Over the weekend Peloton announced a slew of new features across their platform. Some of these features are minor upgrades, some moderate refreshes, and a few pretty significant signs towards future directions that could aim to disrupt further the rest of the sports tech space.
While most of these features rolled out over the weekend, as part of Peloton’s so-called annual ‘Homecoming’ event, there are others that won’t show up till a bit later in the year. Still, for those features that are available today, I gave them a whirl on a few different workouts to see how they handled.
Note that Peloton divides up its userbase into two buckets: “Digital Members” and “All Access Members”, which is basically whether you’re using the app only, or whether you’ve got an actual Peloton Bike/Treadmill. The app-only folks are “Digital Members” ($12/month), while the “All Access Members” own a Peloton Bike or Treadmill, and pay $39/month. Interestingly, this update saw the app-only members lose one feature from their stable. More on that in a second.
If you’re not so much a Peloton person, but more of an anything-else person, I’d suggest a quick read of the Strive and Scenic sections, it’s worth consideration, as these are most likely to be the ones that could impact things elsewhere.
First up is a complete revamp of their Scenic Rides section. This is probably the part of Peloton most people don’t know existed. After all, only 10% of all-access bike members even did a scenic ride in the last 3 months, according to Peloton (though, 25% of Tread users had in the same period). It’s buried in the menus, as opposed to being a logical ‘Scenic Rides’ tab. That part hasn’t changed, but what has is the content. Peloton admitted that “some of the content was getting a bit stale” and that “the music left something to be desired” (their words, not mine). Plus the video playback speed didn’t change based on your speed.
So Peloton basically re-did everything and broke it out into three buckets:
Guided Classes: These are akin to a normal Peloton class with an instructor & targets, but this time you’re riding with the instructor outdoors, like going for a ride with a coach Distance-Based Routes: These are set distance routes, whereby the playback speed varies based on your power output. Other companies have been doing this forever, but it’s new to Peloton Time-Based Routes: These are similar to the previous scenic routes, but supposedly more cinematic
I gave one of the new guided scenic rides a whirl on Saturday. When you dive into that menu, there’s only a couple of classes at this point, this initial allotment was filmed in Hawaii, Big Sur (California), and Savannah (Georgia). None of the classes in this initial drop were very long, but I’ve got to imagine they filmed numerous classes during each production shoot.
For mine, I selected the Matt Wilpers ride, as he’s the one who typically aligns most with the triathlon/hardcore cyclist crowd, as both an endurance coach/athlete himself, and almost all of his workouts are power-zone based.
After a typical 60-second intro explainer on how the ride works, you’re off and pedaling. This is where things get interesting. In general, in indoor-cycling apps with scenic rides, the camera is mounted on a bike/car/moto/whatever, and you pretend you’re the cyclist on the road. Sometimes you get different brief views, but you don’t typically have any interaction with a coach or such. That’s where Peloton is seemingly different. As you’re riding the route, they’ve constructed it so that the instructor pops into view on the road with you and is giving you the workout targets. Oh, and he’s on a gravel bike because some sections of the route are gravel.
It’s not one continuous non-stop route video like a FulGaz/Rouvy/Tacx film, but instead they cut between different cameras, including scenic drone shots, road shots without the instructor, road shots with the instructor talking to the camera, and road shots with the instructor still talking but not to the camera.
Somehow, it actually works. And honestly – it works really damn well.
Which is interesting to me, as I tend to find scenic rides a bit boring on other platforms. I know, it’s not logical in my head that I like a good ERG workout with nothing else, but then find a scenic ride boring. But hey, that’s my head – it is what it is.
But in this case, you’ve got the structured workout part being driven by a human, and then a fair bit of camera work to pull it all together. The editing sequencing isn’t quite perfect (sometimes the road clearly changes mid-shot during talking sequences). I’d give it a B+, but as a first go, it’s strong.
In some ways, it’s similar to what The Sufferfest does in terms of effectively having a coached workout + scenic rides. The difference though is that there’s an instructor visibly talking to you, the camera. It’s not just voiceover. You see the instructor in the video riding too on the same route. Now I’m not saying Peloton is the first to have mixed this formula (or done so perfectly). As I’m sure in the vast piles of scenic ride type videos there are a few instructor-led ones where the instructor is out on the road. Though, I’m guessing very few, if any, of them are at the production quality or seamlessness level as this.
In any case, the things I didn’t like about it were:
– Simply too short. The longest class here was 30 minutes. Give me an hour ride somewhere with Wilpers
– Simply too easy. The workout picked up a bit towards the last 10-12 minutes, but too much of it was a bit too easy. And sure, you can always go harder, but if the video is literally going downhill, it kinda breaks your mental game if you’re supposed to be hammering at 300w down that hill
– A couple of weird edits. I don’t mind using drone b-roll as they did to make it feel cohesive, that works. But if an instructor is mid-sentence, it shouldn’t cut to him on a different road as a shot
– They took away the leaderboard…entirely
Still, despite those – the new guided rides are really good – and I hope they have a boatload more of these planned. They clearly took pains to shoot on routes with zero cars or other distracting elements (at least for the Hawaii ones).
For the other two types – distance and time-based, I briefly tried the distance-based one. This one uses your bike speed to tweak the playback speed of the video, just like countless other apps do. This was so-so.
The platform doesn’t account for hills in the route, so I’d happily speed up a clearly 8-10% grade hill (this screenshot just as I crested the top) at nearly 20MPH with a minor surge. Blah.
