If you love taking spin classes but hate going to the gym, the Peloton Bike brings the action right to your living room—or wherever else you want it.
It's an at-home spin bike that lets you take streaming live classes, or tap into a vast library of on-demand options at your leisure.
It integrates with popular fitness apps including Fitbit and Strava, and work with its own well-designed companion app.
Starting at $2,245 and requiring a monthly subscription, the price might come as a shock to anyone who isn't used to paying a premium for the current crop of high-end spin classes, but if you can afford the hefty price, the Peloton Bike is an excellent investment in your health and earns our Editors' Choice.
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Pricing
The Peloton Bike starts at $2,245 for the Basics Package, which includes the bike, a one-year warranty, and delivery/setup.
For $2,394, the Essentials Package adds a pair of shoes, weights, and headphones.
The Works Package includes all of this, plus a heart rate monitor and a bike mat for $2,474.
Finally, the Family Package costs $2,644 and adds an extra pair of shoes and headphones, another heart rate monitor, and two water bottles.
Delivery and setup is a flat $250 rate that is included in the overall cost of the bike.
This is a significant investment, though Peloton offers financing starting at $58 per month for 39 months.
Also, it's important to keep in mind that all packages require a monthly Peloton membership, which costs $39 per month.
You have the option to cancel or pause your subscription at any time, and only one membership is needed per bike (so your entire household can use the bike with just one membership).
The subscription also gets you access to the Peloton app for iOS (Android later this year), as well as live classes at one of the Peloton Studios.
You have the option of just subscribing to the app alone for $19.49 per month, so you can watch on-demand classes on your phone while working out on another spin bike, but in order to use the Peloton Bike, you need that $39 monthly membership.
Spinning Into the Future
The Peloton Bike doesn't look like the ho-hum stationary bikes you might find at your local gym.
Instead, it features sleek, ergonomic lines that give it a more futuristic feel.
Its body is made of black carbon steel with orange-red accents on the resistance knob and belt drive.
If you don't have an exercise room in your home, the bike is attractive enough that you might not mind keeping it out in your living room.
It's also fairly compact.
The base measures 48 by 24 inches (LW), while the entire bike stands at 53 by 23 by 59 inches (HWD).
So while it definitely requires some space, it won't necessarily take over the room.
Peloton recommends the bike for use by people between 5 feet to 6 feet 5 inches, and up to 300 pounds.
The bike itself features adjustable handlebars, an adjustable seat, water bottle holders, dumbbell holders, a resistance knob, a belt drive, and clip-in pedals.
At the very top, just beyond the handlebars, is a 21.5-inch, 1080p touch screen.
Two 10-watt speakers are located at the back of the screen and get loud enough to fill a medium-sized room.
There's also a 3.5mm jack for headphones in case you don't want to disturb anyone nearby.
Inside is a 2.0GHz Mediatek MT8173 quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage, along with 802.11ac Wi-Fi, ANT+ wireless, Bluetooth, and 100Mbps Ethernet.
That connectivity is what sets the Peloton apart from other stationary bikes.
Once it's hooked up to your home network, you can access 14 daily live studio classes, as well as more than 5,000 on-demand workouts.
You can choose from twelve regular instructors (each with their own motivational style), and two guest instructors.
Plus, you can filter by skill level, duration, and music genres.
Typical workouts range from five-minute warmups to 45-minute rides of varying difficulty levels.
During each class, you can view your status on a leaderboard at the right side of the screen.
You can see how you stack up compared with anyone currently participating in the class, as well as anyone who's ever participated.
At the end of each session, you can view your metrics and connect through either Fitbit or Strava to automatically save your workout data.
Setup and App
Getting started is easy.
Once you buy the bike, Peloton will send someone to deliver it to your home.
It comes mostly assembled, and any remaining setup is handled by Peloton professionals.
All that's left is for you to choose a username, enter your subscription information, create a profile, and start pedaling.
There's a helpful video tutorial at the beginning that guides you through adjusting seat height and position, as well as handlebar height.
The app is straightforward in design.
You can tab through four screens: Featured, Classes, Schedule, and Profile.
The Featured menu brings up an assortment of classes that aren't limited to cycling.
You can see the most popular selections across a number of exercises.
