My husband and I were searching for something to spice up our workout routine. We were getting tired of running around the neighborhood 3 times a week, and we weren’t consistently getting to the gym before or after work because, like everyone else, we are perpetually tired. Conveniently, at the start of the new year, the Peloton Bike popped up in one of our Facebook feeds. As you probably know, after you see an advertisement in your feed, you can expect to see it every day for the next month. Intrigued, we finally clicked on the Peloton ad and started to do a little research. Here’s what we found.
Just a little caveat: We are about to review our personal experience purchasing and riding 2 Peloton bikes. Peloton neither provided us with the bikes nor any compensation or incentive for the review we are about to give. The experience we describe reflects our circumstances but may not be representative to all Peloton Bike purchases. Our only compensation through this article is if you choose to use our referral code for $100 off bike accessories (checkout coupon code: 37CPMC)
when purchasing a Peloton Bike (which would be awesome because you get $100 off accessories and we get free swag! A win-win!) If you use the code, be sure to include accessories in your cart as it only works for the accessories, not the bike itself.
We have owned the Peloton bikes for almost 3 months now and just completed our 50th ride. Here is what we like most about the bikes:
The Peloton Bike
If you’re reading this post, you probably already know a thing or two about the Peloton Bike, but for those who may not: Peloton is a company in New York that offers boutique indoor-cycling classes. They held a successful kickstarter for an indoor bike that could bring that same boutique experience to riders at home--across the world. The Peloton Bike streams live classes straight from New York City into your garage, basement, or living room — anywhere you have access to wifi and room for a bike. If the schedule of live-streamed classes doesn’t work for you, you can access thousands of on-demand classes at the push of a button. You can also compete against others or video chat with your friends while taking classes. There’s plenty of info on the bikes on the company’s website, so let’s get back to our impressions.
The Purchase
We visited a Peloton showroom near us to see the bike in person. The showroom had several bikes, and the associates were happy to let us check them out and ask any questions. The bike costs $1,995, along with a shipping cost of $250, plus you have to sign up for a 1-year subscription at a rate of $39 per month. For us, the cost of the bike was steep. But when we considered how much we would have to pay to regularly go to boutique cycling classes (some costing $30 per ride), as well as the convenience of being able to ride at any time in our own home, the price didn’t seem nearly as unreasonable.
The subscription gives you access to all of the live-streamed classes as well as thousands of on-demand classes. You also get to track your stats over time to see how you’ve progressed. After a year, you don’t have to renew the subscription, but if you don’t, you are basically left with a bike--no live classes and only a very limited number of on-demand classes. More on that in the “What You Should Be Aware Of Before You Buy” section below...
The bikes were really impressive. Very quiet ride and the technology seemed unparalleled compared to other stationary bikes out there. We were hooked. We bit the bullet and purchased 2 bikes, 1 for each of us because we like to work out together. A subscription covers only 1 bike, so in our case, we had to purchase 2 subscriptions. The associate’s explanation for why we had to purchase 2 subscriptions for bikes in the same house is that Peloton sells the bikes at cost, so Peloton makes its profit on the subscription. We understand that business model, but perhaps in the future Peloton could consider an alternative to purchasing multiple subscriptions in this particular scenario. For example, Peloton could sell the second bike at a slightly higher cost, making some profit on the bike itself while allowing 1 subscription to cover any bikes under the same roof. Sorry, I digressed a bit there...
While we were at the showroom, we went ahead and ordered shoes, a bike mat, and weights. At the time, Peloton was offering a package that included shoes (you need bike shoes with a Delta cleat to fit the pedals on the bike), a bike mat, weights, a heart rate monitor, and basic headphones. If you purchased the package, they threw in bluetooth headphones (the bike is bluetooth-ready). The accessories would all be shipped to our house, while the bike would be shipped to a delivery company that would set up a delivery time after the bikes were received. The associate said it would take a minimum of 10 business days for the bikes to arrive in our house.
Delivery and Setup
We ordered our bikes and accessories on January 3. The accessories arrived on January 8 and the bikes on January 9. Given we were expecting a minimum of 10 business days to get our bikes, you can imagine our surprise (and excitement) when they arrived after only 5 business days.
The delivery person was extremely professional and courteous. We asked him if he could set them up in our third-floor loft, and he was totally fine with that. The bikes have about a 6-ft. cord attached to them, so you will need a spot that’s close to a wall outlet or will need to have an extension cord handy. The setup took about 30 minutes per bike, which included assembling the bike, connecting it to wifi, setting up our account, and starting 1 on-demand class (just to make sure everything’s working). I’m not sure if all of the delivery persons do this, but he also made sure the seat height and handle bars were positioned appropriately. After that, the bikes were ready to ride.
What We Like
- The bike itself is very quiet and of great quality. No issues thus far with the construction.
- The touch screen is pretty responsive. It’s no iPad, but it is still easy to navigate with the touch of a finger.
- It’s easy to navigate the user interface. You can easily see the line-up of live classes on the home screen. You can also easily access the on-demand classes (which had 3,733 on-demand rides to choose from as of today!), where you can filter on-demand rides by instructor, class length, or ride type (e.g., beginner, rhythm, live DJ, metrics).