Finally, it’s worth noting however, that Peloton has removed the ability for app-only members to do any scenic rides anymore. Their reasoning was that since the distance-based rides require power to drive the speed calculations (which the app-only doesn’t support), that they should yank all scenic rides. Obviously, that doesn’t really hold water for removing all three types of content, since the guided classes require no power/speed information, just as the time-based ones don’t either.
Adding Strive Score:
Peloton has added a new metric, the Strive Score, which aims to illustrate the overall impact of a given workout, from an exertion standpoint. In effect, this is basically a heart-rate driven training load score. The Strive Score shows up across all workout types, and has a multiplier in effect based on your heart rate zone, as seen below:
You get more ‘points’ faster (the multiplier) in higher zones than lower zones, though, Zone 4 & Zone 5 are the same. These heart rate zones are in turn based on your max HR defined in the settings. You can tweak that, as well as turn the Strive Score on or off if you’d like to. You can also temporarily hide it for a given workout by tapping on it.
This does of course require that you pair up a heart rate strap to your app/bike/treadmill. Peloton hardware supports ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart heart rate straps, while their apps support Bluetooth Smart heart rate straps.
What’s interesting to me is a comment made by CEO John Foley during his keynote, saying that Strive was “one of the first software features this group of renowned experts has consulted on”, in reference to a panel of outside experts that would talk about the feature the next day in a panel (though, not in as much depth as I hoped).
One interesting tidbit you’ll notice in the multiplier above though is that the zone 4/5 multiplier is the same. Peloton says they did that because they didn’t want people trying to overachieve constantly in Zone 5. In fact, there were multiple subtle nods throughout the panel that trying to ‘kill’ every workout isn’t a great fitness strategy, versus a more balanced spread of intensities across different workouts.
You’ll see the Strive score not only on the left side of your screen near the heart rate details:
But also the Strive coloring shows up for others on the leaderboard (see the right edge, next to their leaderboard score):
Also worth noting though that while Strive is offered for strength workouts, it’s not really the best metric to use for strength workouts, as it basically encourages people to rush through sets in order to keep their heart rate up. That could lead to injury, but also defeat the purpose of recovery in lifting, which is primarily aimed at muscle strength and not aerobic capacity.
Ultimately though, the fact that Peloton is rolling out a specific metric here is notable. You’ll remember back a bit ago when they made various acquisitions in the wearables space, all of which are clearly aimed at making some hardware piece that tracks your workouts or progress. Strive Score would clearly seem to be laying the groundwork in their platform for such a device, and would ultimately fit perfectly in a Whoop-style device in place of training load. Because after all, that’s exactly what this is.
Peloton Programs 2.0:
Peloton has revamped their ‘Programs’ platform, which are basically the structured workouts tied together as part of a cohesive step-by-step program. Now, when you choose to take a given program, you’ve got a set number of classes you’ll take each week, all of which are both tracked and offered up to you right from the home screen daily.
It’s not quite as hard-set as TrainerRoad saying “you shall take this class on May 4th, and this class on May 5th”, but rather a set ordering for the week that does let you double-up if you want. It’s probably a good balance for the Peloton core market. You can skip a class if you want as well (or re-take classes), and there’s a progress report section too.
For example, I went ahead and signed up for a Peloton program for core workouts. It starts off silly easy and short, but over time builds up. Like any other class. There’s also power zone training ones too, which span up to 6 weeks in length.
The main thing here is mostly the glue around the user interface. Previously this was basically just Peloton sticking a bunch of classes in a folder and saying “Tada: Welcome to our program!”, now it’s actually a calendar of things to do each week that are all easily front and center and crystal clear.
As you complete classes and programs you’ll also get badges.
Target Metrics for Tread & Tread+:
Here’s a quickie. Peloton is adding target metrics to their Tread & Tread+ classes. Target metrics are what are shown in yellow at the bottom, which basically make it glanceable as to what your current workout target should be at any given moment.
While this will be appreciated by those people, I’m still confused as to why this doesn’t exist for power zone workouts. Why doesn’t it show the current power zone you’re supposed to be in, just like it shows current resistance ranges for every other workout?
New Special Guest Leaderboard:
Peloton showed off a new Special Guest section on their leaderboard, for when they have special guests in-studio (or in a class) and want to feature them. You can see it shown this past weekend on Alex Toussaint’s ride, with Usain Bolt as the special guest. Above you can choose to toggle on the filter for a special guest (just like you would for any other category), and then you can see just the special guest.
The real key takeaway here though is that this is the only time where I can beat Usain Bolt on any athletic endeavor, and even have a record of it:
Undoubtedly we’ll see this get used more often in other areas, once Peloton is able to get more special guests back into their studios.
Adding a Pause Button:
Finally, later this year you’ll be able to properly pause your class. Previously you could only fully exit the class and then resume it later. Now you’ll be able to pause it, though, Peloton hasn’t detailed yet on how exactly this impacts the leaderboard – other than to say that they’re working to ensure that “the integrity of the leaderboard remains”.
They noted that they made the realization that sometimes “the doorbell rings” or the “kids wake up” and that they needed an easier solution there (to which I say, ‘duh’). The current solution is just messy and annoying, and frankly, the fact that it’s taken this long is somewhat mind-boggling.
