoulCycles of the world very nicely.
It's a lot more convenient to exercise in your living room than go outside or go to the gym.
I thought Guitar Hero was stupid and people should just buy a guitar, but people loved it.
I am surprised that people are willing to spend 2x-10x as much as competing products when you look at the total cost.
But as far as spending more than the functional equivalent, do you have the cheapest house that would give you shelter? The cheapest car? The cheapest phone?
I loved teaching classes with 50+ people and was completely comfortable. But I hate interacting with large groups in more social settings.
Not to mention that when I want to go out and ride I don't need to detach my bike from the trainer, or when I want to get a workout I don't need to attach my bike to the trainer. As somebody that is primarily a bike commuter, the accessibility alone is worth having 2 bikes. And if you are going to have 2 bikes, why not buy an indoor bike that is specialized for the task.
The one argument in its favor is that youth sports are usually very heavily subsidized by masters sports. So if you weren't on a varsity sports team in high school or college and didn't learn how to work out properly, then it's easily 5x more expensive to do so as an adult. So maybe there is some value in having someone to teach you how to do basic cardio.