I’ve never understood the appeal. Seems much cheaper, easier, and more fun to find a video you like online and just use that. Could be racing down a mountain road. Or a spin class. Or that scene from Monty Python where the topless women chase the guy off a cliff.
I bought a simple spin bike thirdhand. Guy who owned it before me got it from a gym. You twist a knob and it increases pressure on a leather brake. Its built like a tank.
Its great and like you say, if I wanted I could just look up spin videos on youtube for free.
Why would I bother with a Peloton?
Yup, just get some rollers and use your regular bike.
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
I had assumed that they used the smart shit to adjust resistance automatically and whatever, but I googled out of curiosity on hacking one, and apparently, you still have to reach down and use a knob.
Boozilla@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I bet some maker space genius has done a DIY version.
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
I’m sure you can do it. The resistance knob is basically just pulling a wire a little bit usually.
But bringing that mainstream in a complete package would be something that I could see the justification for an expensive exercise bike for.
vegeta@lemmy.world 4 months ago
KICKR + ZWIFT FTW
(Or any of a number of Smart Trainers and Sofrware)
www.wahoofitness.com/devices/…/kickr-bike-buy www.zwift.com/why-zwift
credo@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Not advocating for peloton, but it’s not really that much work to dial up/down a spin bike. The point of letting the rider do it “manually” is because they may not be where the rest of the class is. They very likely need to customize the resistance.
The only real benefit here is in the real time feedback on the screen (calories, distance, etc) which also assist with resistance.
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
I’m aware of what adjusting an exercise bike entails.
It is completely trivial to have a class that easily adapts to user difficulty while still automatically adjusting that difficulty to simulate a varied environment, which you cannot do manually and is the entire reason a smart bike makes any sense at all over just putting it in front of a TV.
LOLjoeWTF@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The more expensive Bike+ does it, but not the regular one. It’s a hard sell given the price difference.