But as to what impact that makes on the leaderboard exactly, that remains to be seen. Obviously, if someone comes back 15 minutes later then that’s a significant recovery, versus if someone comes back 23 seconds later after opening a door for a package. I guess we’ll find out later this year.
With that – thanks for reading!
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I tried Tread at once at CES, but just for a few seconds.
I’d like to actually buy one and try one out longer term, but alas, they don’t offer it for sale via Peloton Germany. If the border situation wasn’t such a mess with the UK, I’d consider going there to pick one up.
Matthew – seems like it’s the Scenic Rides (easy to miss the few sentences, they’re right before the Strive Score section – copied below if it helps):
“Finally, it’s worth nothing however, that Peloton has removed the ability for app-only members to do any scenic rides anymore. They’re reasoning was that since the distance-based rides require power to drive the speed calculations (which the app-only doesn’t support), that they should yank all scenic rides. Obviously, that doesn’t really hold water for removing all three types of content, since the guided classes require no power/speed information, just as the time-based ones don’t either.”
Scenic seems really interesting to me. I think the future is VR rides, and I would think biking is the easiest thing to do that with (you don’t have to deal with getting spun around when you’re fixed to a bike.
Do you think this is the first step in doing so? And is anyone trying to do this (or doing it well) right now?
It’s tough. Almost every time (except one), that I’ve tried VR rides, you get sick super quick. It’s just a really disorienting experience (and I don’t get motion sick easily).
The singular time it worked, was on a $100K motion rig, akin to a flight simulator – because the motion matched the headset.
Great overview of newly added features. Definitely loving the strive score.
You touched on a sore point for me re Peloton – short rides. Peloton moved into the mass market even prior to Covid. The mass market rider wants 10, 20 and 30 minute rides and this is what Peloton now provides. Look at the live schedule and you will see multiple days each week without a ride longer than 30 minutes. For someone starting a fitness journey, this is fine. For those of us looking to build endurance, 20 or 30 minutes of exertion doesn’t cut it.
I’ve had the bike approaching 5 years and I wish there was a competitor that provided an authentic virtual indoor cycling experience similar to what you would have experienced at Flywheel or now at Cyclebar. Peloton used to provide an experience almost as good as studio cycling years ago and their CEO Foley used to reference this in his Peloton spiel. Not anymore.
I’m wondering what the next tech innovation is for indoor cyclers looking for more than a 15 or 30 minute workout. I fear that Peloton has sucked out the oxygen so there is no room for the next wave of innovation in this area.
That’s an area I don’t fully understand. They added more instructors (9 I think?) this past weekend as part of the announcement, so I’m hoping that allows some of them to get back to the longer classes. But the core of my confusion is WTF are the instructors doing the rest of the week? Like, many of them only do a single class per week, and as they’ve outlined in countless interviews over the years, most spend 3-5 hours developing a class (tops – and htat’s even noted on Peloton’s on site just a month ago: link to blog.onepeloton.com). How is it that there are so few classes each week with as many instructors as they have (and as well paid and incentive-tied to stock as they are)?
That said, for duration it does seem somewhat seasonal. For example, around Christmas, everything gets super short each year. I’m wondering if that’s the same again around now as they try and keep people on the platform that are otherwise going outside as the weather s nicer.
That is a great point. I noticed the more tenured instructors are the ones with fewest longer rides.I assumed they were paid the same irrespective of hours instructing per week and chose to work less.
Peloton clearly has the customer base and instructor critical mass to set up a second cycle studio and streaming channel. This would allow them to provide longer rides for riders with more serious fitness goals and provide solution for west coast riders looking for live rides.
Oh, they built out a massive $50m new studio a year ago at Hudson Yards, plus they have the London studios. I don’t know if they tore down the original Peloton studio location or not.
Either way, they have capacity at a minimum to offer daily hourly classes 24×7 (to cover North America/Europe), plus they’ve got Australia coming online later this year (I presume offered via one of their existing studios, since times overlap well there).
To be fair, after listening to the panel, I’m sure they were experts (really, they were), but I’m not sure they were experts on Peloton specifically. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t super applicable to the product – and ended up being more generally. So, perhaps kinda renounced. ;)
– Are the Wilpers guided scenic rides power zone based?
– Any recommendations on broadcasting HR from Apple Watch to the Peloton Bike (not +)? My wife has tried the Blueheart app but not very reliable or user-friendly
A) The first (and only to date) scenic ride uploaded isn’t power zone, just resistance levels. Would love to see down the road that sorta thing. For example him doing a 60-90 minute ride on the Big Island with plenty of ground based on power zones.
B) Yeah, I’ve gotta tackle that in a post. NPE HeartZone is the one I’ve tried a bit, but not a ton (it’s a small piece of hardware that just hangs out).
Thanks, I agree it would be nice to have longer and power zone based scenic rides – hope that’s coming!
On Strive Score functionality with Apple Watch, looking forward to your coverage of HR broadcasting (including hearbeatz, I think it’s called). And is it fair to think of Strive Score as a way of quantifying how hard I worked (where as power/output is how much work I did, independent of how hard I worked at achieving that)?
Peloton is the BEST! I love my Bike+ and cannot wait to purchase the Treadmill. Peloton Bike+ has improved my health + well-being as well as enjoying the most fabulous and encouraging Instructors ie Tunde and Chelsea-Jackson Roberts, etc. Worth every dollar spent and beyond grateful! Sleek and easy to fit into any space. I highly recommend Peloton to everyone!
