There is a ton of crossover. Unsurprisingly, I see quite a few serious Peloton riders who "graduate" to direct-drive trainers and zwift or whatever, but I see just as many who try it and come back, or who migrate from that world TO the peloton.
In particular, I hear a lot of complaints about Zwift getting really boring. I'm not a gamer, but as a Peloton rider, I find the gamification aspect kind of appealing. I like the idea of visually racing someone on the screen, I'm competitive. It's the most appealing part of the platform. Changing gears and attaching my bike to the thing and finding room for it, and getting all teh sensors sorted is definitely NOT the appealing part.
Re:Decoding the Peloton
by ubermonkey on Friday January 08, 2021 @08:56AM
(#25684734)
Zwift is pretty boring, unless you're racing, but it's at least SOMETHING.
I find that I'm mostly using it to drive the trainer, since I mostly watch a movie or something on the second tablet.
I find that the watts are not the same on the Peloton vs Kickr. Watts seem to read lower on the Peloton. What is your take?
The direct drive trainers of later years are much much better than earlier trainers. The 2018 kickr for instance is much more smooth and silent than earlier models. So you may be comparing an obsolete $ trainer with a $$$ peloton bike.
It seems unfair to impugn the peloton bike as being "$$$" where a direct drive trainer is only "$" when the price difference is far from an order of magnitude, especially when you consider that you still need an entire bike to use with the direct-drive trainer.
Granted, the direct drive trainers and related software have functionality the Peloton does not have, particularly the pre-Bike+ peloton.
I came in skeptical but it's been working well for me.