[edgefield]

As a peloton owner, I strongly disagree. I have a peloton and went from not working out regularly, despite many attempts and gym memberships, to working out 4x a week (45 min or longer), going on 3 years now. I lost 15 lbs and in the best shape of my life. A $1,500 bike + $49/month subscription fee is a small price to pay for dramatically improved health and well being.

[rubidium]

Bluntly, this sounds exactly like a "as seen on tv" testimonial. No one denies the product was compelling / successful. It's just that fitness products are an incredibly fad-ish market. Something else will come along and be the new bright shiny thing.

[fnordpiglet]

Your first statement is bizarrely dismissive and a little condescending. The posters experience was their own. The fact it is positive and made for tv commercials pay actors to pretend to have an experience akin to the posters doesn’t impeach the posters experience in any way. I’d note the fact they’ve been engaged with the product and maintained fitness for years makes it not sound fad-ish at all. Their experience maps to what I hear from peloton owners as well. The level of long term engagement in the product seems very high and has a high stickiness, which for fitness products is very rare - and frankly a very good thing for the human beings whose life is positively changed by it. That’s not something to dismiss, that’s something to cheer. Good for the poster. I wish him years of continued fitness.

On is peloton a fad - it’s definitely not going to be what they thought it was. That was a lockdown induced hallucination. But it seems like with a steadier hand in management it’s a long term viable enterprise. But it won’t be replacing Apple or something like they probably thought they would.

[edgefield]

You can say what you want but from my vantage point there’s nothing “fad-ish” about the peloton. Do people buy it like the latest kitchen gizmo and then store it away and let it gather dust? Sure. But that’s not at all my experience.

Note, before the peloton I bought a Concept 2 rower. I used it routinely for a few months, then periodically, and then not at all. I still have it and going to try to use it again in conjunction with the peloton rowing classes now that they’re available in the app.

[brianwawok]

What does fad mean to you?

If usage of something new goes up, peaks, and then heads down to 1/2 or 1/4 of the previous peak, what would you call that?

[ghaff]

Fad has this very negative connotation but certain types of activities do rise in popularity, stay popular for a bit, and then decline a long way. Inline skating/rollerblading in the US is a great example.

It grew from nothing to be a super-popular recreational activity for a numbber of years, and now you rarely see someone on inline skates.

[brianwawok]

Right, Inline skates is a fad.

Doesn't mean it goes to 0, but it had a moment - and it is past.

[ghaff]

Right. No one is keeping you from putting on a pair and taking a skate on the bike path. And, once in a great while, you see someone doing just that. But there's probably no skate rental place on the bike path any longer, people don't organize group trips, and there are no mass urban Friday night skates.

I assume while frisbees are still around, they're also seemingly much less ubiquitous than they were.

[linuxftw]

The difference is, there was no SV startup unicorn with an insane valuation making roller blades. They were basic consumer products for like $20.

The executives made 100's of millions in profits off of a fad. They did an amazing job. Some of it's just dumb luck with the lockdowns, but either way, they made something out of nothing.

[ghaff]

Maybe they would have been if they had been the big thing 20 years later. But I think their heyday probably also predated a lot of the X-sports stuff etc. so it was mostly a recreational activity that was popular with fairly ordinary people. Skates could easily be more like $100+. They're basically hockey skates after all. (Construction details are different but level of support is the same.) Individuals made something out of nothing in the space but they didn't make $100s of millions of dollars.

[specialp]

Was the pandemic a fad? Yes certain segments did grow wildly during the pandemic due to in person restrictions. That growth is certainly unsustainable. If it weren't for the corresponding stock price explosion and then costs explosion to attempt to grow even more, they would have a very profitable company. As far as fitness trends they do manage to hold on to a lot of subscribers.

[brianwawok]

I'm not sure how to put a natural event as a fad... but masking surely was. It was a way to project how much of a good citizen you are. Yes it had social benefits, but it also was a badge of honor during the fad times.

[chucksta]

Life

[philipov]

Are there enough people like you to sustain their valuation?

[0xfaded]

I pay $200 a month to be a member of a fitness cult. I hate the idea that it works for me, but it does.

It's okay to find something that works for you and not overcomplicate it, even if it's a cult token in the form of an overpriced exercise bike.