When will you start covering iFit? I have been a very happy iFit user since last November with one of their treadmills. I find their outdoor video based workouts much more suitable than the indoor based workouts in Peloton, Fitness+.
I actually have iFit on one of my older treadmills, but it’s without a screen, so just an iFit module that I can’t even change the WiFi network on anymore, because…they don’t have a way to change the WiFi network on it if you move since they stopped supporting it.
Ultimately, I don’t find treadmill/connected bike companies super bright in trying to get review units over to me. In my case, I bought my Peloton bikes. Soul Cycle actually offered to send one to me to review…until they found out I don’t live in the US of A. In which case, they said it was too complex.
Loving working out with Tommy Rivs and the new active pulse/smart adjust is a lot like how sufferfest adjusts your workouts with their unique performance test.
iFit have done some huge software updates recently and their library of content is massive. I just wish they had better connectivity to other devices (eg sending speed and gain to Garmin devices or Connect)
Agreed, I have their treadmill and the rivs videos are rock solid. It got my in laws walking at least taking historical tours through historical cities. Plus…you can load Netflix.
I think the reason that Peloton mostly runs shorter classes is really targeted both at their user-base, and a realization of what actually gets used; and that’s largely the shorter classes.
Sure, some people are using their bike on a rainy weekend, but I suspect most people, if they have the time, are getting outside for their long rides. The people using these bikes are trying to get something in before they have to cook the kids dinner or something similar. I often string together multiple classes if I’m going to go longer… but I predominantly bought the thing for times that I just don’t have time to go for a ‘real’ ride.
I may have a slightly skewed impression on this; but I live in Arizona, where I can ride pretty much year round if I’m willing to get up early in the morning in the summer.
Also, I believe the instructors are paid by the number of people who take their classes. So they may do better if you come take 2x 30-min classes vs 1x60m class. I DO wish there were more classes that didn’t have warm-up’s and cool downs… but really you can just blow through those if necessary.
Unfortunately, they removed the leaderboard feature from the scenic rides and you are completely solo…or should I say the ability to see who else was in the work out with you… the actual “Peloton” making it less motivating.
The explanation I was given when I called to complain is that Peloton was trying to create a “non-competitive” environment where people could “just ride.” They also stopped using the mileage and minutes from those rides for your monthly totals….because you were just “out riding.” I about lost my mind. I use those settings to ride my own workouts using my Garmin equipment.
As far as wanting longer rides have you tried the stacking feature where you can stack rides back to back? As far as X32i yes it may not swallow kids or pets but I any treadmill is a danger if you do not watch out for kids and pets.
Tread has a design flaw. Whether Peloton admits it or not. I checked my treadmill, it has a bar behind the treadmill so that foreign objects, pets and kids will not get sucked in through the back.
All they had to do was to add that bar, but apparently it was too much of an effort.
I agree with you. While I think most treadmills (including the one I have downstairs in the cave, from ProForm, an Icon brand, along with Nordic Track), are susceptible to this, it doesn’t make Peloton’s actions right.
In some ways, they’re kinda like Lance here. Yes, everyone was cheating in that timeframe, but, as the ‘biggest’ fish (in terms of popularity anyway), they’re the ones that get the target on their back – rightly or wrongly.
On Tread, this could be largely addressed by a bar, or plastic cover, or something. I don’t understand why on earth Peloton is pushing back so hard on this. Heck, they could have placated half the media coverage by simply saying “We’re working on an aftermarket shield that we’ll send out to all customers as soon as possible, in the meantime, use the device per safety instructions.”
Again, almost every other treadmill I look at has the same problem – very few actually don’t.
That said, there was some rumors Peloton is looking at a pin-style code to unlock the treadmill (like you’d unlock a phone), which sounds brilliant. I haven’t seen that on other treadmills, but I’m sure it probably exists. That’d solve most of this, since as a parent I an entirely understand with trying to remember to pull the keycard can be tough. Namely in a scenario where you have to get off the treadmill quickly to resolve a toddler sibling fight, and then never end up going back to the treadmill – forgetting about it. A auto-lock type feature would be great.
(Note: We don’t have the treadmill at home, just at the DCR Cave/offic, which is a few kilometers away.)
Ray – while not directly related to the review topic, I’m curious if you think that Peloton will ever integrate with Training Peaks? I recognize Training Peaks is more oriented to competitive market but think it would be a user-friendly platform integration that I would think would be very easy to accommodate via API.
Also, any guesses on whether Peloton might integrate footpod for mileage for folks who already have a pre-existing treadmill?
Yeah, I don’t understand why Peloton is so hesitant to sync outbound to other platforms. Kinda weird to me.
And I know there’s a slate of TrainingPeaks employees that use Peloton bikes too.
As for footpods, that’s always surprised me as well. After all, the market of people willing to use the app with a footpod at a gym or home on an existing treadmill is far larger than the number of people willing to fork out $4K for a new treadmill.
Do you still think the original Peloton bike, with manual resistance, would be a good buy now in 2021?
I am thinking of getting an indoor bike for fitness and (in my price range) I am torn between the Peloton bike (original/cheaper version) or a 2020 Wattbike Atom.
It’s not a bad buy. I still use it for half, if not 2/3rds of my Peloton rides. Basically, we have the original Bike at home, and the Bike+ at the office. So on the weekends or at night I tend to ride the original BIke, and then if it’s a daytime weekday ride, it’ll be the Bike+.
