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Comment by Delphiki | Hacker News Reader

We initially bought a cheaper Schwinn IC4, subscribed to the Peloton app ($12.99/month), and used our 7 year-old iPad to get nearly the same experience (minus the Leaderboard functionality and probably other things). Eventually we wondered why we were even spending $12.99/month on it, as my partner only had a few instructors that she liked, and neither of us could understand, or get behind, the "Peloton culture". We ultimately canceled and now just ride the bike without a class.

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ha! Well the leaderboard and live stats and gamification where you can see where you are compared to your previous best at this point in a ride of the same length is IMHO what has made me get on the thing consistently and constantly push PRs. After being a couch potato for years, I am now on a 100 week streak and probably in the best shape of my life. High fiving people keeps me engaged through a class and prevents me from getting bored.

Its kind of like saying "Quake is cool, but I don't know why I would ever want to play multiplayer..."

If you have the motivation to keep yourself on a bike with just some headphones or a video on a tablet, more power to you, but there are many of us who can't do that. Add in that this has replaced my wife's multiple times a week soul cycle habit, with each class being $40, and Peloton is actually a significant cost savings in my home.

I don't have an indoor bike, but I'd probably save money by playing one of these cycling YouTube videos in the background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAYaLDjmVt8

Exactly, paying more for the content to motivate one to ride seems like an extravagance when one could, y'know, just ride the bike.

+1 for the IC4, it seems like a much better piece of kit than it had a right to be at the (pre/early pandemic) price point - like $800 IIRC.

Eh, I thought the same thing but I've really enjoyed the classes. For me it's not about motivation, it's about getting structure to your ride without needing to plan it yourself. You also get things like the strength classes, etc, which provide the same value. If you work out every day, planning what you're doing accrues nonzero mental load. It's nice to just pop on a class and know you'll get a decent core workout, or whatever.

And I definitely wouldn't say I'm a member of the "culture", I get on, do a class, get off, that's it. The price is worth it for two people in the house I think.

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