The Classes menu lets you select between cycling, running (indoor), boot camp, outdoor (which is audio only for safety), strength, stretching, yoga, and cardio workouts.
The Schedule screen lets you see all the activities sorted by time and date, while the Profile screen is a calendar of your personal activities.
You can also hit the More tab to view subscription information, preferences, and learn more about instructors and find fellow Peloton members.
The Peloton Experience
I tested the Peloton Bike in my apartment over the course of a month.
I tried multiple workouts at various skill levels and durations.
I stay pretty active and fit, but I found that even a 20-minute Beginner session would leave me dripping with sweat.
Sorting through the available classes is easy thanks to the clear and intuitive interface.
It took at least three or four rides to find the sort of classes that worked best for me.
I tried multiple instructors, and was able to find a couple that suit my personal preferences.
Make no mistake, each instructor is informative, positive, and motivational—it just takes some trial and error to find the right kind of peppy for a 6 a.m.
workout.
(I decided on one who called me a "queen" and said she would "never put a ceiling on my dreams.") Compared with my regular cycling workouts at the gym, I found it more effective to have an instructor streamed directly into my living room, guiding me through adding/subtracting resistance and staying on top of the beat.
Each Peloton class differs depending on your selected difficulty level or class type.
For example, if you like shorter, intense workouts, you can opt for a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) class.
Most involve some mix of cycling while seated and standing, with resistance levels gradually increasing as the workout goes on.
The more difficult classes also involve weights, so you might cycle and do bicep curls at the same time.
At the end, there's usually a few minutes of light stretching on the bike.
On screen, you're able to see your cadence, output, and resistance.
Your cadence refers to the revolutions per minute (basically how fast you pedal), while the resistance is a number between one and 100 indicating difficulty.
Output is theoretical wattage you're be producing and is derived from a combination of your cadence and resistance.
During a workout, you're prompted by the instructor to aim for a specific cadence that corresponds to the beat of the song, as well as a target resistance number.
For example, a very challenging climb might entail a resistance of somewhere between 45-60 at a cadence of 90-120rpm.
Meanwhile, a rest period or warmup could involve an rpm of 70-90 and a resistance of 20-30.
If you're competitive, you can take a gander at the leaderboard on the right side of the screen.
It shows you where you stand compared with people currently taking the same class with you, as well as anyone who's ever taken the class.
I went to a 45-minute in-person session at Peloton's NYC studio so I could compare how well the experience translates for strictly at-home users.
The studio session was, in a word, intense.
There is a distinctly welcoming, yet competitive, vibe when you're huffing and puffing next to lithe, glistening gym devotees in stylish athleisure wear.
The experience at home obviously doesn't capture quite the same energetic atmosphere.
But at the same time, I felt a bit more comfortable and more focused on doing my best at home, as opposed to besting others.
Content-wise, there's no difference between taking a class live (either in the studio or at home) or doing it on-demand later.
There are, however, a few motivational perks to live classes.
Because of the leaderboard, you might get a shout out from the instructor if you're doing well in a particular session, or have reached a milestone like a 100th ride.
And if you attend an in-person class, you can even go home the same day and possibly find yourself in the video.
(I did, and was mortified.)
As for streaming quality, I never experienced connectivity or buffering issues with Wi-Fi on my 2.4GHz home network.
The bike itself is also very quiet, so you don't have to worry about bothering family or roommates.
With headphones in, my labored breathing at the end of a ride was much louder than my pedaling.
Integration with the Fitbit app was easy, and each session was tracked seamlessly without any extra effort.
My only gripe is music choice.
Instructors choose the tunes for each workout.
That's understandable, considering the format, and it's possible to search via music genre and rate each session's music choices.
However, there's no way to add your own tunes to the mix, which could really help motivate your workouts.
Should You Cut the Cord With Your Gym?
There's no denying the Peloton Bike is a significant investment.
But not only is the bike itself well-made, you get access to an extensive and constantly updating library of classes.
Plus, it's pretty nice to roll out of bed, take a live spin class, and be able to shower in the comfort of your own home.
And the longer you keep up with it, the less painful that initial cost will seem over time.
After my experience, I feel that it's well worth the investment and worthy of our Editors' Choice if you love cycling.
If running is more your speed, you might want to wait for the upcoming Peloton Tread, which is currently available for preorder.
