My wife fits the “almost in a cult” description. I think she loves the positivity, and feels engaged by the classes. She started with bike, but now also does peloton outdoor runs.

She is focused on the Peloton power zone classes. For power zone, you take an FTP test every 6 weeks which measures your ability to produce power output over 20 minutes. The bike then knows your 7 power output zones, from easy effort to max output. Based on that, Peloton instructors design classes which are zone based, and drive improvement at whatever your level is.

I tried powerzone after seeing my wife do it, and although it’s only a part of my exercise, I really like it. You can really see the improvement. I’ve never liked exercise classes in the past, but I like the powerzone classes and instructors.

My wife also signed up for some third party website (I forget what) that is essentially like a team based and powerzone based training plan. It motivates her over longer periods.

Having tried it, I think the peloton bike product is really good. It may have pulled forward a lot of demand and grown too much, but it offers a lot of real value.