[wtvanhest]

We bought one back in 2020 and I’d say it’s the single best purchase I have made in the last 10+ years. My wife and I use it or the app to work out almost every day and I’ll log 700+ hours this year which will be about 10% more than last year. 75% of which will be off bike in the other classes which you can pay a lower membership for.

Despite some really bad decisions by the management team on letting expenses get out of control, it’s an absolutely incredible product.

[red-iron-pine]

Man the shillbots are out hard in this.

Let me offer a counterpoint: I got one as a gift, used it a few times, realized I like biking outside way more, and it was an easy way to get out of the house, and found that paying a subscription for something I can do, for free, is absolutely silly.

It only makes sense if you're a FinanceBro trapped in your mid-town NYC appt and can't get out, etc. There are bike clubs near me for big group rides -- that cost me $0 -- and my local gym offers spin classes when it rains.

[tannedNerd]

I mean you could say the anti peloton (mirror lol?) shill bots are out hard based on your post. Just because lots of people find a system that works for them you have to tear it down and make fun of it?

The privilege of this is ridiculous. Not everyone has a safe place they can ride around outside for free at. I live in a big city in California and wouldn’t be caught dead riding outside from the terrible air quality to the horrible drivers that could kill me at seconds notice because the bike infrastructure around here is terrible. And if I wanted to get somewhere in the city where it’s better I need to pay for transit or drive, so not free.

I’m a software engineer who loves using it to get a workout in during my day that would otherwise require me as you say travel 15 min each way to closest gym, pay for a gym membership that’s way more than 44 bucks and includes a shitty spin bike that isn’t maintained well unless it’s in a class that I have follow their schedule for. Then head back home 15 min. Yessss so much easer then picking a class to start when I want to and not wasting 30 min driving.

[mikeryan]

It only makes sense if you're a FinanceBro trapped in your mid-town NYC appt and can't get out

This is a bit of a limited take, I'm an avid mountain biker and hit the trails 2-3 times a week. But I also want to exercise for fitness every day. Doing a ride on a bike is a 2-3 hour process and is fairly weather dependent. Doing a Peloton Ride is 45-60 minutes.

I do the Peloton "Power Zone" workouts they're great, I get slammed burn around 800 calories, maintain 230 Watts for that time and I don't "cheat" because of the power meter. It's a very different thing from an outdoor ride on road or trail. I'm a stronger rider on my bike because of these rides done on the Peloton. Heck most high-level road riders still do indoor rides for this reason - it's why things like the Wahoo Kickr and other trainers and spin setups exist for road bikes.

Finally there also a lot of people who because of their current physical condition or body image or a myriad of other reasons aren’t comfortable getting on a bike or working out in a group. A Peloton at home is a fantastic way for these people to start a fitness regimen.

Everyone's tackles fitness differently and it's odd to see anyone be so dismissive of something that is working for someone else.

[no_pomegranates]

I'm a self-admitted cardio addict. But stationary exercise equipment is something I find mind-numbingly boring. What is the peloton doing differently than others? Are the online classes really that motivating? Or is it something about the machine itself?

[wtvanhest]

70 hours! Not 700! Can’t edit. But easily 1.5+ hours per week.

[subpixel]

Two things can be true at the same time: Peloton is a great product that customers love, and the true value of the company is a fraction of what was imagined just a few years ago.

[kumarvvr]

The way I look at it, the same content and experience can be had by any normal bike and a bunch of Youtube videos.

You were motivated, perhaps, because you spent an ungodly amount of money on a run of the mill exercise bike.

[jstummbillig]

Or maybe because of a decisive amount of extra convenience a good, at-home setup provides to some.

Sure, we could all do fit without any trainers, groups, studios, videos or even any equipment – why maintain a bike when you can just run or walk quickly? – but for mysterious reasons, that's just not how all people and their motivation work.

(Sidenote, from what I gleaned lately, and while I would never use this reasoning to claim a Peloton is remotely cheap, it does not even seem laughably expensive next to bikes in a comparable percentile).

[waboremo]

Have you started biking to a bunch of youtube videos?

[kumarvvr]

Actually yes. But not biking videos, but full body workouts with weights. I have a few bookmarked videos that I follow and use them for exercising.

