Before the accident, we were very happy with both the bike and the treadmill. Now it's scary to think how dangerous they are given what we witnessed first-hand.
The fix seems so simple: a guard at the end of the tread that prevents things from being sucked under it. Kind of mind-numbing that this simple feature isn't included in such a high-end product.
(I'm not going for a 'blame the victim' attempt, I'm just trying to figure out what it is that Peloton was first trying to use as their defense before caving)
It's about $40 a month, which covers our family. My wife and I are fitness enthusiasts and this is more than offset by not having a gym membership or having to drive to exercise. We do have about $5K total in our home gym (rubber flooring, cable machine, dumbbells and benches etc.) For us being able to get quality classes and workout on our schedule offsets any added cost.
I don't know if the live classes would provide much value to me (I struggle to enjoy in person fitness classes too), but judging by the comments on here, I guess a lot of people do value them a great deal.
Gym quality delivered to your house. Weighs A LOT so only buy if you're pretty committed to your current domicile. It is solid and smooth. With Cosco, you get a bench included in the price that is less than other retailers for the exact same machine.
I surmise the injury rate using machines at comparable weights is almost certainly higher than with free weights. (Injury rates from free weight training is extremely low regardless, lower than almost any other sport.) The resulting adaptation is also, of course, far superior.
I agree completely about the advantages of free weights. Learning how to deadlift has been life-changing for me.
The instructors are 1 part DJ, 1 part program designer, 1 part hype person, 1 part personality, 1 part community leader, etc...
Recorded videos work fine, all (I think) Peloton classes are available in the back catalog.
I'm pretty self motivated (I power lifted for years, which is a huge grind), but my cardio work has always been more intense and effective when instructor led.
Also, hyping people up is hard, and building a dedicated audience is harder. They pay a lot because if the popular instructors leave, so will the users.
While I find that works well in a private class setting "Great job Brenda! You're really improving!" since hundreds, even thousands of people take Peloton classes, you have a very low chance of acknowledgement and the teacher spends a lot of time reading off "Congrats on the 100 rides spf100! Thanks for coming to my class WineGirl21231! 1000 rides for Luv2RideMan12!"
I don't own a Peloton, but I do spin classes, live online yoga classes and run and bike on my own. I will probably buy a Peloton if prices come down on the secondary market as the pandemic ends.
I was skeptical too at first, now you'll have to pry my Peloton bike from my dead cold hands. It's been a game changer for me.in terms of fitness.
At Peloton's scale, I imagine recordings would work just as well. But, the instructor does the same things. For live classes with smaller groups, there can be a lot of 1-on-1 interaction.
The cost seems high to a typical gym membership, but Peloton is competing with spin studios which are stupid expensive. If one considers the cost to be split between at least 2 family members, it's relatively cheap.
You touched on it, but the other types of classes are also very good. I've canceled my normal gym membership and am just slowly building out my home gym now.
I use it along with the Peloton app ($13/mo).
https://www.keiser.com/fitness-equipment/cardio-training/m3i...
There are different hardware options like a regular bike on a trainer [0], or a smart bike like the Wattbike or Wahoo Kickr bike [1]. These use open standards and let you use different software, and if you use a regular bike on a trainer you can even use it outside when the weather permits.
The most popular cycling training software is Zwift, it's basically the de facto standard just like Strava by this point. But you don't have to use it.
[0] https://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-reviews/trainers
[1] https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/10/smart-shootout-wahookick...
Because they believe they are getting value through the some combination of equipment, exercise, leadership and community. It has worked for a long time, most recently with BeachBody, Peleton, and now Apple Fitness+.
When you take a minute to understand why it works, you can quibble about the cost, but there's no denying that the customers are happy with what they are buying. Nobody is bamboozled into these business models.
When I was younger and had more free time, I would tinker, too, content with my saving $20 there or $200 here, ignoring that the savings were a wash considering the time involved to find these discounts. These days sometimes I just pay extra knowing I'm not getting the best deal, but I'm getting something that works out of the box without me fiddling or having to spend my precious free time outside of work reading about the exciting exercise bike industry of all things.
Edit: Regarding shoe/pedal combinations. Sidi shoes if they will fit you otherwise I'd go with Specialized. The BOA fasteners are really good - crazy durable, easy, they stay, can be replaced etc. no downside except upfront cost maybe. I really like SPD pedals - Shimano XT in particular. The lower models have a plastic part that will wear and the bearings go sooner. XTR pedals cost a fortune for no durability gain and it's a spin bike so not going anywhere.
But yeah, my wife and I already had SPD shoes from doing spin together for awhile, so I bought pedals and never used the ones that came with the Peloton.
Top three brands off the top of my head:
1. Bontrager: Owned by Trek, and is the most common type of spin shoe used in studios. Will have something for all price ranges, and have been around for a while.
2. Specialized: More ubiquitous in the cycling world, a slight amount of paying for the brand, but will also have everything you need. Most popular cycling brand, especially on the high end.
3. Fizik: Personal favorite because they are better for high arches out of the box. Unlike the other two, these guys don't make bikes, just shoes and seats. And they do both extremely well.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND going to a bike shop to buy the shoes and have the cleats fitted to your shoe in-person. This prevents injuries and improves results on the bike.
Pay for in-store once, take a silver sharpie, outline where the cleat is placed on the bottom of the shoe. Now you can replace the cleats for $20, and have a good idea of where to place them if/when you need a new pair of shoes.
If you have narrow or low-volume feet, the Italian brands might work best.
I would never buy any treadmill. They aren't super safe in general, and Peloton's treadmills are less safe than your average one.
I would definitely by a future weight machine or rower from them, but I have no interest in one of their treads.
Peloton is great if you want the "spinning" experience, but not as great if you're just a cardio junkie looking at getting a "riding your bike" experience, but indoors.
Very much worth the price, even without the bike. The instructors are all great, and I don't stress about the quality of any class -> I just jump into one. They all are great.
I _do_ miss having feedback on my form from an in person instructor. But post pandemic I can do this sporadically and make peloton my everyday.
I feel the social aspect is both the reason why I continue to ride but also really lacking. I have a group chat with friends who also have a Peloton and more often than not there's one or two that want to ride, so it's easy motivation to be like ok I'll jump on too. But also..it's difficult to actually follow friends and their progress as there's no real feed of any sort, just individual pages that you have to jump through a couple of menus to get to.
Having tried the Tread+, it was easily one of the best treadmills I’ve ever used that feels most like natural running.
So if the network effects aren't there, what is the product? In my opinion it is a high quality, sturdy bike and recorded classes. But those aren't great differentiators anymore. Other brands like Nordictrack have high quality bikes as well, with cheaper subscriptions, some features Peloton doesn't have, and a better 'default' feature set if you turn off your subscription. Peloton may have a larger library of studio classes, but above a certain number having more classes does not really add any benefit. Peloton didn't seem to think the library size has much impact, when they casually removed many classes when they were sued for using music without rights (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/peloton-music-lawsuit-removing-...).
In my opinion, you are just as well off doing a home-built Peloton (https://www.cnet.com/health/fitness/diy-peloton-bike-how-to-...) or considering alternatives from Nordictrack (https://www.nordictrack.com/exercise-bikes/s22i-studio-bike) or Bowflex (https://www.bowflex.com/bikes/) or Echelon (https://echelonfit.com/products/connect-bike-ex-7s) or whatever.