PelotonCal

Not sure about the company name, but there are communities that have revolve around Peloton that make access of the login.

https://pzpack.com/ Being the one I’m aware of as it can analyze past rides.

Peloton is probably the weakest example possible of this since they took a very common and established word (for a group of people riding together) as their brand.

In more practical terms, back when PTON was still a stock darling, they constantly pushed how engaged their community was via Facebook groups, etc. so going after this would probably be a death knell signal that the magic is completely gone.

Of course it could... but will it? Depends on Peloton, but they would most certainly issue a C&D first.

I created a service to track my peloton rides over time. I used the fact that “friends” can see your rides using their undocumented api. So my app just requires you to “friend” a special user in peloton, then that user will “friend” you back automatically.

That way I can pull your stats without your peloton username and password. Kind of a poor man’s oauth flow. You can always revoke the “friendship” later.

Lock-in... CalDAV has been a thing for a long time, and many (most) calendar apps outside google's own (and MS) do support this format. It's a bit wonky and sharing/interop are less than great.

In the end, nobody is going to come up with a great server solution to calendar/mail/contacts because in the end, every effort I'm aware of has turned into a commercial solution because it takes a lot of time, effort and support. If I ever won a significant lottery amount, I would probably work on such a thing. Not sure I'd see any big benefactor for this any time soon.

> Calendars are one of those things where I just don't get why tech companies can't work together to make them interoperable.

iCalendar standard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar (RFC for iCalendar standard: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc5545/)

With macOS it's easy to publish¹ and subscribe² to calendars in this standards-based format. AFAIK, there's wide support for the iCalendar in other apps too, including Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Mozilla Thunderbird.

¹ https://support.apple.com/guide/calendar/publish-or-unpublis... ² https://support.apple.com/guide/calendar/subscribe-to-calend...

TripIt does what you want, and more. (Imports flight confirmation emails automatically, and gives you an iCal feed you can subscribe to in your calendar)

My partner and I use anylist.com on iOS to plan each week’s meals. It supports creation of a calendar that you can subscribe to in your calendaring app. That calendar has all-day event for all the meals in a day. Handy to see at a glance what we’ll cook for dinner along with the rest of our evening plans.

I was a peloton skeptic and now love it. I am not sure road simulation is the real selling point. Yes it's better than looking at a wall but you can as well look at any random video ( including of roads)

The by far chief value of peloton is access to the class library. If you find rising boring and do better w an engaging instructor (as turns out is the case for me) then it's well worth it

Sadly no. Well, probaby depends on person and what you like. But you'll be very disappointed if you consider Peloton to be something more than bike + tablet

I also don't have experience with it, but have heard from friends that a big part of the appeal is that there are certain trainers that you can follow. I guess they're like influencers/trainers, that "ride" along with you and have subscribers or something. It's also a monthly fee. Personally I'd rather use a regular bike and listen to an audiobook.

Two tangential thoughts:

- Try a gravel bike, which gives you a very road bike like feel, but isn't restricted to paved roads. I use mine to do 95% of the off-road stuff I used to do with my MTB, plus a lot of road.

- I've used my road bike on a smart trainer with Rouvy, Zwift and Wahoo SYSTM lately, and it's by far better than the typical gym bike. I switch between these apps, as they all have their individual strengths and weaknesses. That said, if you already own a road bike, a smart trainer might be better for giving stationary cycling a try. Smaller investment, smaller footprint when not in use.

I've been using it daily since I got it, which was just a couple weeks ago. So I'm very much still in the honeymoon period and shouldn't comment on whether it's worth it in the long view. But in the short view I have been entirely satisfied with the pricing and product. I did renting which is available in my country for the Bike and Bike+ (I chose Bike, and in retrospect don't regret it) and plan to convert to a purchase if I'm still using it in six+ months. I probably wouldn't have gone through with it if the option to rent wasn't there. Even the one month free trial that is offered with the purchase option isn't good enough to reassure me I won't use it for e.g. 40 days then drop it and be out $2000. But with renting I pay ~$100/month and can drop it whenever I notice it's been a month without using it.

Your examples are why I really don't like road riding too much, and much prefer trail riding. Why don't you like MTB?

The big reason I like it is because you need to focus on the now and next, you can't zone out, unlike with road riding. And its alot more dynamic all around, keeps you honest with yourself.

As others have said, gravel biking might be an option for you, if you put wider tires on.

I would not recommend Peloton specifically- I don't think it really scratches the road riding itch. It's closer to spin class than a serious biking session. I would look at Zwift for what you used to do.

I say that as a former Peloton employee and current user who is very happy with the bike

Disclosure: did my first Ironman this past year, had more than a few <1 hour and even some 4+ hour rides on a Peloton when the weather didn't cooperate. I am more of a serious rider now, but started with near zero road biking experience.

It is a basically designed stationary bike with above average classes and <60 minute fitness exercise. It does not act as a great substitute to road biking and because the front bars don't adjust, your "fit" can only be so good. That being said, it gets the job done and the music, classes, etc. are all very well designed.

Based on what you are looking for, this is not the right bike. The Peloton "free ride" capabilities are very basic and doesn't do what Zwift and other trainers do where they let you "bike" the virtual course and provide feedback. It also isn't great if you are going for more than 60 minutes as it is designed for spin classes, not over the bars, leaned in road riding.

Peloton is fine if you want a spin class experience. It has nothing to do with road cycling, except that there are pedals.

Zwift, Rouvy, RGT, and similar apps combined with a direct-drive smart trainer (Wahoo Kickr, etc) are closer. They attempt to simulate road cycling. There are routes, hills, group rides, races, workouts.

But I find the indoor cycling experience to be unpleasant. I am constantly reminded that I'm doing a pointless activity indoors. It's not a VR experience where you think you're somewhere else. You're working hard but not going anywhere. Most of the things that make cycling pleasant are missing: fresh air, nice weather, a sense of exploration, the satisfaction of going somewhere and making it back to where you started. I frequently ask myself "why should I keep going, I can just stop now and I'm already home" and there is no good answer.

If you can't go road biking, and your choices are mountain biking or indoor cycling, it seems bizarre to go with indoor cycling.

You don't have to risk life and limb riding difficult trails on a MTB. You can just ride on logging roads in the forest. Or ride easy trails.