[SketchySeaBeast]

At the beginning of the pandemic (3 years ago) I took up running. I'm now running 3-4 times a week going on 3 years now. I was sold no perfect product but I was still able to pick it up and stick with it. Why? I personally think the pandemic was the perfect time to pick up a new habit and the enforced change in lifestyle lasted long enough that it stuck.

[mensetmanusman]

Some places are arguably worse for running due to smog (unless running with an N95). Biking indoors with clean air is a much better option during fire season.

[SketchySeaBeast]

Well, sure, in some areas it might be the case (I've actually been running with a N95 the last week due to forest fire smoke here in Edmonton), but that wasn't really my point and the potential for smog doesn't make Peleton (as opposed to another stationary bike or treadmill) more appealing.

[uoaei]

This equates to ~$90/mo gym membership with a one-time registration cost around $100, for scale.

This is the going rate for most climbing/bouldering gyms with full freeweight sets, treadmills, spin bikes, showers, saunas, etc.

I personally value cross-training and weightlifting because those are the ways to see real long-term benefits to your health. Bone density, testosterone, flexibility, good posture, will all pay dividends down the line. You can get cardio any number of ways, including commuting and running groceries by bike.

[red-iron-pine]

As mentioned elsewhere, this was basically what I ran into. Total cost of ownership for the bike was on par with a nice gym, and the gym offers spin classes... on top of weights, rowing machines, steam rooms, etc.

[Aeolun]

Maybe that happened because it was so expensive? If you’d bought a $200 exercise bike that was functionally the same, would you have achieved the same thing?

[sco1]

I've owned the bike for 3 years and IMO Peloton's value is the class content, not the device. I've mentioned it before on HN and having tried many services over the years, I don't think anyone but Apple has even come close to providing the same kind of consistent value for general fitness instruction, and they had Peloton's product to draw from when they created it.

I don't think I'm alone in finding the task of designing workout plans challenging, and often demotivating. Obviously it's not the same as paying for coaching or personal training, but being able to open up the app and just have a workout ready to go is valuable to me. I understand some being miffed that the subscription cost is higher for those who own Peloton hardware, but the price point is still much lower than what I would be paying (and was paying) for local classes.

I don't know if this is valuable enough to sustain the business, but I hope it is.

[gizmo]

The median Peloton owner bought a $1500 clothes rack. Your experience -- while laudable -- isn't representative.

[o1y32]

"from not working out regularly... to working out 4x a week"

I understand where you are from, and there is definitely a segment of people whose access to gym is hindered by other factors (convenience, time spent on transportation etc) and Peloton is a better solution for them, but I doubt that is representative of the general Peloton users. And even for that segment, there are alternatives that work well enough -- just get a bike trainer, and there are so many options to choose from. (I don't see myself ever getting a Peloton when I already have a bike)

Not to mention that Peloton does not replace gym. For working out/losing weight etc sure, but you get a lot more different equipment and programs from a "real" gym.

[hellweaver666]

HOW MUCH? I heard about the fad, but holy crap thats a lot to spend on pedalling without going anywhere.

[throwawayadvsec]

What's the difference between a cheaper good bike and a mobile app?

[edgefield]

Better integration with the classes and metrics and the leaderboard. I use power zone classes only and the metrics are key for that.

[o1y32]

It the "better integration" worth the premium of $1000+ and a subscription fee? To many people, including rich & athletic people, that is a firm no, which is why the company is failing.

[andrewmcwatters]

You can lose 15 pounds in two months eating mostly whole, unprocessed foods.

Spending over $3,000 over 3 years for what you can do in under three months is an example of American nutritional education.

[steveBK123]

Diet is more effective for losing weight than exercise, but exercise & general activity are going to keep you from having a lot of health issues in late middle age.

[dougmwne]

That is an infomercial script right there. Great that it worked for you, but most people don’t become health nuts after buying a Ronco or a bow flex. Plus, it’s actively unhelpful advice for the majority of people who could never afford such an expensive way to stay fit when it could be trivially replicated with a free Craigslist exercise bike and a phone playing YouTube.

[edgefield]

I don’t think the peloton is at all equivalent to the ronco(?) or bow flex. It’s an integrated experience with hardware, classes/instructors, and an active community.

[registeredcorn]

I've read some of the comments here and it sounds like people are being exceedingly unfair towards the position you presented. I'm not entirely sure why.

Personally, I think the cost of the bike + the subscription is untenable, but I understand how it could benefit people who want that experience.