For anyone as confused as I was, peloton is the term for riding bicycles close together in a group. Not the brand of indoor exercise machines.
Riders form a paceline because of the crosswind which forces everyone to look for draft on the left or the right side of a rider in front of you. Eventually, there's not enough road for everyone to be in the draft and the first paceline is formed (also called an echelon).
More specifically though, paceline refers to the mechanics of the echelon, the way riders rotate, or take turns at the front to stay in the echelon. This rotation is the paceline.
Pacelines for group rides and the like can be formed whenever, and they do not form just because of a crosswind. When I used to train with a group, we would almost always form pacelines in single file, on every ride.
1630s, "a small body of soldiers acting together but separate from the main body of troops," from French peloton "platoon, group of people," literally "little ball" (15c.), hence, "agglomeration," diminutive of Old French pelote "ball" (see pellet).
I don't see an equal or more terse way of saying the same thing.
"Planet’s most energy efficient locomotion is peloton riding, finds new research"
"New research finds peloton riding is planet’s most energy efficient locomotion"
Arguably these put the emphasis on different things, but they're pretty close.
The original (before HN edited the title) told you what the subject was immediately. It went from specific to general.
"Planet's most energy efficient ..." is the most terrestrially broad introduction one could use.
Likewise, "New research finds ..." is such a common phrase that it almost repels people (particularly since much research is bogus).
It's only a subset of US English speaking people which will be confused by the original title. To the subset of US residents who have never heard of the company Peleton, and the hundreds of millions of English speakers outside the US, this headline wouldn't have been confusing at all.
Unfortunately brand does not sustain a company in the absence of a product+price market fit
That brand is only known in few US states, the world refer to peloton as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloton
They actually had the balls to threaten a few bloggers for using the term peloton correctly on YouTube.
Luckily the blogger didn’t give in and the exercise firm had to back down.
I also note that tickets to the (most excellent) Tour of Flanders came from a different firm also calling themselves Peloton.
So the exercise bike group aren’t exclusively trading under name either.
Just cut a potato length wise into circular “wheels” and fry them up.
Have always additionally thought the company Peloton was a bit absurd with naming
I think in this case it's simply that people don't know where the term originally comes from.