Yes, the accuracy isn’t great on the original bike (really, it’s not). And yes, the accuracy on the new bike is fantastic (it is). But for Power zone workouts, you don’t get Auto-Follow resistance anyway on the new BIke, and many of my workouts are Power Zone, thus…yeah.
The main thing to consider when looking at the Wattbike Atom vs Peloton is honestly what you’re going to use it for. If you’re going to use it for Zwift/TrainerRoad/etc…then don’t go Peloton – it doesn’t connect there. Whereas if you’re going to use it for Peloton, then nothing is better for Peloton than a Peloton bike.
I bought an original Peloton in November (that is, not Bike+) and have been doing almost solidly Power Zone classes, having come from a background of racing. My indoor training was with a Computrainer. Now I’m trying to regain my fitness after a knee surgery, and while my output is no where near what it was on the Computrainer, the Peloton output does seem to be fairly accurate just based on previous HR zones and my RPE (within 5-10 watts, I’d guess).
But you say it is NOT accurate? You’re really messin’ with my head here, Ray! Do I have to shell out for the Bike+? Computrainer isn’t available anymore for me …
It should be noted that any courses completed in programs prior to 2.0 are not credited in the new version. And you can skip classes the first week of the new programs but beyond that your can’t progress further. So if you were halfway through a program none of the courses already completed are accounted for. Many people have complained about this and supposedly they’re working on a solution, but I haven’t seen any updates on this.
Thank you for this review. Always loved your running reviews & excited to see this as I’m planning to purchase the Tread this month and shift from an occasional Peloton Digital user. The changes will be interesting to test out though I’m not a fan of riding so I’ll check out the running & strength programs. Loved the note re Matt Wilpers-solidifies him further as my instructor of choice 😊
Any idea if they are going to ever broadcast power from the bike+? I would really love to get credit for the rides on my Garmin, and I can’t imagine I’m the only person that wants recovery and vo2 max and ftp to show up in Garmin
Just to clarify one thing, when you say “But also the Strive coloring shows up for others on the leaderboard (see the right edge, next to their leaderboard score)” I think what it’s actually showing is the coloring associated with the HR zone you’re in, not something tied to your current Strive score.
I generally go with pretty generic ones, as they’re all just about the same. Here’s one that a lot of DCR readers have picked up over the years: link to amzn.to
I made the jump to purchase the Bike+ and received it today.
After a quick use, I discovered an annoying logo (I noticed it on some of your screen shots on this review and the Bike+ review) that offers to connect an Apple watch at the top center of the screen that does not seem to disappear (it even covers the time bar at the top for classes).
The problem is that I don’t have an Apple Watch (not planning to), but I would imagine that there must be a way to get this feature out of the screen. For instance, I can remove metrics on a ride at the bottom of the screen. Why not this?
I contacted customer service and they claim that it is the way it is. Is there really no other option? This does not make any sense. I can’t imagine having this on the screen while doing a scenic ride.
I’m not sure I follow. The split second you press the start button on the workout, that Apple Watch pairing box goes away. It also goes away as soon as you pair any other HR strap.
As a FYI, I have not activate my account yet. I have been using the free ride and the 4 sample classes to see if everything is ok and connects properly. I assume that the bike should behave the same way.
The Apple Watch pairing box remains on the screen all the time as soon as I select free ride or a sample class. It does not disappear after I start the exercise. If I press on it, a new larger window pops up obscuring the screen even further and I can only go back to the original “Apple Watch pairing box”. I tried to move/slide it out of the screen, but no success.
When I pair my Scosche Rhythm24, the HR window shows up on the left side of the screen, but Apple Watch pairing box remains there too and does not disappear.
Yeah, I think you really need to go ahead and activate it (which would be a normal Peloton experience). For example, you’re not going to get various personal preferences and such. I can see your screenshot doesn’t have a slew of things that you’d otherwise get once actually logged in.
I’ve never heard anyone else mention it before (and I’ve never seen it stay on there once you press start), so I think not activating it is probably your root cause.
You missed something critical – in the scenic rides, without an instructor, the metrics of the ride do not add to your monthly goals and challenges – it is BS. I pay $39/month for all of my workouts to be available and calculated. Someone changed the program so that only my metrics with an instructor are included in my monthly mileage and minutes challenge goals.
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You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
Great write up as ever Ray, interesting to see where peloton are heading with this.
Out of interest have you given the Tread a good go yet? I’d be interested in your thoughts on that as we are considering one.
I tried Tread at once at CES, but just for a few seconds.
I’d like to actually buy one and try one out longer term, but alas, they don’t offer it for sale via Peloton Germany. If the border situation wasn’t such a mess with the UK, I’d consider going there to pick one up.
Ray – what feature did the app only folks lose? I didn’t see any more info about that.
Matthew – seems like it’s the Scenic Rides (easy to miss the few sentences, they’re right before the Strive Score section – copied below if it helps):
“Finally, it’s worth nothing however, that Peloton has removed the ability for app-only members to do any scenic rides anymore. They’re reasoning was that since the distance-based rides require power to drive the speed calculations (which the app-only doesn’t support), that they should yank all scenic rides. Obviously, that doesn’t really hold water for removing all three types of content, since the guided classes require no power/speed information, just as the time-based ones don’t either.”
Yup indeed, no more scenic rides at all!
Search again for xxx
Thanks!
