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Comment by Lio | Hacker News Reader

To honest "Peloton"* seems a pretty poor solution to indoor cycling training when compared to smart trainers and smart bikes from the likes of Wahoo, Tacx and Wattbike.

All of those can be connected to simulators like Zwift or a host of others and provide way more training options than you can get on a high priced, proprietary "Peloton" spinning bike no real ergo features.

For example, if you want to ride in an actual indoor peloton simulation and make use of drafting for fun and profit, you want something like a Tacx Neo running Zwift ...IMHO.

If you ditch "Peloton" and go with what the pros train on you can use any smart watch you like.

* It's in quotes because peloton is a common word in wide usage in cycling and this company, "Peloton", has tried to trademark it. They've spent a not inconsiderable amount of time and money threatening bloggers using it in it's true meaning.

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I'm very solidly in Peloton's target market. I have _zero_ interest in anything related to pro cycling, and to be honest near zero interest in cycling. I needed to lose weight, and it helps to have someone on the other side of the screen pushing me to kick my own ass. I like being able to look at my workout history and re-do past classes to see if I can push a little harder. We got one mid-pandemic, and thanks to it I'm likely to exit the pandemic at the lowest weight and in the best shape I've been in over the last ~20 years. Cost was not a factor in our decision-making process.

This. It’s kind of like putting together your own PC vs buying a prebuilt.

Not everyone is motivated enough to build it themselves if they have the means to buy a prebuilt.

Having said that, an exercise bike was sort of my gateway to hobby cycling and I ended up investing in a smart trainer and a used road bike. Once you set it up and find an app you prefer, you can’t go back. Just as you can’t go back to buying a prebuilt PC if you’ve built one in the past.

A little bit of research goes a long way, but some people would rather not and just focus on what’s important: getting fit. Setting up a smart trainer, although extremely simple, wasn’t obvious when I first got into it. I wasn’t sure which parts to choose and why.

> Just as you can’t go back to buying a prebuilt PC if you’ve built one in the past.

Eh, I think it depends on where your life takes you. Other than an IBM PC XT, I'm not sure we ever had a pre-built desktop PC in our home while I was growing up. Naturally I built all of my computers going off to school, but around ~2004 I made the jump to mostly Macs (and later Chrome devices) -- since then the closest I've come to building my own PC at home is buying an Intel NUC kit and outfitting it with an SSD and some RAM. That said, I think I get my fill of computer tinkering at work fiddling with BIOS and other firmware SPIs, PCIe cabling, bad QSFP optics, and even the odd trivial PCB rework :)

On the other hand, while I don't see it as likely I'll get into biking, I own enough sets of skis to call it a quiver, yet I'm still actively debating which new kit to pick up for next season.

Peloton is a great solution to 90% of the market. 90% of the market just wants simple exercise classes with energetic instructors.

An actual indoor peloton simulation, with drafting is definitely superior on Zwift. 90% of people don't want this - the target market is very small and doesn't make sense. This is fine! Leaves room for smaller players.

I think the number you want is closer to 99.99%.

considering zwift has over 2.5 million users, and a billion dollar valuation, I think the market is larger than you think. I personally know dozens of people who use zwift nearly everyday (although my friend groups skews heavily towards cyclists/fitness enthusiasts)

If we want to compare market caps, Peloton has a 35 billion market cap to zwift's 1 billion. Also, to counter your anecdata, I live in Texas and no zero people that use zwift, but many that use a peloton.

>"I live in Texas and no zero people that use zwift"

This is simply not true. Perhaps you do not know those people but there are plenty of Texans using Zwift.

As for market cap - I own and use many old things. As long as they work why would I give a flying fuck about market cap of the companies that had made those. They might not even be (like my treadmill) in business anymore.

Just googled it, found the following quote:

"We're not [publishing MAU numbers], but I can tell you a couple of tidbits. We've had over 3 million accounts created on the platform. We recently peaked around, I think 45,000 simultaneous users, but hundreds of thousands of customers are using Zwift on a daily basis."

So they definitely don't have 2.5 million users. Maybe they'll get there though!

(source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robreed/2021/02/17/do-you-even-...)

I do use bike trainer in winter but could care less about classes like Peloton or Zwift (their graphics is utterly boring to me). I mostly use cycling applications that show actual real road videos.

I have a friend with a $1200 smart trainer setup and he rides his Peloton 4x/week. The bike is way smoother and quieter than a Wahoo and he finds the coached workouts more motivating than riding in a CGI countryside.

Especially in the time of COVID and many more people working from home, the huge difference in volume between a magnetic resistance spin bike vs a bike on a trainer cannot be overstated.

I know a couple people with Pelotons, and am sure it's the best option for them. They're not technical at all, and one of them doesn't know how to ride a regular bike. They just want something that's good quality that they can plug into an outlet, get a decent workout on, and sometimes join classes or watch videos while riding. IMO, that's exactly who Peloton is geared towards.

I think the main draw of a Peloton is the classes.

I have a Bowflex bike and my wife and my wife pays for a Peloton subscription just for the classes.

I think smart trainer with Zwift + classes would be a perfect combo. Trying not to get dropped is damn fun.

Personally I need outside time be it running or riding a bike. And I don’t care to train at home for improving my performance. Still a good enough simulation with a good coach and I might bite

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