Five months ago our Peloton arrived and since then I have talked a bout it quite a bit. I t has made it into innumerable Instagram stories, six blog posts mentions so far, and I included it in both my best quarantine purchases and my Best Purchases of 2020. So clearly, I like it, but today I want to answer the number one question I have received – is it worth it? So welcome to today’s Peloton review.
You may remember when quarantine started we brought home a bike from the spin studio I was a member of. It was great during the first lockdown in London but I quickly learned just peddling by myself was getting boring and not leading to the best workout. Thus I download the Peloton app starting with the free trial and my rides got much more interesting when I took a guided class via an iPad. However, cycling with the app does have it’s limitations both in terms of following the instructors guidance on cadence and resistance as well as tracking your progress. Not soon after we ended up ordering the Peloton bike and eagerly waited for it to arrive.
Early July the delivery men were in our apartment setting up the bike and I was thrilled. For six weeks I rode on average five times a week and when we headed to St. Lucia at the end of August. After the 10 day trip I really missed the bike and almost published this Peloton review then. Thus in September I got back in the saddle and back in the groove. Now that I have had the bike for five months here are my thoughts on the key categories:
Instructors | My favourite instructors are Robyn (who I used to ride live with in New York) as well as Cody Rigby, Matt Wilpers, and Alex Toussaint. They all have very different teaching styles and types of rides which is actually great because I love to have variety.
Variety | Speaking of variety I am really impressed with the amount of classes to choose from – there are thousands of options ranging from 5, 10, and 15 minutes classes to 60, 75, and 90 minute options. You can stack them up or just take one, it really is your choice and there are no limits on how many you can take. And in addition to cycling there are so many non biking options.
More Than Cycling | When you log into the bike now you have almost a dozen types of workout categories to choose from – as of yesterday they were strength, yoga, meditation, cardio, stretching, outdoor, running, walking, read bootcamp, bike bootcamp, and of course, cycling. As I try and move and sweat every day it is great to be able to do non bike options on rest days.
Price | The basic bike starts at $1,895 which is certainly an investment, also considering you need to pay the additional Peloton All-Access Membership at $39/month. However, if you are just starting out as we were we opted for the bike family pack as it included two pairs of shoes, two heart rate monitors, a set of bike weights, a bike mat, and more. And while this is not the option we chose you can also choose the financing option which is 39 payments with 0.00% APR making it $65 a month for the bike and you still pay the monthly subscription fee but it combined it more reasonable than most gym memberships. I think this is an important consideration in any Peloton review.
Competitiveness | Part of the reason I enjoy the bike so much is you are not only racing against yourself and PRs but hundreds or thousands of others. The challenges and corresponding badges really motivate me, especially with the comparison to my friends aiming for 15 active days per month and 150 miles ridden per month. If you want to join the party you can add me, my username is kellyann.
And like any true review it can not be all rainbows and sunshine – the negatives for me are the pacing, countdowns, and time zones. In terms of the pacing, if your best score for a 45 minute ride is 450 outfit the ride paces you at 1o points per minute from the second the warmup starts to the second the warm down ends and realistically your ride will not be straight consistency the whole time. With regards to the countdown some instructors I have found do not count well – when then say 10 seconds left, you can stop us at 9 to 11 seconds but not 5 and certainly not 15. And with timezones this is a personal issue but I like to ride live and since many of the classes are filmed in New York there are not many morning options (8am in London is 3am on the East Coast).
That said, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The bottom line for me? Yes, it is definitely worth the investment if you are going to use it consistently. And for us it makes even more sense because both Mark and I use the bike. If you are interested in getting one the original is on sale right now in both the US and UK which you can find
here and with my referral code you can get an additional discount, it’s ZUM9AV. Arguably he does not use it as much as me (he likely averages 3 rides a week) but as he does not work from home and still does CrossFit, that makes sense.
Every month I go for gold, 15 days of classes and 150 miles ridden
Over the past few weeks I have ben getting even more use out of the non bike classes so expect to see more of those on social media. As a follow up from this Peloton review if you are all interested I can do a Q&A so drop your questions below and I will gather them all for a post in the New Year!
Have you ever tried a Peloton bike?
Tammy says
Hey what happened to my comment. Did it end up somewhere in your spam folder.
Tad says
What do you think about the original bike and the new Bike+? Have you tried it? I
Sabrina says
I swear by that peloton. Whether I have 10 minutes 20 minutes or an hour I can just jump on and get some great exercise.
So nice to have it right at the house and I have to tell youthe competitiveness in me really comes out.
Gary says
I scrolled all the way to the bottom first to see your opinion because I could not imagine you would say no!