“ xxxgallery”
🤔 hmmmmm
Thanks, added in the XXX gallery, though it’ll probably not be as exciting as some hoped it might be.
Digital is $12.99 per month, not $9
Thanks!
Scenic seems really interesting to me. I think the future is VR rides, and I would think biking is the easiest thing to do that with (you don’t have to deal with getting spun around when you’re fixed to a bike.
Do you think this is the first step in doing so? And is anyone trying to do this (or doing it well) right now?
It’s tough. Almost every time (except one), that I’ve tried VR rides, you get sick super quick. It’s just a really disorienting experience (and I don’t get motion sick easily).
The singular time it worked, was on a $100K motion rig, akin to a flight simulator – because the motion matched the headset.
Great overview of newly added features. Definitely loving the strive score.
You touched on a sore point for me re Peloton – short rides. Peloton moved into the mass market even prior to Covid. The mass market rider wants 10, 20 and 30 minute rides and this is what Peloton now provides. Look at the live schedule and you will see multiple days each week without a ride longer than 30 minutes. For someone starting a fitness journey, this is fine. For those of us looking to build endurance, 20 or 30 minutes of exertion doesn’t cut it.
I’ve had the bike approaching 5 years and I wish there was a competitor that provided an authentic virtual indoor cycling experience similar to what you would have experienced at Flywheel or now at Cyclebar. Peloton used to provide an experience almost as good as studio cycling years ago and their CEO Foley used to reference this in his Peloton spiel. Not anymore.
I’m wondering what the next tech innovation is for indoor cyclers looking for more than a 15 or 30 minute workout. I fear that Peloton has sucked out the oxygen so there is no room for the next wave of innovation in this area.
That’s an area I don’t fully understand. They added more instructors (9 I think?) this past weekend as part of the announcement, so I’m hoping that allows some of them to get back to the longer classes. But the core of my confusion is WTF are the instructors doing the rest of the week? Like, many of them only do a single class per week, and as they’ve outlined in countless interviews over the years, most spend 3-5 hours developing a class (tops – and htat’s even noted on Peloton’s on site just a month ago: link to blog.onepeloton.com). How is it that there are so few classes each week with as many instructors as they have (and as well paid and incentive-tied to stock as they are)?
That said, for duration it does seem somewhat seasonal. For example, around Christmas, everything gets super short each year. I’m wondering if that’s the same again around now as they try and keep people on the platform that are otherwise going outside as the weather s nicer.
That is a great point. I noticed the more tenured instructors are the ones with fewest longer rides.I assumed they were paid the same irrespective of hours instructing per week and chose to work less.
Peloton clearly has the customer base and instructor critical mass to set up a second cycle studio and streaming channel. This would allow them to provide longer rides for riders with more serious fitness goals and provide solution for west coast riders looking for live rides.
Oh, they built out a massive $50m new studio a year ago at Hudson Yards, plus they have the London studios. I don’t know if they tore down the original Peloton studio location or not.
Either way, they have capacity at a minimum to offer daily hourly classes 24×7 (to cover North America/Europe), plus they’ve got Australia coming online later this year (I presume offered via one of their existing studios, since times overlap well there).
“this group of renounced experts”. They went looking for experts that other places got rid of? That’s very generous. (I think he means “renowned”).
To be fair, after listening to the panel, I’m sure they were experts (really, they were), but I’m not sure they were experts on Peloton specifically. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t super applicable to the product – and ended up being more generally. So, perhaps kinda renounced. ;)
Thanks as always, Ray!
– Are the Wilpers guided scenic rides power zone based?
– Any recommendations on broadcasting HR from Apple Watch to the Peloton Bike (not +)? My wife has tried the Blueheart app but not very reliable or user-friendly
Thanks!
A) The first (and only to date) scenic ride uploaded isn’t power zone, just resistance levels. Would love to see down the road that sorta thing. For example him doing a 60-90 minute ride on the Big Island with plenty of ground based on power zones.
B) Yeah, I’ve gotta tackle that in a post. NPE HeartZone is the one I’ve tried a bit, but not a ton (it’s a small piece of hardware that just hangs out).
Thanks, I agree it would be nice to have longer and power zone based scenic rides – hope that’s coming!
On Strive Score functionality with Apple Watch, looking forward to your coverage of HR broadcasting (including hearbeatz, I think it’s called). And is it fair to think of Strive Score as a way of quantifying how hard I worked (where as power/output is how much work I did, independent of how hard I worked at achieving that)?
Peloton is the BEST! I love my Bike+ and cannot wait to purchase the Treadmill. Peloton Bike+ has improved my health + well-being as well as enjoying the most fabulous and encouraging Instructors ie Tunde and Chelsea-Jackson Roberts, etc. Worth every dollar spent and beyond grateful! Sleek and easy to fit into any space. I highly recommend Peloton to everyone!
Hi Ray
When will you start covering iFit? I have been a very happy iFit user since last November with one of their treadmills. I find their outdoor video based workouts much more suitable than the indoor based workouts in Peloton, Fitness+.
I actually have iFit on one of my older treadmills, but it’s without a screen, so just an iFit module that I can’t even change the WiFi network on anymore, because…they don’t have a way to change the WiFi network on it if you move since they stopped supporting it.
Ultimately, I don’t find treadmill/connected bike companies super bright in trying to get review units over to me. In my case, I bought my Peloton bikes. Soul Cycle actually offered to send one to me to review…until they found out I don’t live in the US of A. In which case, they said it was too complex.