- The bike has precise metrics for distance, cadence, resistance, output (calculated based on cadence and resistance), calories burned, and heart rate. The instructors typically guide your ride by referring to numbers for cadence, resistance, or output, so having the exact numbers right in front of you makes it so much easier to know you are hitting the right stride (rather than the ambiguous “turn the knob a quarter turn” that you get in most indoor cycling classes).
- It’s motivating. Each class has a leaderboard that shows you how your ride compares to others who have taken the class. It ranks you by “total output,” which is based on your resistance and cadence. If you are in a live class, the instructors can see your stats during the ride, so if you aren’t pushing yourself, you risk getting called out! You also receive medals as you hit certain achievements, such as personal records, milestone rides (e.g., first ride, 25th ride), 3 rides in 3 days, 7 rides in 7 days, and others. You can also see how the stats from your rides compare over time. The classes also have a variety of musical genres (rock n’ roll, hip hop, top 100, broadway) and are constantly refreshing content.
- The instructors are generally all pretty good. Naturally, we gravitate to a couple of instructors: Robin if we need someone to hold us accountable that ride (she “doesn’t do basic” as she would say) or Cody for encouragement, fun, and great tunes (he encourages riders to “just do you” and not always stress over the numbers).
- There are a variety of rides. Ride lengths vary from 20 minutes to 75 minutes, with 45 minutes having the most classes. The rides also have different themes, such as metrics, rhythm, or musical genre. They also have 10-15 minute warm-up rides or stretches.
- Being West Coasters, the line-up of morning live rides is great. They start at 3 AM PDT, and the last one is at 9:30 AM PDT.
- The new 'beyond the ride' classes are pretty good. We've found a few good core workouts that we're incorporating into our routine. They're short, but we're seeing good results.
What You Should Know Before You Buy
- If you're looking for a coupon code for the Peloton bike, you'll probably be looking for a while. They do offer occasional package deals on accessories, but that's about all we've seen. Right now, they have a special if you use our referral code (37CPMC) to get $100 off bike accessories, but that's about as close to a coupon as you'll probably see. (Be sure to add an accessories package to your shopping cart as the $100 only works on accessories, not on the bike itself) There was a period of time where they offered two months of free subscription, but that deal has passed and has been replaced with the $100 off accessories. If you find a better coupon, please add a comment to the blog!
- Being West Coasters, the line-up of afternoon live rides is not as great. They start at 1:30 PM PDT, and the last one is at 5:30 PM PDT. Most people who go into work probably couldn’t catch an afternoon live ride but would still be able to take an on-demand ride at any time.
- When you buy a bike, you sign up for a 1-year subscription but, in reality, know that you are signing up for as long as you own the bike. Why? If you choose to not renew your subscription, you lose the stats from your rides and are left with a couple of on-demand rides and a scenic ride. That’s it. No more live classes or seemingly endless library of on-demand classes. We ultimately get it: Peloton makes money on the subscriptions and not on the actual bike itself. But still, just be aware that you’ll likely have a monthly bill to Peloton for quite some time.
- As I talked about above, if you decide to purchase two bikes, you have to pay for a subscription for each bike.
Accessories
We bought 'The Works' package from Peloton, which includes everything you need (weights, bike mat, heart rate monitor, and headphones). I recommend this as a first choice. You can now get $100 off this package by using our coupon code (37CPMC) at checkout. just make sure you include whatever accessories you want before checkout as the $100 is ONLY for accessories. Otherwise, the items below are good alternatives to the pricier Peloton accessories:
- Bike Mat
: It helps prevent damage from the weight of the bike to your carpet or hardwood, but more importantly, it collects sweat, and we sweat (a lot) during the classes. Peloton sells a bike mat, but there are plenty of cheaper options out there around the same size, like the one linked.
- Adapter Pedal with Toe Baskets
: We have a lot of out-of-town guests, most of whom don’t have bike shoes or, if they did, wouldn’t bring them on vacation. It’s helpful to have toe baskets available for guests who may want to check out the bike (because, let’s be honest, they are pretty cool). Our understanding is that there’s only one toe basket available that’s compatible with the pedal on the Peloton bike: Exustar Multi-pedal System Adapter. You can always change out the pedals themselves and make them permanent toe baskets, but we would suggest just having the adapters, so you can continue to use bike shoes during your rides. NOTE: Peloton gave us a couple extra cleats which we were able to use with these toe baskets. If you don't have extra cleats, you'll need to purchase more cleats (link in following recommendation).
- Delta Compatible Road Cleats
: These are a must if you have a favorite pair of bike shoes you want to retrofit or to use with the toe baskets recommended above. Peloton gave us a few extra when we bought the bikes.
- Philips 798835 Hue Go Personal Wireless Lighting
: This one seems odd but is one of our favorite accessories. We knew that with Peloton we would miss the cycling studio atmosphere, with the low, colorful lighting that (for whatever reason) really helps push through a ride. We purchased one of the Philips Hue Go to use for our early morning or late evening rides--it makes such a difference and really gives us that studio vibe!
Final Verdict
If we had to do it over again, we would definitely buy the Peloton bike. It’s been a huge motivator to getting us into shape, and we expect that it will only continue to get better over time. If you have found this review helpful and end up buying a bike, we’d love it if you used our referral coupon code (37CPMC) at checkout to get $100 off bike accessories (and send free swag our way!).