Highly recommend trying the X32i treadmill if they are willing to send you a test unit.
It has the added benefit of not swallowing kids or pets ;-)
link to nordictrack.com
Loving working out with Tommy Rivs and the new active pulse/smart adjust is a lot like how sufferfest adjusts your workouts with their unique performance test.
iFit have done some huge software updates recently and their library of content is massive. I just wish they had better connectivity to other devices (eg sending speed and gain to Garmin devices or Connect)
Agreed, I have their treadmill and the rivs videos are rock solid. It got my in laws walking at least taking historical tours through historical cities. Plus…you can load Netflix.
Totally underrated and wish ray would review it
I think the reason that Peloton mostly runs shorter classes is really targeted both at their user-base, and a realization of what actually gets used; and that’s largely the shorter classes.
Sure, some people are using their bike on a rainy weekend, but I suspect most people, if they have the time, are getting outside for their long rides. The people using these bikes are trying to get something in before they have to cook the kids dinner or something similar. I often string together multiple classes if I’m going to go longer… but I predominantly bought the thing for times that I just don’t have time to go for a ‘real’ ride.
I may have a slightly skewed impression on this; but I live in Arizona, where I can ride pretty much year round if I’m willing to get up early in the morning in the summer.
Also, I believe the instructors are paid by the number of people who take their classes. So they may do better if you come take 2x 30-min classes vs 1x60m class. I DO wish there were more classes that didn’t have warm-up’s and cool downs… but really you can just blow through those if necessary.
Unfortunately, they removed the leaderboard feature from the scenic rides and you are completely solo…or should I say the ability to see who else was in the work out with you… the actual “Peloton” making it less motivating.
Yup, covered it in the post. Definitely weird.
I just did the Hawaii ride and when it synced to Strava it gave me a leaderboard position. So it is in there somewhere, perhaps they’ll bring it back.
The explanation I was given when I called to complain is that Peloton was trying to create a “non-competitive” environment where people could “just ride.” They also stopped using the mileage and minutes from those rides for your monthly totals….because you were just “out riding.” I about lost my mind. I use those settings to ride my own workouts using my Garmin equipment.
As far as wanting longer rides have you tried the stacking feature where you can stack rides back to back? As far as X32i yes it may not swallow kids or pets but I any treadmill is a danger if you do not watch out for kids and pets.
I have, and that works too. The thing is, I like to then have ‘my ride’ uploaded to Strava as one cohesive ride, as opposed to 2×30 min rides.
Tread has a design flaw. Whether Peloton admits it or not. I checked my treadmill, it has a bar behind the treadmill so that foreign objects, pets and kids will not get sucked in through the back.
All they had to do was to add that bar, but apparently it was too much of an effort.
I agree with you. While I think most treadmills (including the one I have downstairs in the cave, from ProForm, an Icon brand, along with Nordic Track), are susceptible to this, it doesn’t make Peloton’s actions right.
In some ways, they’re kinda like Lance here. Yes, everyone was cheating in that timeframe, but, as the ‘biggest’ fish (in terms of popularity anyway), they’re the ones that get the target on their back – rightly or wrongly.
On Tread, this could be largely addressed by a bar, or plastic cover, or something. I don’t understand why on earth Peloton is pushing back so hard on this. Heck, they could have placated half the media coverage by simply saying “We’re working on an aftermarket shield that we’ll send out to all customers as soon as possible, in the meantime, use the device per safety instructions.”
Again, almost every other treadmill I look at has the same problem – very few actually don’t.
That said, there was some rumors Peloton is looking at a pin-style code to unlock the treadmill (like you’d unlock a phone), which sounds brilliant. I haven’t seen that on other treadmills, but I’m sure it probably exists. That’d solve most of this, since as a parent I an entirely understand with trying to remember to pull the keycard can be tough. Namely in a scenario where you have to get off the treadmill quickly to resolve a toddler sibling fight, and then never end up going back to the treadmill – forgetting about it. A auto-lock type feature would be great.
(Note: We don’t have the treadmill at home, just at the DCR Cave/offic, which is a few kilometers away.)
They issued a product recall today – for all units.
Ray – while not directly related to the review topic, I’m curious if you think that Peloton will ever integrate with Training Peaks? I recognize Training Peaks is more oriented to competitive market but think it would be a user-friendly platform integration that I would think would be very easy to accommodate via API.
Also, any guesses on whether Peloton might integrate footpod for mileage for folks who already have a pre-existing treadmill?
Yeah, I don’t understand why Peloton is so hesitant to sync outbound to other platforms. Kinda weird to me.
And I know there’s a slate of TrainingPeaks employees that use Peloton bikes too.
As for footpods, that’s always surprised me as well. After all, the market of people willing to use the app with a footpod at a gym or home on an existing treadmill is far larger than the number of people willing to fork out $4K for a new treadmill.
Nice review of the new updates!
Do you still think the original Peloton bike, with manual resistance, would be a good buy now in 2021?
I am thinking of getting an indoor bike for fitness and (in my price range) I am torn between the Peloton bike (original/cheaper version) or a 2020 Wattbike Atom.
It’s not a bad buy. I still use it for half, if not 2/3rds of my Peloton rides. Basically, we have the original Bike at home, and the Bike+ at the office. So on the weekends or at night I tend to ride the original BIke, and then if it’s a daytime weekday ride, it’ll be the Bike+.
Yes, the accuracy isn’t great on the original bike (really, it’s not). And yes, the accuracy on the new bike is fantastic (it is). But for Power zone workouts, you don’t get Auto-Follow resistance anyway on the new BIke, and many of my workouts are Power Zone, thus…yeah.
The main thing to consider when looking at the Wattbike Atom vs Peloton is honestly what you’re going to use it for. If you’re going to use it for Zwift/TrainerRoad/etc…then don’t go Peloton – it doesn’t connect there. Whereas if you’re going to use it for Peloton, then nothing is better for Peloton than a Peloton bike.
I bought an original Peloton in November (that is, not Bike+) and have been doing almost solidly Power Zone classes, having come from a background of racing. My indoor training was with a Computrainer. Now I’m trying to regain my fitness after a knee surgery, and while my output is no where near what it was on the Computrainer, the Peloton output does seem to be fairly accurate just based on previous HR zones and my RPE (within 5-10 watts, I’d guess).
But you say it is NOT accurate? You’re really messin’ with my head here, Ray! Do I have to shell out for the Bike+? Computrainer isn’t available anymore for me …
It should be noted that any courses completed in programs prior to 2.0 are not credited in the new version. And you can skip classes the first week of the new programs but beyond that your can’t progress further. So if you were halfway through a program none of the courses already completed are accounted for. Many people have complained about this and supposedly they’re working on a solution, but I haven’t seen any updates on this.
Yeah, I suppose that makes sense on previous programs – as there wasn’t really any sort of true check-system there.
That’s weird on the skip bug. I guess I’ll have to keep doing the workouts. :)
Shucks, scenic rides looks really interesting for the winter months.
Thank you for this review. Always loved your running reviews & excited to see this as I’m planning to purchase the Tread this month and shift from an occasional Peloton Digital user. The changes will be interesting to test out though I’m not a fan of riding so I’ll check out the running & strength programs. Loved the note re Matt Wilpers-solidifies him further as my instructor of choice 😊
Peloton’s Leaky API Spilled Riders’ Private Data
On top of the privacy spill, Peloton is also recalling all treadmills after the equipment was linked to 70 injuries and the death of one child.
link to threatpost.com
Any idea if they are going to ever broadcast power from the bike+? I would really love to get credit for the rides on my Garmin, and I can’t imagine I’m the only person that wants recovery and vo2 max and ftp to show up in Garmin
Taking away the Leaderboard on scenic rides REALLY sucks! Put it back, Peloton.
Just to clarify one thing, when you say “But also the Strive coloring shows up for others on the leaderboard (see the right edge, next to their leaderboard score)” I think what it’s actually showing is the coloring associated with the HR zone you’re in, not something tied to your current Strive score.
Your HR zone is your Strive zone.
Great article! Did they remove the “Welcome to Peloton Outdoors” program? I did this back in January and can’t seem to find it anymore.
Hey Ray,
Great write up as always. Can you give me a recommendation on a Peloton mat for hardwood floors?
Thanks buddy. Really appreciate it!
I generally go with pretty generic ones, as they’re all just about the same. Here’s one that a lot of DCR readers have picked up over the years: link to amzn.to
Cheers!
I made the jump to purchase the Bike+ and received it today.
After a quick use, I discovered an annoying logo (I noticed it on some of your screen shots on this review and the Bike+ review) that offers to connect an Apple watch at the top center of the screen that does not seem to disappear (it even covers the time bar at the top for classes).
The problem is that I don’t have an Apple Watch (not planning to), but I would imagine that there must be a way to get this feature out of the screen. For instance, I can remove metrics on a ride at the bottom of the screen. Why not this?
I contacted customer service and they claim that it is the way it is. Is there really no other option? This does not make any sense. I can’t imagine having this on the screen while doing a scenic ride.
My bike+ comes next week. I don’t have an Apple Watch as well. This is not encouraging to hear and sounds annoying. Is there anyway to fix it?
I’m not sure I follow. The split second you press the start button on the workout, that Apple Watch pairing box goes away. It also goes away as soon as you pair any other HR strap.
Did you start the workout?
As a FYI, I have not activate my account yet. I have been using the free ride and the 4 sample classes to see if everything is ok and connects properly. I assume that the bike should behave the same way.
The Apple Watch pairing box remains on the screen all the time as soon as I select free ride or a sample class. It does not disappear after I start the exercise. If I press on it, a new larger window pops up obscuring the screen even further and I can only go back to the original “Apple Watch pairing box”. I tried to move/slide it out of the screen, but no success.
When I pair my Scosche Rhythm24, the HR window shows up on the left side of the screen, but Apple Watch pairing box remains there too and does not disappear.
Yeah, I think you really need to go ahead and activate it (which would be a normal Peloton experience). For example, you’re not going to get various personal preferences and such. I can see your screenshot doesn’t have a slew of things that you’d otherwise get once actually logged in.
I’ve never heard anyone else mention it before (and I’ve never seen it stay on there once you press start), so I think not activating it is probably your root cause.
You are correct. I proceeded with the activation of the bike and the issue completely disappeared.
Not sure why Peloton customer service could not tell me this in the first place.
Thank you for your help.
You missed something critical – in the scenic rides, without an instructor, the metrics of the ride do not add to your monthly goals and challenges – it is BS. I pay $39/month for all of my workouts to be available and calculated. Someone changed the program so that only my metrics with an instructor are included in my monthly mileage and minutes challenge goals.